Silva understandably found the fact distressing, however, that the French ambassador had been present at the new Earl's private celebration about which he had not so much as been informed. Should the snub get back to his master it would make him appear incompetent. By way of comfort, Leicester informed him that “after his own Queen there was no Prince in the world under whom he was so greatly obliged to serve as your Majesty”. Silva chose to head off anyone else informing the king to his disadvantage.
Apparently not satisfied that he had done enough, he enclosed a second letter in the dispatch displaying his expert knowledge of all of the players at Court. The Queen had granted him an extended private audience in order to make up for the betrayal the ambassador felt.
During it she made a point to reveal more intimate detail than a normal audience. She quite liked the young man. Perhaps she would have been more private anyway. Regardless, the reader gets a bit more understanding of what it was like to be Queen.
9 Oct. 270. GUZMAN DE SILVA to the KING.
This Queen wrote to the queen of Scotland by the Gentleman of the Chamber who came here, saying that she had not been able for certain reasons to hold the Parliament at present, and consequently had not dealt with the question of the succession to the kingdom, but it would be dealt with when Parliament sat. Verbally, she told the gentleman that she was not so old yet that they need continually keep her death before her eyes by talking about the succession.
Cecil tells these heretical Bishops to look after their clergy as the queen is determined to reform them in their customs, and even in their dress, as the diversity that exists in everything cannot be tolerated. He directs that they should be careful how they treat those of the old faith ; to avoid calumniating them, or persecuting or harrying them. I understand they are very displeased at it.
As I have advised, Cecil's favour has been wavering, but he knows how to please, and avoids saying things the Queen does not wish to hear, and, above all, as I am told, can flatter her, so he has kept his place, and things are in the same position as formerly. Robert makes the best of it. The outward demonstrations are fair but the inner feelings the same as before. I do not know how long they will last. They dissemble, but Cecil has more wit than all of them. Their envy of him is very great.
This Queen, referring no doubt to the beginning of her reign, told me that she had had to conceal her real feelings to prevail with her subjects in matters of religion, but that God knew her heart, which was time to His service. She said other things to give me to understand that she was right in spirit, but not so clearly as I could have wished. There was no good opportunity of carrying this conversation further.
I told her, as I am sure she knew, that her preachers spoke ill of her because she had a cross on the altar of her chapel, and that they did in this a daring disrespect to her person. She signified that she should order crosses to be put into the churches, and that some of the newly rebuilt ones have stone crosses, not inside but on the towers. She said also, "They charge me with a good many things in my own country and elsewhere, and, amongst others, that I show more favour to Robert than is fitting; speaking of me as they might speak of an immodest woman. I am not surprised that the occasion for it should have been given by a young woman and young man of good qualities, to whose merits and goodness. I have shown favour, although not so much as he deserves, but God knows how great a slander it is, and a time will come when " the world will know it. My life is in the open, and I have so many witnesses that I cannot understand how so bad a judgment can have been formed of me."
She afterwards spoke of the queen of Scotland, praising her beauty, and went on to say that she had heard that she was going to marry our Prince. I laughed, and said that I was told it was more likely to be the king of France. She said no, that was not so, because the queens of France and Scotland were on bad terms respecting a certain affair, and the French had approached her (Elizabeth) with a view to her marrying their King, assuring her that she could do it better, and that it was a more suitable marriage than that which your Majesty contracted with her sister. She, however, had laughed at it, and treated it as a thing not to be spoken of considering their ages.
London, 9th October 1564.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
The Stanley Family Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death. April 8, 2023. “Strange events, of course, occurred at Lathom, according to statements later given under oath.”
Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."
Young William, Lord Herbert, samples the pleasures. February 24, 2023. “...a bookish, melancholic young man, with an addiction to tobacco, only slightly less to the ladies...”
A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."
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.
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