Shakespeare's History by Campbell Lily B.;

Author:Campbell, Lily B.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

By July we find the Bishop of Aquila9 reporting to the Spanish king that the Bishop of Ely, being deprived, “had words with Bacon and told him that if the Queen continued as she had begun to be ruled by those about her, both she and her kingdom would be ruined.”10

In September, 1560, the Spanish ambassador wrote to the Duchess of Parma that Cecil had confided in him his thought of retiring, since “he clearly foresaw the ruin of the realm through Robert's intimacy with the Queen, who surrendered all affairs to him and meant to marry him.” Cecil, according to this writer, earnestly wished Leicester in Paradise, but “ended by saying that Robert was thinking of killing his wife, who was publicly announced to be ill, although she was quite well…” Bishop Quadra thereupon related that the very next day he met the queen, who told him that Leicester's wife was dead or nearly so, and the good bishop added that, whatever happened, nothing could be worse from his point of view than to have Cecil at the head of affairs, “but the outcome of it all might be the imprisonment of the Queen and the proclamation of the earl of Huntingdon as King.”11 In January, 1561, the same ambassador reported that Henry Sidney had seen him concerning the possible use of King Philip's good offices in urging the marriage of Leicester to the queen, in which case he promised that Robert would become vassal to the king of Spain, and he commented on the state of public opinion concerning the death of Robert's wife, noting that even preachers in their pulpits were preaching about it in a way that was prejudicial to the honor of the queen.12

In January, 1578, Sir Francis Knollys, Elizabeth's kinsman, was applying the lessons of Richard's reign, prophesying that Elizabeth would be utterly overthrown if she did not suppress and subject her will and affections to good counsel, for “who woll not rather shrynkingly … play the partes of King Richard the Second's men then to enter into the odious office of crossing of her Majestie's wylle?” He lists the problems that need settlement and warns of the dangers inherent in the uncertain state of affairs, “And then King Richard the Second's men woll flock into courte apace, and woll show themselves in theyr colors.”13

So violent had the scandalous rumors concerning the queen become by 1580–81 that Parliament was moved to enact new and stricter statutes, with graduated penalties of extreme severity for those who spoke ill of her. Finally, in 1584, the scandal-mongering concerning the queen and Leicester came to a head in The Copie of a Leter, wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambridge to his friend in London concerning some talke past of late between two worshipful and grave men about the present state, and some procedings of the Erle of Leycester and his friends in England. The work, attributed to the Jesuit Parsons, was apparently published on the Continent but was eagerly read on both sides of the channel.

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