What in the World Happened to Queen Elizabeth in the Autumn of 1572???

At the end of her annual August progress, on September 22, 1572, Queen Elizabeth chose to settle the Court in Windsor Castle. Thomas Percy, the rebel Earl of Northumberland, had been betrayed into the custody of her officers and summarily executed on the 22^nd of August. The French Ambassadors had been traveling with her and settled into the castle to continue the negotiations for her marriage to the Duke of Alenҫon. That Duke being willful, his younger brother the Duke of Anjou was already tentatively being offered.[1]

Within days, Elizabeth fell victim to a persistent high fever. She suffered severe stomach distress at the same time. Her new Treasurer, Baron Burghley, wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, then special ambassador to the French Court in the matter of the marriage.

He (the messenger going to Paris) can also tell you of a sudden alarm specially yesternight, by her Majestie being suddenly sick in her stomach, and as suddenly relieved by a vomit.[2]

“A vomit” is vague enough that her condition at that point cannot be certainly known.

Undoubtedly, the descriptions do not do justice to the severity as matters were considered dire enough that preparations were made for the worst.

The Queen has been very ill and the malady proved to be small-pox. Before the eruption declared itself, the earl of Leicester, the Treasurer, and the Earl of Bedford were closteted together several times to arrange in case the Queen died, to proclaim as King one of the two sons of the earl of Hertford by Lady Catherine . . ."[3]

At some point she broke out in what her doctors declared was the smallpox and the source of the mysterious illness was considered known. Throughout, her beloved Earl of Leicester stayed beside her bed almost continuously.

For some reason, not everyone was confident of the diagnosis. The French ambassador Fenelon wrote back to the King, in Paris, "Elizabeth ill with chicken- or small-pox."[4] But he had not been permitted to see the Queen in her illness. The doubt he expressed was received from those around her that he had questioned in order to send as correct a report back to the French King and Queen Mother as possible. Such matters as this were considered of the utmost importance. A great deal depended upon them. Ambassadors were chosen for their ability to get the details as perfectly as possible as quickly as possible.

The Queen herself was not entirely convinced, by the account of her newly appointed First Secretary, Sir Thomas Smith.[5]

On Thursday night last, Monsieur de Crocque was there (Windsor) and had audience given him by the Lord Treasurer, my Lord Chamberlain, and my Lord of Leicester, because the Queen's Majesty was not at that time perfectly whole of the small pox, as the Physicians say, although her Majesty and a great sort more, will not have it so, now it makes no matter what it was, thanks be to God she is perfectly whole, and no sign thereof left in her face…[6]

Nevertheless, she and Smith were highly pleased that no scars were left on her face from the ordeal.

We learn more about her own personal perspective in a letter she wrote in order to comfort her old ally the Earl of Shrewsbury.

... we perceave that you had hard of som late siknes wherewith we weare visited; . . . True it is that we were about XIII dayes paste distempered as commonly happenith in the begynning of a fever; but after twoo or three daies, without any great inward siknes, ther began to appere certain red spotts in som parte of our face, likely to proove the small pox; but, thanked be God, contrary to the expectation of our phisycians, & all others about us, the same so vanished awaye as within foure or fyve dayes passed no token almost appeered; and at this day, we thank God, we are so free from any token or marke of any suche disease that none can conjecture any suche thing. So as by this you may perceave what war our siknes, and in what good estate we be; ...[7]

By the time of this letter, Elizabeth seems satisfied that she has had a bout of smallpox. But it is another dispatch by Fenelon to Paris that makes clear just how uncertain she and her advisors had been.

Elizabeth tells Fenelon that the last time he was at Windsor, she was unable to see him "because she had a bad stomach owing to her having taken a little mithridate."[8]

Mithridatium is a mythical universal antidote against all poisons of every sort. It is not a emetic, however, in any of the forms commonly described. We do not know how much the Queen vomited and it was unlikely related to the Mithridatium.

While none of the principals were likely to understand that, having supposedly already had smallpox in September of 1561, modern medical science assures us that she had to be immune from the disease for the  rest of her life, some clearly had reasons to doubt that rash was smallpox. Some of the reasons can be perceived through all of these diverse accounts.

If it was smallpox, though, as was finally settled upon, how could Queen Elizabeth have had it twice?

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[1] Nichols, John. Progresses, Public Processions, &c. of Queen Elizabeth (1823). 321.

[2] Chamberlin, Frederick. Private Character of Queen Elizabeth (1922), 64. Burghley to Walsingham. October 20, 1572.

[3] Ibid., Unsigned letter of intelligence from London to Duke of Alba, October 26, 1572.

[4] Ibid., 64. Fenelon to Paris. October 1572.

[5] Nichols, 307. “Julie 13, the Queenes Majestie, at Whitehall, made Sir William Cecil Lord of Burghleie, Lord High Treasurer of England ; Lord William Howard, late Lord Chamberleine, Lord Privie Seale ; the Earle of Sussex, Lord Chamberleine; Sir Thomas Smith, Principall Secretarie; and Christopher Hatton, Esquier, Capteine of the Guard.”

[6] Chamberlin, 64. Sir Thomas Smith to Sir Francis Walsingham, October 13, 1572.

[7] Ibid., 64-5. Citing Elizabeth to Earl of Shrewsbury, Lodge's IIIustrations of British history, vol. ii. p. 79.

[8] Ibid., 65. Fenelon to Paris. October 27, 1572.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

Anne Boleyn’s Coming Out at the English Court. February 13, 2022. “The Knight in the beginninge cominge to beholde the sudden apearance of this new bewtie came to beholden and surprized somewhat with the sight therof, after much more with her wittie and graceful speech…”

Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I.  March 24, 2019.  “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”

Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador.  April 3, 2019.  “…the Queen of England, with the permission of her physicians, has been able to come out of her private chamber, she has permitted me… to see her…”

To Where Did Queen Elizabeth I Disappear in August 1564? July 18, 2021. “Leicestershire was in the opposite direction from London. Nichols could discover no more.”

Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.