Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (27 page)

Margaret Tudor’s second marriage was to the Earl of Angus. Their daughter was Margaret Douglas, and she was therefore second in line. Margaret Douglas had married Matthew Stewart Earl of Lennox, and their sons, Henry Lord Darnley and Charles, were third and fourth in line.

These claimants were all Catholics. The Protestant claimants were the descendants of Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary. Her older daughter Frances Brandon had died in 1559, so this would have led to Frances’s oldest daughter, Lady Jane Grey, being a genuine potential successor. With Jane’s execution, her sisters Catherine and Mary were fifth and sixth in line. Elizabeth did not welcome such a threat, so she kept Catherine and Mary at court under her close watch. Then both sisters married without Elizabeth’s permission; it was the only way, because the Queen would never consent to the Grey sisters getting married. Catherine ‘married’ the son of the former Protector, the Duke of Somerset. They were both sent to the Tower, and as there was no documentary proof of their marriage, their sons were declared illegitimate. Mary Grey married the son of a servant; they were parted, and she was placed under house arrest until her husband died eight years later. Elizabeth had her way; the Grey sisters would never produce legitimate heirs.

In July 1565 Mary Queen of Scots married her cousin, Henry Stewart Lord Darnley. Before long, Mary discovered that Darnley was a drunkard and a violent bully. She took up with her Italian secretary David Rizzio. Darnley would not put up with that, and with assistance from some colleagues he murdered Rizzio in Mary’s presence.

Three months later, Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to a son, James Stuart. Mary used the spelling of the surname she had adopted during her time in France so that it would be pronounced properly by the French. They kept pronouncing Stewart as ‘ste – wart’.

Mary soon found a replacement for Rizzio; it was the Earl of Bothwell. He dealt with Darnley. Having survived the blowing up of the house where he was living, Darnley was found strangled in the garden. Now Mary married Bothwell, but the Scottish lords had had enough of her. They forced Mary to abdicate, and her 13-month-old son was crowned King James VI of Scotland, to be brought up as a Protestant. Mary was imprisoned. She escaped eight months later and fled to England, where she was held in Bolton Castle.

Mary’s presence in England had a destabilising effect. Catholic lords could see a way to topple Elizabeth, marry Mary and take power. They would somehow have to deal with Mary’s husband, Bothwell (who lived until 1578, when he died insane in a Danish prison where he had been chained to a pillar for ten years). Perhaps the marriage could have been declared a nullity as it had been performed according to Protestant rites.

The greatest threat to Elizabeth came from the North, still controlled by the Percys and the Nevilles, the Catholic Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland. They planned to start an insurrection and invite the King of Spain to send an army to aid them. Westmorland’s brother-in-law, Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, would marry Mary, and Elizabeth could be deposed and in all likelihood executed.

When the earls gathered their forces, Elizabeth immediately arranged for Mary Queen of Scots to be brought further south to Coventry. The rebels set out for London, but on learning that Elizabeth’s army was approaching, they took fright and retreated. With the onset of a severe winter, many of the earls’ soldiers deserted, and the leaders fled to Scotland. A force led by Leonard Dacre of the third major northern family did engage Elizabeth’s army, but he was heavily defeated.

As a result, the centuries-old power of the Nevilles and the Percys in the north of England was ended, their lands being confiscated and redistributed. About 750 of the earls’ supporters were executed, and anti-Catholic legislation that would stand for over 200 years was enacted.

Norfolk was taken to the Tower, but he was the most senior English noble and her second cousin, so Elizabeth spared him and sent him to live in the country under house arrest. Yet he was still able to conspire with a Florentine banker called Roberto di Ridolfi to devise another plot, supported by the Pope and Philip, to rescue Mary Queen of Scots with the aid of a Spanish army that would land at Harwich and unite with Norfolk’s forces. The combined armies were to march to London and assassinate Elizabeth, Norfolk would marry Mary and she would take the throne.

It was all so straightforward. But the plot was discovered; Ridolfi’s messenger was seized, and he revealed all under torture. Ridolfi was fortunate enough to be in Paris at the time, and he was able to return to Florence. Norfolk’s luck had run out. This time there would be no leniency; he was beheaded. Yet despite pressure from Parliament, Elizabeth could not bring herself to have Mary executed – she was a queen, and queens were appointed by God.

Throughout these years, the main threat was from Spain. Philip had conquered Portugal, so giving Spain command of the seas, he was acquiring vast territories in the New World and beyond (including the Philippines – named after him), and he still controlled the Netherlands. The only challenge to Spanish supremacy was Francis Drake’s constant plundering of Philip’s treasure-laden vessels returning from the Americas.

Mary Queen of Scots was a more immediate problem, and the longer Elizabeth failed to marry and produce an heir, the more dangerous a problem Mary became. As a Catholic, Mary was championed by the Pope, who absolved Catholics from allegiance to Elizabeth and declared that anyone who assassinated her would go to heaven where treasure would be awaiting him. This turned all Catholics into potential traitors.

It now became urgent to root out actual and potential plotters. As a result, a nationwide spying and intelligence network far ahead of its time was developed by Sir Francis Walsingham, who had already uncovered the Ridolfi Plot. Some did not need spies to catch them. In 1583, John Somerville boasted that he was going to shoot Elizabeth with a pistol and parade the streets with her severed head at the top of a pole. He was arrested, and was later found hanged in his cell. Then Francis Throckmorton devised a scheme under which Mary’s French cousin, the Duke of Guise, would invade with an army, capture and execute Elizabeth and set Mary on the throne. The plot was discovered by Walsingham’s men, and it all came to nothing save for Throckmorton’s execution.

A Welsh doctor, William Parry, became involved with Catholic conspirators when he was sent abroad to spy on them. He revealed everything to Elizabeth, and she rewarded him with a pension and a seat in Parliament. Parry then suggested to Sir Edmund Neville that they should ride up alongside the Queen’s coach and shoot her. Probably he wanted to create another plot so that he could again disclose the plan to Elizabeth and obtain a further reward. He moved too slowly; Neville told Walsingham first, and Parry was hanged.

Flushed with success, Walsingham’s spies and doubleagents kept busy. A Catholic named Gilbert Gifford returned from exile in France, and when he was searched he was found to be carrying a letter of introduction to Mary. Faced with the alternative of death, he agreed to become Walsingham’s man. As instructed, Gifford made contact with the French ambassador and told him that he could arrange for correspondence with Mary to be smuggled in and out of her castle prison in beer barrels. The ambassador fell for it, and the correspondence started. Walsingham allowed the correspondence to continue unobstructed for seven months until at last he intercepted a letter to Mary from Anthony Babington, who became devoted to Mary when he was a page in the service of her former custodian, the Earl of Shrewsbury. The letter set out details of a scheme to assassinate Elizabeth and put Mary on the throne.

Then a letter arrived from Spain confirming that assistance was coming from Philip, whose forces would invade England. Still Walsingham did not act; he wanted more. He allowed the letters to be delivered after having been copied. Walsingham was waiting to see if there was a reply from Mary.

After 18 years of imprisonment, Mary had in effect signed her own death warrant. Yet the crafty Walsingham still held back. He arranged for Mary’s letter to be returned to the beer barrel, but only after a sentence was added in Mary’s handwriting, and that sentence contained a request asking Babington for the names of his associates. Over-excited at the development of his plot, he duly obliged. Now Walsingham acted. Mary was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, and the conspirators were seized and executed. Even though she was not English, Mary was convicted of treason. Yet despite more pressure from Parliament, Elizabeth still hesitated to allow the execution of a queen. Then, after weeks of dithering, Elizabeth found a way to proceed and deny responsibility. She signed the execution warrant, saying that the seal should not be affixed without her further instruction. Fearing that the further instruction would never be given, or perhaps they received a nod and a wink, the Council proceeded.

It was a unique event; a queen executing a queen, a monarch executing her heir. However, it was not without elements of black farce. With Mary’s head on the block, the executioner swung the axe down, but he missed and struck her on the back of the head. The second attempt nearly cut Mary’s head off; a third effort completed the job. As was the custom, the executioner took hold of the severed head by the hair to hold it up to the onlookers, shouting out, “Behold the head of a traitor!”. Unfortunately, Mary was wearing a wig, so the executioner held up the wig as the grey-haired head rolled on the floor. Even then it was not over. All of a sudden, from under Mary’s petticoat her Skye terrier ran out and sat obediently beside his mistress’ head.

Next there was trouble in Europe. With the Spanish having occupied Brussels and Antwerp, the Dutch turned to England for help. An army under the leadership of the Earl of Leicester was despatched, but he was unsuccessful.

Antwerp (the second largest town in Northern Europe) was the centre of all international trade, and it had therefore been England’s main trading port with the world. Now it was closed to English merchants, as was Lisbon and its spice market. So the English were forced to trade directly with distant countries. It was the best thing that ever happened. Trade with Russia (formalised in a treaty between Bloody Mary and Ivan the Terrible) had begun in the previous reign. Now the Barbary Company started to trade with West Africa, the Levant Company with the Ottoman Empire, and William Adams journeyed to Japan, the beginnings of the Dutch East India Company. With the benefit of the crafts of the thousands of Huguenot, Dutch and Walloon refugees, England’s arms stretched out to the world. London became a major international port, and the country prospered.

After the Dutch intervention, the execution of Mary Queen ofScotsandDrake’sattacksonSpanishships,warwithSpain could not be far off. In 1587, Philip decided on invasion. With their new-found confidence, the English would not sit back and wait to be attacked. Drake led a violent assault on Cadiz, sinking 40 Spanish ships, pounding fortresses and destroying supplies. As a result, Philip was forced to postpone the invasion. The delay saw the death of the Admiral of the armada. His replacement was the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a man with absolutely no naval experience.

At last, on 12th July 1588 the
Armada Invencible
(the Invincible Navy) set sail with 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers. Two weeks later, the armada anchored off Calais. Then, before the 30,000 Spanish troops waiting on the coast could board the vessels, the English sent fire-ships to drift blazing into the armada. The only way for the Spanish to avoid the fire-ships was to set out to sea. They had to move quickly, so rather than slowly raising their anchors, the Spaniards cut the anchor cables and set off. The English fleet was waiting for them and engaged the armada, gaining the upper hand and sinking several Spanish vessels. Victory was achieved with the revolutionary tactic of long-range guns with salvo firing, and without making any attempt to go alongside and board the enemy. Not a single English ship was lost.

Sidonia had had enough. With English warships holding the Channel, he decided to sail around the British Isles and back to Spain. During the journey many of his vessels were wrecked in storms off the western coast of Ireland, unable to hold position in sheltered areas as they no longer had their anchors. When he finally reached Spain with his remaining 67 vessels, Sidonia was delirious, thousands of his men had been killed, and many more had died from typhus or scurvy.

It was a great victory. Now the English, despite having one-third the population of Spain, half that of France, knew their power. Protestants everywhere treated it as a sign from God. However, Elizabeth’s joy turned to grief when Leicester died. She locked herself in her room until the door was broken down four days later. Her mood changed when Leicester’s stepson, Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, came to court to seek his fortune. He was the great-grandson of Elizabeth’s aunt, Mary Boleyn.

Although aged 56, and 34 years older than Essex, Elizabeth succumbed to his flattery. She needed her final paramour, for the previous one, Sir Walter Raleigh, had been sent to the Tower for seducing and marrying one of Elizabeth’s maids of honour, and Drake would die of fever whilst unsuccessfully raiding the Spanish Main (the coastline of the Spanish territories bordering the Caribbean Sea).

Yet the fear of assassination was still present. In 1594, the royal physician, Dr Rodrigo Lopez, was accused of trying to poison the Queen. When the Inquisition reached Portugal, Jews were given the choice of converting to Christianity, emigrating but leaving their children behind, or being killed. Lopez chose conversion. Then the Inquisition started to kill converts, claiming that they were not sincere. So, Dr Lopez fled to England where he enjoyed great success, becoming the physician to Leicester, Walsingham and then the Queen. Essex was jealous of Lopez’s popularity with Elizabeth, and he became Lopez’s enemy.