Heretic Queen: Queen Elizabeth I And The Wars Of Religion by Susan Ronald: Reviewed By Kimberly Eve
Royal Arms of Elizabeth I, Royal Museums Greenwich
Heretic Queen covers the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
(1558-1603). It is broken up into four parts as you would find reading a play. Each part covers 10-20 year intervals where vital
religious, political and historical events take place during Elizabeth’s reign.
In addition, quotes are used as well as
document sources provided sometimes as footnotes and other times as supportive
evidence.
As expected this is not a biography of a queen nor is it a
romance or love story. Instead, Heretic Queen details vividly the Wars of Religion dominated by France, Spain and England during the sixteenth century. At the back of the book you will find an
extensive Notes section with source books listed as well as a Bibliography
section detailing which sources were State Paper and Manuscripts, Rare Books,
Books and Articles. I mustn’t forget the
Author’s Note at the beginning and a Prologue pre-dating the Wars of Religion
and events.
I am well versed in the major historical events and key
figures of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. However, the Wars of Religion are
not my strength which is partly my reason for reading Heretic Queen. A way to
move out of my comfort zone and learn something new about Gloriana herself! So,
I think it best to choose my favorite bits and people from each four parts of
the book.
Part I: A Wounded and Divided
Land, 1558-1566: The New Deborah
A princess who can act
any part she pleases. – Lord Burghley, speaking of Elizabeth
The Clopton Portrait, 1558-60, Lady Elizabeth-Queen Elizabeth
It’s a very good sign
that the reader will enjoy the book when one of the opening quotes is from one
of her favorite historical men: William Cecil!
With every ending there is a beginning. So was the story for Mary I when
her reign ended on 17 November, 1558; ushering in a new era with Lady Elizabeth
and her fully detailed coronation procession events on 12-14 January through to
becoming Queen Elizabeth I on Coronation Day 15 January, 1559.
It was Astrologer, Dr.
John Dee whom Elizabeth asked which day she should hold her coronation. Dr. Dee
cast her horoscope, with royal consent, of course and determined January 15th
to be the most propitious date. Dr. Dee would remain a close friend and
companion throughout her life. Also,
taking part was her father’s own Master of the Revels, Sir Thomas Cawarden,
appointed to supervise the coronation celebrations.
O Lord, Almighty and Everlasting God, I give Thee most hearty
Thanks that thou has been so merciful unto me as to spare me
to behold this joyful day. And I acknowledge that Thou has
dealt as wonderfully and as mercifully with me, as Thou
didst with Thy true and faithful servant Daniel. Thy Prophet,
whom Thou delivered out of the den from the cruelty of the
greedy and raging lions: even so was I overwhelmed, and
only by Thee delivered. To Thee therefore only be thanks,
honour, and praise, forever. Amen (Elizabeth Queen of England, France,
and Ireland, speaking outside the Tower of London, Coronation Day)
Part II: The Catholic Ascendancy, 1566-1580: Betrayal amid Dreamy
Spires
I feel by myself, being
also here wrapped in miseries and tossed…in a sea swelling with storms of envy, Malice, disdain,
suspicion. – Sir William Cecil to Sir Henry Sidney, 1566
Mary Queen of Scots, the Royal Collection
1566 was fast becoming the
year of dissent what with a Catholic Mary Queen of Scots and a Protestant Queen
Elizabeth I constantly at war with each other both politically, religiously and
especially territorially. Lord Darnley
(Protestant) and Rizzio would die, there
would be plots aplenty, spies working overtime on both sides, and there was
always talk and gossip about Elizabeth and her ‘eyes’ Lord Robert Dudley. Rival
for her majesty’s attention, Lord Burghley made it his job to intervene by
trying to dissuade Elizabeth not to marry Dudley, fearing it would bring about French
tyranny!
Author, Susan Ronald does
not romanticize said relationship between Dudley and Elizabeth. She instead
provides their story from the queen and Burghley’s perspective in regards to
the Wars of Religion. For instance, it was
during Elizabeth’s summer progress to Oxford she
decided to visit in order to support its educational prowess, to guage
the mood of the students and their masters and allow them to see firsthand the
magnificence and munificence of their anointed queen. Oh, and because the Earl
of Leicester ‘secretly’ and ‘privately’ confirmed that there were
other contentious souls to be found. In
turn, Elizabeth had the Earl of Leicester appointed as its chancellor knowing
that trusted eyes and ears were required in every corner of the realm, nowhere
more than in Oxford and Cambridge, who better to keep a watchful ‘eye’ in these
university cities than her eyes? So,
Leicester was appointed to Oxford and Cecil went to neighboring Cambridge!
Her head-dress was a marvel of woven gold, and glittered with pearls
and other wonderful gems; her gown was of the most brilliant scarlet silk,
woven with gold, partly concealed by a purple cloak lined with ermine after the
manner of a triumphal robe. Besides the chariot rode the royal cursitors,
resplendent in coats of cloth of gold, and the marshals, who were kept busy
preventing the crowds from pressing too near to the person of the Queen…The
royal guard…were about two hundred…and on their shoulders they bore…iron clubs
like battle-axes. (Saturday, August 31, 1566, Queen Elizabeth I visits Oxford)
Part III: The Years of Religious Terror, 1580-1591: God’s Outriders
The expense is
reckoned. The enterprise is begun. –Edmond Campion, 1580
A lot was written about,
an unknown to myself, Jesuit saint Edmund Campion’s life and death during these
years. However, we’re sticking with my favorite bits and while Campion made for
interesting reading, it was a man named Francis Walsingham who now enters the
picture. He was a secret spy, part of the Privy Council working for her majesty
with two major events occurring: the beheading of Mary Stuart and The Spanish
Armada. These events took precedence for me and made this section of her
majesty’s reign most enjoyable reading.
Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
On the morning of
February 8, 1587 Mary Stuart mounted the scaffold in the Great Hall at Fotheringay,
her sentence was proclaimed across England. She would serve as a symbol to all
Catholics that, “stubborn disobedience…(and)
incitement to insurrection…against the life and person of her Sacred Majesty”
would never be tolerated.
Regarding The Spanish
Armada, the English instinctively knew that the battle was over, won for them
by a ‘great wind.’ The Armada fleet
lumbered on northward, around the north of Scotland, then due south hugging the
western coast of Ireland. Of the thirty
thousand soldiers and crew, over twenty thousand lost their lives, most of
starvation and disease. Contrary to fairy tales, many were executed as they
tried to seek refuge in Ireland, killed for whatever plunder could be had, by
locals or by English soldiers.
Of the ten thousand
Spanish survivors, many more died of their wounds or privation once they
returned to Spain. It was commonly murmured there that every noble family had
lost a son in the Spanish Armada. Mendoza’s prediction to Philip that it had
been ‘God’s obvious design’ to bestow
upon him the crown of England had been proven utterly false.
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Queen Elizabeth I Armada Portrait
Let tyrants fear…that under God I have
placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the
loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects (Elizabeth I. Armada
Speech, August 9, 1588)
Part IV A House Divided, 1591-1603: The Norfolk Landing
…this young scholar,
that hath been long studying
at Rheims, as cunning
in Greek, Latin, and other
languages, as the other
in music and mathematics
…Pray, accept his
service. – The Taming of the Shrew, II.i.76-80
Elizabeth at Tilbury
Elizabeth rides out to
Tilbury, flanked by Leicester, to deliver her Armada Speech to the army
gathered to fight the invasion that never came.
We have talk and description of the links between the theater, the
secret service, and political controversy with honorable mentions to: Marlowe’s
Massacre at Paris and John Lyly’s Endymion and Sappho and Phao. The death
of Bess’ ‘Sweet Robin’ occurring
shortly after the failed Armada invasion in September 1588 as well as Francis
Walsingham following suit in April 1590. Loyal to the end, William Cecil, Lord
Burghley, became gnarled with arthritis and crippled by gout and old age He
remained her councilor until his death in August 1598. It was becoming obvious
that even though Burghley’s voice was becoming fainter, those pillars of her
Privy Council were succumbing to death and infirmity. The final blow was to her
majesty herself when in March 1603 already ailing; she took a turn for the
worse. We all know the famous scene of a sixty-nine year old Elizabeth,
reigning for over forty-four years as Queen of England and Ireland, stood at
her privy chamber window for two days, refusing food, running her index finger
along her sore gums, staring blankly. Worn out by the burdens of office and
age, having suffered through the loss of all those who had died before her,
stricken by the execution of Essex forced upon her, Elizabeth simply gave up
the will to live.
Elizabeth I Allegorical Portrait
In the gray morning
hours of Thursday, March 24, 1603, Tudor England expired with Elizabeth. Too
weak to name her successor, she pointed her hand to her head and nodded as the
name of James VI of Scotland was read out by Sir Robert Cecil. James VI of
Scotland, the only child of Mary Queen of Scots, was proclaimed James I of
England. Elizabeth Tudor allowed herself to slip away.
The King of Scotland has succeeded quietly. –Venetian ambassador to the
doge
Funeral Procession for Queen Elizabeth I
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