The Birth of Elizabeth Tudor (1533-1603)

What does Elizabeth Tudor's birth have to do with an oak tree?

After the Norman Conquest the area of Greenwich Park became a large manor. In 1427 the brother of Henry V, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, inherited the land, and in 1433 he created an enclosed park. Greenwich thus became the first enclosed royal park. It was later inherited by the mother of Henry VI, before becoming a favorite royal retreat for the Tudors. Henry VII built a palace at the bottom of the park, and it was here that Henry VIII was born. Henry VIII's daughters Mary and Elizabeth were born at the palace, and his son Edward VI died here. Tudor times are recalled in the grounds of Greenwich Park by the Elizabeth Oak. This huge old hollow oak tree was the focus of much attention. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are supposed to have danced around it, and Elizabeth I is said to have taken refreshment while sitting in its protective hollow trunk. Whether these stories are true is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the oak tree is symbolic of England. The navy which spread England's, and then Britain's, power around the world was made of oak. So it makes sense that the Elizabeth Oak became a kind of secular sacred symbol, around which monarchs dance, or which offer protection to picnicking queens. The ancient oak eventually blew down, and a new tree was planted beside the old one by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1992. The Elizabeth Oak can now take its place beside the Roman shrine and the Saxon Tumuli.

Elizabeth Tudor was born in a pleasure palace?

 Records indicate religious buildings on the Greenwich site before the 15th century, but it first came to real prominence after the death of Henry V in 1422. His half-brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who was acting as regent, built an imposing riverside house called Bella Court. A few years later Humphrey fell out with the new queen, Margaret of Anjou, and in 1447 was arrested for high treason. He died in prison and Margaret took over Bella Court, renaming it the Palace of Pleasaunce, or Placentia and it was rebuilt as the Tudor Palace of Greenwich under Henry VIII, beginning in the1490s.

After the English Civil War, Greenwich Palace was used as a biscuit factory and, between 1652 and 1654, for housing Dutch prisoners of war. By the 1660s it was in decay and was demolished by Charles II, over a period of years. From 1696 to 1751 Sir Christopher Wren’s Royal Naval Hospital for Seamen was built on the site – housing over 2500 veterans of the serving navy at its maximum occupation in 1814. The Hospital closed in 1869 and in 1873 the Royal Naval College took over the buildings, eventually training officers from all over the world.

The Birth of Elizabeth Tudor

 This is a collage I made of Henry VIII, Elizabeth Tudor and Anne Boleyn, not a real painting.

Under confinement at Greenwich Palace beginning August 1533, it was on the 7th of September at 3 o’clock in the afternoon Anne Boleyn gave birth to a baby girl. She was named Elizabeth possibly after both grandmother's Elizabeth of York, and Elizabeth Howard. Infant Elizabeth Tudor had her father’s red hair, long nose, and her mother’s coal black eyes.  Sadly, even though baby and mother were healthy, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were expecting a son, to carry on the Tudor line. Astrologers and doctors even 'promised' the royal couple a son. Eric Ives writes,“a herald immediately proclaimed this first of Henry’s ‘legitimate’ children, while the choristers of the Chapel Royal sang the Te Deum and preparations were already underway for a lavish christening".  

 

In this surviving birth announcement the word 'prince' was changed so it read 'princess' instead. 

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 15^th 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. 

 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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Celebrating the Coronation of Elizabeth Tudor on 15 January 1559

“My lords, the law of nature moves me to sorrow for my sister; the burden that is fallen upon me makes me amazed, and yet, considering I am God's creature, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. And as I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body politic to govern, so shall I desire you all ... to be assistant to me, that I with my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to Almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth. I mean to direct all my actions by good advice and counsel” Elizabeth Tudors words upon the accession to the throne, November 1558


January 15th 2012 marks the 453rd year of The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne. To mark this occasion and those leading up to the day; I would like to take you back in time as it was written back in 1899 by Jacob Abbott in one of the earliest biographies of Elizabeth Tudor, ‘History of Queen Elizabeth’. An old hardcover book beautifully engraved which I found and bought in a second hand shop for five dollars!

The end of 1558 is drawing to a close, Princess Elizabeth’s half sister Queen Mary I of England has just passed away, an announcement by Parliament is made, Princess Elizabeth is located at Hatfield and told of the news that by the grace of God she is now Queen of England. Kneeling down, she exclaimed in Latin, “It is the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful in our eyes.”

The queen summoned her privy council to attend her, and in their presence appointed her chief secretary of state Sir William Cecil. He was a man of great learning and ability, and he remained in office under Elizabeth for forty years. He became her chief adviser and instrument, an able, faithful, and indefatigable servant and friend during almost the whole of her reign. He was at this time about forty years of age, Elizabeth was twenty five. She pronounced, in the hearing of the other members of council, the following charge:

“I give you this charge that you shall be of my privy council, and content yourself to take pains for me and my realm. This judgment I have of you, that you will not be corrupted with any gift; and that you will be faithful to the state; and that, without respect of my private will, you will give me that counsel that you think best; and that, if you shall know any thing necessary to be declared to me of secrecy you shall show it to myself only; and assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturnity therein. And therefore herewith I charge you.”

Arrangements were completed for Elizabeth’s journey to London, to take possession of the castles and palaces which pertain there to the English sovereigns. She was followed on this journey by a train of about a thousand attendants, all nobles or personages of high rank, both gentlemen and ladies. She went first to a palace called the Charter House, near London, where she stopped until preparations could be made for her formal and public entrance into the Tower; not, as before, through the Traitors’ Gate, a prisoner, but openly, through the grand entrance, in the midst of acclamations as the proud and applauded sovereign of the mighty realm whose capital the ancient fortress was stationed to defend. The streets through which the gorgeous procession was to pass were spread with fine, smooth gravel; bands of musicians were stationed at intervals, and decorated arches, and banners, and flags, with countless devices of loyalty and welcome, and waving handkerchiefs, greeted her all the way. Heralds and other great officers, magnificently dressed and mounted on horses richly caparisoned, rode before her, announcing her approach, with trumpets and proclamations; while she followed in the train, mounted upon a beautiful horse, the object of universal homage. Thus Elizabeth entered the Tower; and inasmuch as forgetting her friends is a fault with which she can not justly be charged, we may hope, at least, that one of the first acts which she performed, after getting established in the royal apartments, was to send for and reward the kind hearted child who had been reprimanded for bringing her the flowers.

The coronation, when the time arrived for it, was very splendid. The queen went in state in a sumptuous chariot, preceded by trumpeters and heralds in armor, and accompanied by a long train of noblemen, barons, and gentlemen, and also of ladies, all most richly dressed in crimson velvet, the trappings of the horses being of the same material. The people of London thronged all the streets through which she was to pass, and made the air resound with shouts and acclamations. There were triumphal arches erected here and there on the way, with a great variety of odd and quaint devices, and a child stationed upon each, who explained the devices to Elizabeth as she passed, in English verse, written for the occasion. One of those pageants was entitled, “The Sea of Worthy Governance.” There was a throne, supported by figures which represented the cardinal virtues, such as Piety, Wisdom, Temperance, Industry, Truth, and beneath their feet were the opposite vices, Superstition, Ignorance, Intemperance, Idleness, and Falsehood: these the virtues were trampling upon. On the throne was a representation of Elizabeth. At one place were eight personages dressed to represent the eight beatitudes pronounced by our Savior in his Sermon on the Mount—the meek, the merciful, etc. Each of these qualities was ingeniously ascribed to Elizabeth.

In another place, an ancient figure, representing Time, came out of a cave which had been artificially constructed with great ingenuity, leading his daughter, whose name was Truth. Truth had an English Bible in her hands, which she presented to Elizabeth as she passed. This had a great deal of meaning; for the Catholic government of Mary had discouraged the circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. When the procession arrived in the middle of the city, some officers of the city government approached the queen’s chariot, and delivered to her a present of a very large and heavy purse filled with gold. The queen had to employ both hands in lifting it in. It contained an amount equal in value to two or three thousand dollars.

The queen was very affable and gracious to all the people on the way. Poor women would come up to her carriage and offer her flowers, which she would very condescendingly accept. Several times she stopped her carriage when she saw that any one wished to speak with her or had something to offer. A branch of rosemary was given to the queen by a poor woman in Fleet Street; the queen put it up conspicuously in the carriage, where it remained all the way, watched by ten thousand eyes, till it got to Westminster.

The coronation took place at Westminster on the following day. The crown was placed upon the young maiden’s head in the midst of a great throng of ladies and gentlemen, who were all superbly dressed, as acclamations and shouts of “Long live the Queen!” could be heard.

During the ceremonies, Elizabeth placed a wedding ring upon her finger with great formality, to denote that she considered the occasion as the celebration of her espousal to the realm of England; she was that day a bride, and should never have, she said, any other husband.
She kept this, the only wedding ring she ever wore, upon her finger, without once removing it, for more than forty years.

SOURCE
Jacob Abbott, History of Queen Elizabeth. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899

A Review of Tudor biography Henry VIII by David Loades

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Amberley (July 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1848685327
ISBN-13: 978-1848685321

A major new biography of the most infamous king of England. 'Means to be God, and do as pleases himself', Martin Luther observed. It was a shrewd comment, not merely on the divorce in which the King was then embroiled, but upon his whole career. Henry VIII was self righteous, and convinced that he enjoyed a special relationship with the Almighty, which gave him a unique claim upon the obedience of his subjects. He subdued the church, sidelined the old nobility, and reorganized the government, all in the name of that Good Lordship which was his God-given responsibility.
As a youth, he was a magnificent specimen of manhood, and in age a gargantuan wreck, but even in his prime he was never the 'ladies man' of legend and his own imagination. Sexual insecurity undermined him and gave him an irascible edge - fatal to Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. Several times he took out his frustrations in warfare, but succeeded only in spending vast sums of money. He dominated England during his life, and for many years thereafter, but his personality is as controversial today as it was then.
Professor David Loades has spent most of his life investigating the remains, literary, archival and archaeological, of Henry VIII, and this monumental new biography book is the result. His portrait of Henry is distinctive, he was neither a genius nor a tyrant, but a man' like any other', except for the extraordinary circumstances in which he found himself.

Eighteen year old King Henry VIII after his crowning in 1509

Pastime with good company   

For my pastance          

Hunt sing and dance                                  

My heart is set 

All goodly sport 

To my comfort 

Who shall me let? 

The best I sue

The worst eschew 

My Mind shall be 

Virtue to use 

Vice to refuse 

In order to understand the newly crowned, adolescent, King of England, Henry VIII, during this time,"The King was as avid for intellectual stimulus as he was for physical exercise, and he did not find that among his jousting companions. Above all, he was a talented and enthusiastic musician, who took his minstrels with him wherever he went; on progress, on campaign, even on hunting trips. Most of the evidence dates from later, but the 'king's musik' was noted for its excellence from the very beginning, and in 1516 he tempted the distinguished Venetian organist Dionisio Memo into his service. He played the lute and the virginals well, although he was less sure on the organ, and his greatest asset was his singing voice, which was strong and steady, although we do not know what his register was. Later in the reign one of his favourite occupations was part singing with the Gentelmen of his Privy Chamber, and he seems to have written such songs, perhaps even while he was still prince. One of the earliest was 'Pastime with good company', which expresses the whole philosophy of the young Henry" (Loades, Henry VIII, page67).

This is not the first Tudor biography I've read on Henry VIII but it is the first that I feel has been the most thorough and thoughtfully put together. I do understand that this is a reissue of an earlier biography David Loades has previously published with 'newer information' thrown in. That being said, Loades has done what Eric Ives has done with his Tudor biography of Anne Boleyn. Before having read this biography, my main source of reference on 'strict' biographies and not a fictionalized novel would have been Jack (JJ) Scarisbrick to which Loades agrees!
I have read David Starkey and Alison Weir's books of course and highly recommend them. However, the best source is always the plethera of available Letters and Papers found on online international library websites. The best feeling is the ability and freedom to read the original sixteenth century documents and letters by not only the kings and queens but their privy council members as well!

Not only did Historian, David Loades cover Henry's life and reign as King of England (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) but through Appendixes and Notes he summarized the historical events of the children of Henry VIII: Mary I (Bloody Mary), Elizabeth I and Edward Tudor. He included, wives and husbands of said monarchs and threw in Mary Queen of Scots as well! What more do you want?

I highly recommend this Tudor biography. It is written in a style that is clever, humorous and informative without being pompous and dry. I never felt as if I was listening to a lecture or being reprimanded! I enjoy Tudor biographies when they are well written and humour is important. It should be fun after all. For me, I always am curious to know more about these men and women who not only ruled countries and counties but were mere mortals, flawed humans with immeasurable superegos and waning sexual prowess! Something I love to do when reading biographies is too go directly to the biography list at the back of the book to see how many sources I've also read and how many I want to read!

Henry_VIII,_drawing,_workshop_of_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger

As I walked along

and mused on things

That have in my time

been done by great kings

I bethought me of abbeys

that sometime I saw

Which are now supressed

all by a law.

O Lord, (thought I then)

what occasion was here

To provide for learning

and make poverty clear.

The lands and the jewels

that hereby were had

Would have found godly preachers

which might well have led

The people aright

that now go astray

And have fed the poor

that famish every day.

SOURCES
Henry VIII by David Loades
Henry VIII by Jack (JJ) Scarisbrick

POEMS AND MUSIC
Henry VIII and Crowley, Selected Works

Please feel free to leave any questions or comments,