Over the centuries, Elizabeth’s romantic travails have change into one of many nice cleaning soap operas of English historical past. When Elizabeth ascended the English throne in 1558 as a 25-year-old, it was broadly anticipated that she would discover herself a husband and produce an inheritor to hold on the Tudor dynasty for an additional era. Nonetheless, whereas the queen had a number of suitors over time, every proposed match hit the rocks earlier than she may very well be tempted to supply her hand in marriage. From English earls to Scandinavian kings, none fairly fitted the invoice.
And so, by the point the get together of Frenchmen disembarked in Greenwich in the summertime of 1579, Elizabeth was effectively on her approach to securing her place within the historical past books because the ‘Virgin Queen’: the lady who would, so we’re advised, sacrifice her coronary heart for the great of the nation. But she wasn’t carried out with attempting simply but. As her forty sixth birthday closed in, Elizabeth would embark on one remaining bid to discover a husband. And this one would take her nearer to marriage than maybe any courtship but.
So who was the Frenchman who virtually modified the course of English historical past? And why – as she entered the embrace of center age – was the queen contemplating marrying him now?
The suitor’s title was François de Valois, Duke of Anjou, fourth son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici. Anjou had begun life as a royal also-ran, with little prospect of ascending the French throne. But, by the early 1570s, he discovered himself inheritor to his childless brother, Henri III. The duke was now odds-on to succeed his sibling as King of France. That made him a determine of immense significance.
Anjou was additionally desperate to make his mark on Europe by campaigning in opposition to Spanish forces within the Netherlands. And it’s this final proven fact that introduced him into Elizabeth’s orbit within the late 1570s. With England changing into more and more remoted from Europe – and relations with Spain deteriorating quick – Elizabeth’s advisors have been determined to forge enduring ties with allies throughout the channel. What higher approach to obtain precisely that than by suggesting a match between Elizabeth and the French duke?
The union had been proposed as early as 1572, however it wasn’t till 1579 that Elizabeth herself totally dedicated to the courtship. On the outset, the queen’s curiosity in Anjou was purely the product of political necessity, for a wedding alliance with France would assist stave off the rising navy menace offered by Spain. However, as the 2 bought to know each other in August 1579, the connection turned private, the primary courtship to take action because the queen’s flirtation with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester twenty years earlier.
French connections
Whereas Anjou was not a bodily spectacular determine – possessing bandy legs and a scarred face from a bout of smallpox – Elizabeth undoubtedly grew keen on him, calling him her “frog” on account of his look and his gravelly voice. He was extremely attentive, which she very a lot loved. The 2 conversed in French, because it was the one language they shared. And, although Anjou was 21 years youthful than the queen, they discovered loads to speak about.
The duke had bandy legs and a scarred face however Elizabeth grew keen on him
Additionally enjoying to the duke’s benefit was the truth that he had made the journey to England in any respect. All through her many courtships, Elizabeth had caught to the agency place that she “would by no means marry with any individual whom she shouldn’t first herself see”. Her demand to satisfy a possible husband earlier than committing herself to marriage was considered on the time with astonishment. Royal courtships have been long-distance affairs within the sixteenth century – to such an extent that even the wedding itself may very well be carried out with ambassadors standing in as proxies for the bride. Via every courtship Elizabeth had held her floor, but no suitor had chosen to make the journey to her courtroom. All that modified with Anjou.
Violent opposition
The duke couldn’t keep in England for lengthy and, on 29 August, sailed again to France. His go to had, to all intents and functions, been a diplomatic and private success. But there was a catch. And it was a significant one. This had been a visit that the English authorities had tried to maintain secret. Anjou had travelled to London beneath a pseudonym: Seigneur du Pont de Sé. Nonetheless, it didn’t take lengthy for the true id of the queen’s visitor to seep past the confines of the courtroom – and, as soon as it did, it triggered a firestorm of opposition.
However why? In brief, Elizabeth was a Protestant; Anjou was a Catholic. And in a Europe riven by the Reformation and spiritual struggle, marriage between two individuals of differing beliefs was, to most, merely unthinkable.
Inside one week of Anjou’s go to, England was awash with a public outcry in opposition to the match. London preachers decried the wedding from their pulpits. Fashionable ballads made their rounds. Nameless verses and pamphlets lampooned the match. Threats to satisfy French consideration with violence started to appear in public areas.
It was into this tumult that John Stubbs, a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn, revealed a pamphlet with the catchy title ‘The invention of a gaping gulf whereinto England is prefer to be swallowed by one other French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the banes, by letting her Majesty see the sin and punishment thereof’. Stubbs’ work argued that the clandestine nature of Anjou’s go to demonstrated a “very unusual this unmanlike, unprincelike, secret, fearful, suspicious, disdainful, needy French sort of wooing in monsieur”.
It wasn’t solely the French duke who Stubbs pursued in his work. He additionally questioned why Elizabeth would consent to marry “an imp of the crown of France”. In his view, and lots of others, at Elizabeth’s age any being pregnant would probably end in her loss of life. If a toddler was born it was feared that it might end in England changing into a vassal state to France relatively than securing an unbiased future for the Protestant realm.
Upon studying of Stubbs’ pamphlet, Elizabeth was livid. For her, the matter of her marriage was deeply private and a matter of royal prerogative. And it didn’t escape her discover that Stubbs’ arguments mirrored people who had additionally been raised in opposition to the Anjou match inside her Privy Council. May her personal councillors have leaked data to the wayward lawyer?
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the authorities tried to suppress public opposition to the match. Stubbs was tried for seditious writing and brought to the general public scaffold within the market of Westminster on 3 November. There his proper hand was eliminated with a cleaver earlier than an unusually silent crowd.
It was not solely the broader public that challenged Elizabeth’s proposed marriage to Anjou. Sir Philip Sydney, the courtier and poet, wrote a letter to his queen that circulated within the courtroom, and although he didn’t face the identical punishment as Stubbs, he shared a lot of the identical fears over the match. He argued that, ought to Elizabeth marry Anjou, her individuals’s “hearts will likely be galled, if not alienated, after they shall see you’re taking to husband a Frenchman, a papist, in whom, howsoever high-quality wits might discover additional risks or painted excuses, the quite common individuals effectively know this: that he’s the son of the Jezebel of our age”. To Sydney, Anjou represented the worst attainable suitor, a Catholic Frenchman who would solely lead Protestant England to break.
A reputation however no energy
Regardless of the ferocity of those objections, the wedding negotiations continued. In late November, a delegation of Elizabeth’s Privy Council, led by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, labored with Anjou’s consultant, Jean de Simier, to create a draft marriage contract. This doc was primarily based on the union of Elizabeth’s sister, Mary I, with Philip II of Spain, and would see Anjou granted the title of king however little actual energy in England. However it did have one new clause: it gave Elizabeth the correct to withdraw inside two months of signing the contract.
And signal the contract is strictly what Elizabeth did. Now, with 1579 drawing to a detailed, the queen was additional alongside the street to marriage than she could be at any level in her reign. But she wasn’t married but. And such was the persevering with power of the hostility in the direction of the match that inside just a few brief weeks she felt she had no alternative however to show again. She wrote to Anjou that “I don’t want this negotiation to hassle you thus any extra”, however nonetheless hoped “that we might stay devoted pals and warranted in all out actions”. Her contractual get-out clause was duly activated.
Elizabeth’s change of coronary heart would, you may suppose, sign the top of her courtship with Anjou. However it was revived on another event. In April 1581 a French delegation arrived in England to debate as soon as extra the prospects of a wedding alliance between the 2 kingdoms. Elizabeth herself had turned away from the courtship, however – with Spain nonetheless threatening English safety – she allowed the negotiations to recommence. These negotiations reached an deadlock and would have light away – however for the return of Anjou to England.
On 31 October 1581, the duke arrived at Rye after which travelled onwards to Richmond Palace. In distinction together with his first go to, he moved overtly and spoke extra of alliance than marriage. Each the duke and queen have been totally preoccupied by the problems of their nations’ funds and battle with Spain, however the query of marriage had not disappeared totally.
Three weeks after his arrival, as Elizabeth and Anjou walked alongside a gallery, they have been approached by the French ambassador. The ambassador requested the queen what he might inform his king in regards to the probabilities of her marrying. In response Elizabeth smiled and replied: “You might write this to the king: that the Duke of Anjou shall be my husband.” She then proceeded to present Anjou a hoop from her finger, accompanied by a kiss.
Elizabeth’s response to the ambassador despatched her courtroom into uproar. That evening her girls expressed their shock. The subsequent morning noticed members of her council advising strongly in opposition to the match, as it might undermine her relationship along with her individuals. With doubts enjoying on her thoughts within the chilly gentle of day, Elizabeth carried out yet one more volte face, withdrawing her supply to Anjou and telling him that she could be a greater buddy than a spouse.
Elizabeth surprised England by giving Anjou a hoop from her finger – together with a kiss
Anjou left London for the Netherlands on 1 February 1582. Nonetheless, he didn’t journey the entire method alone. Elizabeth accompanied him so far as Canterbury the place she stated her farewell to her remaining suitor. Because the duke sailed away from England, he took with him the queen’s final probability at marriage. Anjou’s departure additionally closed the door on the queen’s youth: at 48-years-old, the video games of courtship have been now not hers, and her single state would now outline her reign.
At the moment, greater than 400 years after these occasions, it’s tempting to imagine that Elizabeth was at all times destined to be the Virgin Queen – and it was a task during which she revelled. However within the first half of her reign, she engaged in quite a few courtships and got here near marrying twice. These two males – the Earl of Leicester and Duke of Anjou – discovered a particular place within the queen’s coronary heart, even when it was unwise for her to permit them that house.
On every event it was the resistance of her those that prevented her from taking that remaining step in the direction of matrimony. Elizabeth understood that with out the help of her topics, she risked deposition and civil struggle. It was this chilly, onerous actuality that prevented her from taking a husband.
So perhaps it’s time to look upon the Virgin Queen in a brand new gentle: because the creation of the individuals relatively than the queen herself. The picture of an untouchable lady who preserved the state by means of her personal individual was crafted, it appears, not by a person however a nation. It was a task Elizabeth dedicated to as she bid Anjou farewell. And it was one which she would play till her remaining days.
Romancing the throne
Three different males who have been within the body to marry the Virgin Queen
The dashing favorite
When Elizabeth took the throne there was some help for the queen to marry an Englishman. However whereas most seemed to the
friends of the realm, it was Robert Dudley who had caught each her eye and her coronary heart. Certainly, she as soon as commented that “she thought she might discover no individual with higher qualities”.
Dudley was made Grasp of the Horse shortly after Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, a place that allowed him frequent entry to his queen. After Dudley’s spouse, Amy, died in September 1560 it appeared that Elizabeth may marry her dashing favorite. Nonetheless, the suspicious circumstances of Amy’s loss of life made the wedding unattainable. Whereas their probability was misplaced, the 2 would stay shut pals till Leicester’s loss of life in 1588.
The controversial Catholic
After closing the door on marriage with Leicester, Elizabeth consented to the opening of a courtship with Archduke Charles of Austria, the third surviving son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I. For the English, the archduke was seen as a method of easing the escalating tensions with Spain (primarily based on his household ties with the king of Spain), whereas offering some security from France.
This concept of the match was first raised in 1559 however was solely severely explored from 1563. As with so a lot of Elizabeth’s overseas courtships, the query of faith proved unresolvable. The potential marriage of Elizabeth to a Catholic triggered unrest, main her to watch that “two individuals of various faiths couldn’t dwell peaceably in a single home”, even if that home was England itself. On the finish of 1567 she turned Charles down.
The keen Swede
Elizabeth was first approached by Swedish ambassadors a few courtship with Erik XIV of Sweden in 1558 whereas nonetheless a princess. Erik offered fewer difficulties than a lot of her different suitors, being a Protestant – and rich. This courtship was additionally elevated by its timing, as main members of Elizabeth’s Privy Council sought to make use of his swimsuit to counter that of Dudley.
Erik was extremely persistent and supplied to journey to England to satisfy Elizabeth in individual. Upon listening to of Erik’s intentions, Elizabeth wrote to him, asking “that you simply be happy to set a restrict to your love, that it advance not past the legal guidelines of friendship”. Elizabeth was completely unconvinced by the arguments in favour of the match, and all of it got here to an finish in 1562.
Elizabeth Tunstall is a visiting analysis fellow on the College of Adelaide
This text was first revealed within the July 2025 subject of BBC History Magazine