The Tudors for Dummies (AvaxHome Download) (30 page)

Claiming Calais

The last English strongholds in France, Calais and Guisnes, had fallen to

the French in Mary's reign, but a lot of Englishmen (and Elizabeth was one

of them!) looked back with nostalgia to when their great-grandfathers had

owned half of France and thought, wouldn't it be nice to get some land back?

England, France and Spain signed the Treaty of Cateau-Cambr�sis on 2 April

1559 after months of negotiations that had started under Mary, bringing an

end to the long conflict between Spain and France. In the treaty both Henri II

of France and Philip II of Spain recognised Elizabeth as queen of England.

They agreed that Calais would stay French for eight years, but in 1567 it was

to go back to England or the French would have to pay a whacking fee for the

land (nobody thought they'd have the money). If this all sounds familiar, it's

because Francis I and Henry VIII struck a similar deal (see Chapter 3).

Feeling uneasy

The new friendship between France and Spain was worrying to Elizabeth

and the Council. Henry VIII's and Edward VI's advisers had kept the Valois�

Habsburg feud going because it kept France and Spain at each other's throats

and England could cash in on that. The prospect of two Catholic powers

cosying up led to the myth of a great Catholic conspiracy, which had knock-

on effects on various plots against Elizabeth (see Chapter 14).

Getting involved in a French squabble

The accidental death of Henri II in a tournament in July 1559 (ironically,

to celebrate Cateau-Cambr�sis) led to chaos in France. The new king

(Francis II) was only 15 and his meddling mother was Catherine de Medici,

who was so unpopular in France that it gave a green light to other families

who believed they had a right to the throne. The gloves were off and three

rival families jostled each other for power � the Guises, the Bourbons and the

Montmorencys. The struggle was heightened by the fact that the Bourbons

were Protestants and the Guises arch-Catholics, determined to stamp out

heresy. The complicated ins and outs of years of French in-fighting didn't

really concern the queen, but with only 21 miles of sea between France and

England, Elizabeth couldn't sit on the sidelines for ever.

The leading light of the Bourbon family was the Prince of Cond� and he was

looking for Protestant allies to help his cause and that of the Huguenots

(Protestants) in France. In 1562 he got help from Robert Dudley, the queen's

favourite you meet in Chapter 12, and the queen sent Henry Sidney (her man

in Ireland; he gets around, doesn't he?) to France to negotiate with Cond�.

Cecil didn't like Elizabeth's decision, but most of the Council did because

here was a chance to get Calais back now. Cond� got �45,000 cash aid plus

4,000 troops under Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, who took over the town

of Le Havre in pledge until Calais could be recovered.

In the fighting that followed the Protestants were beaten all over the place

and the English garrison at Le Havre found itself cut off. When both French

sides came to a peace settlement (with the Guise Catholics getting the better

of the deal), everybody seemed to have forgotten about Le Havre. But by May

1562 Catholic and Protestant Frenchmen united against the English garrison,

and to cap it all, plague broke out in the town. The earl of Warwick had to

surrender Le Havre.

The final upshot � humiliating but inevitable � was that Elizabeth signed the

Treaty of Troyes in April 1564, giving up Calais forever and bringing the cur-

tain down on 300 years of history.

Stirring Things Up with the Stuarts

Mary Stuart Queen of Scots was Elizabeth's nearest relative and her nearest

rival for the throne of England. In 1560 she'd face a double blow, losing both

her husband, Francis II of France, and her mother, Mary of Guise (regent in

Scotland), and would returned home to sit on the throne of Scotland. But the

succession was far from straightforward.

Securing Scotland

Scotland didn't join France (her usual ally) in the war against Spain between

1557 and 1559 because Philip kept the Scots out of the loop and Mary of

Guise, regent in Scotland, couldn't get support from the Scots nobility.

A group of Scottish Protestant lords called the Lords of Congregation of Jesus

Christ rebelled against Mary of Guise and asked Elizabeth for help. That put

the queen in a cleft stick. She was torn between using the request as her

excuse to sort Scotland out and the fact that supporting rebels who were

against their lawful government was a bad idea � it could be her turn next to

face rebellion. 224 Part IV: Ending with Elizabeth

By February 1560 Elizabeth felt she had no choice but to interfere and she

sent a fleet to prevent any more French troops landing in Scotland and sent

Thomas Howard, the duke of Norfolk, across the border with a small army.

Signing a treaty with the Lords of Congregation was a clever move. Elizabeth

claimed to be protector of the liberties of Scotland against the French and this

agreement would only come to an end with the deaths of Francis II, Mary or

Elizabeth. The queen wouldn't repeat the mistake of Henry VIII's reign (see

Chapter 3) of having to fight Scotland as well as France.

After some inconclusive skirmishing in the Scottish Lowlands and an attempt

to capture the town of Leith (which didn't work), Mary of Guise died and rep-

resentatives from both sides signed the Treaty of Edinburgh.

Under the Treaty of Edinburgh:

Mary (then queen of France) was recognised as queen of Scotland in her

absence.

Scotland was now governed by the Lords of Congregation.

The English and French agreed to leave Scotland.

Francis II and Mary stopped using the arms of England in their heraldry.

Mary never actually agreed to this treaty, but the important point was that

Scotland seemed sorted out. The death of Francis, however, meant that Mary

came back to Scotland to step up as the Catholic queen of an increasingly

Protestant country, and that led to problems.

Landing right in the thick of trouble

When Mary arrived in Leith near Edinburgh on 19 August 1561 she came with

princes, courtiers, musicians and a pretty large chunk of the French crown

jewels. Thick fog made her crossing difficult, but it might have saved her life

because her malevolent half-brother, James Stuart, earl of Moray, was waiting

for her in English ships. Moray was determined to run Scotland his way and if

that meant kidnapping Mary, so be it.

The previous year, Scotland had gone through a religious revolution of

its own:

The Scottish Parliament banned the Latin mass and broke with Rome.

The new faith, along the lines of John Calvin in Geneva, was spear-

headed by John Knox, who'd been exiled under Mary Tudor but came

back to Scotland under Elizabeth to lead the Protestant rebels. Chapter 13: Choosing the Middle Way between Protestants and Catholics 225

Despite what looked like a clean sweep on paper, the Protestants were in the

minority, centred around Ayreshire, Fife and Perth in the Lowlands. In the

Highlands, the lawless clans, like the Irish in the Wild Lands, did their own

thing � and that meant remaining Catholic. And in Mary, of course, the country

still had a Catholic monarch.

The 18-year-old Mary had intelligence, wisdom and charm � and she'd need

all that in the years ahead, especially because John Knox was making loud

noises about the unfitness of women to rule (today, he'd probably have

ended up in an institution of some kind).

In Mary Queen of Scots, a far-too-tall Vanessa Redgrave tramps up the beach

in the company of half-brother James, played by a Machiavellian Patrick

McGoohan, while John Knox, flat-capped and wild-bearded, screams at her

from the dunes. In fact, they met indoors in Edinburgh a few days later in

rather more civilised surroundings.

Mary's arrival concerned Elizabeth deeply and it kick-started 25 years of

intrigue against the queen of England.

Wearing the crown, and losing the crown

In Scotland Mary kept her nose clean for four years. She saw herself as the

eventual rightful queen of England despite the Treaty of Edinburgh (see

`Securing Scotland'), which said she wasn't. The Lords of the Scottish Council

(Congregation) asked her opinion on some things but Mary's input was slight.

To hard-bitten Scots politicians, the queen was a lightweight. She'd been

brought up with French manners and attitudes, and many politicians probably

agreed with Knox that she shouldn't have been on the throne in the first place.

Everything would be fine as long as Mary confined her Catholicism to her own

Chapel Royal and didn't interfere with the Kirk, the (now Protestant) Church

of Scotland.

Loving a loser

Subjects expect queens to marry; it's one of their duties. What were Mary's

options?

Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester: Elizabeth put Dudley forward (very

generous of her, considering they were involved; see Chapter 12) and

she may well have given him the Leicester title to make him more

acceptable. Elizabeth's thinking is clear � she wanted the king of

Scotland to be somebody she knew and could control. But Mary didn't

want one of Elizabeth's cast-offs and said no. 226 Part IV: Ending with Elizabeth

Archduke Charles of Austria: He was the Pope's choice.

Don Carlos, son of Philip II: He was weak, vicious and cruel. He'd later

be sentenced to death for plotting to kill his father's courtiers.

If you think you've heard some of these names before, that's because you

have in Chapter 12. Charles and Carlos were in line to hook up with Elizabeth

too � there weren't too many eligible European princes knocking about in

those days!

In the end, everything went pear-shaped because Mary fell in love with Henry

Darnley, son of the earl of Lennox. He had the right credentials, descended as

he was from Henry VIII's sister, Mary, but he was vain, handsome, ambitious

and empty-headed.

In Mary Queen of Scots Darnley is Timothy Dalton (later James Bond) in a very

silly blond wig. He came across as petulant, egotistical and bisexual.

The marriage was made in hell. Mary quickly became pregnant but the couple

had private and public rows over almost everything and eventually Darnley

left her. In a moment of reconciliation, Mary made him the duke of Albany,

but when she refused to give him the crown matrimonial he stormed off again

and even took part in a coup that saw the queen imprisoned (see the nearby

sidebar `Save me, lady, save me!').

`Save me, lady, save me!'

In a particularly low period in Mary and Rizzio, as an Italian and a Catholic, had got too

Darnley's relationship, Darnley was involved close to Mary for the liking of the Protestant

in the murder of Mary's Italian secretary lords, including James Stuart, earl of Moray.

David Rizzio. On 9 March 1566 Mary was His corpse had 60 stab wounds.

having supper with Rizzio in Holyrood Palace

Mary was held prisoner after the coup, but in a

in Edinburgh (the headquarters of the Scottish

scene straight out of a Hollywood epic she got

Parliament today � check it out when you're

Darnley on side again � presumably by using her

north of the border). The queen was six months

womanly wiles � promised everybody involved

pregnant and decidedly alarmed when armed

a pardon and was smuggled out of the palace

men burst in, led by Darnley himself, and

via the crypt with the help of James Hepburn,

plunged their daggers into the Italian as he

earl of Bothwell. The pair rode through the night

clung to her skirts, begging her to save him.

to Dunbar, then Mary sent out a call to arms and

the Rizzio plotters ran to England. Chapter 13: Choosing the Middle Way between Protestants and Catholics 227

Giving birth to the future king

On 16 June 1566 Mary gave birth to a boy, James, in Edinburgh Castle. There

were the by-now familiar rumours of a substitute child replacing the actual

baby born to Mary and of `the coffin in the wall' that was supposed to contain

a baby's skeleton wrapped in a shroud with a royal monogram. But check out

the later portraits of James and Lord Darnley and you'll be in no doubt that

James was the true son.

The importance here, of course, is that baby James was heir to the throne of

Scotland, and as long as Elizabeth had no children, England too. When she

heard the news of Mary's new baby Elizabeth was furious, saying, `The queen

of Scots is lighter by a son and I am of but barren stock.'

Getting rid of Darnley

Darnley was a political liability, with enemies in Scotland from coast to coast.

In the early hours of 10 February 1567 his house at Kirk o'Fields in Edinburgh

was blown up and his and his servant's bodies were found strangled with a

rope in the garden. Darnley was still wearing his nightshirt.

Who did it?

The earl of Bothwell was chief suspect. He married Mary three months

later and some accounts say he raped her and that she lost the twins

she was carrying. Love letters were found later, however, which make

both the rape and the forced marriage seem unlikely.

Mary herself may have been in on the murder � Elizabeth certainly

believed this (but then, she would, wouldn't she?).

Ousting Mary

The Lords of the Council had had enough of their Catholic queen with her

renegade politics and they forced her to abdicate, imprisoning her in the

grim Lochleven Castle. Reluctantly, Mary passed the crown to little James

(just over 1 year old) and agreed that Moray would act as regent for him.

Mary tried to raise an army to get her throne back, but ended up as a refugee

in England (her new husband Bothwell high-tailed it to Denmark for his own

safety). For the next 19 years Mary of Scotland was the prisoner of Elizabeth

of England.

A mutinous Edinburgh mob marched round the streets, chanting, `Hang the

whore!' John Knox, who could have been content with an `I told you it would

all end in tears' went on to compare Mary from his pulpit with those sneaky

ladies of the Old Testament, Jezebel and Delilah. 228 Part IV: Ending with Elizabeth

When Mary arrived in England in August 1568 she didn't get the reception

she'd hoped for. Elizabeth refused to see her � the meeting between them in

Mary Queen of Scots, where Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth) meets Vanessa

Redgrave (Mary) in a wood and Glenda ends up bashing Vanessa with her

riding crop, never happened. Elizabeth rather spitefully sent the refugee

queen some tatty old clothes with darns and mends all over them.

Marrying off Mary

Ignoring the Bothwell marriage, the Council thought it would be a good idea

to marry Mary off as soon as possible to someone they could trust and con-

trol (the good old Tudor policy). Who was in the running?

The Austrians: Part of the Habsburg power fixation.

The Swedes: Gaining reputation in this period as a European power.

Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk: Powerful, popular and a former

Catholic.

With Mary now in England, the Spanish and French ambassadors were

involved and were busy feeding back information to their governments.

Elizabeth was furious once she knew about the proposed Norfolk marriage

and she gave the man a dressing down for his arrogance in September 1569.

The Spanish ambassador backed off, Howard went to sulk on his Norfolk

estates and, as usual, when the queen was in one of her temper tantrums