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Alexis Ankuda Professor Patrick English 201 18 April 2009 Elizabeth I: Challenges based on Gender Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 to Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII. She lived as both a princess, and a bastard child. She became Queen on November 17, 1558 when her sister Mary died without bearing an heir. Elizabeth ruled England as Queen for 45 years. She ruled by herself without a husband and was criticized for it. During her reign as Queen, Elizabeth I faced challenges to her authority based on her gender. From the moment she was born, Elizabeth was met with the challenges of her gender. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. (Waller 121) She was Henrys second daughter and was supposed to be the boy Anne had promised. (Waller 121) In lieu of a son, this child was to be heir of England, even though in his heart, Henry could never accept a woman as his successor. (Waller 121-122) Her father was angry that she was a girl and not the boy that everyone thought that she would be. (Ridley 17) In May 1536, when she was almost three years old, her mother Anne Boleyn was arrested, tried and beheaded for adultery. Along with her sister Mary she was declared a bastard two months after her mother was executed. (Ridley 26) Women during the sixteenth century were meant to be governed; they were not supposed to govern. Husbands were the head of the household and women should treat them this way. (McDonald 254) According to the Homily of the State of Matrimony, a widely

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disseminated sermon intended for delivery at the conclusion of the marriage service, St. Paul expresseth it in this form of words: Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord; for the husband is the head of the woman, as Christ is the head of the Church [Ephesians 5:22-23]. (McDonald 260) Every wife was expected to this way of life as it was written in the homily. Fathers married their daughters as a business deal, so that the families could form an alliance. (McDonald 266) The daughter would marry and then raise the children. As a wife, they would help run the business, and at the same time take care of her household duties. Although some women, who had wealth, had servants to help with household duties, very few women were able to lounge around. (McDonald 254) Elizabeth ruled England for forty-five years without a husband. She was well schooled and was very intelligent. She was skilled in many different languages which enabled her to talk to ambassadors and other foreign political figures. She was very inspirational to her people and her army which led to victory over Spain. She had many advisors, and could deal with Parliament when she needed money. All of these values made her one of the greatest monarchs in the history of the English monarchy. According to Robert Dudley, Elizabeth told him when she was eight years old that she was not going to marry because of what happened to her mother, Anne Boleyn, and her step mother, Katherine Howard. (Waller 127-128) Elizabeth used marriage negotiations as a way to form political alliances with other countries. She did not want to be married, but as a woman she was expected to so that her husband would run the country for her. (Levin 43) Although the law of inheritance made her an exception to the rule of masculine supremacy in her public capacity as queen, husbands were the legal heads of families. (King 37) In using marriage for

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political gain, she made friends with foreign leaders. When the council started to ask her to consider marriage, she told them that she was going to remain a virgin. (Ridley 82) As a Virgin Queen, she was greatly praised. Many plays, poems, and songs were written about her because of her new status. (King 43) It is undeniable that Elizabeths retention of virginity constituted a political act and that the celebration of her remoteness from erotic love played an important role during her reign. (King 30-31) She used her status as a Virgin Queen to gain political and religious advantage. By becoming the Virgin Queen, she married herself to England and its people, making her beloved. She stayed the Virgin Queen until her death. Parliament and her Privy Council were constantly trying to marry her off to other countries to form both political and religious alliances. In the sixteenth century it was expected that rulers would marry and royal marriages involved not only providing an heir but bringing to the kingdom honor and perhaps some political and religious advance. (Levine, 43) The political reasons were so that they could form alliances with foreign rulers. She had many foreign suitors as well as English. (Brimacombe 105) They wanted her to marry because it would benefit the country and they wouldnt be ruled by a woman. As soon as Elizabeth had inherited the English throne, both Privy Council and Parliament began urging their new young Queen to marry, not out of any romantic desire to see her happily settled in marital bliss, but to satisfy the more prosaic requirement of a healthy male heir to secure the succession and maintain the Tudor line. (Brimacombe 105) Elizabeth was the only Tudor that was alive and able to bear children, who would assume the throne when she died. Having a child preferably male, would enable the Tudor line to continue, and no

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one would have to worry about who was going to assume the throne when Elizabeth died. (Brimacombe 105) She had many foreign suitors that would have made good alliances, but she refused them all. Her suitors were Philip II of Spain, the Earl of Arran, Archduke Charles, Eric XIV of Sweden, and Francis, Duke of Anjou. (Brimacombe 105) Every time that a marriage was proposed with a foreign ruler, Elizabeth always thought about it and made it so that they would get their hopes up. In the end she would always refuse marriage because she did not want to be governed. Her first suitor was James Hamilton, Earl of Arran. This was set up by Elizabeths father Henry VIII, and James Hamilton, who was the regent of Scotland. (Plowden 26) Unfortunately, the demands her father made were not acceptable terms for Scotland. (Plowden 26-27) Elizabeths father Henry died before the negotiations could be completed. Catherine de Medici, from France, decided to try and marry Elizabeth to her son Francis, Duke of Anjou. (Brimacombe 114) He became the second Duke of Anjou. Elizabeth enjoyed his company, and made everyone believe that she was going to marry him. Everyone believed that after all those years of obstinate and apparently contented spinsterhood she really did genuinely want to marry an ugly little Frenchman more than twenty years her junior. (Plowden 174) This ended in an outcry to end the marriage negotiations. (Brimacombe 114) When her sister Mary was nearing the end of her life, Phillip II of Spain started talking to Elizabeth so that the ties with Spain could continue. Although this would secure an alliance with Spain, Elizabeth was unsure because Philip was a devout Catholic and Elizabeth was Protestant. She also turned him down because it was offensive to marry her sister s husband. She believed

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that it was incest. Her father had married his brothers sister, which ended with a divorce. (Brimacombe 106) Elizabeth was proposed marriage by Eric XIV of Sweden twice. Although he was one of the Protestant suitors, she refused him. When she was a princess, and Mary was Queen, Eric proposed to her directly. They did not ask Marys consent to talk to Elizabeth. This was considered very disrespectful and was not tolerated. This allowed Elizabeth to refuse him with good reason. (Plowden 73) The second time was when she was Queen. Before she made a decision to accept him, she had painter paint a portrait of him. (Brimacombe 107) She did not want to make the same mistake her father did. Henry VIII signed an agreement with Anne of Cleves before seeing her. When he saw her he was very disappointed and had the marriage annulled. Elizabeth did not want a repeat of this. She was disappointed by his appearance. (Brimacombe 107) Duke John of Finland, Erics brother, was sent on his behalf to t ry to convince Elizabeth to accept his proposal. (Brimacombe 107) She still refused him. While she was being courted by Eric of Sweden, she was also in talks with Archduke Charles of Austria. Charles, like Philip II, and Francis of France was a Catholic. As with these other suitors, this was a factor in refusing him. There was also a disagreement between them about who would make the decisions. One of his conditions was that he would take over if she died. This led to the decision to end the marriage talks. (Levin 51) Elizabeth was criticized for having favorites, making it harder for her to be a marriageable Queen. Since she was a woman, she was expected to be chaste until marriage. When rumors started to circulate of her intimacy with Robert Dudley, she was compared to her mother, who was called a whore for causing the divorce of Henry and his first wife Katherine.

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(Ridley 111) This caused the Privy Council and Parliament to urge Elizabeth to marry a foreign ruler. To be in Elizabeths good graces, one had to use flattery. (Plowden 237) This was how Robert Devereux became on of her favorites later in her reign. Elizabeths relationship with Robert Dudley, who she met as a child, made it difficult to keep her virgin status. Elizabeth met Robert as a child. They were very close and often inseparable. In 1558, she created him Master of the Horse. Later he became a member of the Privy Council, to the dismay of the other council members. To try to dispel rumors of an affair, Elizabeth tried to marry him off for political gain. In what some saw as a bizarre twist, in 1564 Elizabeth did propose Dudley as a marriage partner for the then widowed Mary Stuart before the Scottish queen married her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. It was to make a more acceptable suitor that Elizabeth made him Earl of Leicester. (Levin 73) Unfortunately, the marriage did not take place because Mary married her second husband. Elizabeths advisors were worried that she was going to marry Dudley because they were very close. The council was worried because Robert spent time in the Tower with his father and brothers after Jane Grey was Queen for nine days. (Ridley 108) This would have caused problems politically because there were countries where alliances could be formed through marriage. It was said that Lord Robert was the Queens lover, that she had given birth to his illegitimate child, and that he was intending to poison his wife so as to be free to marry the Queen. (Ridley 110) This was just one of the rumors circulating around about them. There were rumors that Robert had his wife murdered, Amy, so that he could marry Elizabeth. She accidently fell down the stairs and broke her neck. The rumors started because all her servants were out of the house leaving her alone, giving anyone a chance to murder her.

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(Ridley 111-112) Although the investigation did not reveal anything against him, he proclaimed his innocence. (Plowden 114) Elizabeth was advised that to marry Robert would prove to be bad for her reputation. (Brimacombe 111) Robert Devereux, Earl of Leicester was Elizabeths last favorite during her later years, when there was less hope that he was going to marry. He was Robert Dudleys stepson and was much younger than Elizabeth. (Plowden 195) She was undoubtedly very fond of Essex rather in the manner of an indulgent aunt with a wild but irresistibly attractive young nephew but it was soon noticed that while the Earl seemed able to get anything for himself including plenty of expensive presents, the Queen would give nothing to his friends. (Plowden 195) Robert wanted more power than Elizabeth would give him, ultimately leading to his downfall. Elizabeths susceptibility to flattery had encouraged Essex to believe he would be able to manipulate her, but this was proving far from being the case. (Waller 238-239) When she sent him to fight in war, he disobeyed her, and fought his own way. (Waller 239) The charismatic Essex was a disruptive and ultimately destructive influence. (Waller 237) He became involved in a conspiracy against her and Robert Cecil. Before the plan was in action, the group was caught. Robert was arrested, tried in court, and beheaded. (Plowden 196) Gods death, my Lord, I will have here one mistress but no master. (Axelrod 135) Although Elizabeth was a woman, she ruled England by herself for forty-five years. She was rumored to have had lovers and illegitimate children. She had many suitors, who her advisors tried to marry her to, but she always ended the negotiations. During her reign, she faced many challenges, overcoming them all, to be one of Englands greatest Monarchs. Works Cited

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Axelrod, Alan. Elizabeth I, CEO strategic lessons from the leader who built an empire. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall P, 2000. Brimacombe, Peter. All the queen's men the world of Elizabeth I. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000. King, John N. "Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen." 1990. Renaissance Society of America. JSTOR. Pace University, New York. 26 Mar. 2009 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2861792>. Levin, Carole. Heart and stomach of a king" Elizabeth I and the politics of sex and power : Carole Levin. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania P, 1994. McDonald, Russ. Bedford companion to Shakespeare an introduction with documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Plowden, Alison. Marriage with my kingdom the courtships of Elizabeth I. New York: Stein and Day, 1977. Ridley, Jasper Godwin. Elizabeth I the shrewdness of virtue. New York, N.Y: Viking, 1988. Waller, Maureen. Sovereign Ladies Sex. Sacrifice and Power--The Six Reigning Queens of England. New York: St. Martin's P, 2007.