When Will Mary Die? Who Will Elizabeth Marry?

As Queen Mary I languished, less than a week away from death, the Count Feria reported back to King Philip, her husband, on the scene around Lady Elizabeth at Hatfield. Foremost on the mind of the Spanish King and his ministers was that England not return to the Protestant faith.

Ella es una muger vanisima y aguda : débenle de haber predicado mucho la manera de proceder del rey su padre. Tengo gran miedo que en las cosas de Religion no estará bien; porque la veo inclinada á gobernar por hombres que están tenidos por hereges, y dicenme que las mugeres que andan cabe ella, todas lo son.

She is a very vain and clever woman: she must have been taught a lot about the king, her father's, way of proceeding. I am greatly afraid that in the things of Religion it will not be well; because I see her inclined to govern by men who are considered heretics, and they tell me that all the women who belong to her are as well.1

Feria was right, of course, for all that the rumor was that Elizabeth had received Mary's approval as heir upon express promise to leave the country Catholic. What was certain, as the two spoke, was that Mary had indeed relented and named her half-sister heir.

From there the conversation turned to the likely fate of various members of Mary's court. The details clarify a good deal about the state of the internal politics of England at the time. Next the conversation turned to a subject that would constantly be raised with Elizabeth until the mid-1580s, marriage.

Rióse conmigo de que hubiesen hablado en cosa de casamiento de ella con el Conde de Arundel. Con él, con Pembroke, con el obispo de Ila, no está bien, segun me dijo.

She laughed with me that they had talked about her marrying the Earl of Arundel. With him, with Pembroke, with the bishop of Ila2, it is not right, according to what she told me.

This was followed by a report to the king on the new names that would enter court politics upon the new queen's accession.

Tambien me dicen de algunos otros con quien está muy bien; pero no lo sé della, como lo que he dicho: que son el Conde de Bedfort, Milord Robert, Frachmarthon, uno que andaba siempre con el dicho Conde en la guerra pasada, Pedro Caro Harrington, que fue el gobierno del almirante que degollaron, tio del Rey Eduardo: dicen que es hombre entendido y endiablado, Sisel, que fue secretario de Madama Isabel, este dicen que es hombre entendido y virtuoso, pero hereje.

They also tell me about some others with whom it is very good; but I don't know about her, like what I have said: that they are the Earl of Bedford, My Lord Robert [Dudley], [Nicholas] Throckmorton, one who was always with the said Count in the last war, Pedro Caro Harrington3, who was the government of the admiral who was beheaded, King Edward's uncle (they say that he is a knowledgeable and devilish man), [William] Cecil who was Madam Elizabeth's secretary, who they say is a knowledgeable and virtuous man, but a heretic.

Feria knew his role and he would continue as an agent of Philip during the early years of Elizabeth's reign. All of this information is sure to have been of interest to the king.

Somewhat ironically, it is a letter dated two weeks later, from Brussels, that fills-in the rest of the picture. The Venetian ambassador to the traveling court of King Philip writes to his master, the Doge, that his reports that the queen had died were untrue. Of course, by the time he could make the correction, they'd been true for above a week. Still, the details Surian adds of the details around Lady Elizabeth might be said to complete the picture.

Concerning the affairs of England, the advices of the Queen's death, although received through several channels, were untrue, yet it is well known that she cannot live, and she has received the extreme unction, and (dl, the sacraments of Holy Church; and on the 13th of November, when she became so much worse, after the arrival of the Count de Feria, many personages of the kingdom flocked to the house of " Miladi " Elizabeth, the crowd constantly increasing with great frequency. On this account, and owing to the Count's persuasions and those of her most intimate attendants, and from her own prudence, she was moved to send two gentlemen to that lady, to let her know that, as it had pleased the Lord God to end her days, she was content that she (Elizabeth) as her sister should become Queen, and prayed her to maintain the kingdom and the Catholic religion, in words replete with much affection; to which she sent a most gracious reply by two of her attendants, who visited the Queen in her name, condoling with her on her malady. In the meanwhile the English have purchased all the cloths of silk to be found at Antwerp, and they are preparing to appear with very great pomp at the coronation of the new Queen; and as some days have passed without any advices from England, the last letters of the Count de Feria being dated the 10th (sic), it is believed that the English have placed guards at the passage ports, and do not allow any one to leave the kingdom. The Bishop dell' Aquila departed yesterday, being sent by the King to visit the Queen, who, according to the last advices, was not yet dead, but cannot live long. As to what the Count de Feria is negotiating with regard to the marriage of "Miladi" Elizabeth, I am unable to write anything authentic, but the whole Court is full of the King's intention to have her for himself, as written by me lately.

Brussels, 27th November 1558.⁴

Again, the topic of marriage is on everyone's lips except for Elizabeth's.

1 The Count of Feria to the King. November 13 or 14, 1558. Relations Politiques des Pays-Bas et de L'Angleterre (1882). I.279-282@280.

2This would appear to be a joking reference to the Bishop of Aquila.

3Sir John Harrington.

4Venetian Calendar. vol. vi., pt. iii., 1285. Michiel Surian, Venetian Ambassador with King Philip, to the Doge and Senate. November 27, 1558.

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