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Elizabeth I of England & her status as an unmarried woman. The latter queen, Mary, was eventually forced to relinquish her crown, Mary I of Scotland: A History languish in exile, and ultimately face penalty of death of 16th Century Britain, for treason against her own cousin. Yet it was Mary’s heir who would inherit England. Thus, from the two Analyzed by Simon Schama women’s deaths, the nation we know as Great Britain and Jonathan W. Zophy was effectively born. A central underlying theme prevalent in both Brian Wild Schama’s and Zophy’s works is the sense of uncertainty HIST 394C felt by many in 16th century England – for some, bordering on outright apoplexy – over the social (that Throughout Europe’s long history, monarchs is, marital) status of their queen(s). Schama and Zophy have often played a significant, if not crucial, role in refer to Elizabeth’s adolescent entanglement with the shaping the fortunes of their respective states. In the scheming Thomas Seymour – the uncle of her half- vast majority of cases, these monarchs were emperors, brother, King Edward VI – who aspired to usurp his kings, and princes – in other words, nearly all male. It own brother’s place as Lord Protector for his young is true, however, that of the handful of female rulers nephew. Seymour’s advances toward Elizabeth were Europe has witnessed, quite a few managed to have only some of the troublesome actions he took during a significant impact on European history, for better his stay in power, which would not last long. Having or for worse. In Britain, for example, two of the most narrowly escaped any formal censure for any potential consequential monarchs during the 16th century indiscretions due to her well-worded and nimbly-crafted happened to be women. England alone saw two queens defense, Elizabeth received “a brutally early education regnant consecutively – the latter of whom, Elizabeth in the perils of sexual politics.”1 Additionally, Schama I, is considered by many as one of England’s most and Zophy also highlight the differences in personality recognizable monarchs. To England’s north, another and style between Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor, which woman was at the forefront of her country’s politics: affected them both in their official governing capacity Mary I, Queen of Scots. A cousin of Elizabeth, the young as monarchs as well as the choices each woman made Scottish queen would likewise play a major role in British regarding their personal affairs. As Zophy notes: “Unlike history. Each queen’s fate would be very different from her older sister, Elizabeth had a talent for survival and the other’s but their divergent paths would undoubtedly could demonstrate great flexibility when needed… The have long-lasting consequences for the future of the young queen also learned to judge character and not let British Isles and, arguably, the world as we know it. emotions interfere with matters of state.”2 There are numerous aspects of both Elizabeth’s When the time came for Elizabeth’s ministers and Mary’s lives that are similar. However, there are a to raise the question of marriage to their new queen, number of clear differences between the two women Schama presents the situation not as a simple ‘yes-or-no’ themselves. Based on the conditions of Elizabeth’s and proposition for her to answer them at once, but rather as Mary’s upbringings, one can extrapolate from both a perplexing challenge faced by Elizabeth. As he notes, Simon Schama’s and Jonathan Zophy’s readings that “…parliament was petitioning the queen to marry as the circumstances of their formative years had huge early as February 1559. And Elizabeth may not have been implications for their subsequent reigns as queens of as marriage-averse as most biographers had assumed… their respective realms. This was especially true with the security of the realm and the fate of the Protestant regard to their political and religious practices. Perhaps settlement depended on her capacity to give the country the most consequential elements of their lives and an heir. And Elizabeth, who always had a steely grip on reigns, though, were arguably the decisions made by the political reality, knew just what was required of her.”3 queens concerning their marital prospects (which were Zophy, on the other hand, ascertains Elizabeth’s lack undoubtedly affected by their political and religious of a husband more bluntly and succinctly, saying that preferences). From reading Schama’s and Zophy’s “Elizabeth decided early in her reign that she would works – or virtually any other book on British history, never share power and her bed with a man. She liked for that matter – it is obvious that Elizabeth and Mary being a ruling queen and had no wish to run the risks, as each had their share of social companions, allies, trysts, had her mother, her stepmothers, and her sister, suffering and other associations that had serious implications for for the sake of their relationships… physical problems their reputations as sovereigns. Despite both being faced may have compounded the issue.”4 with similar conundrums and temptations, one queen Elizabeth’s refusal to marry and produce an managed to keep herself above the fray, while another heir was in stark contrast to her cousin. Mary, unlike dove right into it. The former queen, Elizabeth, was able Elizabeth, was by no means a “Virgin Queen”. In fact, to keep her throne for over four decades until her death, she married three times by the time she was in her mid- overseeing a prosperous and illustrious reign in spite of twenties. Her first marriage, to the young King Francis II

44 University of Hawai‘i at Hilo HOHONU 2017 Vol. 15 of France, was short-lived; he succumbed to, as Schama chiselled [sic] cheekbones and the smoothly modelled wryly notes, “the worst ear infection in European calves and Mary was hopelessly smitten. It was only after history.”5 An intriguing assertion offered by Schama with the nuptials in 1565 that she discovered that, in addition regard to Mary’s early (direct) reign as Queen of Scots is to the blood royal flowing through his veins, there was that, in comparison to her English cousin’s behavior, “it a great deal of strong liquor. When he was not smashed, was Mary, not Elizabeth, who might well have seemed Darnley, who was now supposed to be a working king the more serious and responsible of the two queens. She, of Scotland, was usually absent without leave, hunting, after all, was not deep in a reckless flirtation”6, alluding hawking or whoring, and certainly not available for to Elizabeth’s dalliances with men such as her longtime the tedious drudgery of state business.”12 Again, Zophy companion, Robert Dudley. Such an argument could prefers to take the shorter and more direct route by saying be furthermore corroborated by Mary’s own personal “In short, she [Mary] had been blinded by passion and inclinations. Zophy argues that “Unlike Elizabeth I, who had married a boring blockhead, something her royal feared the possibility of being dominated by a husband, cousin would never do. As early as 1558, Elizabeth had Mary wanted to remarry and have children.”7 The informed Parliament: 'I have long since made a choice problem for Mary, of course, became about just what of a husband, the kingdom of England.’”13 type of men she would end up surrounding herself with – Indeed, Zophy’s reference to Elizabeth’s and, at least from analyzing Zophy’s perspective on this maidenhood serves as a thinly-veiled indictment of period in her life, Mary’s fortunes would soon begin to Mary’s folly in her search for a husband to produce an sour. And things would only get worse for the Queen of heir. Even worse for the Queen of Scots, however, was Scots. that her search for male companionship did not end with Zophy’s analysis of Mary’s reign as queen is first Darnley. “Left to her own devices, Mary increasingly and foremost characterized by her French and Catholic depended on her own court circle and, in particular, on heritage. The matter of her French lineage was all the one of her private secretaries, the Italian David Riccio more relevant in light of King James V’s death, which [also spelled ‘Rizzio’], who, much to the displeasure of was not long after his daughter’s birth. “…King James the Scottish magnates, jealously guarded access to the was followed in power by his French wife, Mary of queen. Worse still, the leader of the Protestant nobility, Guise… A devout Catholic, Mary served as regent for her her half-brother, the Earl of Moray, suggested to the infant daughter… The widowed queen was determined English government that Mary was considering a full to bring Scotland more firmly into the orbit of her native counter-Reformation in Scotland… When they looked France and her militantly Catholic family, the Guises. at France and saw the all-out war being waged by Most of the [Scottish] barons were equally determined her Guise family on the Huguenots, it took very little to keep Scotland an independent kingdom.”8 Matters to convince them that Mary was, indeed, planning a were made more difficult for Mary of Guise and her counter-Reformation.”14 supporters, due to the successes of Protestant leaders The rift between Mary and Darnley came to a such as John Knox in turning the Scottish national tide head in a brutal fashion; it would result in the untimely against Catholicism.9 At first, Zophy stipulates that “… death of Rizzio, at the hands of Darnley’s compatriots. Mary was astute enough to recognize that she was going “More and more Mary turned to the agreeable company to have to accept Protestantism for the moment although of the amusing Rizzio, Darnley grew insanely jealous, worshipping privately as a Roman Catholic, much to and in March 1566, he and a number of henchmen broke the dismay of John Knox… Beneath her surface charm, in upon the pregnant queen and stabbed her suspected however, the steely Mary Stuart was determined to lover to death.”15 In the immediate aftermath of Rizzio’s achieve a Catholic restoration.”10 murder, Schama and Zophy interestingly both point out Mary’s second husband – Henry Stuart, Lord that with the horror Mary had witnessed, she actually Darnley – was viewed by the queen as a most auspicious had a chance to emerge from the ordeal a stronger queen match. “Darnley had many qualities to recommend for it. Indeed, with her marriage to Darnley, Mary had himself. He was handsome and tall, which made him managed to do the one thing that England’s government an ideal dance partner for the willowy Queen Mary. desperately wanted their own queen to do: to produce a Darnley was of royal blood, a grandson of King Henry (preferably) male heir. VII, but, most importantly, to the devout Mary, he was Schama recounts the event of Mary’s pregnancy a fellow Roman Catholic. He could be her partner in as a sobering moment for England – at least from turning Scotland away from the Protestant plague. They Elizabeth’s standpoint. “On 19 June 1566, she [Mary] were married in July 1565.”11 Much like her first marriage gave birth to the child who would be King James VI of to Francis II of France, the union between Mary and Lord Scotland and James I of England. On hearing the news Darnley would prove to be a short one. To explain what Elizabeth cried out operatically as if she had been struck lay at the root of the schism between the queen and with a dagger: ‘Alack the queen of the Scots is lighter her new king consort, Schama is rather graphic in his of a bonny son and I am but of barren stock.’”16 From rendition of Darnley, saying “One look at those finely Schama’s take, the arrival of a baby prince signaled that

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Mary had gained a powerful tool to serve her ambitions well beyond the limit of her equanimity and was losing – including those beyond Scotland. With Elizabeth control over that much fought-over body. She would remaining unmarried and childless one year after retch uncontrollably for long periods, black and bloody the next, this would all but ensure that Mary and her mucus issuing from the pale face, and her temper swung descendants would be in line to claim the English throne between exhaustion and hysterics. She needed help, and upon the death of her cousin the Virgin Queen. From James Bothwell was there to give it.”20 a political lens, a male heir would assuredly be Mary’s With Mary’s newfound interest and reliance way of bringing about the end of the Tudor dynasty and upon Bothwell more manifest than ever, a surprising the beginning of Scottish Stuart rule in England (as it divergence occurs in Schama’s and Zophy’s detailing most definitely turned out to be). This apparently was of the queen and Bothwell’s relationship. Zophy, for not what was going through Mary’s mind when she one, appears to frame the matter as much more curt, gave birth to James. According to Schama, the future along with the perception (whether tacit or express) that king’s birth was arguably less about politics (at least Mary was the individual most at fault for the Darnley from Mary’s perspective at the time) and rather served fiasco and her ensuing marriage to Bothwell, in spite of first and foremost as the prime catalyst that Mary had Bothwell’s much more direct participation in Darnley’s working in her favor to rid herself of the baby’s father, her murder in comparison to the queen. “Although legally husband Darnley. “With a healthy baby boy in the cot, acquitted of the crime, the queen’s lover, Bothwell, was Darnley was expendable, and Mary turned ingeniously obviously guilty. When he quickly divorced his wife Machiavellian.”17 Soon enough, the queen would turn to and married the queen in May of that year [1567] in a revenge against her husband; the move would prove to Protestant ceremony, it was more than John Knox and be a fatal mistake on many levels, both figuratively and the Scottish people could bear. They flew to arms against quite literally. the “wicked Jezebel” and her “evil lover.”21 With her beloved secretary and confidant Notwithstanding the feelings Mary harbored gone at the hands of Darnley, Queen Mary apparently toward Darnley and Bothwell – and her role, however decided to retaliate. Schama expresses Mary’s anger at direct or not it was in ending the life of the former – Darnley and notes how swiftly she would end up turning Schama seems to be much more focused on not Mary’s on him. “Mary, who had once been so besotted with perspective, but on Bothwell’s innately unequal power Darnley, now became consumed by an equally violent dynamic with his queen. This power dynamic was hatred. She wanted to be rid of him. It is possible that all exacerbated by his physical control over Mary, including she meant by this was that she wished to be rid of him as up to sexual conquest. “For if Mary’s sense of direction husband and consort. Once her child was born, perhaps faltered, Bothwell knew exactly where he was going: Darnley could be persuaded into a divorce and his straight to the top and into her bedroom. A farcical trial, many transgressions could be used to bring the Church the verdict influenced by the presence of thousands of round to an annulment. But there were those among her Bothwell’s armed followers, delivered an acquittal. The devotees, including the Earl of Bothwell, who took her queen’s dependence on him deepened. He summoned sighs and words to mean something altogether more a meeting of Scottish nobles at Ainslie and, striking the decisive.”18 unlikely pose of statesman, declared that for the proper Both Schama and Zophy set aside a good deal of government of the country, it was essential that the blame for Darnley’s untimely death on Mary, due to her queen take a husband. Very decently he offered himself desire to find a more suitable male partner. According to for the job… All that remained were what, for someone Zophy, “She eventually found a replacement for Rizzio like Bothwell, were technicalities: overnight divorce in the arms of the dashing James, Earl of Bothwell… His from his inconvenient wife and the ‘persuasion’ of Mary charms and his willingness to convert to Catholicism were herself… Bothwell planted his flag as prospective king of enough for Mary to fall passionately in love with him.”19 Scotland by planting himself inside her body.”22 In a nuanced contrast, Schama does not hesitate to pin Schama’s account of Bothwell’s rape of Queen Darnley’s demise on Bothwell’s unabashed manipulation Mary is probably the most glaring difference between of the queen. Indeed, for Schama, it was apparent that his and Zophy’s account of the queen’s reign. Perhaps this was an extremely emotional and vulnerable period Schama’s illustration of this event is to show that, for Mary. Schama describes the aftermath of Darnley’s regardless of her position as sovereign of the kingdom, death as even more consequential for Mary’s well being Mary was nonetheless still a woman in an age when than was the death of her prior alleged lover, her late women were all but ordered to be submissive to men, secretary David Rizzio. “If Riccio’s [Rizzio’s] murder and were largely expected to be little more than weak had energized Mary, Darnley’s end seemed to have vessels for children. In fact, Schama views Bothwell’s the opposite effect. Whether she had truly wanted it or aforementioned encounter with Mary as his “version of not, it was a death too many. She had carried her baby a marriage proposal. He assumed that she would have through the carnage [Rizzio’s murder] and managed to no choice but to marry her rapist, and the assumption see him safely into the world. Now, though, Mary was was correct… John Craig, one of John Knox’s colleagues

46 University of Hawai‘i at Hilo HOHONU 2017 Vol. 15 in the Kirk… refused to publish the banns until Mary plots had but one goal in mind: rid England of the affirmed that she had not been raped or held against her Protestant Elizabeth in favor of her heiress-presumptive, will.”23 the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. From the implication After bringing up Mary’s questionable of the Duke of Norfolk to the Ridolfi and Babington Plots, circumstances surrounding her third marriage, Schama Elizabeth and her government surely grew increasingly – unlike Zophy – is quick to immediately highlight the anxious about Mary’s intentions if and when she would personal troubles faced by Mary as compared to the become Queen of England. From Zophy’s analysis, almost eerily similar problems Queen Elizabeth faced however, it was not merely a question of which men in with her suitors early on in her reign, which she was England or abroad would be tasked with assassinating grappling with herself not long before Mary’s woes the ‘Protestant whore’ Elizabeth. At the end of the day, began. “Her [Mary’s] predicament was, in a peculiar it was Mary who did herself in by failing to check her way, the mirror image of Elizabeth’s trouble with own vanities and zeal – the latter point referring to her Dudley, but the response of the two women could not mission to bring back Catholicism to England.27 have been more different. Amy Dudley’s death, whether In conclusion, it is likely the case that Schama or not Robert had anything at all to do with it, translated and Zophy would readily concede that there were into Elizabeth’s temporary repugnance for, and anger at, innumerable events, decisions, and other factors that him. Instead of it bringing her pastoral dream closer to were perhaps out of Elizabeth or Mary’s control over realization, it ruled it out. Darnley’s murder, on the other their destinies. However, each had their own distinct hand, actually made Bothwell not desirable but, in some advantages. For Mary, it was her ability to assert her monstrous way, necessary for Mary’s own survival… claim to England, and her ability to produce an heir that Given every possible option, she now invariably took would ensure her line’s dominance over English politics the worst. If she had no foreknowledge of the murder for the next century. For all the misgivings of her advisors plot, it was still possible for her to restore her legitimacy and contemporaries, however, Elizabeth did something by tracking down the assassins and bringing them to Mary failed to do. Unlike Scotland’s queen, England’s justice. Instead, she married their ringleader.”24 Schama queen was able to play her cards more adeptly (even even goes as far as arguing that “the result was the if her hand was not always as decent compared to same rebellion that Elizabeth would have faced had she Mary’s), and was thus able to play the game – something followed her heart and married Dudley.”25 that, depending upon whose interpretation of history to Indeed, what was so incredibly integral to her which one subscribes, Mary was unable or unwilling to cousin Elizabeth’s longstanding image was that she was accomplish. Both queens and their legacies have been unmarried, and therefore had to be presumed a ‘virgin’; studied, critiqued, and admired by observers for over if it were a publicly-declared or acknowledged fact that four centuries. Yet, it is important to remember that, Elizabeth was not as chaste as expected, then she would even though it was a Scottish monarch that eventually have likely lost a great deal of credibility and goodwill ruled the English, the center of political and cultural life among her government and her people. What Zophy did not move to Scotland – it has remained in England notes, though, is not Elizabeth’s glee at watching her to this day. This can, in part, be due to the triumph of cousin fall from grace in Scotland. Rather, he views Protestantism – in the form of the relatively pragmatic Elizabeth and Mary’s relationship as an unsteady, latent and inclusive Elizabethan-inspired Church of England competition between the two queens. Considering Mary –– over the more Continentally-influenced ardent – now an ex-Scottish queen – was still eligible to become Catholicism of the half-French Mary. And as far as a future English queen, Elizabeth kept careful tabs on Schama is concerned, Elizabeth’s role in shaping English her cousin. When Mary left her homeland and ventured (and later British) nationalism can be simply put: “She south to exile in England, “The solution that Elizabeth was, in fact, the first true woman politician in British came up with was to play for time, an approach she took history.”28 to many problems. After all, Mary might catch a cold in a drafty English country house and die of natural causes… Elizabeth ended up keeping Mary in forced detention in a succession of country estates for nineteen years. Mary was not permitted to leave England or to attend court. Elizabeth was not going to permit Mary to gain adherents at the center of power, nor was she going to risk face- to-face comparisons with her dangerous and glamorous cousin.”26 Zophy considers Elizabeth’s insecurity not to be an insignificant aspect of how she approached the following years of her reign, and all of the various dangers and plots that came along. Nearly all of these

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Footnotes 1 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the 16 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2000) pp. 337-338 2000) p. 356 2 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and 17 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2000) p. 356 Inc., 2009) p. 243 18 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the 3 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2000) p. 355 2000) pp. 343-344 19 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance 4 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., Education, Inc., 2009) p. 250 2009) pp. 245-246 20 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the 5 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2000) p. 357 2000) p. 352 6 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the 21 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, 2000) p. 353 Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009) p. 250 7 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth 22 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, Inc., 2009) p. 249 2000) p. 357 8 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and 23 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2000) p. 357 Inc., 2009) p. 247 24 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the 9 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth 2000) pp. 357, 360 Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009) pp. 247-248 25 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 10 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance 2000) p. 360 and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson 26 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance Education, Inc., 2009) p. 249 and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson 11 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance Education, Inc., 2009) pp. 250-251 and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson 27 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance Education, Inc., 2009) p. 249 and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson 12 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the Education, Inc., 2009) p. 251 World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 2000) p. 354 28 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, 13 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance 2000) p. 332 and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009) p. 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY 14 Simon Schama, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the Schama, Simon. A History Of Britain: At The Edge World? 3000BC – AD1603 (New York, NY: Hyperion, Of The World? 3000BC - AD1603. New York: 2000) p. 354 Hyperion, 2000. 15 Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance Zophy, Jonathan W. A Short History of Renaissance and and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Fourth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Fourth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009) p. 250 Education, Inc., 2009.

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