Royal Panoply by Erickson Carolly

Author:Erickson, Carolly [Erickson, Carolly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780312316433
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2007-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

ELIZABETH I

(1558–1603)

“I KNOW I HAVE THE BODY OF A WEAK AND

FEEBLE WOMAN, BUT I HAVE THE HEART AND

STOMACH OF A KING.”

—ELIZABETH TUDOR

When the newborn Elizabeth Tudor lay in her great cradle of estate, swaddled tightly and watched over by her nurses and rockers, she was the object of widespread gossip. As the news of her birth reached the courts of Europe, she became the most talked-of child in Christendom.

For Elizabeth was the daughter of the infamous woman known as the Great Whore, Anne Boleyn, the fruit of King Henry VIII’s scandalous and unholy second marriage. And instead of being the boy the king had wanted so badly, she was a girl—a sign, so it seemed to Henry’s critics, that God was punishing him.

From her birth in September of 1533 Elizabeth was shrouded in scandal. And before she was three years old, her notoriety darkened when her mother Anne was executed, accused of treason.

Whether or not Elizabeth, as an adult, had any memories of her mother is unknown, but Anne Boleyn overshadowed her daughter’s childhood in countless ways. Perhaps Anne’s primary influence was merely the negative one that she was absent. Young Elizabeth lacked the comfort, security and nurture of a mother’s love and the fierce tenacity of a mother’s protection—something her half-sister Mary had in abundance.

Anne’s disgrace meant that Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, and in fact, even her royal paternity came into question, for King Henry, full of spite against Anne, fostered rumors that Elizabeth was the child of one of Anne’s many lovers. (Mary Tudor always believed that her half-sister resembled Mark Smeaton, a musician and groom of the chamber in the royal household who was executed along with Queen Anne.)

Because he associated Elizabeth with the wife he had loved most and whose alleged betrayal had wounded him most grievously, Henry ignored Elizabeth, rarely visiting her and leaving her upbringing to others. He gave her a large and comfortable household, but denied her his company.

Worst of all, Elizabeth bore the stigma of Anne’s transgressions. It was assumed that she would grow up to resemble Anne, and Anne had been accused, not only of infidelity and promiscuity, but of incest and murder (it was said she had poisoned Queen Catherine), and of conspiring to kill her royal husband. Indeed the catalogue of Anne’s crimes included transgressions so unspeakable that they had never been divulged—but were known to those who sent her to her death. That these terrible things were only hinted at, never disclosed, made Elizabeth’s legacy even more sinister.

Thin and fair-skinned, with her father’s coloring, as a girl Elizabeth had delicate features and eyelashes and eyebrows so light they were nearly invisible, giving her a perpetually startled look. At the age of six she impressed a visitor as possessing “great gravity,” and a precocious maturity. Her self-possession was born of fear, for she had observed what a fearsome thing it was to bring down on herself her father’s wrath. Her half-sister had displeased King Henry, and had been punished

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