Elizabeth showed the same tact with regard to marriage that she did
with regard to religion. Her first Parliament, realizing that the
welfare of the country depended largely on whom the Queen should
marry, begged her to consider the question of taking a husband. Her
reply was that she had resolved to live and die a maiden queen. When
further pressed, she returned answers that, like the ancient Greek
oracles, might be interpreted either way.
The truth was that Elizabeth saw the difficult of her position better
than any one else. The choice opf her heart at that time would
probably have been Robert Dudley, her "sweet Robin," the handsome but
unscrupulous Earl of Leicester; but, as he called himself a
Protestant, she knew that to take him as consort would be to incur the
enmity of the Catholic powers of Europe. On the other hand, if she
accepted a Catholic, she would inevitably alienate a large and
influential number of her own subjects.
In this delimma she resolved to keep both sides in a state of hopeful
expectation. Philip II of Spain, who had married her sister Mary
(S370), made overtures to Elizabeth. She kept him waiting in
uncertainty until at last his ambassador lost all patience, and
declared that the Queen "was possessed with ten thousand demons."
Later, the Duke of Anjou, a son of Henry II of France, proposed. He
was favorably received, but the country became so alarmed at the
prospect of having a Catholic King, that Stubbs, a Puritan lawyer,
published a coarse and violent pamphlet denouncing the marriage.[2]
For this attack his right hand was cut off; as it fell, says an
eyewitness,[3] he seized his hat with the other hand, and waved it,
shouting, "God save Queen Elizabeth!" That act was an index to the
popular feeling. A majority of the people, whether Catholics or
Protestants, stood by the Crown even when they condemned its policy,
determined, at all hazards, to preserve the unity of the nation. That
spirit of intense loyalty and love of country without regard to creed
or calling found perfect expression in Shakespeare's utterance:
"This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.
. . . . . . . .
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do but rest true."[4]
We shall see that this feeling showed itself still more unmistakably,
when, years later, men of all classes and of widely different
religious views rose to destroy the Armada,--that great fleet which
Spain sent to subjugate the English realm (SS398-401).
[2] Stubbs's pamphlet was entitled "The Discovery of the Gaping Gulf,
wherein England is likely to be swallowed up by another French
marriage, unless the Lords forbid the bans by letting her see the sin
and punishment thereof."
[3] Camden's "Annals," 1581.
[4] Shakespeare's "King John," Act V, scene vii; written after the
defeat of the Armada.