Sunday, March 03, 2024

Rumors of the Queen's Sad Decline: Winter 1602.

At the end of 1602, the people around Queen Elizabeth I were alarmed at various changes she was undergoing. In August she had still been able to ride horseback:

Wednesday night the Queen was not well, but would not be known of it, for the next day she walked abroad in the park, lest any should take notice of it. . . . The day of the remove, Her Majesty rode on horseback all the way, which was ten miles, and also hunted, and whether she was weary or not I leave to your censure.1

An hour of horseback riding, the French ambassador, Count Beaumont, reported back to his boss King Henry IV, in November, exhausted her to the point that she needed days to recover.2

In Beaumont's January 29, 16023 dispatch to his king, we first heard of the persistent pain in the queen's left arm:

By and bye she sat down in a chair, complaining of her left arm, fromwhich she had suffered four or five days…4 

Reference is made to this issue still in December of 1602.

Our queen is troubled with a rheum in her arm, which vexeth her very much....5

At this point, Elizabeth was not sleeping well and was displaying clear signs of deep depression.

One particular letter tends to be excerpted whenever this subject comes up. Lucy Aiken gives it complete in her biography of the queen.

A letter from [Elizabeth's godson,] sir John Harrington[,] to his lady, dated December 27th, 1602, gives the following melancholy picture of the state of his sovereign and benefactress.


Sweet Mall ;

I herewith send thee what I would God none did know, some ill-bodings of the realm and its welfare. Our dear queen, my royal godmother and this state's natural mother, doth now bear some show of human infirmity; too fast, for that evil which we shall get by her death; and too slow, for that good which she shall get by her releasement from pains and misery. Dear Mall, how shall I speak what I have seen or what I have felt? thy good silence in these matters emboldens my pen. For thanks to the sweet god of silence, thy lips do not 'wanton out of discretion's path like the many gossiping dames we could name, who lose their husbands' fast hold in good friends rather than hold fast their own tongues. Now I will trust thee with great assurance ; and whilst thou dost brood over thy young ones in the chamber, thou shalt read the doings of thy grieving mate in the court. I find some less mindful of what they are soon to lose, than of what they may perchance hereafter get: Now, on my own part, I cannot blot from my memory's table the goodness of our sovereign lady to me, even, I will say, before born. Her affection to my mother, who waited in privy chamber, her bettering the state of my father's fortune (which I have, alas, so much worsted), her watchings over my youth, her liking to my free speech and admiration of my little learning and poesy, which I did so much cultivate on her command, have rooted such love, such dutiful remembrance of her princely virtues, that to turn askant from her condition with tearless eyes, would stain and foul the spring and fount of gratitude. It was not many days since I was bidden to her presence; I blessed the happy moment ; and found her in most pitiable state j she bade the archbishop ask me if I had seen Tyrone? I replied with reverence, that I had seen him with the lord deputy; she looked up with much choler and grief in her countenance, and said: O! now it mindeth me that you was one who saw this man elsewhere, and hereat she dropped a tear and smote her bosom; she held in her hand a golden cup, which she often put to 

her lips; but in truth her heart seemeth too full to need more filling. This sight moved me to think of what passed in Ireland; and I trust she did not less think on some who were busier there than myself. She gave me a message to the lord deputy, and bade me come to the chamber at seven o'clock. Hereat some who were about her did marvel, as I do not hold so high place as those she did not choose to do her commands Her majesty inquired of some matters which I had written ; and as she was pleased to note my fanciful brain: I was not unheedful to feed her humour; and read some verses, whereat she smiled once and was pleased to say: 'When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less; I am past my relish for such matters; thou seest my bodily meat doth not suit me well; I have eaten but one ill-tasted cake since yesternight.' She rated most grievously at noon at some one who minded not to bring up certain matters of account: several men have been sent to, and when ready at hand, her highness hath dismissed in anger; but who, dearest Mall, shall say, that 'your highness hath forgotten?'6

What was in the cup history would not seem to know.

Elizabeth's first secretary, Robert Cecil, was trying to present a more positive picture to prevent the growing rumors from destabilizing the kingdom. Already he had long been involved in a secret correspondence with James VI of Scotland, preparing the way for him to accede to the throne. The last thing he needed was to give the impression that he was eagerly awaiting the queen's demise.



1 Chamberlin, Frederick. The Private Character of Queen Elizabeth (1921). 73. Earl of Northumberland to Lord Cobham. August 6, 1602.

2Ibid. 74. November 26, 1602.

3All dates are New Style.

4 Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. “Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador.” Virtual Grub Street. April 3, 2019. Citing “A French Portrait of the Queen”, The Gentleman's Magazine. July—December, 1859. 557. https://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2019/04/1602-queen-elizabeths-heart-and-french.html

5Chamberlin, 74.

6 Aiken, Lucy. Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1819). 488-90.


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