“GOOD QUEEN BESS.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5235, 6 February 1928, Page 4

“GOOD QUEEN BESS.”

HER LOVE OF POWER, A CHARACTER STUDY. If Queen, Elizabeth, who earned the title of, the Royal Virago, deserved such a name .it must, be remembered what kind of a mother and father she liad. Henry VIM. had some virtues, else he would never have earned the devotion of men like More, but he was also a coarse and brutal monster. He had six wives in succession, and was sometimes considerate enough to kill one before he took another. Ann Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth, had been Henry’s paramour before 'he married her, and within three months after she was crowned he b.ade her shut her eyes, to unfaithfulness He professed to be jealous of her, and she was brought to the' block ; but no vestige of the evidence now remains. All manner of vile charges werq brought against her, and her own father and uncle were among the judges who condemned her. A DASH OF THE MASCULINE. Anne’s child, the Princess Elizabeth,, grew up with some of her mother’s physical attractiveness and a good dash of masculinity. . Like her father she was strong, resolute, energetic, with a fierce temper, an incl’naticn to cruelty and coarseness, and a passion z for pageants. When she was sixteen years of age Lord Seymour, High Admiral of England, paid her atteption, and the encouragement she gave him led to a public inquiry. Elizabeth’s supposed sympathy with the Protestant cause led Queen Mary to have her imprisoned in the Tower, and though quickly released she was kept under strict surveillance at Woodstock. Her Conformity to Mary’s religion probably saved her life.

At the age of ' twenty-five she became Queen of, England. At that period she was “a bold horsewoman, a good shot, a graceful dancer, a skilled musician, and an accomplished scholar.” Iler tutor, the famous Roger Asham, has left it on record that she ,Was proficient in Latin. Italian, French, and Spanish, and read Greek every day. Her figure is said to have been commanding, her face long but queenly and intelligent, her eyes Ciuick and fine. She had inherited 'her mother’s charm, with more than her mother’s beauty. Her advisers were naturally concerned about finding, her a husband, with a view to providing an heir to thes throne. A queen- will always have an abundance q!f suitors, and Elizabeth was no exception. The list included Lord Seymour, the Earl p& Arran, Philip of Spain, who married Mary, the. King of Sweden, Henry 111. of France, Henry Qf Navarre, the Archduke Charles of Austria, and tha Duke of Alencon. The astonishing revelation furnished by letters still preserved is that, shej (cherished a a strong attachment for the Duke of Alencon, although when' they' first met she was 38 and he 19, and a dwarf, with a face disfigured .by smallpox. Her liking for him continued until, wcrn out-with debauchery, he died in 1584. Her favourite in England was the Earl of Leicester, a handsome but disisclutei fellow who had murdered his first wife, Amy Robsart, deserted his second,. and was somewhat liberal with proposals to poison/ those who crossed him. He had Compromised or corrupted most of the ladies of the Court. Elizabeth would certainly have married him but for the remonstrance of the elder Cecil, her chief adviser. MARRIED TO - THE REALM. As the world kn°ws, she never married, and all kinds, of. reasons have been assigned. Scandal has been busy, and tradition has it that a certain grave at Kenilworth contains, the body of thq daughter of Leicester and Elizabeth, she always claimed the

name of the Virgin Queen, and was clever enough to befool all the men who laid, siege tp' her heart. She never married*, because her love of power swallowed up all other emotions- Fond <sf flattery and of the attentions. of handsome men, she; told them and the commons that she was married to the ‘ realm. Indeed she needed all her wisdom and, one. might say, all her cunninlg, to handle with -any success tjiei problems to which she became heir. When s>he succeeded to the Throne the Treasuiy was empty, and the country was at war with France. Her legitimacy was doubtful. The religious question confronted her, and it must be said she temporised. The coronation 'service was a mixture of old and new., a compromise which made everybody unhappy. She; sotm let it be kn.own that she was not keen .on reforms. Sh.e went to Mass to please one party, and forbade the. elevation of. the Host to please the other. The Po pe regarded her as illegitimate- England had decided to be Protestant, rind she herself had no strong religious convictions. She was the daughter of .her father, and jvas. determined to keep the sovereign at the head of. the Church. She loved ceremonial and gorgeous 'ritual. What was s’ ae to dd ? Her Parliament assured her of the feeling of the English people, so she submitted and accept ed the Prayer Book. After reigning twelve years she W as obliged by cir- cumstances to make a more decided 'St' and. The political situation comP' ailed her. Elizabeth saw political and re- ’ ligious progress of which she did not approve. Parliament was claiming certain privileges which had formerly belonged to the Crown, the right to <L’onsider the succession, church reform, and trade. Wherever possible :she gave; way very tactfully, as in ■the case of monopolies, but her atti- ' tude was that of a person not leading ! a great movement but being dragged J unwillingly along the upward’path. IMPERIOUS TEMPER. She had an imperious temper, and would box the ears of the maids of honour and her Ministers. The Tudor notion of divine right filled her heart and mind, and she told Parliament that her calling them together

was, merely an act of courtesy. The executions she caused show that she had no conception of civil and religious liberty. For a time she persecuted all religions. It was the Tudor wa"', and the, spirit of the age.

As she grew old she became a very lonely woman. A traveller who s,aw her when she was sixty-six said she was very majestic, her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes s;mall, yet black and pleasant ; her nose a little hooked, her lips narrow, and her teeth black. She wore false hair, and that red. Iler hands were small, her fingers long, and her stature neither tall nor low. She wore a white silk dress with a long train. Tli’s vain and self-willed woman, with a thousand dresses in, her wardrobe, and with a wpfciderful faculty for using good round mouth-filling oaths, had lost the; love and reverence of her people, owing largely to the burden of taxation. She hated the thought of death, hunted, danced, “coquetted and frolicked at sixtyseven as she had done at thirty.” She made gorgeous progresses from place to place, transacted business and scolded as of old. Her mqmory failed, her temper grew worse. She had a sword always beside her, and stabbed the tapestry with it. It was an uncomely sight, and she would give no indication about the succession. She died on March 24', 160'3, in her seventieth year. It is easy to say that Elizabeth was patriotic, that she refused, to take sjdqs in religioni, and preferred to reign simply as Queen of Eng]and,,and put national unity before all other considerations. She gave England a high place among foreign Powers, and secured its independence of Spain;, made it a gre.at sea Power, and gave cause to succeeding generations to speak with pride of “the golden days of good Queen Bess,.” But withal she was rather indifferent to Shakespeare,, had no sympathy .with intellectual ami religious developments, which succeeded in spite of her rather than with her help. The thing shei> supremely cared for was the Royal supremacy, and she had her rew'ard—tor what it was worth.