Elizabethan World RL. Primary Sources

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Elizabethan World Primary Sources


Elizabeth Shostak Sonia G. Benson, Contributing Writer Jennifer York Stock, Project Editor

Elizabethan World: Primary Sources Elizabeth Shostak and Sonia G. Benson Project Editor Jennifer York Stock

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Shostak, Elizabeth, 1951– Elizabethan world–primary sources / Elizabeth Shostak; Sonia G. Benson, contributing writer. p. cm. — (Elizabethan world reference library) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-0191-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4144-0191-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-0188-1 (reference library set : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4144-0188-4 (reference library set : alk.paper) 1. Great Britain–History–Elizabeth, 1558-1603–Sources–Juvenile literature. 2. Great Britain– Social life and customs–16th century–Sources–Juvenile literature. 3. Great Britain–Church history–16th century–Sources–Juvenile literature. I. Benson, Sonia. II. Title. DA350.S56 2006 942.05’5–dc22 2006019437

This title is also available as an e-book. ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-1038-8 (set), ISBN-10: 1-4144-1038-7 (set) Contact your Thomson Gale sales representative for ordering information. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

T a b l e o f Co n t e n t s

Reader’s Guide xii Timeline of Events x Words to Know xv Text Credits xxiv Chapter 1: The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage 1

Excerpt from The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage 7 Chapter 2: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women 13

Excerpt from John Knox’s The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women 17 Chapter 3: The Book of Common Prayer 23

Excerpt from The Book of Common Prayer 28 Chapter 4: The Speeches of Elizabeth I 35

Excerpt from ‘‘Queen Elizabeth’s First Speech, Hatfield, November 20, 1558’’ 40 Excerpt from ‘ Elizabeth’s Golden Speech, November 30, 1601’’ 41 Chapter 5: A Sonnet by Elizabeth I 45

Full text of ‘ On Monsieur’s Departure’’ by Queen Elizabeth I 50 Chapter 6: Book of Martyrs 55

Excerpt from John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs 60 Chapter 7: The Schoolmaster 67

Excerpt from The Schoolmaster by Roger Ascham 72 v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 8: Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth I 79

Full text of ‘‘Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth I’’ 82 Chapter 9: Debate on Elizabeth’s Catholic Policies 91

Excerpt from The Execution of Justice in England by William Cecil 95 Excerpt from A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics That Suffer for their Faith both at Home and Abroad; Against the False Seditious, and Slanderour Libel Entitled: The Execution of Justice in England by William Allen 97 Chapter 10: Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh 103

Excerpt from ‘‘The Letters patents, granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Raleigh, now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no more’’ 106 Chapter 11: The Voyages of John White 113

Excerpts from Hakluyt’s Voyages by Richard Hakluyt 117 Chapter 12: Richard II 123

Excerpt from William Shakespeare’s Richard II 128 Chapter 13: The Sonnets of William Shakespeare 137

Full text of Sonnet 18 142 Full text of Sonnet 130 143 Chapter 14: The Faerie Queene 147

Excerpt from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser 151 Chapter 15: Stubbes on Ruffs 161

Excerpt from Philip Stubbes’s ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffes’’ 163 Chapter 16: Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England 169

Excerpt from The Description of England by William Harrison 175 Chapter 17: History of the World 181

Excerpt from History of the World by Walter Raleigh 185 Chapter 18: A Survey of London 191

Excerpt from John Stowe’s A Survey of London 196 Where to Learn More xxix Index xxxiii vi

Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Reader’s Guide

When Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was crowned queen in 1558, England was, compared to other European nations, a poor and backward country. At this time England was deeply divided by religious strife. It was too weak to protect itself from its enemies, lacking a strong military. Furthermore, England had been too beleaguered by its conflicts to participate in the Renaissance, the great artistic and intellectual movement that had swept Europe beginning in the fourteenth century. The people of England must have wondered what the inexperienced twentyfive-year-old queen could possibly do to strengthen her nation. Nonetheless, when people today think of the Elizabethan Era most envision the dazzling, red-headed queen skillfully reigning over a vibrant court lively with music and dance, splendid costumes, and dashing young statesmen, explorers, and artists. Soon after she took the throne, Elizabeth’s moderate religious settlement eased some of the divisions between Protestants and Catholics that had been tearing the nation apart, providing England with a stability that allowed it to grow in many directions. During Elizabeth’s reign commerce flourished. London became one of Europe’s largest and greatest cities. The era produced unparalleled advances drama, and not surprisingly, the Elizabethan Era has become known as the age of Shakespeare in honor of its leading dramatist and poet. There was growth in other spheres as well. As the new middle class developed, public education advanced, and England experienced a higher level of literacy than ever before. This made it possible for people who were not born into the nobility to rise in position. Elizabeth’s reign also marked the beginning of English exploration of the New World. Militarily, Elizabethans restored England to its vii

READER’S GUIDE

place as a major European power. When the Spanish Armada arrived in the English Channel in 1588 hoping to invade England, Elizabeth’s small but highly skilled navy was up to the task of defending the small island from the world’s largest power. The English people celebrated the victory with a new sense of pride in their nationality. Historians differ greatly over how much credit to give Elizabeth for all the advances that occurred during her reign. Many elements of change were clearly already in process. Although we will probably never determine the extent of her contribution, her story has nevertheless fascinated historians worldwide for centuries after her death. The story of Elizabethan England provides valuable insight not only into English history, but also into the transition of Western society into modern times.

Coverage and features Elizabethan World: Primary Sources presents eighteen full or excerpted written works, speeches, and other documents that were influential during the Elizabethan Era. Included are speeches and a poem by Elizabeth I; the Catholic pope’s bull of 1570 directed against the English queen; and an excerpt from the sensational and highly influential Book of Martyrs by John Foxe. Several examples of the literature and journals of the times are featured, including memoirs from the ill-fated settlement in Roanoke, Virginia; an excerpt from Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, a Shakespeare play and two of his sonnets, and much more. Nearly fifty photographs and illustrations, sources for further reading, a timeline, and a list of sources for further reading supplement the volume.

UXL Elizabethan World Reference Library Elizabethan World: Almanac presents an overview of this golden age of English history and the remarkable cultural, political, religious, and economic developments that occurred during the era. The volume’s twelve chapters briefly examine the Tudor monarchy prior to Elizabeth, especially the difficult path from Catholicism to Protestantism beginning in the reign of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, and the tumultuous short reigns of her half brother, the Protestant Edward VI, and half-sister, the Catholic Mary Tudor. The achievements of Queen Elizabeth and her talented group of statesmen, such as William Cecil, Robert Dudley, and Francis Walsingham, are presented, including the religious settlement of 1559 and the conflicts with Scotland, Ireland, viii


READER’S GUIDE

and Spain. Elizabeth’s conflict with Catholics of England and Europe, and some of the conspiracies to overthrow her rule, are also featured. In addition, the Almanac places significant emphasis on the culture of the times, from Elizabeth’s court to the rural pageants, and from the New World explorations to the remarkable flowering of literature and drama for which the era is renowned. Finally, the volume presents a look at Elizabethan daily life, social structures, holidays, and much more. The volume includes nearly sixty photographs and illustrations, a timeline, a glossary, research and activity ideas, and sources for further reading. Elizabethan World: Biographies profiles twenty-six significant figures who participated in the transformation of England during the Elizabethan Era. Included are some of Elizabeth’s favorites, the statesmen to whom she gave great powers and advantages and who helped her run her country, such as Robert Dudley and Robert Devereux; the sea traders and explorers who opened up the New World and other trade routes, including John Hawkins, Francis Drake, and Walter Raleigh; the scientists, philosophers, and educators who brought England’s medieval thinking to new, non-religious inquiry, such as Francis Bacon, Richard Hakluyt, and John Dee. Also featured are the royal opponents of the queen, such as Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and King Philip II of Spain; Catholic and Protestant leaders like William Allen and John Knox; and the great writers of the day, including Christopher Marlowe, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare. The volume includes fifty photographs and illustrations, a timeline, and sources for further reading. A cumulative index of all three volumes in the UXL Elizabethan World Reference Library is also available.

Comments and suggestions We welcome your comments on Elizabethan World: Primary Sources and suggestions for other topics to consider. Please write: Editors, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources, UXL, 27500 Drake Rd. Farmington Hills, Michigan 48331-3535; call toll free: 1-800-877-4253; fax to 248-6998097; or send e-mail via http://www.gale.com.


ix

Timeline of Events

1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the New World between Spain

and Portugal. 1509 Henry VIII takes the English throne. 1512 Nicholaus Copernicus explains his heliocentric theory. October 31, 1517 German monk Martin Luther nails to a church door

his list of ninety-five statements attacking certain Roman Catholic practices. 1520s The Protestant Reformation movement sweeps through major

parts of Europe. 1530s The Catholic Church refuses to grant Henry VIII a divorce from

his first wife. Henry breaks with the church, declares himself head of the church in England, and marries Anne Bolelyn. 1536 John Calvin sets up his Protestant government in Geneva,

Switzerland. 1536–40 Henry VIII closes England’s monasteries. 1545–63 The Catholic Council of Trent holds numerous meetings. 1547 Henry VIII dies and Edward VI takes the English throne, establish-

ing a Protestant kingdom. 1549 The Book of Common Prayer is first published. 1553 Edward VI dies; the Catholic Mary I takes the throne after the ill-

fated nine-day reign of the Protestant Jane Grey. x

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1554 Mary I marries Philip II, heir to the Spanish throne. February 1555 Mary I orders the burning at the stake of English subjects

who refuse to accept Catholicism as their religion; in all three hundred Protestants are burned for their beliefs. 1558 Mary I dies; Elizabeth I takes the throne. 1558 Elizabeth delivers her First Speech as queen at Hatfield. January 14, 1559 Elizabeth I makes her royal entry into the city of

London on the eve of her coronation. The event is described in The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage. 1559 Elizabeth establishes the Anglican Church, or the Church of

England, with Parliament’s approval. 1558 John Knox annonymously publishes The First Blast of the

Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, declaring that women are incapable of rule. 1561 The Catholic Mary Stuart returns from France to take her place as

the queen of a now-Protestant Scotland. 1562 English seaman John Hawkins begins a slave trade between Africa

and the New World. 1562–89 The French Wars of Religion. 1563 Roger Ascham begins writing The Schoolmaster. 1564 Playwright William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon. 1567 The Scottish lords rise up against Mary Stuart for her scandalous

behavior; she gives up the Scottish throne to her infant son and flees to England. 1568–1648 Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Netherlands. 1569 In the Northern Rising, Catholic rebels attempt to place Mary

Stuart on the English throne. 1570 The Catholic Pope Pius V issues his ‘‘Bull Against Elizabeth I’’

proclaiming that Elizabeth is not the rightful queen of England. He encourages English Catholics to rise up against her and to help Mary Stuart take the throne. 1570 The Church of England orders all major churches to obtain a copy

of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

xi

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1571 Elizabeth’s government foils the Ridolfi scheme, in which English

Catholics backed by the Roman Catholic church and Spain attempt to rise up against Elizabeth. 1572 Nicholas Hilliard paints his first portrait miniature of Queen

Elizabeth, establishing a popular English art form. 1572 St. Batholomew’s Day Massacre. 1575 Elizabeth grants a monopoly on printing music to royal musicians

William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. 1576 Actor James Burbage erects England’s first permanent structure

designed specifically for staging plays, calling it simply The Theater. 1577 Explorer Francis Drake sets out on his historic round-the-world

voyage. 1580 The Catholic pope calls for the murder of Elizabeth I. 1580 Philip II of Spain begins to assemble a large naval fleet, the Spanish

Armada. c. 1582 Elizabeth I writes the sonnet ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’

describing her personal sorrow at giving up a romance for the sake of her kingdom. 1583 ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffs’’, an attack on Elizabethan fashion is published

by Philip Stubbes in Anatomie of Abuses. 1584–94 A small group of top professional playwrights arises in London;

they are known as the University Wits. 1584 William Allen writes ‘‘A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of

English Catholics’’ It is a response to William Cecil’s ‘‘The Execution of Justice in England,’’ which defended the execution of Catholic missionaries for treason. 1585 The ill-fated Roanoke, Virginia, colony is directed and financed by

Walter Raleigh after receiving ‘‘The Letters patents, granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh, now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no more.’’ 1586 Elizabeth sends English troops to support the Dutch uprising

against Spain. xii


TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1587 Playwright Christopher Marlowe writes Tamburlaine, the first

English tragedy to effectively use blank verse. 1587 William Harrison publishes The Description of England. 1588 The Spanish Armada sails into the English channel with a mission

to invade England. After major sea fighting between the English and Spanish, storms end the confrontation with heavy losses for the Spanish. August 18, 1588 Elizabeth I gives her famous victory speech at Tilbury. 1588 Thomas Harriot, who was with the expedition to Roanoke, pub-

lishes A Briefe and True Report, the first book in English to describe the Americas. 1590 John White returns to Roanoke to find that the colony has dis-

appeared. The Voyages of John White are described in Hakluyt’s Voyages. 1590 Edmund Spenser publishes the first three books of his epic poem

The Faerie Queene. 1591 Philip Sydney’s sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella is published

after the poet’s death. 1594–97 England’s crops fail due to three seasons in a row of bad

weather; a famine sets in. 1594–1603 England and Ireland fight the Nine Years War. 1598 Historian John Stowe publishes A Survey of London. 1599 Richard II is staged the night before Robert Devereux’s attempted

rebellion. 1600–01 Shakespeare writes Hamlet, which will become the most

frequently performed, read, and discussed play in the English language. 1601 England enacts a stronger version of its poor laws in an attempt to

combat growing poverty. 1601 Elizabeth I delivers her Golden Speech to Parliament. March 24, 1603 Elizabeth I dies after ruling England for forty-five

years. James VI of Scotland takes the throne as James I of England. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

xiii

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1603 Walter Raliegh is imprisoned in the Tower of London. He begins

writing History of the World. 1609 Shakespeare’s famous sonnet sequence, including Sonnet 18 and

Sonnet 130, is published.

xiv


Text Credits

The following is a list of the copyright holders who have granted us permission to reproduce excerpts from primary source documents in Elizabethan World: Primary Sources. Every effort has been made to trace copyright; if omissions have been made, please contact us.

Copyrighted excerpts reproduced from the following books:

Allen, William. From ‘‘A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics,’’ in The Execution of Justice in England by William Cecil and A Modest Defense of English Catholics by William Allen. Edited by Robert M. Kingdon. Cornell University Press, 1965. Copyright # 1965 by the Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Ascham, Roger. From ‘‘The First Book for Youth,’’ in The Schoolmaster (1570) by Roger Ascham. Edited by Lawrence V. Ryan. Cornell University Press, 1967. Copyright # 1967 by the Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Cecil, William. From ‘‘The Execution of Justice in England,’’ in The Execution of Justice in England by William Cecil and A Modest Defense of English Catholics by William Allen. Edited by Robert M. Kingdon. Cornell University Press, 1965. Copyright # 1965 by the Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

xxiv

TEXT CREDITS

Knox, John. From ‘‘The First of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,’’ in The Political Writings of John Knox. Edited by Marvin A. Breslow. Folger Books, 1985. Copyright # 1985 by Associated University Presses, Inc. Reproduced by permission.

From ‘‘Of Ceremonies, Why Some Be Abolished and Some Required,’’ in The Book of Common Prayer 1559: The Elizabethan Prayer Book. Edited by John E. Booty. The University Press of Virginia, 1976. Copyright # 1976 by the Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library

From ‘‘The Preface,’’ in The Book of Common Prayer 1559: The Elizabethan Prayer Book. Edited by John E. Booty. The University Press of Virginia, 1976. Copyright # 1976 by the Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

From ‘‘The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage,’’ in The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage & Related Documents. Edited by Germaine Warkentin. Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2004. # 2004 by the Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.

Raleigh, Walter. From ‘‘That Man Is, As It Were, A Little World: With a Digression Touching Our Morality,’’ in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Edited by M. H. Abrams. W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Copyright # 1986, 1979, 1974, 1962 by W. W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of W. W. Norton & Company.

Shakespeare, William. From The Riverside Shakespeare, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. Copyright # 1974 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Spenser, Edmund. From ‘‘The Faerie Queene,’’ in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Edited by M. H. Abrams. W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Copyright # 1986, 1979, 1974, 1968, 1962 by W. W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of W. W. Norton & Company.

Stubbes, Philip. From http://www.elizabethancostume.net/stubbes. html. Reproduced by permission.


xxv


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The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage Excerpt from The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage

Originally published in 1558 Reprinted in The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage and Related Documents, 2004

‘‘Welcome therefore O Queen . . . / Welcome to joyous tongues, and hearts that will not shrink, / God thee preserve we pray, and wish thee ever well.’’

lizabeth I succeeded to the English throne when her half-sister, Queen Mary I (1516–1558) died on November 17, 1558, after a five-year reign. Although it was a smooth succession (the act of the new monarch taking over for the last monarch), an air of uncertainty loomed over England. Elizabeth had been named Mary’s heir by their father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), but Henry’s questionable marriage to her mother, Anne Boleyn (c. 1504–1536), raised doubts about Elizabeth’s claim to the throne. According to the Catholic Church, Henry was still married to his first wife when Elizabeth was born, making her birth illegitimate. Henry VIII had cut England’s connections with the Catholic Church in Rome, however, and most Protestants ignored any question of legitimacy. If anything, the English people worried more that the heir to the throne was a woman; few of them thought that women were capable of ruling the land.

E

Mary’s reign had been a difficult time for Elizabeth. The queen, who had restored England to Roman Catholicism upon taking the throne in 1553, suspected Elizabeth of being a Protestant, a crime punishable by death by burning at the stake. She also thought Elizabeth had participated in a rebellion. As a result Mary imprisoned her sister for two months in the Tower of London, a fortress on the Thames River in London that was used as a royal residence, treasury, and, most famously, as a prison for the 1

The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage

upper class. Finding no evidence against her prisoner, the queen reluctantly released Elizabeth, but the young princess spent the rest of Mary’s reign fearing for her life and hiding her Protestant beliefs. When the news of Mary’s death was brought to Elizabeth, it is English legend that she fell to her knees and quoted a Latin verse from Psalm 118: ‘‘This is the Lord’s doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes.’’ Elizabeth firmly believed that God had saved her from harm so that she could rule as queen of England. In her royal entry, or passage into the city of London, a part of the coronation ceremony (official crowning as queen), she successfully dispelled the uncertainty of her London subjects by displaying herself as a powerful and magnificent monarch who cared deeply about England and all of its people. Following a time-honored tradition, Elizabeth’s coronation ceremony took place over a four-day period in mid-January 1559. On January 12, Elizabeth traveled by barge from her London palace at Whitehall to the royal apartments at the Tower of London. The next day she performed an elaborate ceremony, making several of her top statesmen Knights of the Bath, a prestigious order of senior military officers and civil servants. On January 14, the eve of the actual coronation ceremony, Elizabeth made her royal entry into London, part of which is described in the excerpt below. The entry not only gave her a chance to present herself to the people of the city, but it also gave the people of London a chance to express to her their hopes for her reign and their good will. This meeting between the people and their sovereign was accomplished through a well-planned, lavish, and theatrical event.

The royal entry On January 14, Elizabeth left the Tower at 2:00 PM to make the four-mile trip, winding through a variety of London neighborhoods to her destination at Westminster. The new queen and her attendants presented a breathtaking spectacle. She was dressed for the royal entry in a robe made of gold and silver cloth trimmed in ermine (an expensive white fur), and covered in gold lace. On her head she wore for the last time her gold cap with the small crown designed for a princess. She rode in a large, open litter (a vehicle designed to be carried by attendants to transport an important person) covered in white satin and trimmed in gold brocade. She was seated on large satin cushions and covered with a white quilt to keep her warm throughout the winter afternoon. Her litter was surrounded by footmen dressed in red velvet; behind her rode Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester; 1532–1588), her Master of Horse and constant 2



The coronation procession of Queen Elizabeth I. T HE G RA NGE R CO LL ECT IO N, N EW Y OR K.

companion. Following Dudley were the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, her Privy Council, the board of advisors that carried out the administrative function of the government in matters of economy, defense, foreign policy, and law and order, and its members served as the queen’s chief advisors. Behind them were one thousand horses outfitted with brilliant red harnesses and bearing her bejeweled and exquisitely dressed courtiers. Elizabeth’s regal parade was met by roaring crowds of Londoners of every social class, all dressed in their best clothes. London was a growing city of about 120,000 people at this time; its population would reach 200,000 by the end of Elizabeth’s reign. Unlike the heavily Catholic areas to the north, the city was highly Protestant, and the Catholic Mary I had not been popular there. The population greeted their new queen eagerly, hoping for change. The city’s aldermen, or members of the city government, had been preparing for the royal entry for two months. Tradition dictated that the city of London present the new queen with a large gift of Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

3


money, as well as poems, songs, token gifts, and small plays and other entertainment along her route. In earlier times there had also been less cultured performances, such as acrobats cavorting atop church spires, but the sober-minded Protestants preferred more enlightening entertainment. For Elizabeth’s entry, the city aldermen had created five pageants, elaborate dramatic presentations depicting important historical and traditional events and conveying a moral message. The first of those five pageants is described in the except from The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage. Elizabeth had accompanied her sister, Mary, upon Mary’s royal entry into the city of London five years earlier. This event had been marked by the presence of many foreign statesmen in the city, foreshadowing Mary’s marriage to the king of Spain and alliance with the Catholic Church in Rome. The Londoners had been displeased with so many foreigners in their midst. In contrast all those attending Elizabeth on her royal entry were English, and the themes the London business people presented to her were all English as well. Both queen and her people enjoyed the pride of nationalism (love of one’s country) that would mark Elizabeth’s reign. Though most of the city government and merchants took part in the displays presented to the queen, it is believed that the printer and historian Richard Grafton (c. 1513–1573) was responsible for overseeing the plays that were presented to her and that the schoolteacher Richard Mulcaster (c. 1530–1611) was responsible for writing most of the verses and for writing the pamphlet The Queenes maiesties passage through the citie of London to Westminster the day before her coronacion. Richard Tottel (c. 1525–1594) was the printer who issued the pamphlet, which was published and distributed throughout England a week after the event. This was England’s first published account of a royal entry. It is considered a brilliant example of public relations or propaganda work, designed to advance the image of the queen as an ideal and natural monarch. Nevertheless, its description of the events has been confirmed by several other reliable accounts. Historians have noted that Elizabeth’s royal entry was like a theatrical event in which both the queen and her subjects played dramatic roles. The author of The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage described it in these terms: ‘‘If a man should say well, he could not better term the City of London that time, than a stage wherein was showed the wonderful spectacle of a noblehearted princess toward her most loving people and the people’s exceeding comfort beholding so worthy a sovereign and hearing so princelike a voice.’’ 4



Things to remember while reading The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage:

The queen’s title. Note that the authors refer to Elizabeth as the ‘‘sovereign Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the faith, etc.’’ Though already queen, Elizabeth is still the ‘‘Lady Elizabeth’’ until her coronation the next day; this title shows the in-between nature of the day of royal entry, with Elizabeth passing from princess to queen. She is called queen of France simply because all kings and queens of England had included France among the countries they ruled since 1328, when an English king had claimed the throne of France. The title was misleading since England had lost Calais, the last territory it had ruled in France, during Mary’s reign. Though Ireland was governed separately

Elizabeth I’s grandparents were Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. # S TA PLE TO N CO LLE CT ION /C OR BIS . Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

5


from England, Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, persuaded the Irish Parliament to name him King of Ireland in 1542; this would remain part of the English monarch’s title until 1801. ‘‘Defender of the faith’’ in Elizabeth’s title is interesting on this day, since the English public had received no word stating which faith, Catholic or Protestant, she would defend. All of England was waiting to see if Elizabeth would sever England’s connection to the Roman Catholic Church and institute the Protestant religion nationwide.

6

The pageant: Elizabeth’s grandparents. In the excerpt Elizabeth leaves the Tower of London to ride to her first stop, Fenchurch Street, where a child presents her with a poem welcoming her to the city with the blessings of the people of London. She then rides on to the first of the five pageants, The uniting of the two houses of Lancaster and York, which depicts her royal lineage (family history). Seated on the first tier of the pageant are her grandparents, Henry VII (1407–1509; reigned 1485–1509) and Elizabeth of York (1466–1503). Prior to the rule of Henry VII, England had been caught up in a thirty-year civil war called the War of the Roses, in which two families, the Lancasters and the Yorks, claimed the English throne. During the War of the Roses, the Lancaster family was represented by a red rose and the York family by a white rose. Henry, a Lancaster, won the throne in 1485, but his claim was weak. He strengthened that claim by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of a deceased York king. Their heir thus had a solid claim to the throne stemming from both families.

The pageant: Elizabeth’s parents. Roses spring from the wedding ring of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and lead up to the second tier of the display. There Elizabeth’s parents, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, sit as the king and queen of England. Henry wears the crown imperial, a special crown with two closed arches that signifies Henry is the ruler of an independent empire, particularly signaling that England is not part of the alliance with the Catholic Church in Rome. Showing Henry with Anne Boleyn was a dramatic step for the London pageant. Anne Boleyn had remained a controversial figure throughout history and during Mary’s reign her name was thoroughly dishonored. Boleyn, though, had been an early Protestant reformer, so the Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


people of London opted to restore her memory as a legitimate queen. This provided Elizabeth with a clear and legitimate royal lineage.

The meaning of the pageant. As Elizabeth beholds this pageant from her litter, its meaning is explained to her by a child: Just as her grandmother, Elizabeth of York, had brought unity to England by solidifying the succession to the throne, so Elizabeth I, her namesake, will unify the land and heal the divisions among the English people.

The Queenes maiestes passage through the citie of London to Westminster the day before her coronacion. Anno 1558. Upon Saturday, which was the fourteenth day of January in the year of our Lord God 1558, about two of the clock in the afternoon, the most noble and Christian princess, our most dread sovereign Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the faith, etc., marched from the Tower to pass through the city of London toward Westminster, richly furnished and most honorably accompanied as well with gentlemen, barons, and other [of] the nobility of this realm, as also with a notable train of goodly and beautiful ladies richly appointed [dressed]. And [Elizabeth, upon] entering the city was of the people received marvelously entirely, as appeared by the assembly, prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, tender words and all other signs, which argue a wonderful earnest love of most obedient subjects toward their sovereign. And on the other side, her Grace [Elizabeth], by holding up her hands and merry countenance to such as stood far off, and most tender and gentle language to those that stood nigh [near] to her Grace, did declare herself no less thankfully to receive her people’s good will than they lovingly offered it unto her. To all that wished her Grace well, she gave hearty thanks, and to such as bade ‘God save her Grace,’ she said again ‘God save them all,’ and thanked them with all her heart. So that on either side there was nothing but gladness, nothing but prayer, nothing but comfort. . . . Thus therefore the Queen’s Majesty passed from the Tower till she came to Fenchurch, the people on each side joyously beholding the view of so gracious a Lady their Queen, and her Grace no less gladly noting and observing the same. Near to Fenchurch was erected a scaffold richly furnished whereon stood a noise of instruments and a child in costly apparel, which was appointed to welcome the Queen’s Majesty in the Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Dread: Respected.

Marvelously entirely: Enthusiastically.

Countenance: Expression.

Scaffold: Raised platform. Noise: Small band.

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The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage Against which place: When she came alongside the scaffold. Appeased: Stopped. Metre: Meter; pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

city’s behalf. Against which place when her Grace came, of her own will she commanded the chariot [her litter] to be stayed, and that the noise might be appeased till the child had uttered his welcoming oration, which he spoke in English metre [as] here followeth: O peerless and sovereign Queen, behold what is thy town Hath thee presented with at they first entrance here: Behold how rich hope she leadeth thee to thy crown Behold with what two gifts she comforteth thy cheer. The first is blessing tongues, which many a welcome say Which pray thou mayest do well, which praise thee to the sky Which wish thee long life, which bless this happy day Which to thy kingdom heaps, all that in tongues can lie. The second is true hearts, which love thee from their root Whose suit is triumph now, and ruleth all the game. Which faithfulness have won, and all untruth delved out [uncovered], Which skip for joy, whenas they hear they happy name. Welcome therefore O Queen, as much as heart can think, Welcome again O Queen, as much as tongue can tell: Welcome to joyous tongues, and hearts that will not shrink, God thee preserve we pray, and wish thee ever well. At which words of the last line the whole people gave a great shout, wishing with one assent as the child had said. . . . Now when the child had pronounced his oration, and the Queen’s highness so thankfully had received it, she marched forward towards Gracious Street, where at the upper end, before the sign of the Eagle [the sign of a neighborhood tavern], the city had erected a gorgeous and sumptuous arch, as here followeth:

Battlements: Walled-in areas atop a wall for defense or decoration. Three several stages in degrees: Three separate stages rising upward in a series. Cloth of estate: Royal canopy. Appertaineth: Is appropriate.

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A stage was made which extended from the one side of the street to the other, richly vaulted [arched] with battlements containing three portes [doors], and over the middlemost was advanced three several stages in degrees. Upon the lowest stage was made one seat royal [throne], wherein were placed two personages representing King Henry the seventh and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of King Edward the fourth, either of these two princes sitting under one cloth of estate in their seats, not otherwise divided, but that the one of them which was King Henry the seventh, proceeding out of the house of Lancaster, was enclosed in a red rose, and the other which was Queen Elizabeth, being heir to the house of York, enclosed with a white rose, each of them royally crowned and decently appareled as appertaineth to princes, with scepters in their hands, and one vault surmounting their Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


heads, wherein aptly were placed two tables, each containing the title of those two princes. And these personages were so set that the one of them joined hands with the other, with the ring of matrimony perceived on the finger. Out of the which two roses sprang, two branches gathered into one, which were directed upward to the second stage or degree wherein was placed one representing the valiant and noble prince King Henry the eighth, which sprang out of the former stock, crowned with a crown imperial, and by him sat one representing the right worthy Lady Queen Anne, wife to the said King Henry the eighth and mother to our most sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth that now is, both appareled with scepters and diadems [crowns] and other furniture due to the estates of a king and queen, and two tables surmounting their heads wherein were written their names and titles. From their seat also proceeded upwards one branch directed to the third and uppermost stage or degree, wherein likewise was planted a seat royal, in the which was set one representing the Queen’s most excellent Majesty Elizabeth now our most dread sovereign Lady, crowned and appareled as the other princes were. Out of the forepart of this pageant was made a standing for a child, which at the Queen’s Majesty’s coming declared unto her the whole meaning of the said pageant. The two sides of the same were filled with loud noises of music. And all empty places thereof were furnished with sentences concerning unity. And the whole pageant was garnished with red roses and white, and in the forefront of the same pageant in a fair wreath was written the name and title of the same, which was The Uniting of the Two Houses of Lancaster and York. This pageant was grounded upon the Queen’s Majesty’s name. For like as the long war between the two houses of York and Lancaster then ended when Elizabeth, the daughter to Edward the fourth, matched in marriage with Henry the seventh heir to the house of Lancaster, so since the Queen’s Majesty’s name is Elizabeth and for so much as she is the only heir of Henry VIII, which came of both the houses as the knitting up of concord, it was devised that like as Elizabeth was the first occasion of concord, so she, another Elizabeth, might maintain the same among her subjects, so that unity was the end whereat the whole device shot.

Furniture: Equipment or clothing.

Standing: Platform.

Whereat the whole device shot: Which was the intention of the pageant.

What happened next . . . Elizabeth viewed four more pageants during her royal entry. In one of the pageants Truth was represented as a woman carrying a Bible translated into the English language. One of the serious divisions between the Protestants and Catholics at that time was the Protestant belief that Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Elizabeth I in her coronation robes. # FI NE A RT P HO TOG RA PHI C LI BR AR Y/ C OR BI S.

individuals should study the Bible directly as the word of God; Catholics believed it was the Church’s role to interpret the truth for the people. When Elizabeth saw the English language Bible in the pageant, she eagerly reached out for it and kissed it, demonstrating her intentions to lead a Protestant church. During her entry Elizabeth was presented with a large, customary gift of gold from the people of the city of London. The queen responded to the gift and the city’s welcome, according to the pamphlet: ‘‘I thank the 10



lord mayor, his brethren, and you all. And whereas your request is that I should continue your good lady and Queen, be ye ensured that I will be as good unto you as ever Queen was to her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I trust shall there lack any power. And persuade yourselves that for the safety and quietness of you all, I will not spare, if need be, to spend my blood.’’ Her words were met with an outpouring of joy from the spectators. An instant and long-lasting bond was created between Elizabeth and the people of London that day. Elizabeth had both the style and the charisma (strong charm) to captivate her subjects. Obtaining the love of her people was very important to Elizabeth, and she excelled at it. Historian Sir John Hayward (c. 1564–1627) would later describe the queen in action amongst her subjects: If ever any person had either the gift or the style to win the hearts of the people, it was this Queen. All her faculties were in motion, and every motion seemed a well-guided action; her eye was set upon one, her ear listened to another, her judgment ran upon a third, to a fourth she addressed her speech; her spirit seemed to be everywhere. Some she pitied, some she commended, some she thanked, at others she pleasantly and wittily jested, condemning no person, neglecting no office, and distributing her smiles, looks, and graces so artfully that thereupon the people again redoubled the testimony of their joys [expressed even more enthusiasm], and afterwards, raising everything to the highest strain, filled the ears of all men with immoderate extolling [praising] of their prince.

Did you know . . .

January 15, 1559, the day of Elizabeth’s coronation, was chosen by a brilliant mathematician and astrologer, John Dee (1527– 1609). Astrology is the study of the position of stars and planets in the belief that they influence human affairs and events on Earth. Elizabeth was intrigued by astrology, and she was so impressed with Dee that she asked him to give her lessons in astrology. She consulted with him on many important matters during her reign.

November 17, the day Mary I died and Elizabeth I inherited the throne, became a national day of thanksgiving in England. It was celebrated by festivals, tournaments, and feasting well into the eighteenth century. The holiday was a time for people to celebrate


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their pride in the rise of England as a world power and cultural center; Elizabeth I, often called Gloriana, was the symbol of this pride.

Consider the following . . .

Not all kings and queens of England bothered to make themselves personally available to their subjects as Elizabeth did. Why do you think Elizabeth found it so important to reach out to the English public as she prepared to take the throne?

Though the royal treasury was short of funds when she became queen, Elizabeth spent a fortune to make sure her procession through London was a magnificent, luxurious spectacle. Why was such extravagance so important at this time?

For More Information BOOKS

Picard, Liza. Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003. The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage and Related Documents. Edited, Modernized, and with an Introduction by Germaine Wakentin. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2004. Schama, Simon. A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 BCE –1603 CE New York: Hyperion, 2000. Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. WEB SIT ES

Secara, Maggie. ‘‘Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge, 1558–1603; Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writers, Actors, and Re-enactors.’’ 8th ed. http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/ home.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Thomas, Heather. ‘‘Queen Elizabeth I.’’ Rulers of England. http:// www.elizabethi.org/uk/ (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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2

The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women Excerpt from The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women

By John Knox Reprinted in The Political Writings of John Knox, 1985

‘‘It is a thing most repugnant to nature that women rule and govern over men.’’

he 1500s witnessed a growing demand for religious reform in Europe. The Roman Catholic Church, which was inseparable from government, was increasingly seen as corrupt. It controlled vast wealth, and its priests and bishops often failed to practice the Christian virtues that they preached. Many clergy lived in luxury while ordinary people struggled to feed themselves. Though their religious vows required them to abstain from sex, many priests and bishops kept mistresses and fathered children. And clergy were often criticized for failing to minister properly to their congregations. In 1517 Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German monk, publicly challenged several Roman Catholic practices, including the sale of indulgences—a type of waiver from punishment for sins. By 1530 Luther’s calls for reform had attracted a large and influential following. His writings, as well as those of other German reformers, began to reach religious leaders in other parts of Europe, including England and Scotland, and helped start the Protestant Reformation, a sixteenthcentury religious movement that aimed to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of Protestant churches.

T

John Knox (c. 1513–1572), leader of the Reformation in Scotland, had been born and raised a Catholic but turned to Protestantism in the 1540s. It was no easy matter to reject Catholicism. Those who challenged official church doctrines, as Protestants did, were considered heretics, and 13

The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women

The execution of George Wishart. # TH E BR IT IS H LI BRA RY /H IP/ TH E IM AG E WO RK S.

heresy was one of the most serious crimes imaginable. (Heresy is a religious opinion that conflicts with the church’s doctrines.) In Scotland, as elsewhere in Europe, the penalty was death by burning at the stake. Yet Protestant teachings attracted considerable interest in Scotland. England, its more powerful neighbor to the south, had broken ties with 14



Catholicism in the 1530s when Henry VIII (1491–1547) declared himself the official head of the church in England. Many Catholics refused to acknowledge Henry’s religious authority, but several powerful nobles supported the Protestant cause. In Scotland, too, Protestant lords had much political power. But Scotland also feared England’s military might, and had forged an alliance with Catholic France to protect itself from a military takeover. The Scottish king, James V (1512–1542), had married a French Catholic noble, Mary of Guise (1515–1560), and after James’s death she ruled the kingdom as regent on behalf of their infant daughter, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587). Scottish Catholics, therefore, were seen as loyal to the crown, while Scottish Protestants were viewed as supporters of England. Knox fully believed that his calls for religious reform were necessary and required by God. But the Scottish government worried about Protestant threats to its power, and it condemned Protestant teachings. In 1545 Scotland executed preacher George Wishart (1513–1545) for heresy; he was strangled and burned at the stake. Knox had been one of Wishart’s close followers, and had fought to defend Wishart against government forces. In 1553 Mary I (1516–1558) became queen of England, and she immediately took steps to restore Catholicism as the country’s official religion. Knox, who had been living in England, feared for his life and fled to Europe. In 1555 Mary began vigorously enforcing heresy laws against Protestants. Leading Protestant priests and bishops—among them some of Knox’s close friends and associates—were arrested, thrown into prison, and burned at the stake. At first only the leaders were targeted, but over the course of about three years, Mary’s government burned approximately three hundred people from all walks of life—including uneducated peasants and artisans, women and men, elderly and teenagers. Knox and other English Protestant exiles heard of these events with growing despair. Knox saw this brutal persecution of Protestants as the result of women’s power. In Scotland, Mary of Guise’s government had ordered Wishart’s death. But the suffering was much worse in England, where Mary I was relentlessly persecuting Protestants and sentencing them to be burned at the stake. The root of this evil, then, was women’s rule. In Knox’s view, women had seized authority that, according to the natural order of things, should belong to men. He considered it his duty not only to expose this terrible wrong, but also to urge his followers to correct the situation. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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John Knox. H ULT ON A RC HIV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

In 1558 Knox anonymously published The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In it he denounced the rule of women as against the natural order of the world. He used strong language to describe women as foolish, vain, sinful, weak, cruel, and irrational. He conveyed profound disgust at the idea that such ‘‘creatures’’ should be given authority to govern. The pamphlet specifically targeted Queen Mary, and called on the English to overthrow her. He stated that Mary’s rule was England’s punishment for having allowed her to take the throne, and he warned that the English must prove their repentance by removing her from power. At a time when the authority of legitimate rulers was unquestioned by the common people, Knox shocked Catholics and Protestants by urging nothing less than revolution. 16



Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women:

Obedience to legitimate authority was the foundation of the social order in sixteenth-century Europe. The idea that ordinary people might have the right to overthrow a ruler was unheard of at this time.

Knox’s argument is that women are, by nature, inferior to men. This was not an unusual opinion for its time. Indeed, it was not until the twentieth century that the equality of women began to gain wide acceptance.

To support his argument, Knox draws on the creation story in the Bible. In this story God first creates man, Adam, and gives him authority over all creation. Woman, Eve, is created as a companion for Adam, but is not given the same authority. Protestants support a literal interpretation of the Bible, and so Adam is considered superior to Eve, with God-given authority to rule.

Knox also refers to the Christian concept of Original Sin. When Adam and Eve are first created they are completely without sin. But a serpent convinces Eve that she and Adam should disobey God, who had forbidden them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Eve, in turn, convinces Adam to disobey God’s command. This disobedience is the Original Sin. For this sin, Adam and Eve are each punished. Eve’s punishment is the pain of childbirth and the dominance of her husband. In Knox’s view this means that God intends women to be ruled by men and therefore cannot rule a nation.

The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion [control], or empire above any realm, nation, or city is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious [contrary] to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and, finally, it is the subversion [ruin] of good order, of all equity and justice. . . .

Contumely: Disrespectful. Ordinance: Authoritative command.

And first, where that I affirm the empire of a woman to be a thing repugnant to nature, I mean not only that God by the order of his creation Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Manifest: Clearly apparent; obvious. Impotent: Powerless. Frenetic: Wildly excited.

hath spoiled woman of authority and dominion, but also that man hath seen, proved, and pronounced just [fair] causes why that it so should be. Man, I say, in many other cases blind, doth in this behalf see very clearly, for the causes be so manifest that they cannot be hid. For who can deny but it repugneth [opposes] to nature that the blind shall be appointed to lead and conduct such as do see, that the weak, the sick and impotent persons, shall nourish and keep the whole and strong, and, finally, that the foolish, mad, and frenetic shall govern the discrete and give counsel to such as be sober of mind? And such be all women compared unto man in bearing of authority. For their sight in civil regiment is but blindness, their counsel foolishness, and judgment frenzy, if it be rightly considered. I except such as God, by singular privilege and for certain causes known only to himself, hath exempted from the common rank of women, and do speak of women as nature and experience do this day declare them. Nature, I say, doth paint them forth to be weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish, and experience hath declared them to be unconstant, variable, cruel, and lacking the spirit of counsel and regiment. And these notable faults have men in all ages espied in that kind, for the which not only they have removed women from rule and authority, but also some have thought that men subject to the counsel or empire of their wives were unworthy of all public office. . . .

Inordinate: Exceeding reasonable limits. Adduce: Cite as an example.

Would to God the examples were not so manifest. To the further declaration of the imperfections of women, of their natural weakness and inordinate appetites, I might adduce histories proving some women to have died for sudden joy, some for unpatience to have murdered themselves; some to have burned with such inordinate lust that, for the quenching of the same, they have betrayed to strangers their country and city; and some to have been so desirous of dominion that, for the obtaining of the same, they have murdered the children of their own sons. Yea, and some have killed with cruelty their own husbands and children. But to me it is sufficient (because this part of nature is not my most sure foundation) to have proved that men, illuminated only by the light of nature, have seen and have determined that it is a thing most repugnant to nature that women rule and govern over men. For those that will not permit a woman to have power over her own sons will not permit her, I am assured, to have rule over a realm; and those that will not suffer her to speak in defense of those that be accused, neither that will admit her accusation intended against man, will not approve her that she shall sit in judgment, crowned with royal crown, usurping [siezing] authority in the midst of men. But now to the second part of nature, in the which I include the revealed will and perfect ordinance of God; and against this part of nature, I say that it doth manifestly repugn [oppose] that any woman shall reign or bear

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dominion over man. For God, first by the order of his creation and after by the curse and malediction [curse] pronounced against the woman by the reason of her rebellion, hath pronounced the contrary. First, I say that woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man, not to rule and command him. As St. Paul doth reason in these words: ‘‘Man is not of the woman but the woman of the man. And man was not created for the cause of the woman, but the woman for the cause of man, and therefore ought the woman to have a power upon her head’’ (that is, a coverture [covering] in sign of subjection). Of which words it is plain that the Apostle meaneth that woman in her greatest perfection should have known that man was lord above her, and therefore, that she should never have pretended any kind of superiority above him no more than do the angels above God the creator or above Christ Jesus their head. So, I say that in her greatest perfection woman was created to be subject to man. But after her fall and rebellion committed against God there was put upon her a new necessity, and she was made subject to man by the irrevocable sentence of God pronounced in these words: ‘‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. With sorrow shalt thou bear thy children, and thy will shall be subject to thy man, and he shall bear dominion over thee.’’ Hereby may such as altogether be not blinded plainly see that God by his sentence hath dejected all woman from empire and dominion above man. For two punishments are laid upon her, to wit, a dolor [sadness], anguish, pain as oft as ever shall be mother, and a subjection of herself, her appetites and will, to her husband and to his will. From the former part of the malediction can neither art, nobility, policy, nor law made by man deliver womankind; but whosoever attaineth to that honor to be mother proveth in experience the effect and strength of God’s word.

Subject: Under the authority of another.

Irrevocable: Impossible to retract or undo.

But, alas, ignorance of God, ambition, and tyranny have studied to abolish and destroy the second part of God’s punishment, for women are lifted up to be heads over realms and to rule above men at their pleasure and appetites. . . .

What happened next . . . Knox followed The First Blast with four additional publications. In a letter to Mary of Guise, he demanded that she reform the church in Scotland or else face God’s punishment. He followed this with an appeal to the Scottish bishops, stating his belief that the clergy and the nobles should insist that the monarch follow the true religion; if the monarch refused, they had the right and the duty to rebel. A third letter addressed Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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the ‘‘Commonality of Scotland,’’ urging ordinary people to take matters into their own hands if the clergy and the nobility refused to overthrow a monarch who rejected the true religion. Finally, Knox wrote an outline for his proposed ‘‘Second Blast of the Trumpet,’’ in which he acknowledged his authorship of the The First Blast. This outline added four further propositions: that a king’s right to rule a Christian people comes not only from his birth, but from God; that no idolator (someone who worships idols, or religious icons) should be allowed to hold office in a Christian kingdom; that subjects cannot be required to obey rulers who reject the true religion; and that, if people have chosen a ruler who rejects the true religion, they have the right to remove and punish that ruler. The English government quickly denounced The First Blast, and in June 1558 Mary I issued a royal proclamation banning heretical and treasonous writings from abroad. It stated that anyone possessing such writings should burn them immediately or risk being executed. Many Protestants also disapproved of Knox’s anti-government argument, and dissociated themselves from it. John Aylmer (1521–1594), leader of English Protestant exiles in Europe, published a response to The First Blast in 1559. As quoted in Jasper Ridley’s John Knox, it criticized the reformer for undermining the civil order by having ‘‘almost cracked the duty of true obedience.’’ Shortly after Knox published The First Blast, Mary I died and was succeeded by a Protestant, Elizabeth I (1533–1603). This presented a dilemma for Knox, for he did not wish to antagonize a ruler who was a fellow Protestant. He declared that he would be willing to accept her as queen if she acknowledged that she ruled through God’s appointment alone, not through the laws of men. This did nothing to lessen her anger at the views expressed in The First Blast. Her secretary of state, William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598), complained about the pamphlet to Protestant leader John Calvin (1509–1564) in Geneva, Switzerland, who assured Cecil that Knox had published it without his approval. Elizabeth remained so displeased by The First Blast that she refused to grant Knox a passport to travel through England in 1559. Though Knox did not take part in active rebellions against the government in Scotland, The First Blast established an argument that justified such actions. Thus, it set the stage for armed revolts in Scotland and, later, in France and the Netherlands. The result of these religious wars confirmed Protestant control of the governments in England, Scotland, and much of western Europe. 20



Did you know . . .

Mary I was not the first woman to inherit the throne in England. Henry I (1068–1135) named his daughter, Matilda (1101–1169), as his lawful successor and persuaded the English nobles to accept her as his heir. They agreed, but changed their minds after he died; Matilda fought for her right to the kingdom, but was defeated.

Female rule had not been unknown in European kingdoms before Knox’s time. In Spain, Urraca (1082–1126) ruled as queen of Castile from 1109 until her death; she had inherited the throne from her father, Alfonso VI. Another Castilian queen, Isabella (1451–1504), ascended the throne in 1474 after having persuaded her half-brother, Henry IV, to acknowledge her as the legitimate heir.

Mary I was England’s last Catholic ruler. English law still bars Catholics from ascending to the throne and requires that the monarch, who is the official head of the Church of England, be a Protestant.


Knox declared that Christian people had the right to overthrow lawful rulers who did not follow the true religion. Do you agree with this view? Are there any circumstances today, in your opinion, that could justify violent rebellion against a legitimate government?

The extreme views that Knox expressed in The First Blast alienated many Protestants, especially in England. What role did this radicalism play in the establishment of the Church of Scotland? How might the Protestant cause have been affected differently if Knox had chosen a more moderate stance?

For More Information B O O KS

Breslow, Marvin A., ed. The Political Writings of John Knox. Washington: Folger Books; London and Toronto: Associated University Press, 1985. Reid, W. Stanford. Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox. New York: Scribner, 1974. Ridley, Jasper. John Knox. New York and Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1968. Tracy, James D. Europe’s Reformations, 1450–1650. Lanham, MD and Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women PE RIODIC AL S

Doran, Susan. ‘‘Elizabeth I: Gender, Power & Politics.’’ History Today, May 2003. Also available at http://www.geocities.com/queenswoman/ elizadoran.html (accessed on April 18, 2006). WEB SIT ES

‘‘John Knox.’’ English Bible History. http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-englishbible-history/john-knox.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘John Knox.’’ Mary, Queen of Scots. http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/knox.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘John Knox.’’ http://www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/knox2.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Maclean, Diane. ‘‘John Knox.’’ The Scotsman: Heritage & Culture. http:// heritage.scotsman.com/timelines.cfm?cid=1&id=40872005 (accessed on July 24, 2006). Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and Expositions to the Year 1559. http://history.hanover.edu/early/knox.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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3

The Book of Common Prayer Excerpt from The Book of Common Prayer

Reprinted in The Book of Common Prayer 1559: The Elizabethan Prayer Book Published by the University Press of Virginia, 1976

‘‘The service in this Church of England these many years hath been read in Latin to the people, which they understood not, so that they have heard with their ears only, and their hearts, spirit, and mind have not been edified thereby.’’

uring the rule of Henry VIII (1491–1547; reigned 1509–47), some religious leaders in England began to call for reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, the country’s official religion. They objected to Catholic policies that they considered corrupt, such as the sale of indulgences, which allowed people to pay for their sins and avoid punishment after death. They also felt that the church had strayed too far from the original teachings of Christ. Inspired in large part by the Protestant Reformation (a sixteenth-century religious movement that aimed to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of Protestant churches) taking place in Europe, these Protestant reformers wished to transform the English church by eliminating rituals and beliefs that had no basis in the Bible. They objected, for example, to prayers addressing saints who were not mentioned in the Bible. (Saints are deceased people who, due to their exceptionally good behavior during life, have received the official blessing of the church and are believed to be capable of interceding with God to protect people on earth.) They also objected to parts of the Catholic Mass, particularly the communion rite. During this rite a priest performs transubstantiation, or the miraculous change that occurs when a priest blesses the Eucharist (bread and wine) and it changes into the body and blood of Christ, while maintaining the

D

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The Book of Common Prayer

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. COU RT ESY OF T HE L IB RAR Y O F CO NGR ES S.

appearance of bread and wine. Protestant reformers disagreed among themselves on this issue; some accepted it, but others believed that the bread and wine were only symbolic, and that the mass should be a ritual of commemoration only. Despite growing interest in these issues, the Reformation movement did not gain significant political support in England until the 1530s, when Henry VIII severed ties between the English church and the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry had no real interest in the Protestant cause and had even styled himself a loyal Catholic. But when the pope refused to grant Henry a divorce so that the king could 24



take another wife who might be able to bear him a son, Henry was desperate to find a solution to his dilemma. In 1533 he named Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) Archbishop of Canterbury, making Cranmer the highest religious authority in England. Cranmer, who had defied the Catholic rule prohibiting priests from marrying, believed that there was a legal basis for Henry to obtain a divorce, and declared Henry’s first marriage invalid. This directly contradicted the pope’s decision, and later that year the pope excommunicated the king, depriving him of the right to worship as a Catholic. The Protestant Reformation in England had begun. To ensure his subjects’ loyalty, Henry required them to swear an oath of allegiance recognizing him as the supreme authority of the church in England. Many did so, but those who remained loyal to the pope risked fines, imprisonment, or even death. Henry’s actions caused deep religious divisions that led to years of political conflict and violence before England became a wholly Protestant country. Meanwhile, Henry’s break with the pope allowed Cranmer to press for changes that would further distance the English church from Catholic influences. He began working on a book that would prescribe the liturgy, or formal worship service, for the English church. In 1544 he published an early form of this book, the Exhortation and Litany, the first official litany, or the form of prayer used in church services, in the English language. This work not only translated the Latin prayers used in Catholic worship into English but also communicated some of the Protestant desire to rid the English liturgy of corruption. Many prayers to Catholic saints, for example, were eliminated in this book. When Henry VIII’s heir, Edward VI (1537–1553), became king after Henry’s death in 1547, Protestant leaders were able to gain more power. Only nine years old when he took the throne, Edward relied on advisors to help him govern, and these men were strong supporters of Protestant reforms. One of the first changes came in 1548, when Cranmer wrote a work confirming Parliament’s ruling that the rite of communion should include both bread and wine, and it should be administered in the English language rather than in Latin. At first Cranmer supported the Catholic teaching of transubstantiation and denounced those who rejected it. Later, though, he changed his mind and rejected it. Despite government actions that strengthened the authority of the new Protestant religion, significant numbers of English people objected to religious reforms and wished to continue worshipping according to Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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familiar Catholic traditions. Concerned that religious conflicts could escalate into violence or even rebellion, Parliament in 1549 passed the Act for Uniformity of Service and Administration of Sacraments throughout the Realm, which called for one official worship service for the church in England. Cranmer, with the assistance of other bishops, was in charge of drawing up this new liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549. This book specified the prayers for daily worship, Sundays and holy days, and the liturgy for the sacraments (sacred rites) of communion, baptism, confirmation, and marriage. In his introduction Cranmer emphasized the need to rid the liturgy of the numerous ‘‘uncertain stories, legends, responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals [church assemblies]’’ that had made their way into worship services, and that, in his view, distracted the faithful from proper attention to the Bible. Despite Cranmer’s aim to create a distinctly Protestant liturgy, the first edition of The Book of Common Prayer was not considered sufficiently Protestant to please the most influential reformers. In 1552 a new edition was published that contained major changes. Among the most important was the new wording for the communion rite. The earlier edition had specified the words ‘‘the body of our Lorde Jesus Christe’’ and ‘‘the blood of our Lorde Jesus Christe’’ to describe the communion host and wine, but the revised edition eliminated these phrases. The new prayer book referred to communion as only a symbolic remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice. The book also eliminated other remaining Catholic influences, including vestments (ceremonial clothing) worn by priests during worship and administration of the sacraments. The Book of Common Prayer was suppressed when Mary I (1516– 1558) took the throne in 1553. Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter by his first wife, had refused to accept the new Protestant religion and immediately restored Catholicism as England’s official religion. She outlawed Protestantism and persecuted its supporters, burning at the stake some three hundred Protestants for heresy, or having religious opinions that conflict with the church’s doctrines. Nevertheless, The Book of Common Prayer survived. When Elizabeth I (1533–1603) became queen after her half-sister, Mary’s, death in 1558, she reinstated the Protestant religion and took firm steps to unify the country in matters of religion. The Book of Common Prayer was republished in 1559, in an edition only slightly changed from the book of 1552. This third edition attempted to satisfy those who missed some of the traditional elements of worship that had 26



been eliminated in the earlier prayer book. The 1559 book, for example, allowed some traditional vestments to be used once again. Though this third edition did not please everyone, it was generally accepted and became the foundation of Protestant worship in England. The Act of Uniformity of 1559 established the The Book of Common Prayer as the legal liturgy of the Church of England.

A page from The Book of Common Prayer. MA RY EV AN S PI CTU RE L IB RA RY .


27


Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Book of Common Prayer :

Protestant reformers in the sixteenth century objected to Catholic teachings and rituals that were not specifically authorized in the Bible, calling these corrupt.

In many ways The Book of Common Prayer was a compromise. Though it encompassed many Protestant reforms, it also preserved some elements of Catholic ritual.

The liturgy established by the 1559 edition of The Book of Common Prayer remained standard in the Church of England for nearly one hundred years.

The Book of Common Prayer The Preface

Ordained: Authorized.

Exhort: Urge by strong argument. Confute: Prove wrong.

Synodals: Assemblies of bishops. Septuagesima: The thirdfrom-last Sunday in Lent.

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There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted, as (among other things) it may plainly appear by the common prayers in the Church, commonly called divine service. The first original and ground whereof, if a man would search out by the ancient fathers, he shall find that the same was not ordained but of a good purpose and for a great advancement of godliness. For they so ordered the matter that all the whole Bible, or the greatest part thereof, should be read over once in the year, intending thereby that the clergy, and specially such as were ministers of the congregation, should, by often reading and meditation of God’s Word, be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be more able to exhort other by wholesome doctrine, and to confute them that were adversaries [opponents] to the truth. And further, that the people by daily hearing of Holy Scripture read in the Church should continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion. But these many years past this godly and decent order of the ancient fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected by planting in uncertain stories, legends, responds, verses, vain repetitions, commemorations, and synodals that commonly when any book of the Bible was begun, before three or four chapters were read out, all the rest are unread. And in this sort the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent and the book of Genesis in Septuagesima but they were only begun and never read through. After a like sort were other books of Holy Scripture used. And moreover, whereas Saint Paul would have such language spoken to the people in the Church as they might understand Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


and have profit by hearing the same, the service in this Church of England these many years hath been read in Latin to the people, which they understood not, so that they have heard with their ears only, and their hearts, spirit, and mind have not been edified [improved], thereby. And furthermore, notwithstanding that the ancient fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions whereof everyone was called a nocturn, now of late time a few of them have been daily said and oft repeated, and the rest utterly omitted. Moreover, the number and hardness of the rules called the pie and the manifold changings of the service was the cause that to turn the book only was so hard and intricate a matter that many times there was more business to find out what should be read than to read it when it was found out. These inconveniences therefore considered, here is set forth such an order whereby the same shall be redressed. And for a readiness in this matter, here is drawn out a calendar for that purpose, which is plain and easy to be understanden, wherein, so much as may be, the reading of Holy Scriptures is so set for that all things shall be done in order without breaking one piece thereof from another. For this cause be cut off anthems, responds, invitatories [three types of prayers], and such like things as did break the continual course of reading of the Scripture. Yet because there is no remedy but that of necessity there must be some rules, therefore certain rules are here set forth, which, as they be few in numbers so they be plain and easy to be understanden. So that here you have at order for prayer, as touching the reading of Holy Scripture much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old fathers, and a great deal more profitable and commodious than that which of late was used. . . .

Nocturn: Evening prayer.

Commodious: Suitable.

Though it be appointed in the afore written Preface that all things shall be read and sung in the church in the English tongue, to the end that the congregation may be thereby edified yet it is not meant but when men say Morning and Evening Prayer privately, they may say the same in any language that they themselves do understand. . . .

Of Ceremonies, Why Some Be Abolished and Some Retained Of such ceremonies as be used in the Church and have had their beginning by the institution of man, some at the first were of godly intent and purpose devised and yet at length turned to vanity and superstition, some entered into Church by undiscreet [indiscreet; lacking in judgment] devotion and such a zeal as was without knowledge. And forbecause they were winked at in the beginning, they grew daily to more and more abuses, which not only for their unprofitableness but also because they have much blinded the people and obscured the glory of God are worthy to be cut away and clean rejected. Other there be which although they have been devised Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Transgression: Violation of a law.

by man, yet it is thought good to reserve them still, as well for a decent order in the Church, for the which they were first devised, as because they pertain to edification, whereunto all things done in the Church, as the Apostle teacheth, ought to be referred. And although the keeping or omitting of a ceremony in itself considered is but a small thing, yet the willful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offense before God. Let all things be done among you, saith Saint Paul, in a seemly and due order. The appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men, therefore no man ought to take in hand nor presume to appoint or alter any public or common order in Christ’s Church, except he be lawfully called and authorized thereunto. And whereas in this our time the minds of men are so diverse that some think it a great matter of conscience to depart from a piece of the least of their ceremonies, they be so addicted to their old customs, and again on the other side, some be so newfangled that they would innovate all thing, and so do despise the old, that nothing can like then but that is new, it was thought expedient not so much to have respect how to please and satisfy either of these parties, as how to please God and profit them both. And yet lest any man should be offended whom good reason might satisfy, here be certain causes rendered why some of the accustomed ceremonies be put away and some retained and kept still. Some are put away because the great excess and multitude of them hath so increased in these latter days that the burden of them was intolerable. . . . And besides this, Christ’s gospel is not a ceremonial law, as much of Moses’ law was, but it is a religion to serve God, not in bondage of the figure or shadow, but in the freedom of spirit, being content only with those ceremonies which do serve to a decent order and godly discipline, and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and special signification whereby he might be edified.

Lucre: Money; profits.

30

Furthermore, the most weighty cause of the abolishment of certain ceremonies was that they were so far abused, partly by the superstitious blindness of the rude and unlearned and partly by the unsatiable [insatiable] avarice [greed] of such as sought more their own lucre than the glory of god, that the abuses could not well be taken away, the thing remaining still. But now, as concerning those persons which peradventure [perhaps] will be offended for that some of the old ceremonies are retained still, if they consider that without some ceremonies it is not possible to keep any order or quiet discipline in the Church, they shall easily perceive just cause to reform their judgments. And if they think much that any of the old do remain and would rather have all devised anew, then such men granting some ceremonies convenient to be had, surely where the old may be well used Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


there they cannot reasonably reprove the old only for their age without bewraying [betraying] of their own folly. For in such a case they ought rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity, if they will declare themselves to be more studious of unity and concord [harmony] than of innovations and newfangleness, which, as much as may be with the true setting forth of Christ’s religion, is always to be eschewed. . . .

Reprove: Find fault with.

Eschewed: Avoided.

What happened next . . . Though The Book of Common Prayer became the foundation of Protestant practice in England, it was not without significant controversy. Puritan leaders considered it too Catholic, and after the queen’s death in 1603 began to call for its replacement. (Puritans were a group of Protestants who followed strict religious standards.) When James I (1566–1625) was crowned in 1603, the Puritans presented him with a petition requesting several changes in religious practice. James’s government, however, did not take any action except to authorize a new translation of the Bible into English. Dissent escalated under the reign of James’s successor, Charles I (1600–1649), who supported changes that moved the Church of England closer to Catholic practices. These policies further alienated the Puritans and contributed to the growing resentment against the king that led to civil war in 1642. With the war going in their favor, the Puritans succeeded in pressuring Parliament to ban The Book of Common Prayer in 1645. It was replaced with the Directory of Public Worship, which emphasized instructions and rules more than actual prayer. After winning control of the government in 1649, the Puritans abolished the episcopal features of the Church of England, which specified that appointed bishops should govern the church, and structured the English church according to Presbyterian rules, which specified that elected laypersons (non-clergy) called elders should make most church decisions. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Charles II (1630–1685) immediately took steps to reverse these reforms and reunite dissenting factions within an Episcopalian Church of England. In 1661 the Savoy Conference met to work on a new edition of The Book of Common Prayer. Presbyterian leaders at the conference pressed for official acceptance of an alternate prayer book, but did not succeed. As a result they split from the Church of England shortly afterward. The 1662 edition of The Book of Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Common Prayer remained the church’s standard service book until 1980, when the Alternative Service Book replaced it. In 2000 this new book was replaced by Common Worship.

Did you know . . .

When Mary I became queen and restored Catholicism in England, Cranmer was burned at the stake for heresy.

The Act of Uniformity of 1559, which established The Book of Common Prayer as the country’s official liturgy, required every person to go to church on Sunday or be fined.

The Act of Uniformity was not strictly enforced. Many people did what was necessary in public to conform to the law, but they also maintained some traditional beliefs and practices in private.

In addition to specifying a new liturgy, Protestant reformers also changed the way in which church interiors were decorated and furnished. They replaced the crucifix with the royal coat-of arms, replaced the altar with a simple communion table, and removed statues and stained glass windows.


Before publication of The Book of Common Prayer, worship had been conducted in Latin. Why do you think religious reformers thought it was important to create a liturgy in the English language?

In the mid-1500s about 20 percent of men and 5 percent of women in England could read. By 1600 literacy had increased to about 30 percent for men and 10 percent for women. What role do you think this increase in literacy played in the government’s decision to establish The Book of Common Prayer as the country’s official liturgy?


Booty, John, ed. The Book of Common Prayer. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1976. Helfing, Charles and Cynthia Shattuck, eds. The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 32



Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport, CT and London, England: Greenwood Press, 1995. WEB SIT ES

Benton, J. H. ‘‘The Book of Common Prayer: Its Origin and Growth.’’ Anglican Resource Collection. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Benton.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Garrett, David. ‘‘Thomas Cranmer and the Book of Common Prayer.’’ Prayer Book Society of Canada. http://www.stpeter.org/cranmer.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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4

The Speeches of Elizabeth I Excerpts from ‘‘Queen Elizabeth’s First Speech’’ and ‘‘Elizabeth’s Golden Speech’’

Reprinted in Elizabeth I: Collected Works Published by the University of Chicago Press, 2000

‘‘There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects, and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety, than myself.’’

hen Mary I (1516–1558) died on November 17, 1558, the English people rejoiced in acknowledging their new monarch, Mary’s half-sister, Elizabeth I (1533–1603). But this fact did not mean that Elizabeth had no enemies. The political and religious factions that had strained English society during the previous several years had not disappeared, and Elizabeth knew she was vulnerable. She needed to gain the support of the nobles (elite men and women who held social titles), who had enough political power to launch an uprising against her if they wished. She also needed to win the support of the people. In order to make her rule secure, Elizabeth had to assure her subjects that she would make England a united country and would govern as a wise and just monarch.

W

In the 1500s England did not have a clear law of succession to determine who would legally inherit the throne upon the monarch’s death. Customarily, power passed to the monarch’s oldest son. But when a king had no male heir, the question of succession often caused controversy and violence, with competing factions fighting for the throne. When Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), took power in 1509, it was the first peaceful succession in England since 1422. Henry was intensely concerned that the throne should remain in his family line, yet he did not have a son with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon 35

The Speeches of Elizabeth I

Henry VIII was deeply motivated by the need for a male heir to secure the succession of the throne after his death. # G IA NNI DAG LI O RT I/ C OR BI S.

(1485–1536), whose only successful pregnancy had resulted in a daughter, Mary. He petitioned the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, for a divorce so that he could take a new wife and, he hoped, father a male heir. When the pope refused, Henry severed all ties with the Catholic Church and declared himself the supreme religious authority in England. He divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn (c. 1507–1536), who gave birth to the princess Elizabeth. Soon tiring of Boleyn, who failed to produce a son, Henry executed her for treason and married Jane Seymour (c. 1509–1537), who gave birth to Edward VI (1537–1553). The English had little problem accepting Edward as the new king after Henry VIII died in 1547. But Edward’s health was poor, and he died in 36



his teens. With no children of his own, before he died he gave in to pressure from the Protestant lords and named a cousin, Lady Jane Grey (1537– 1554), as his heir. The English people, however, strongly favored his halfsister, Mary, and deposed Grey before she was even crowned. Mary became queen in 1553. Henry’s break with the Catholic Church had caused a serious rift in the country. He required government officials to swear allegiance to him as the head of the church in England, and persecuted those who refused. The Protestant reforms that began during Henry’s reign gained further strength under Edward’s government, but Mary, a Catholic, reversed this course as soon as she became queen. Attempting to force the country back to Catholicism, she reinstated heresy laws and began executing Protestants by burning them at the stake. (Heresy is a religious opinion that conflicts with the church’s doctrines.) Though other monarchs had put heretics to death, Mary’s persecution reached unprecedented levels and soon caused her subjects to hate her. England’s first female monarch soon came to be despised as a tyrant. Horrified at the suffering of his fellow Protestants under Mary I, John Knox (c. 1513–1572), the leader of Protestant reform in Scotland, in 1558 published an anonymous pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Knox wrote that the rule of women was against the natural order of the world and violated God’s will. He stated that women, whom he believed to be by nature foolish, vain, sinful, weak, cruel, and irrational, were unfit to govern, and called on the English people to overthrow Mary. Though Knox expressed views that most Protestants rejected as too extreme, his argument attracted considerable attention. Mary, who was childless, died later that year and Elizabeth became queen. The English people celebrated her ascension to the throne; most of them were relieved that Mary’s cruel reign had ended and that the succession had not provoked civil war. England, weary of civil strife, hoped that its new queen would heal the damaging divisions within the country. Not everyone accepted Elizabeth’s claim to the throne, however. Significant numbers of Catholics, especially in the north of the country, rejected Protestantism. In addition, some among them felt that, because Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn had not been valid according to Catholic law, Elizabeth was not the king’s legitimate child and therefore could not claim a legal right to rule. In addition to this potential threat, Elizabeth also knew that, as a woman, she faced pressure to acknowledge male authority in governance. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Her advisors would expect her to marry immediately, not only to produce to an heir but also to provide the country with a king who would help her make decisions of state. Elizabeth, however, was determined to govern the country on her own. She would seek the counsel of wise advisors, but she would hold power with all the authority of her royal office. From the beginning, then, Elizabeth was careful to assure her subjects that she had been legitimately granted the right to rule and that, as queen, she would unite the country and govern it wisely. In her first speech as queen, given on November 20, 1558, at Hatfield Palace just days after Mary’s death, Elizabeth emphasized two important points. First she stated that, although she was a woman with a natural body that might be frail, this natural body became one with a perfect ‘‘body politic’’ when she took the throne. Thus, in theory, the queen’s womanhood did not matter; by ascending to the throne, she assumed a new body that transcended gender. This argument was meant as a direct rebuttal to Knox’s claim that women were unfit to rule. Second, Elizabeth assured her listeners that she intended to use her power to govern with authority. She would listen to the advice of her Privy Council, but she would not succumb to the influence of any one political faction. (The Privy Council is the board of advisors that carried out the administrative function of the government in matters of economy, defense, foreign policy, and law and order, and its members served as the queen’s chief advisors.) Throughout her reign, Elizabeth conducted herself in ways that demonstrated her professed devotion to her subjects. She reduced the amount of money that the crown usually spent on its own wardrobe, for example, instead encouraging her courtiers to give her private gifts of luxurious gowns and jewels. (A courtier is a person who serves or participates in the royal court or household as the king’s or queen’s advisor, officer, or attendant.) In this way, she could indulge her taste for splendid garments without overspending. She also traveled about the country to show herself to the people. Most important of all, she refused to marry, stating that she would not take a husband because she was already wedded to her kingdom. Elizabeth succeeded in winning the support of her subjects. She was, and has remained, one of the most popular monarchs in English history. In her last speech to Parliament, in 1601, she restated her image as a queen who ruled not for any personal glory but only for the benefit of her people. 38



Queen Elizabeth I gave her Golden Speech to Parliament on November 30, 1601. HU LTO N AR CH IVE /G ETT Y IM AG ES.

Things to remember while reading the excerpts from ‘‘Queen Elizabeth’s First Speech’’ and ‘‘Elizabeth’s Golden Speech’’:

Elizabeth became queen at a time when England had suffered many years of political and religious conflict.


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The queen needed to convince the nobility and the common people to support her.

Elizabeth argued that she ruled by God’s authority, not because of any personal ambition. She stated that she cared only about what was best for the English nation.

Queen Elizabeth’s First Speech, Hatfield, November 20, 1558

Ordained: Authorized.

Posterity: Descendants.

Progenitors: Direct ancestors.

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. . . My lords, the law of nature moveth me to sorrow for my sister; the burden that is fallen upon me marketh me amazed; and yet, considering I am God’s creature, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. And as I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body politic to govern, so I shall desire you all, my lords (chiefly you of the nobility, everyone in his degree and power), to be assistant to me, that I with my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity in earth, I mean to direct all my actions by good advice and counsel. And therefore, considering that divers [various] of you be of the ancient nobility, having your beginnings and estates of my progenitors, kings of this realm, and thereby ought in honor to have the more natural care for maintaining of my estate and this commonwealth; some others have been of long experience in governance and enabled by my father of noble memory, my brother, and my late sister to bear office; the rest of you being upon special trust lately called to her service only and trust, for your service considered and rewarded; my meaning is to require of you all nothing more but faithful hearts in such service as from time to time shall be in your powers towards the preservation of me and this commonwealth. And for counsel and advice I shall accept you of my nobility, and such others of you the rest as in consultation I shall think meet and shortly appoint, to the which also, with their advice, I will join to their aid, and for ease of their burden, others meet for my service. And they which I shall not appoint, let them not think the same for any disability in them, but for that I do consider a multitude doth make rather discord and confusion than good counsel. And of my goodwill you shall not doubt, using yourselves as appertaineth [pertains] to good and loving subjects. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


Elizabeth’s Golden Speech, November 30, 1601 . . . I have ever used to set the Last Judgment Day before my eyes and so to rule as I shall be judged, to answer before a higher Judge. To whose judgment seat I do appeal that never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not unto my people’s good. . . . I know the title of a king is a glorious title, but assure yourself that the shining glory of princely authority hath not so dazzled the eyes of our understanding but that we well know and remember that we also are to yield an account of our actions before the great Judge. To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it. For myself, I was never so much enticed with the glorious name of a king or royal authority of a queen as delighted that God hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth and glory, and to defend this kingdom (as I said) from peril, dishonor, tyranny, and oppression. There will never queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects, and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety, than myself. For it is not my desire to live nor reign longer than my life and reign shall be for your good. And though you have had and may have many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had or shall have any that will be more careful and loving. . . .

Enticed: Charmed.

What happened next . . . Elizabeth’s speeches reveal the intelligence and common sense that helped her maintain power for almost fifty years. She was careful not to alienate powerful nobles who might have had reason to rebel against her authority. She promised to take good advice before making decisions and to put an end to religious conflicts. Her Religious Settlement policy of 1559 was an important step toward unity. Though it established Protestantism as the official religion in England and required conformity to its practices, the policy was basically lenient toward Catholics. Many found that they could participate in official Protestant services without compromising their Catholic beliefs. Though religious conflicts escalated again in the 1570s and 1580s, the Religious Settlement played a significant role in stabilizing the country during the first decade of Elizabeth’s reign. The queen also fulfilled her promise to rely on her advisors for help in making government decisions. Unlike her father, who had often acted on impulse—involving England in foreign wars, for example, as a way to Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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remedy his own boredom or frustration—Elizabeth gave careful thought to her decisions. Though she did not entirely avoid unpopular or unwise actions, she did keep the best interests of the country as her top priority. The queen also demonstrated a keen awareness that her public image was an important political asset. She declared her love for her people, and they in turn became devoted to her. She cultivated her image as the Virgin Queen, and she felt that she should appear beautiful, youthful, and majestic even as her body inevitably aged. This way, her subjects could continue to believe in her as the perfect body politic. Elizabeth’s extraordinary popularity helped her to maintain her grip on power. But it also contributed, in the opinion of many historians, to an exaggeration of her achievements. She could be indecisive. She also made some unwise decisions, authorizing disastrous military interventions in Ireland, for example, that devastated the population and almost bankrupted the English treasury. As she aged, she became less tolerant of viewpoints other than her own. Yet Elizabeth also ruled England during one of the most exciting periods of its history, as it developed from a relatively poor and weak state into a world power and a center of artistic and cultural excellence.

Did you know . . .

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Though Knox wrote quite emphatically that women were not fit to rule, he was willing to accept Elizabeth as queen because she was a Protestant. Even so, she refused to let him enter the country when he was traveling back to Scotland from Geneva, Switzerland.

In the 1580s, when Catholic sentiment against Elizabeth was at its peak, it became fashionable in England to wear miniature images of the queen. These might be tiny paintings, or images crafted from precious jewels.

Elizabeth checked royal portraits to make sure that they flattered her. As she became older, she covered her wrinkled and blotchy skin with thick makeup and wore a bright red wig to disguise the fact that her hair had thinned. When she spoke, she often covered her mouth with her hand to hide her stained and decaying teeth.

Elizabeth reigned until her death at age sixty-nine, making her the oldest monarch in English history. This record was not broken Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


until the reign of George II (1683–1760), who died at age seventy-six.

Though Elizabeth I held power for forty-five years, her reign was never the longest in English history. More than three centuries earlier, Henry III (1207–1272) had ruled for fifty-six years. His record was not surpassed until the reign of Victoria (1819–1901), who held the throne for sixty-three years. As of 2006, when she turned 80, Elizabeth II (1926–) had reigned for fifty-four years.


Elizabeth cared very much about popular opinion, and she conducted herself in ways that would enhance her popularity. Yet as a queen she did not have to worry about reelection in order to maintain her power. Compare her position to that of an elected head of state in a democracy. How might these different types of leaders be likely to handle controversial decisions, such as the need to raise taxes or go to war?

What role do physical appearance, wardrobe, and manners play in politics today? Does an attractive candidate necessarily have an advantage over his or her opponents? What kinds of things might a person of average looks do to manipulate his or her image as a politician?

If you were the campaign manager for a presidential candidate, what kind of image would you try to create for this politician? How would you go about it? Give details about the kinds of photos and public appearances you would emphasize, and the language you would urge your candidate to use in his or her speeches.


Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998. Marcus, Leah S., Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose, eds. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Thomas, Jane Resh. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. Boston, MA: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The Speeches of Elizabeth I WEB SIT ES

Elizabeth I. http://www.elizabethi.org/uk/ (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabeth I.’’ Science, Civilization, and Society. http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/ ~mattom/science+society/index.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabeth I.’’ Tudor Place. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutElizabeth.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Kings and Queens of England.’’ History of the Monarchy. http:// www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page10.asp (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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A Sonnet by Elizabeth I ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’

By Elizabeth I Reprinted in Elizabeth I: Collected Works Published by the University of Chicago Press, 2000

‘‘I love and yet am forced to seem to hate.’’

rom the very beginning of her reign, Elizabeth I (1533–1603) took care to project a public image of strength and authority. England’s position in 1558, when Elizabeth took power, was far from secure. A small country with a weak economy and deep internal conflicts, it faced significant economic and political competition from Europe. Furthermore, the queen, as a Protestant, was vulnerable to Catholic dissent, not only from within England but also from France and Spain, rival powers that were strongly anti-Protestant. And as a woman, she risked accusations that she lacked the ability to govern. To maintain her hold on power amid these challenges, it was necessary for the queen to show the world that she would not be a weak ruler.

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Elizabeth surrounded herself with able advisors whose counsel she respected. This Privy Council, headed by William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598), helped her to make decisions about governing the country. (The Privy Council is the board of advisors that carried out the administrative function of the government in matters of economy, defense, foreign policy, and law and order, and its members served as the queen’s chief advisors.) One of the first things that the council urged the queen to do was to marry. Not only was it thought to be necessary that she give birth to an heir, but it was believed that she needed a husband to help her rule. The idea that a woman could rule on her own was unheard of. The young queen immediately attracted several suitors. Yet Elizabeth, determined not to let herself be manipulated by those who 45

A Sonnet by Elizabeth I

were struggling for power, treated these marriage proposals with caution. She had seen how much the English people had despised her sister’s choice of husband, Philip II of Spain (1527–1598), whom they suspected of wanting to take over their country. When Philip asked for Elizabeth’s hand, she promptly refused; she also rejected proposals from the king of Sweden and the archduke of Austria. Elizabeth knew that a foreign husband might pressure her to take official actions that would benefit his own country instead of England, and she wished to avoid this at all costs. An English husband would be more appropriate, but the queen considered most English suitors below her social rank. She also worried that, by marrying an English noble, she might worsen the political rivalries among the often quarrelsome lords. Furthermore, the man she apparently loved, Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester; 1532–1595), was already married. In 1559, after Parliament, England’s legislative body, had asked the queen to arrange a suitable marriage, she responded in a carefully worded speech of which two versions have been passed down. In one version, quoted in Elizabeth I: Collected Works, the queen states ‘‘I am already bound unto an husband, which is the kingdom of England.’’ But she also reassured Parliament that ‘‘I will promise you to do nothing to the prejudice [harm] of the commonwealth, but as far as possible I may, will marry such an husband as shall be no less careful for the common good, than myself.’’ Elizabeth thus indicated that she felt no compulsion to marry, but would keep the matter open. Over the years Elizabeth used the possibility of a marriage as a political tool. She encouraged suitors when it would help her gain some advantage, but then dismissed them. Her relationship with François (Duke of Alençon; 1555–1584), heir to the French throne, for example, signaled her apparent willingness to forge an alliance with France. The duke had begun courting the queen in 1581, when hostilities were rapidly escalating between England and Spain. Since the 1570s, Philip II had been giving tentative support to Catholic rebels who hoped to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587). Lacking the military power to confront Spain directly, Elizabeth secretly allowed English ships to attack Spanish ships and territories in the Americas. These raids, she hoped, would restrict the flow of gold and silver into Spanish ports; they also provoked Philip’s anger. In 1579 Spanish troops arrived in Ireland to aid the Desmond Rebellion, an 46



François, Duke of Alençon, was Elizabeth’s last serious suitor. # H ULT ON- DE UTS CH CO LL ECT IO N/ COR BI S.

uprising intended to expel the country’s English overlords. As war with Spain drew closer at the beginning of the 1580s, Elizabeth acted as though she were giving serious consideration to François’s proposal of marriage. Her actions sent a warning to Philip: though an alliance with France would be an extreme step for England because of the religious differences between the countries, Elizabeth was willing to take this step to strengthen her position against Spain. Though she acted as if her affection for François was genuine, after a few months the forty-seven-year-old queen rejected the much younger duke. He was her last serious suitor. Elizabeth was careful about revealing her private emotions to the world. Whatever she really felt about romantic love and marriage, in public she expressed the conviction that she always acted according to what was best for the country instead of following her own desires. In this Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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way, she emphasized the sacrifices she made for the English people. She portrayed herself as a ruler entirely devoted to her kingdom, willing to give up husband and children for the sake of her country. Elizabeth’s poem ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ expresses the profound division she felt between her personal life and her public life. It is not certain exactly when Elizabeth wrote this work. Exceptionally well educated, the queen had been accustomed to expressing herself in writing from at least age eleven. After she became queen her writing focused primarily on government matters, but she continued to write occasional poems as well. Poetry could provide both intellectual stimulation and emotional release. Poetry was also an ideal medium through which to express the doubts and conflicts that are so often a part of romantic love. English writers in the 1500s were beginning to take poetry in new directions. They were growing impatient with earlier poetic forms, which they considered too stiff and formal. Inspired by Greek and Latin literature, they were also familiar with new developments in poetry from France and Italy and hoped to incorporate these into English literature. Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) and Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey; 1517–1547), for example, translated the sonnets of Italian writer Petrarch (1304–1374) into English. They also experimented with writing sonnets of their own. Philip Sidney (1554–1586) expanded on the form of the English sonnet, and urged his fellow poets to recognize the creative potential of the English language to express emotion. Fluent in several languages and passionately interested in the arts, the queen kept up with such developments in literature and, in her own writings, experimented with various poetic forms. ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ reveals some of the most representative themes and structures of sixteenth-century English lyric poetry. The poem focuses on one of the era’s central literary themes: unrequited love. A tradition in English poetry since the Middle Ages (c. 500–c. 1500), this theme idealizes a love that can never be fulfilled, showing it to be a symbol of perfect devotion. ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ fits within this tradition, expressing the writer’s love for an unnamed person with whom she can never be united. This unrequited love creates a deep division between what the writer feels and how the writer must act. The poem emphasizes the contrasts in the writer’s situation by employing the devices of paradox (a statement that is seemingly contradictory, but may actually be true, such as ‘‘It is often kinder to be cruel’’), and oxymoron (a figure of speech that brings strong contrasts together, such as ‘‘wise 48



Many scholars believe that ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ refers to the dashing Robert Dudley, who Elizabeth had reportedly fallen in love with during the early years of her reign. HUL TO N AR CH IV E/G ET TY I MA GES .

fool’’). Metaphoric language, which creates an image comparing one thing to another, reveals the many emotional contrasts with which the writer must cope. The first stanza, or group of lines that form a section of a poem, for example, shows that the writer is heartbroken that she has turned away from her loved one. But she ‘‘dare not show my discontent.’’ Her outward behavior is opposite to what she really feels; she notes, ‘‘I freeze and yet am burned.’’ Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Though poems do not necessarily refer to real events and people in the writer’s life, historians believe that ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ is autobiographical. In it, Elizabeth mourns a deep love that she felt compelled to reject, and she expresses her regret at having to subordinate her private life to the demands of her role as monarch. Many scholars assume that the poem refers to Dudley, the queen’s oldest and closest friend; in their view, he alone held such an intimate place in Elizabeth’s affections. But others believe that the poem is about the queen’s decision not to marry François of France. Though the poem is usually dated about 1582, it is not known exactly when it was written. The fact that it was published during the queen’s lifetime, however, suggests that even if she had written it earlier as a private expression of her feelings, she later chose to make it public because it would enhance her image. Alternatively, it is possible that she intended from the start to use the poem as part of her ongoing efforts to gain approval from her subjects. In any case, the poem artfully conveys the divided self that Elizabeth felt defined her as queen.

Things to remember while reading ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’:

Though Queen Elizabeth was pressured to marry, she chose to rule alone.

The queen controlled her public image with great care. In her writings she described herself as a monarch who put her country’s interests above her private life.

The poem ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ expresses the queen’s sadness about rejecting a lover. It also expresses the conflict between her private wishes and her public role.

On Monsieur’s Departure I grieve and dare not show my discontent, I love and yet am forced to seem to hate, I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, I seem stark but inwardly do prate [chatter foolishly] I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned, Since from myself another self I turned. My care is like my shadow in the sun, Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it, 50



Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done. His too familiar care doth make me rue [regret] it. No means I find to rid him from my breast, Till by the end of things it be suppressed. Some gentler passion slide into my mind, For I am soft and made of melting snow; Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind. Let me or float or sink, be high or low. Or let me live with some more sweet content, Or die and so forget what love ere meant.

What happened next . . . There are various theories about why Elizabeth never married. Some historians believe that she may have feared dying in childbirth. Others point out that she may have been traumatized by her father’s behavior as a husband; he had ordered his second wife, Anne Boleyn (c. 1507–1536), Elizabeth’s mother, beheaded for treason. (He also executed his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.) The queen may also have wished to retain control of the wealth she had inherited from her father. If she had married, it would all have passed to her husband. The image that Elizabeth presented of herself as the ‘‘Virgin Queen,’’ married only to her people, made her extraordinarily popular. The English people cherished the idea that their monarch was devoted only to their welfare, and that she would subordinate her personal wishes for the good of the country. This popular support helped maintain the country’s political stability despite several serious problems during Elizabeth’s reign, including rising prices for consumer goods and a large national debt created by campaigns in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland, as well as its prolonged war with Spain in the 1580s. Though many of her subjects were eager for change by the time of her death, Elizabeth never lost the support and affection of the English people. Centuries after her death, she is still remembered as one of England’s most popular and influential rulers.

Did you know . . .

Elizabeth was fluent in several languages. She wrote poems in French and Latin as well as English.


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Elizabeth, seen here with the royal orb and scepter, portrayed herself as a ruler so devoted to the needs of her people that she was willing to sacrifice personal happiness. H UMP HR EY DYS ON /FO LG ER SHA KE SPE AR E LI BR AR Y.

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In 1554 and 1555, while imprisoned for suspected treason against Mary I, the princess Elizabeth scratched a two-line poem onto a glass window. She used a diamond to shape the letters. The poem, quoted in Elizabeth I: Collected Works, reads: ‘‘Much suspected by me, / Nothing proved can be.’’ It was signed ‘‘Elizabeth the prisoner.’’ Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ is sometimes called a sonnet. Though it is very similar to that type of poem, it is not a true sonnet because it does not conform to sonnet structure. Sonnets contain fourteen lines and are usually organized as either two stanzas, one of eight lines and one of six lines, or as three four-line stanzas followed by a rhymed couplet.


If Elizabeth originally wrote ‘‘On Monsieur’s Departure’’ knowing that she would make it public, why might she have chosen to communicate her feelings in a poem rather than an ordinary speech?

Make a list of paradoxes and oxymorons that are relevant to a theme that is important to you. You may wish to take the queen’s poem as a model. How does the process of creating these figures of speech change the way you think about this theme?


Doran, Susan. Queen Elizabeth I. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Marcus, Leah S., Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose, eds. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Elizabeth I.’’ http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/elizabethi.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabeth I.’’ History of the Monarchy. http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/ Page46.asp (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Eve’s Daughters: The Voices of English Renaissance Women.’’ The Worlds of the Renaissance Projects, 2000. http://www.albertrabil.com/projects2000/ walters/part%206.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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Book of Martyrs Excerpt from Book of Martyrs

By John Foxe Reprinted in Foxe’s Christian Martyrs of the World Published by Moody Press, 1963

‘‘When Simon Miller heard her cry, he put out his hand toward her, and asked her to be strong and of good cheer; ‘for, good sister,’ said he, ‘we shall have a joyful meeting hereafter.’’’

fter the Bible, the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe (1516–1587) did more than any other book to shape Protestant identity in England. Its first English edition appeared in 1563, just a few years after Elizabeth I (1533–1603) succeeded to the throne in 1558 and restored Protestant rule. The country had experienced years of turmoil and bloodshed during the reign of Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister, Mary I (1516–1558), who had brutally persecuted Protestants in an attempt to restore the Catholic religion in England. Though the country had rejoiced when Mary’s ruthless policies had ended with her death in 1558, it still faced considerable religious strife and was far from united in embracing the Protestant church. The Book of Martyrs, which described the suffering of Protestants under Mary’s rule, reached English readers at a time when they needed guidance and support. The book helped them feel justified in their struggle to remain loyal to what they believed to be the true religion. It gave them pride in the Protestant church, and helped strengthen their belief that God willed England to be a Protestant country.

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Religious controversies had plagued England for several decades before Elizabeth came to power. In the 1530s her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), had severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church, declaring himself the supreme head of the church in England. He demanded 55

Book of Martyrs

that government and church officials accept his religious authority; those who refused were executed for treason. Though many Catholics resisted Henry, there was considerable support for the Protestant cause in England. The Protestant nobles who ruled on behalf of Henry’s son and heir, Edward VI (1537–1553), who inherited the throne at age nine and could not govern the country on his own, went on to strengthen the position of Protestantism as the official religion. They outlawed Catholic worship and persecuted those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, which required individuals to swear that they recognized the monarch’s supreme religious authority. Though Protestantism became widely established during Edward’s reign, Catholic dissent did not die out. When Mary succeeded to the throne after Edward’s death in 1553, she instituted policies to persuade her subjects to return to the Catholic Church. She believed that this is what most English men and women wanted, and that it would be easily accomplished if she stopped the Protestant leaders who, she believed, were preaching heresy. (Heresy is a religious opinion that conflicts with the church’s doctrines.) In Christian kingdoms heresy was considered the most terrible of all crimes because it threatened both the moral and the social order. Its punishment was death, most often by burning at the stake. In 1555 Mary began enforcing heresy laws against Protestants. Under these conditions some English Protestants did return to Catholicism, but others, including Foxe, fled to Europe where they could practice their religion without fearing for their lives. Many more remained in England, where they faced persecution for their beliefs. Mary’s policies did not succeed in destroying support for the Protestant cause. She responded by intensifying the persecution. Over the course of about three years, she ordered approximately three hundred men, women, and children burned to death for heresy. What had begun as a way of restoring Catholic authority soon developed into a program of excess and cruelty. Foxe, a scholar and Protestant deacon, had begun writing a history of Christian martyrs while he was still living in England. He continued working on this book, which he wrote in Latin, while in exile. The first sections of the book covered the stories of the early Christian martyrs and the history of Christianity in England. Foxe also tried, in the final sections of his book, to incorporate information about those who had died under Mary’s rule. He published the first edition of this book in Latin in 1559. 56


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During the reign of Mary I approximately three hundred people were executed for heresy. AR CH IV E PHO TO S/ GET TY IM AG ES .

By this time Elizabeth had taken the throne, making it safe for Foxe to return to England. Here he was able to obtain a wealth of documentation about Protestant victims of Mary’s persecution. He set about adding their stories to his initial book. This expanded work, the full title of which was Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Dayes, Touching Matters of the Church but more commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, was published in English in 1563. Foxe’s purpose was to explain, through the simply told stories of these martyrs, what Protestantism represented: a desire to return to the true teachings of Christianity and to reject what Protestants considered to Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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John Foxe, author of The Book of Martyrs. H ULT ON A RC HIV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

be the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church. Foxe used letters that the martyrs had written from prison, documents from trials and official examinations, and eyewitness accounts of the executions as sources for his book. He double-checked information whenever possible in order to ensure the accuracy of his accounts. He presented the story of each martyr from beginning to end: the circumstances of the arrest; the trial, and any arguments or statements made by the victim; and the details of the burning—including graphic descriptions of the victim’s prolonged agony if the fire burned too slowly. Most of Foxe’s subjects endured their torments willingly as proof of their faith, and he emphasized their 58


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steadfast refusal to betray their religion. He also emphasized their joy in martyrdom. For example, in an account of three men burned in 1558, Foxe wrote that they ‘‘joyfully made their prayers’’ to God after being fastened to the stake. Then, ‘‘with the fire flaming fiercely about them they triumphantly praised God, and offered up their bodies as a lively sacrifice unto his holy Majesty.’’ In several stories Foxe noted that the martyrs felt no pain and sang or prayed in joy as they burned to death. In the Book of Martyrs Foxe clearly sympathized with the Protestant martyrs. He usually depicted Catholics in extremely negative terms, describing them as bloodthirsty, merciless, and evil. Yet Foxe also took pains to be as accurate as possible. In some of his accounts he noted that the Catholic officials begged their victims to reject heresy and were extremely reluctant to pass sentence on them. In a case from May 1556, for example, Foxe described a trial in which the government official burst into tears when he was forced to read the death sentence against three men in Suffolk.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from the Book of Martyrs:

Religious heresy was considered an extremely serious crime in sixteenth-century Europe. Catholics and Protestants alike approved of the death penalty for heresy. Foxe was one of the few who opposed it.

Before the mid-1500s, executions for heresy in England and Scotland were relatively infrequent. As conflict between Catholics and Protestants increased after the 1530s, however, heresy laws became more rigorously enforced.

Mary’s persecutions had already ended by the time Foxe published his book. His purpose was not to provoke political action against persecution, but to teach English Protestants about the history of their religion. He hoped to remind them that their religion, based on original Christian teachings, was the true one, and to inspire them to continue fighting against Catholic influence.

Foxe adhered as much as possible to reliable sources, but he did not witness the executions about which he wrote. He constructed his accounts from eyewitness reports as well as government records, and he tried to verify details whenever possible. The


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accuracy of his accounts, however, has been questioned, as has his objectivity. Though Foxe was clearly biased in favor of the Protestant martyrs, historians have found that he did accurately describe the facts as they were recorded.

Book of Martyrs Account of Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper

Chancellor: A high-ranking government official.

Recant: Take back.

Relapsed: Slipped back into a former state.

Fagots: Bundles of sticks.

Simon Miller was a prosperous merchant of the town of Lynn-Regis. He was an earnest supporter of the doctrines of the reformers; and having occasion to go to Norwich on business, he inquired while there for their place of worship. This being reported to chancellor Dunning, he ordered Miller to appear before him. When the chancellor asked him the usual questions, he answered them without attempting to hide his thoughts on the subject of religion, so he was committed prisoner to the bishop’s palace. After being some time in prison, Miller was allowed to go home, to settle his affairs. On his return he was again examined by the chancellor, who warned him to recant his opinions, and return to the church of Rome; but Miller remained firm in his faith, so he was finally condemned as a heretic, and delivered over to the sheriff. Elizabeth Cooper (who was burned with Simon Miller) was the wife of a tradesman at Norwich. She had formerly been persuaded to recant; but being troubled in her conscience for so doing, she went one day to St. Andrew’s church, and there, in the presence of a large congregation, stood up and withdrew her recantation. For this she was immediately arrested and sent to prison. The next day she was brought before the bishop, and examined as to her belief. This time she remained true to her faith; therefore she was condemned as a relapsed heretic, and delivered to the sheriff for execution. On the 30th of July, 1557, Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper were both led to the stake. It was set up in a field outside Norwich, near Bishopsgate. When the fagots were lighted, Elizabeth Cooper was afraid, and cried out. When Simon Miller heard her cry, he put out his hand toward her, and asked her to be strong and of good cheer; ‘‘for, good sister,’’ said he, ‘‘we shall have a joyful meeting hereafter.’’ Upon hearing her companion’s words, the woman seemed reassured, and stood still and quiet, as one almost glad to finish the hard trial which she had begun: then she and her companion committed their souls to Almighty God and thus ended their lives.

A Woman Burned at Norwich Cicely Ormes, of the city of Norwich, wife of Edmund Ormes, was arrested on the day that Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper were executed. She drew 60


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the attention of the officers to herself by speaking encouraging words to the two prisoners, on their way to the stake. For this she was put in prison and soon after taken before the chancellor for examination. The chancellor offered to release Cicely Ormes, ‘‘if she would go to church and keep her beliefs to herself,’’ and told her ‘‘she could hold to any faith she would.’’ But she answered, ‘‘I will not enter your church.’’ Then the chancellor told her he had shown more favor to her than he ever did to any person, and that he was loth [reluctant] to condemn her, considering she was only a foolish young woman. Upon this she told him, if he thought so, he should not be so anxious about her belief; and said that, foolish or not, she was content to give up her life in so good a cause. The chancellor then read the sentence of condemnation, and delivered Cicely Ormes to the care of the sheriffs of the city, who immediately carried her to the Guidhall at Norwich, where she remained until the day she was led to the stake. Cicely Ormes was a young woman in the prime of life, uneducated but very earnest in the cause. She was born in East Dereham, and was the daughter of Thomas Haund, a tailor. The first time she was brought before the magistrate [official] she recanted, but was afterward so troubled in conscience that she wrote a letter to the chancellor, to let him know that she repented her action from the bottom of her heart, and would never do the like again while she lived. But before she could succeed in having it delivered, she was taken, tried, and condemned, as previously told. Cicely Ormes was burned the 23rd of September, 1557, between seven and eight in the morning, the two sheriffs were there, and about two hundred people. When she came to the stake, she kneeled down and made her prayers to God; that being done, she rose up and said, ‘‘Good people, I believe as I have been taught from the Bible. This I do, nor will I ever change from it. This my death is a witness of my faith to all here present. Good people, as many of you as believe the same as I believe, pray for me.’’ When Cicely Ormes had said this, she laid her hand on the stake and seeing her hand blackened (for she was burned at the same stake Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper had been), she wiped it on her dress. After she had been bound, and the sheriff’s men had kindled the fire, she clasped her hands together against her breast, turning her face upward, and so stood raising up her hands little by little, till they fell helpless at her side—when she yielded up her life as quietly as if she had been in slumber, and seemed to feel no pain. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Illustration of ‘‘The Burning of Cicely Ormes at Norwich’’ from The Book of Martyrs. TH E GR AN GER CO LLE CT ION , N EW Y OR K.

What happened next . . . The Book of Martyrs was an immediate best-seller in England. At a time when relatively few families could afford to buy books, many households owned copies of Foxe’s work. In fact, Book of Martyrs was often the only book that families owned other than the Bible. Elizabeth’s government saw the book as a useful tool in confirming the rightness of the Protestant cause. Her secretary of state, William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598) arranged for English bishops to order copies of it to be placed in cathedral churches along with copies of the Bible. Many smaller churches also bought copies. 62


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Through the remainder of his life Foxe continued to revise his work to ensure its accuracy. He also expanded it as he came across additional materials. During his lifetime three new editions were published, and in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries five additional volumes came out. Schoolchildren were encouraged to copy passages from the Book of Martyrs, in their commonplace books, notebooks into which students copied quotes and stories that taught moral behavior. Between 1573 and 1631 at least twelve plays inspired by the Book of Martyrs were published. Broadside ballads— popular songs printed on a single sheet of paper—describing the ordeals of Foxe’s martyrs were sold in England in the 1620s. Around the same time separate editions of the book’s illustrations went on sale. The stories from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs strengthened England’s resolve to resist any Catholic influence. In time England was drawn into Europe’s wars of religion, providing financial and military support to Protestants in France and the Netherlands who were rebelling against Catholic governments. Protestantism was established as England’s official religion. During Elizabeth’s reign many English Catholics suffered persecution; priests who said Mass or heard confessions were executed for treason. Anti-Catholic legislation remained in place for centuries, contributing to political tensions that periodically erupted in violence as late as the twentieth century. The Book of Martyrs played a crucial role in forging England’s identity as a Protestant nation. In the view of many historians, no book except for the Bible exerted more influence on English readers.

Did you know . . .

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs included 170 illustrations, many of which showed Protestants being burned at the stake. These illustrations, which were quite expensive to produce, helped to convey the brutality of the executions and the heroism of the victims, who were depicted enduring the flames without flinching.

Foxe’s first edition of the book ran to about eighteen hundred pages, and it was the largest publishing project ever completed in England up to that time. An edition published in the mid-1800s consisted of eight large volumes, six thousand pages, and more than four million words.


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England was not the only country where heresy was punishable by burning at the stake. France, Switzerland, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic), and Spain were among the other countries where heretics received this sentence. In some cases, French heretics also had their tongues cut out, or they were hanged and burned simultaneously.

Burning at the stake remained a legal sentence for certain crimes in England until 1790. Women convicted of high treason (usually the counterfeiting of coins) or of murdering their husbands were burned to death in public. Men convicted of these crimes were hanged. In some cases the women were first hanged and may already have been dead before the fires under them were lit. The last woman to be burned to death in England was executed in1789.


Foxe wrote at a time when modern media did not exist. If he had had access to modern media tools, such as photographs, video, and sound recordings, how might these have affected his work? Would they have necessarily made his accounts more accurate?

Research a recent death penalty case in the United States. Write a brief account of the trial and execution from the perspective of a death penalty supporter. Which details did you choose to emphasize? Were there any details that you chose to leave out? Now write the same story from the point of view of a death penalty opponent. How did you use specific details in this case?


Foxe, John. Foxe’s Christian Martyrs of the World. Chicago: Moody Press, 1963. Gregory, Brad S. Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 1999. Highley, Christopher and John N. King, eds. John Foxe and His World. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2002. Ridley, Jasper. Bloody Mary’s Martyrs: The Story of England’s Terror. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2001. Williamson, G. A., ed. Foxe’s Book of Martrys. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1965. 64


Book of Martyrs PE RIODIC AL S

Loades, David. ‘‘Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and the Face of England.’’ History Today, December 2005, pp. 40–49. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Burning at the Stake.’’ Capital Punishment U.K. http:// www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/index.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Forbush, William Byron, ed. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/ martyrs/home.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Foxe Digital Project Home Page. http://dlib.lib.ohio-state.edu/foxe/ (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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The Schoolmaster Excerpt from The Schoolmaster

By Roger Ascham Reprinted in The Schoolmaster (1570) By Roger Ascham Published by Cornell University Press, 1967

‘‘I assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning as is praise.’’

ery few children in sixteenth-century England attended formal school, but interest in education was growing. Literacy, or the ability to read and write, was an important skill for merchants and businessmen, and it was also the mark of a gentleman. Wealthy families, therefore, expected their children to study at school or with a private tutor. Middleclass families, too, were increasingly interested in providing basic schooling for their children. Though there was no national system of public education, different types of independent schools existed. Children who received formal education generally started their studies at the age of six at an institution known as a petty school. Here, boys and sometimes girls learned the alphabet, basic writing, and the fundamentals of arithmetic. In addition, children learned to read prayers and to memorize the catechism, a question-and-answer text about Christianity and the church. Because printed books and paper were quite expensive, children memorized the alphabet from a horn book—a wooden tablet onto which the printed text was pasted and then covered with a thin layer of animal horn. The horn protected the text as would plastic lamination today. Petty school teachers had no specific training. According to some estimates, about one third of these teachers may have had university degrees; others were less educated. Schools run by women were sometimes known as dame schools.

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Students memorized their lessons by rote learning, repeating the text over and over until they could recite it without mistakes. Children who acted up or stumbled over the lesson could expect a thrashing from the schoolmaster, who beat unruly or slow students with a stick of birch wood. After completing petty school, children from privileged families might continue their education at a grammar school. Unlike petty schools, these institutions were only for boys. The grammar-school curriculum was a demanding course of study that focused on Latin grammar and literature, including philosophy, history, poetry, and drama; sometimes Greek was taught as well, with perhaps some lessons in French. Latin was not just an ancient language; it was the traditional language of scholarship in the sixteenth century. Those who knew Latin could converse with educated men from around Europe and read the works of contemporary scholars. As with petty schools, instruction at grammar schools was generally by rote. Boys were expected to memorize Latin texts, write poems and plays in Latin, and speak Latin at all times, even during their free hours. Academic failure or violation of school rules resulted in a beating. Discipline could be so harsh that students sometimes ran away from school to avoid it. Most grammar school students came from wealthy families, but academically talented boys from humbler backgrounds were sometimes sent to grammar school on scholarship. In fact, some of the most outstanding Elizabethan writers were able to attend school with this kind of financial help. Playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), for example, was a scholarship student at the King’s School, a grammar school associated with Canterbury Cathedral. The poet Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), whose father was a London cloth worker, attended the Merchant Taylors’ School on scholarship. He went on to attend university, where he earned two degrees before establishing his literary reputation with The Shepheard’s Calendar and The Faerie Queene. The Merchant Taylors’ School, founded in 1561, was one of several new grammar schools that opened in the 1500s. Before the reign of Henry VIII (1491–1547), the primary centers of education in England had been monasteries, where monks and priests had spent their lives in prayer and study. These monasteries ran schools that educated the sons of the wealthy. But after Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s, he shut down the monasteries and confiscated church 68


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A typical Elizabethan grammar school. Students were often beaten for academic failure or violating school rules. T HE G RAN GE R CO LL ECT IO N, N EW Y OR K. R EP RO DUC ED B Y PE RM ISS IO N.

property. With the monastery schools thus closed, Henry founded several new grammar schools, including the King’s School in Canterbury that Marlowe attended. Henry’s heir, Edward VI (1537–1553), chartered many more schools. In addition, charitable organizations supported education by opening new schools and sponsoring scholarships. The Merchant Taylors’ School, for example, was created and supported by an organization of businessmen, the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. This company also founded the Wolverhampton Grammar School in 1512 and a school in Macclesfield. With more people gaining access to education, debates arose regarding curriculum and methods of teaching. Though strict instruction and beatings were the norm, a few influential educators began to argue in Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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favor of a more lenient approach that, they believed, would inspire their students to love learning. Richard Mulcaster (c. 1531–1611), for example, the first headmaster of the Merchant Taylors’ School, developed an educational philosophy that acknowledged children’s different abilities, emphasized the importance of exercise and sports, recommended greater respect for the English language, and supported education for girls. Among the leading teachers of the 1500s was Roger Ascham (c. 1515–1568), who in 1548 began serving as tutor to Henry VIII’s daughter, the future Elizabeth I (1533–1603). He taught the princess Latin and Greek, and she impressed him with her intellectual abilities. Ascham later became Latin Secretary to Elizabeth’s halfbrother, Edward VI. He kept this position under Edward’s successors, Mary I (1515–1558) and Elizabeth. Ascham himself never attended grammar school; instead, he was tutored privately before entering St. John’s College, Cambridge University, where he earned a B.A. in 1535 and an M.A. in 1537. Ascham became most famous for The Schoolmaster, which he began writing in 1563. As he explained in the book’s introduction, he was inspired by a conversation that took place one evening that year at Windsor Palace, where he was dining with Queen Elizabeth’s chief advisor, William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598), and other ministers. Cecil commented that there had been several reports of students running away from Eton, a grammar school founded in 1440 by Henry VI (1421–1471), because they feared beatings from their teachers. Cecil’s remarks started a discussion about educational methods. Several ministers approved of ‘‘the rod’’ and stated that schoolmasters should be allowed to use it as they saw fit. Cecil, though, said that he wished teachers would use better judgment in deciding how to discipline students. Beatings, he thought, as paraphrased in Ascham’s introduction, punished ‘‘rather the weakenes of nature, than the fault of the Scholer.’’ After this dinner, the queen’s treasurer, Sir Richard Sackville (died 1566), met privately with Ascham to seek advice on how to educate his young grandson. The treasurer confided that he agreed wholeheartedly with Cecil, and that his own terror of his violent teacher had caused him to hate school. ‘‘Now,’’ he told Ascham, ‘‘when I know, what difference it is, to have learninge, and to have litle, or none at all, I feele it my greatest greife, and find it my greatest hurte, that ever came to me, that it was my so ill chance, to light upon so lewde a Scholemaster.’’ Hoping to save his grandson 70


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Roger Ascham. HUL TO N AR CH IV E/G ET TY I MA GES .

from the same bitter experience, Sackville hoped that Ascham could recommend a better course of education for the boy. What Ascham came up with, which was published as The Schoolmaster in 1570 after his death, was a method of study based on the idea that the teacher’s role was to encourage the student’s natural love of learning. Like the standard curriculum of the time, it recommended a thorough Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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knowledge of Latin. Unlike other programs, though, Ascham’s curriculum would not encourage students to speak Latin. This, he felt, contributed to error, for they would speak without understanding proper grammar. Instead, Ascham recommended that students learn to read Latin and to translate it into English before starting to speak in Latin. By following this method, students would ‘‘speak so as it may well appeaer that the brain doth govern the tongue and that reason leadeth forth the talk.’’ Ascham fully believed in giving students a firm foundation in the rules of grammar. He expected students to spend long hours memorizing texts and mastering their lessons. But he also emphasized the importance of sympathy and understanding on the teacher’s part. When a pupil made a mistake, he wrote, the teacher should not respond with a frown or a negative comment so long as the child had tried his best. Furthermore, the schoolmaster should praise the student for good work. ‘‘For I assure you,’’ wrote Ascham, ‘‘there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning as is praise.’’

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Schoolmaster :

Formal education, formerly available only to the wealthy, was becoming increasingly available to the middle class in sixteenthcentury England.

Most instruction was by rote learning, with students memorizing lessons. Teachers often beat students who made mistakes or broke school rules.

Around the mid–1500s, some teachers began to advocate for changes that recognized students’ developmental needs and questioned the practice of beating students.

Ascham was greatly influenced by the writings of Cicero (106–43 BCE ), a Roman statesman, public speaker, and philosopher.

The Schoolmaster The First Book for the Youth . . . There is a way, touched in the first book of Cicero Deoratore, which, wisely brought into schools, truly taught, and constantly used, would not 72


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Ascham was heavily influenced by the works of Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. HU LTO N AR CH IVE / GE TTY IM AGE S.

only take wholly away this butcherly fear in making of Latins but would also, with ease and pleasure and in short time, as I know by good experience, work a true choice and placing of words, a right ordering of sentences, an easy understanding of the tongue, a readiness to speak, a facility to write a true judgment both of his own and other men’s doings, what tongue [language] soever he doth use. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The Schoolmaster Concordances: Alphabetical indexes of words in a text. Sturmius: Missionary priest in England (705–779). Parse: Break down into parts.

Prompt: Provide the words of a forgotten passage.

Tully: Another name for Cicero.

The way is this. After the three concordances learned, as I touched before, let the master read unto him the epistles of Cicero gathered together and chosen out by Sturmius for the capacity of children. First let him teach the child, cheerfully and plainly, the cause and matter of the letter; then, let him construe [interpret] into English so oft as the child may easily carry away the understanding of it; lastly, parse it over perfectly. This done thus, let the child, by and by, both construe and parse it over again so that it may appear that the child doubteth in nothing that his master taught him before. After this, the child must take a paper book and, sitting in some place where no man shall prompt him, by himself, let him translate into English his former lesson. Then, showing it to his master, let the master take from him his Latin book, and, pausing an hour at the least, then let the child translate his own English into Latin again in another paper book. When the child bringeth it turned into Latin, the master must compare it with Tully’s book and lay them both together, and where the child doth well, either in choosing or true placing of Tully’s words, let the master praise him and say, ‘‘Here ye do well.’’ For I assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning as is praise. But if the child miss, either in forgetting a word, or in changing a good with a worse, or misordering the sentence, I would not have the master either frown or chide [scold] with him, if the child have done his diligence and used no truantship therein. For I know by good experience that a child shall take more profit of two faults gently warned of than of four things rightly hit. . . . And therefore we do not contemn rules, but we gladly teach rules, and teach them more plainly, sensibly, and orderly than they be commonly taught in common schools. For when the master shall compare Tully’s book with his scholar’s translation, let the master at the first lead and teach his scholar to join the rules of his grammar book with the examples of his present lesson, until the scholar by himself be able to fetch out of his grammar every rule for every example, so as the grammar book be ever in the scholar’s hand and also used of him, as a dictionary, for every present use. This is a lively and perfect way of teaching of rules, where the common way, used in common schools, to read the grammar alone by itself, is tedious for the master, hard for the scholar, cold and uncomfortable for them both.

Beguile: Deceive.

Let your scholar be never afraid to ask you any doubt, but use discreetly the best allurements ye can to encourage him to the same, lest his overmuch fearing of you drive him to some misorderly shift, as to seek to be helped by some other book, or to be prompted by some other scholar, and so go about to beguile you much and himself more. With this way—of good understanding the matter, plain construing, diligent parsing, daily translating, cheerful admonishing, and heedful

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amending of faults, never leaving behind just praise for well-doing—I would have the scholar brought up withal, till he had read and translated over the first book of epistles chosen out by Sturmius, with a good piece of a comedy of Terence also. All this while, by mine advice, the child shall use to speak no Latin, for, as Cicero saith in like matter, with like words, loquendo, male loqui discunt [By speaking, they learn to speak badly]. . . .

Terence: Publius Terentius Afer, Latin comic poet born in Carthage, North Africa (c. 190–159 BCE ).

In very deed, if children were brought up in such a house, or such a school, where the Latin tongue were properly and perfectly spoken . . . surely then the daily use of speaking were the best and readiest way to learn the Latin tongue. But now commonly, in the best schools in England, for words, right choice is smally regarded, true propriety wholly neglected; confusion is brought in, barbarousness is bred up so in young wits as afterward they be not only marred for speaking but also corrupted in judgment, as with much ado, or never at all, they be brought to right frame again. Yet all men covet to have their children speak Latin, and so do I very earnestly too. We both have one purpose; we agree in desire, we wish one end; but we differ somewhat in order and way that leadeth rightly to that end. Other would have them speak at all adventures and, so they be speaking, to speak, the master careth not, the scholar knoweth not, what. This is to seem and not to be, except it be to be bold without shame, rash without skill, full of words without wit. I wish to have them speak so as it may well appear that the brain doth govern the tongue and that reason leadeth forth the talk. . . .

Covet: Wish.

What happened next . . . The Elizabethans’ interest in education led to further developments in the 1600s. Advances in technology and trade contributed to the expansion of education. Improvements in printing technology, for example, helped lower the cost of producing books. Increased trade and higher incomes, meanwhile, fueled the growth of a relatively large middle class that desired, and could afford, schooling for its children. Formal education continued to become more accessible to children of less privileged families, and more advocates expressed support for the education of girls. Courses of study, which still focused on Latin, also expanded. New developments in science, a subject that received little attention in the 1500s, began to be included in school curricula. Modern European Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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English educators were greatly influenced by the ideas of John Amos Comenius. C OUR TE SY OF TH E L IBR AR Y O F C OGR ES S.

languages were also taught, and more time was given to the study of English. At the same time, however, Puritan reformers demanded that schools include more emphasis on Christian writings. (Puritans were a group of Protestants who followed strict religious standards.) English educators in the 1600s were greatly influenced by the theories of a European teacher, John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), who was born in Moravia (now the Czech Republic). In contrast to earlier schoolmasters who forced their students to memorize lessons perfectly and beat them when they failed, Comenius believed that learning involved not just intellectual memory, but also spiritual and 76


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emotional growth. For Comenius, learning was a life-long activity. He believed that all children, regardless of income or gender, should be educated. His theories transformed education in seventeenthcentury Europe; for example, he was asked to restructure the school system in Sweden. Comenius was asked to become the first president of Harvard College, but he declined. Comenius was the first educator to create a textbook with pictures, the Orbis Sensualium Pictus (The Visible World in Pictures, 1658). This book became extremely popular, and was used in schools all across Europe. Reform-minded educators in England adopted many ideas and methods from Comenius. In 1659 his Orbis Pictus was translated into English; the book, reprinted several times, was widely used. Among English scholars who admired the ideals of Comenius was philosopher and poet John Milton (1608–1674). In his book Of Education, Milton advocated a course of education that would begin with direct experience, which young children could easily understand, and then move to the teaching of abstract concepts when children were sufficiently mature to grasp this material. This idea was inspired by Comenius. But, unlike Comenius, Milton emphasized that the purpose of education was to prepare individuals to serve God and become good citizens of the state.

Did you know . . .

In the mid–1500s about 20 percent of men and 5 percent of women in England could read and write. By 1600 literacy rates had risen to approximately 30 percent for men and 10 percent for women.

Literacy was higher in the cities than in rural areas. In the 1580s an estimated 60 percent of businessmen and merchants in London could read and write.

The school day for English students usually began at about six or seven in the morning, with a 15-minute break for breakfast and a two-hour break for the midday meal. Classes did not end until about five o’clock or five-thirty.

The Merchant Taylors’ School and Wolverhampton Grammar School still operate among the top-ranked grammar schools in Britain.


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Elizabethan grammar schools differed from today’s schools in many ways: they did not serve all children, they taught different subjects than are included in today’s curricula, and they used different methods of instruction. Which of these differences do you find most interesting, and why?

If you were asked to create a whole new curriculum for your school, what subjects would you include? Which of these should be emphasized as core subjects and which should receive lesser attention? What would be the primary goal of this new course of study?


Orme, Nicholas. Medieval Schools: From Roman Britain to Tudor England. New Haven, CT and London, England: Yale University Press, 2006. Ryan, Lawrence V., ed. The Schoolmaster (1570) by Roger Ascham. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967. Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport, CT and London, England: Greenwood Press, 1995. WEB SIT ES

‘‘About John Amos Comenius.’’ http://www.comeniusfoundation.org/ comenius.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Educating Shakespeare. http://www.likesnail.org.uk/welcome-es.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Mulcaster, Richard. ‘‘Positions Concerning the Training Up of Children (1581).’’ http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~wbarker/positions.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). The Seventeenth Century and Education. http://education.umn.edu/EdPA/ iconics/reading%20room/8.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Shakespeare’s Schooling.’’ http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/ essays/school/schooling1.acds (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘What Every Schoolboy Knows.’’ http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/ 54.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth I ‘‘Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth’’

By Pope Pius V Originally written in 1570 Available online at http://tudorhistory.org/primary/papalbull.html

‘‘We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects peoples and others afore said that they do not dare obey [Queen Elizabeth I’s] orders, mandates and laws.’’

ne of the first matters to which Elizabeth I (1533–1603) turned her attention after taking power in 1558 was the problem of religious conflict. Elizabeth had been raised as a Protestant after her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), had officially severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s. This action, which Henry took in order to legalize his divorce from his first wife and marry Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn (c. 1507–1536), firmly established the Protestant Reformation in England. (The Protestant Reformation was a sixteenth-century religious movement that aimed to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of Protestant churches.) Though Henry did not care much about reforming traditional religious beliefs and practices, he did worry about losing the loyalty of his subjects. He demanded that they recognize his authority as head of the English church. Those who refused to do so were seen as a political threat, and they were subjected to fines and other punishments. The new Protestant church became more firmly established during the reign of Henry’s son, Edward VI (1537–1553). Since Edward was only nine years old when he became king, a group of influential nobles were appointed to govern the country on his behalf. These nobles

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Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth I

Mary I’s attempts to re-unify the country under Catholicism worsened England’s religious conflicts. HU LT ON AR CH IV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

strongly supported religious reforms that, in their view, would return the church to the original teachings of Christ and eliminate traditions that had become part of Catholic practice but were not mentioned in the Bible. Religious officials led by Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) wrote a new order of worship, The Book of Common Prayer, to replace the Latin liturgy used by the Catholic church. When Edward died, his half-sister, Mary I (1516–1558), reversed English policy and reinstituted Catholicism as the country’s official religion. Devoutly Catholic, she believed that the English people would happily return to Catholicism 80



once she had eliminated the leaders who had initiated Protestant reforms. But England did not welcome this abrupt change. As she faced continued resistance from Protestants who refused to reject their beliefs, Mary launched an aggressive campaign against heretics, or people who express an opinion that opposes established church doctrines (principles). During her reign she ordered approximately three hundred Protestants to be burned at the stake for their beliefs—a number that far exceeded executions for heresy during the previous several decades. Far from unifying the country, Mary’s harsh policies only worsened England’s religious conflicts. Inheriting the throne after Mary’s death, Elizabeth sought to end the persecution and violence that had tormented the country for so long. She realized that England needed to be united under one church, the Protestant Anglican church. Yet she did not want to provoke Catholics who wished to maintain their own traditions of worship. The queen effected a compromise that became known as the Religious Settlement. This settlement had three parts: the Act of Uniformity (1559) established The Book of Common Prayer as the official order of worship in England; the Act of Supremacy (1559) declared the queen the supreme governor of the English church; and the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) established official Anglican doctrine. The Religious Settlement required outward conformity to the Church of England, but it tolerated Catholics so long as they kept their beliefs to themselves. After Mary’s merciless persecution of Protestants, the English people were relieved that Elizabeth’s policy aimed for tolerance. Despite this spirit of compromise, support for the Catholic cause remained strong in many parts of the country, particularly in the north. Many Catholics considered Elizabeth’s claim to power illegitimate, since her parents’ marriage had not been sanctioned according to Catholic law. In their view, Elizabeth’s Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587), was the legitimate heir to the English throne. Various conspiracies arose to overthrow Elizabeth and put Mary in power. The first major plot occurred in 1569 when a group of nobles led by the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland raised an army in the northern counties. Though Elizabeth’s government suppressed the rebellion, the incident, known as the Northern Rising, contributed to growing fear and distrust of Catholics. To support the Northern Rebellion, Pope Pius V (1504–1572) issued an official proclamation, known as a papal bull, that excommunicated Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Elizabeth and absolved her Catholic subjects from any requirement to obey her. (Excommunication officially deprives a person of church membership.) In fact, the bull commanded English Catholics to resist the queen’s rule, and it stated that those who remained loyal to Elizabeth would also be excommunicated. This placed English Catholics in a very difficult position, in effect requiring them to become traitors in order to remain loyal to their faith. The bull did not arrive in England, however, until after the rebellion had been suppressed.

Things to remember while reading ‘‘Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth’’:

The pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. His authority on church matters is supreme. Faithful Catholics are obligated to obey his pronouncements.

The Northern Rebellion, an uprising led by Catholic nobles in the north, was the first serious threat to Elizabeth’s power. The pope’s bull was issued to support this rebellion.

The papal bull excommunicated Elizabeth and stated that English Catholics were not required to obey her. Those who continued to support her, it added, could also be excommunicated.

Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth Pius Bishop, servant of the servants of God, in lasting memory of the matter. He that reigneth on high, to who is given all power in heaven and earth, has committed one holy Catholic and apostolic Church, outside of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, namely to Peter, the first of the apostles, and to Peter’s successor, the pope of Rome, to be by him governed in fullness of power. Him alone He has made ruler over all peoples and kingdoms, to pull up, destroy, scatter, disperse, plant and build, so that he may preserve His faithful people (knit together with the girdle of charity) in the unity of the Spirit and present them safe and spotless to their Saviour. 1. In obedience to which duty, we (who by God’s goodness are called to the aforesaid government of the Church) spare no pains and labour with all our might that unity and the catholic religion (which their Author, for the trial of His children’s faith and our correction, has suffered to be afflicted with such great troubles) may be preserved entire. But the number of the ungodly 82



Pope Pius V. H UL TON AR CH IV E/G ET TY I MA GES .

has so much grown in power that there is no place left in the world which they have not tried to corrupt with their most wicked doctrines; and among others, Elizabeth, the pretended queen of England and the servant of crime, has assisted in this, with whom as in a sanctuary the most pernicious [harmful] of all have found refuge. This very woman, having seized the crown and monstrously usurped [siezed] the place of supreme head of the Church in all England together with the chief authority and jurisdiction belonging to it, has once again reduced this same kingdom—which had already been restored to the Catholic faith and to good fruits—to a miserable ruin. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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See: Jurisdiction of the pope.

Propounded: Put forward. Calvin: John Calvin (1509– 1564), Protestant leader. Ecclesiastical: Relating to a church.

Temporal: Relating to the material world.

Nuncios: Papal ambassadors.

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2. Prohibiting with a strong hand the use of the true religion, which after its earlier overthrow by Henry VIII (a deserter therefrom) Mary, the lawful queen of famous memory, had with the help of this See restored, she has followed and embraced the errors of the heretics. She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics; oppressed the followers of the Catholic faith; instituted false preachers and ministers of impiety; abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fasts, choice of meats, celibacy, and Catholic ceremonies; and has ordered that books of manifestly heretical content be propounded to the whole realm and that impious rites and institutions after the rule of Calvin, entertained and observed by herself, be also observed by her subjects. She has dared to eject bishops, rectors of churches and other Catholic priests from their churches and benefices, to bestow these and other things ecclesiastical upon heretics, and to determine spiritual causes; has forbidden the prelates [bishops], clergy and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey its precepts and canonical sanctions; has forced most of them to come to terms with her wicked laws, to abjure [renounce] the authority and obedience of the pope of Rome, and to accept her, on oath, as their only lady in matters temporal and spiritual; has imposed penalties and punishments on those who would not agree to this and has exacted then of those who preserved in the unity of the faith and the aforesaid obedience; has thrown the Catholic prelates and parsons into prison where many, worn out by long languishing and sorrow, have miserably ended their lives. All these matter and manifest and notorius among all the nations; they are so well proven by the weighty witness of many men that there remains no place for excuse, defence or evasion. 3. We, seeing impieties and crimes multiplied one upon another the persecution of the faithful and afflictions of religion daily growing more severe under the guidance and by the activity of the said Elizabeth—and recognising that her mind is so fixed and set that she has not only despised the pious prayers and admonitions with which Catholic princes have tried to cure and convert her but has not even permitted the nuncios sent to her in this matter by this See to cross into England, are compelled by necessity to take up against her the weapons of justice, though we cannot forbear to regret that we should be forced to turn upon one whose ancestors have so well deserved of the Christian community. Therefore, resting upon the authority of Him whose pleasure it was to place us (though unequal to such a burden) upon this supreme justice-seat, we do out of the fullness of our apostolic power declare the foresaid Elizabeth to be a heretic and favourer of heretics, and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of excommunication and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


4. And moreover (we declare) her to be deprived of her pretended title to the aforesaid crown and of all lordship, dignity and privilege whatsoever. 5. And also (declare) the nobles, subjects and people of the said realm and all others who have in any way sworn oaths to her, to be forever absolved from such an oath and from any duty arising from lordship, fealty and obedience; and we do, by authority of these presents, so absolve them and so deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended title to the crown and all other the abovesaid matters. We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects peoples and others afore said that they do not dare obey her orders, mandates and laws. Those who shall act to the contrary we include in the like sentence of excommunication.

Fealty: Allegiance.

6. Because in truth it may prove too difficult to take these presents wheresoever it shall be necessary, we will that copies made under the hand of a notary public and sealed with the seal of a prelate of the Church or of his court shall have such force and trust in and out of judicial proceedings, in all places among the nations, as these presents would themselves have if they were exhibited or shown. Given at St. Peter’s at Rome, on 27 April 1570 of the Incarnation; in the fifth year of our pontificate.

What happened next . . . Pope Pius V’s bull only made things worse for England’s Catholics. By encouraging them to disobey their monarch, he created suspicion against them as potential traitors. And some English Catholics were indeed intent on overthrowing their Protestant monarch. In 1570 the Ridolfi plot was discovered. Led by Italian banker Roberto di Ridolfi (1531–1612) and Thomas Howard (Duke of Norfolk; 1536–1572), this conspiracy aimed to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary Stuart, whom Howard planned to marry, on the throne. Philip II (1527– 1598), the king of Spain, supported this plot. He also sent troops to Ireland in 1579 to support the second Desmond rebellion against the English. In the 1570s Elizabeth abandoned her earlier policy of religious tolerance, and she began to enforce harsh anti-Catholic legislation. In 1580 Pope Gregory XIII issued a formal clarification of the original bull, stating that Catholics should obey the queen in all Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Pope Pius V’s bull led the queen to distrust Catholic missionaries like Edmund Campion (pictured), who was executed for treason after ministering to English Catholics. # HU LTO NDEU TSC H CO LL ECT IO N/ C OR BI S.

matters except those relating to religion. He hoped that this would rescue English Catholics from automatic suspicion of treason. He also sent two Jesuit priests who had fled England for Europe, Edmund Campion (1540–1581) and Robert Persons (1546–1610), back to England to begin secretly ministering to the needs of the Catholic community there. When Campion was captured and charged with treason, he explained that the pope’s orders forbade him to become involved with any political matters. His mission, he insisted, was solely to serve Catholics’ religious needs and not to incite rebellion. Elizabeth’s advisors, however, did not trust the motives of the pope 86



or of the English Catholics who were living in exile in Europe. The government assumed that the priests were part of a mission to incite Catholics to rise up against the Protestant queen. Tried and convicted of high treason, Campion was the first of several English Jesuits who were executed during Elizabeth’s reign. As was customary for those found guilty of the most serious crimes, he was hanged until nearly dead, then he was cut down and disemboweled before his arms, legs, and head were hacked off. Campion’s punishment only strengthened the determination of the Catholic community in exile to resist the queen. During the 1580s tensions between England and Spain rapidly intensified. Catholic Spain was the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. Under terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) it had enjoyed exclusive rights, along with Portugal, to trade in the Western Hemisphere, and Spain had siezed vast amounts of gold, silver, and other treasure from the Americas. When English seafarers attempted to trade in the Caribbean in the 1560s, Spain attacked them and confiscated their cargoes. After discovering Spain’s support for the Ridolfi plot, Elizabeth gave secret permission to English sea captains to raid Spanish ships and territories in the Americas. She hoped to weaken Spain’s power and grab as much treasure as possible for England. Meanwhile, Catholic dissidents continued to plan conspiracies against Elizabeth. In 1583 the Throckmorton Plot was discovered; its organizers had hoped to persuade France to send troops to England to assassinate the queen and place Mary Stuart on the throne. In 1586 a conspiracy led by Anthony Babington (1561–1586) was discovered. This plot, to which Spain had pledged support, resulted in Mary Stuart’s execution for treason in 1587. Philip II had long believed that a Spanish invasion of England would be necessary to end the war and to restore Catholicism in Elizabeth’s realm. After years of planning, he decided to launch a huge naval attack in 1588. He sought support from Pope Sixtus V, who agreed to renew the bull of excommunication against the queen. This action was intended to rouse Catholics in England to join the invading Spanish and overthrow Elizabeth. As it turned out, however, the threat of invasion—which ultimately failed—brought the English people together. The safety and independence of their country proved more important to them than their religious identity. Most Catholics in England remained loyal to the government Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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during this crisis; it was from the community of English Catholic exiles in Europe that serious plots against the queen arose. Religious tensions continued into the early 1600s. Elizabeth’s successor, James I (1566–1625), adopted policies that were basically tolerant in matters of religion, but they did not go far enough to satisfy either the Puritan faction or the Catholic extremists. (Puritans were a group of Protestants who followed strict religious standards.) In 1605 Catholic plotters attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, hoping to kill the king and his council and install his oldest daughter, who they expected to convert to Catholicism, on the throne. The Gunpowder Plot, which got its name from the 2.5 tons of gunpowder the conspirators had stored in a cellar under the House of Lords, was discovered at the last minute and the plotters were executed. By urging English Catholics to commit treason, Pius V’s bull contributed to lasting anti-Catholic feeling in England. Catholicism remained a minority religion, and for centuries Catholics in England suffered restricted rights. It remains a legal requirement that the heir to the English throne must be a Protestant. Moreover, anyone married to a Catholic is prohibited from ascending to the throne.

Did you know . . .

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A papal bull is a formal public communication from the pope. Its name comes from the special seal (bulla) at the end of the document that verified its authenticity. This seal was most often made of lead, but gold could be used as well. Since the late 1700s a red ink stamp has replaced the metal seal.

Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, had been excommunicated by Pope Clement VII (1478–1534).

In 1571 English law made it an act of treason to introduce papal bulls or call the monarch a heretic. In 1581 it became an act of treason to convert someone, or be converted, to Catholicism. Other laws deprived Catholics of property and the right to inherit land or hold public office.

Not until 1778, when the Relief Act was passed, were Catholics in England legally permitted to own land. A further act in 1791 allowed Catholic priests to perform their clerical duties. In 1829 the Emancipation Act allowed Catholics to hold public office and serve in Parliament. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources



If you had been the head of a Catholic family in England, how would you have responded to Pope Pius V’s bull excommunicating Elizabeth? Would you have supported your sons if they chose to join an army against the queen? Write a letter to your children explaining in detail the actions you would hope they would take.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids the establishment of any national religion in the United States. Did the framers of the Constitution succeed in creating a society that would be free of the kinds of religious strife that England experienced in the 1500s?


Brigden, Susan. New Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Bryant, Arthur. The Elizabethan Deliverance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981. Hogge, Alice. God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: Perennial, 2001. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Elizabethan Church and Catholics.’’ Elizabeth I. http://www.elizabethi.org/us/ elizabethanchurch/catholics.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabethan Plots and Rebellions.’’ http://hfriedberg.web.wesleyan.edu/ wescourses/2005f/engl205/01/histories/plotsandrebellions.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Pope Pius V’s Bull Against Elizabeth.’’ http://tudorhistory.org/primary/ papalbull.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Protestant England.’’ http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/ ENGLAND.HTM (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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Debate on Elizabeth’s Catholic Policies Excerpt from The Execution of Justice in England

By William Cecil Excerpt from A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics

By William Allen Reprinted in The Execution of Justice in England by William Cecil and A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics by William Allen Published by Cornell University Press, 1965

‘‘Most prisons in England be full at this day and have been for divers years of honorable and honest persons not to be touched with any treason or other offense in the world other than their profession and faith in Christian religion.’’ –William Allen.

lizabeth I (1533–1603) began her reign hoping to promote religious tolerance in England. The country first moved toward Protestantism when her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), officially rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic pope in the 1530s. Under his heir, Edward VI (1537–1553), the English church became more strictly Protestant; changes in worship services, for example, eliminated many prayers and rituals that had been part of Catholic tradition. After Edward’s death, however, his half-sister, Mary I (1516–1558), attempted to force England back to Catholicism. Though English Catholics who had been deprived of the right to worship freely under Henry and Edward rejoiced at this move, many of Mary’s subjects had accepted the Protestant church and had no wish to shift their allegiance back to Catholicism. Frustrated at their resistance, Mary began enforcing heresy laws against Protestants. (Heresy is a religious opinion that conflicts with the church’s doctrines.)

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Debate on Elizabeth’s Catholic Policies

Over about three years, she ordered approximately three hundred men, women, and children—many of them ordinary people who had no political power—burned to death at the stake for being Protestants. Seeing how Mary’s intolerant policies had earned the hatred of her subjects, and understanding that continued religious conflicts would drive the country apart, Elizabeth gave England a compromise. She reinstituted Protestantism as the country’s official religion and required outward acceptance of the new church, but she did not persecute Catholics for their beliefs. She hoped that Catholics would find it acceptable to participate in Protestant worship, since the English church was based on the same biblical teachings as was Catholicism. Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement did bring a sense of relief to England after the pitiless years of Mary’s religious persecution. But Catholic sentiment remained strong in many parts of the country, particularly the northern regions. Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects were deeply troubled that they had no legal right to attend Mass, the Catholic religious service, or participate in traditional Catholic rites. Many also believed that Elizabeth should not have been made queen, since her birth had been illegitimate under Catholic law. In their view, Elizabeth’s Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587) had a more legitimate claim to the English crown. Support for Mary’s cause inspired the Northern Rising in 1569, in which the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland raised an army against Elizabeth in the northern counties. In support of this rebellion, Pope Pius V (1504–1572) issued an official proclamation, known as a papal bull, excommunicating Elizabeth and freeing English Catholics from any obligation to obey her. (Excommunication officially deprives a person of church membership.) Because the bull also commanded English Catholics to try to overthrow the queen, Elizabeth’s government soon began to suspect all Catholics of treason. Though England quickly defeated the northern rebels, the government feared additional conspiracies and was especially worried that Catholic powers in Europe would give support to Mary Stuart’s champions. Harsh anti-Catholic legislation was enacted and enforced in England; many English Catholics fled to Europe where they lived in exile, hoping for the eventual return of Catholic rule in England. Their spiritual leader, Cardinal William Allen (1532–1594), trained missionary priests who would later return to England to minister to Catholics and try to convert Protestants. Two Jesuit priests, Edmund Campion (1540–1581) and Robert Persons (1546–1610), arrived secretly in England in 1580. 92



William Allen. # ANN R ON AN PI CT URE LI BRA RY /H IP/ TH E IM AG E WO RK S.

Elizabeth’s agents soon discovered Campion’s whereabouts and arrested him for treason. Though he insisted that his mission had nothing to do with politics and that the pope had expressly forbidden him to meddle in government matters, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered—a gruesome method of execution, reserved for the most serious of crimes, in which the prisoner was hanged, cut down while still alive, and disemboweled before his limbs were cut off and he was finally beheaded. Though the queen hoped that Campion’s execution would deter future missions, it had the opposite effect, inspiring exiled Catholics to continue their efforts to depose Elizabeth. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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William Cecil. H ULT ON A RC HIV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

The execution of Campion and other missionary priests who followed him provoked so much criticism that Elizabeth’s secretary of state and chief advisor, William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598) wrote a pamphlet defending the government’s actions. In The Execution of Justice in England, first published in December 1583, Cecil argued that Catholics in England were not punished because of their religious beliefs but because they had committed treason. He explicitly stated that Campion and other missionary priests were part of a military campaign to overthrow the queen and place a Catholic monarch on the throne. The 94



government’s treatment of these men, therefore, had been entirely reasonable and necessary for the defense of the realm. Cardinal Allen responded almost immediately with a document of his own, A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics. In this work he refuted each of Cecil’s claims, and argued that Catholics in England were, in fact, persecuted solely on the basis of their faith. He gave examples of individuals against whom no charge of treason had been made, and he argued further that, since Elizabeth’s government had abolished heresy laws, it had no legal right to put Catholics to death.

Things to remember while reading The Execution of Justice in England and A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics:

Though Elizabeth’s religious policy was tolerant at first, Catholics could not openly practice their religion.

Plots against Elizabeth from Catholic nations like Spain created distrust of Catholics both abroad and at home.

Cecil and Allen each had their own motivations for writing their pamphets. Cecil wanted to protect England’s image as a just nation ruled by a lawful queen, while Allen wanted to gain sympathy and support for the Catholic cause.

The Execution of Justice in England . . . Of which sort of late years are specially to be noted certain persons, naturally born subjects in the realm of England and Ireland, who, having for some good time professed outwardly their obedience to their sovereign lady, Queen Elizabeth, have nevertheless afterward been stirred up and seduced by wicked spirits, first in England sundry [various] years past, and secondly and of later time in Ireland, to enter into open rebellion, taking arms and coming into the field against Her Majesty and her lieutenants, with their forces under banners displayed, inducing by notable untruths many simple people to follow and assist them in their traitorous actions. And though it is very well known that both their intentions and manifest actions were bent to have deposed the Queen’s Majesty from her crown and to have traitorously set in her place some other whom they liked, whereby if they had not been speedily resisted they would have committed great bloodsheds and slaughters of Her Majesty’s faithful subjects and ruined their native country; Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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yet by God’s power given unto Her Majesty they were so speedily vanquished as some few of them suffered by order of law according to their deserts, many and the greatest part upon confession of their faults were pardoned, the rest (but they not many) of the principal escaped into foreign countries; and there . . . these notable traitors and rebels have falsely informed many kings, princes, and states, and specially the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the Pope (from whom they all had secretly their first comfort to rebel), that the cause of their fleeing from their countries was for the religion of Rome and for maintenance of the said Pope’s authority. Whereas divers [various] of them before their rebellion lived so notoriously the most part of their lives out of all good rule. . . . But notwithstanding the notorious evil and wicked lives of these and others their confederates [allies], void of all Christian religion, it like the Bishop of Rome, as in favor of their treasons, not to color their offenses, as themselves openly pretend to do, for avoiding of common shame of the world, but flatly to animate them to continue their former wicked purposes, that is, to take arms against their lawful queen, to invade her realm with foreign forces, to pursue all her good subjects and their native countries with fire and sword; for maintenance whereof there had some years before at sundry time proceeded, in a thundering sort, bulls, excommunications, and other public writings denouncing Her Majesty, being the lawful Queen and God’s anointed servant, not to be the queen of the realm; charging and, upon pains of excommunication, commanding all her subjects to depart from their natural allegiances whereto by birth and by oath they were bound; provoking also and authorizing all persons of all degrees within both the realms to rebel. . . .

Seditious: Rebellious.

Canker: Source of corruption.

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But God’s goodness, by Whom kings do rule and by Whose blast traitors are commonly wasted and confounded, hath otherwise given to Her Majesty, as to His handmaid and dear servant ruling under Him, the spirit of wisdom and power, whereby she hath caused some of these seditious seedmen and sowers of rebellion to be discovered, for all their secret lurkings, and to be taken and charged with these former points of high treason, not being dealt withal upon question of religion, but justly [by order of laws, openly] condemned as traitors. At which times, not withstanding all manner gentle ways of persuasions used to move them to desist from such manifest traitorous courses and opinions, [with offer of mercy,] yet was the canker of their rebellious humors so deeply entered and graven into the hearts of many of them as they would not be removed from their traitorous determinations. And therefore, as manifest traitors in maintaining and adhering to the capital enemy of Her Majesty and her crown (who hath not only been the cause of two rebellions already past in England and Ireland, but in that of Ireland did manifestly wage and maintain his own Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


people, captains and soldiers, under the banner of Rome, against Her Majesty, so as no enemy could do more), these, I say, have justly suffered death, not by force or form of any new laws established, either for religion or against the Pope’s supremacy, as their slanderous libelers would have it seem to be, but by the ancient temporal laws of the realm, and namely by the laws of Parliament made in King Edward the Third’s time, about the year of Our Lord 1330, which is above two hundred years and more past, when the Bishops of Rome and Popes were suffered to have authority ecclesiastical in this realm, as they had in many other countries. But yet of this kind of offenders, as many of them as after their condemnations were contented to renounce their former traitorous assertions, so many were spared from execution and do live still at this day; such was the unwillingness in Her Majesty to have any blood spilled without this very urgent, just, and necessary cause, proceeding from themselves. . . .

Ecclesiastical: Relating to a church.

A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics That Suffer for their Faith both at Home and Abroad; Against a False Seditious, and Slanderous Libel Entitled: The Execution of Justice in England Chapter I . . . Now to the principal points of the libel: we first affirm that the very front or title thereof (importing that no Catholics at all, or none of them whom they have executed, were persecuted for their religion) is a very notorious untruth and contradictory to the libeler’s own words in his discourse following, where he confesseth underhand that some be corrected otherwise for religion. Or (if they will stand in the contrary) we appeal to the conscience and knowledge of all the Catholics and Protestants within the realm, who of their equity will never deny that most prisons in England be full at this day and have been for divers years of honorable and honest persons not to be touched with any treason or other offense in the world other than their profession and faith in Christian religion. Secondly, we say and shall clearly convince that, contrary to the pursuit of the same libel, a number have been also tormented, arraigned, condemned, and executed for mere matter of religion and upon the transgression of new statutes only, without any relation to the old treasons so made and set down by Parliament in Edward the Third’s time, by which they untruly avouch all our brethren were convicted. And herein to deal particularly and plainly, we allege the worthy priest and Bachelor of Divinity, Mr. Cuthbert Mayne (who suffered a glorious martyrdom at Launceston in the province of Cornwall, for that the case or Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Debate on Elizabeth’s Catholic Policies Agnus Dei: Image of Jesus as the Lamb of God. Jubilee: Catholic religious festival to celebrate a Holy Year.

Captious: Intending to trap or confuse. Schismatical: Causing a split within a church.

Calumnious: Harmful misrepresentation.

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cover only of an Agnus Dei, and a printed copy of that bull, now expired, which denounced to the Christian world the last Jubilee, were found about him), condemned not by any old laws (as is deceitfully pretended to abuse the simple of our own nation and strangers that know not our lamentable condition) but by a late statute enacted the thirteenth year of the Queen’s reign which marketh it high treason to bring from Rome any beads, sacred pictures, Agnus Deis, bulls, or (as the express words of the said statute are) ‘‘any writing or instrument, written or printed, containing any thing, matter, or cause whatsoever,’’ by which words they may condemn a man to death as guilty of high treason though he bring from Rome but letters testimonial for a traveler’s credit and commendation in journey: a thing unheard of in all ages, not credible to foreigners and a fable to the posterity, or rather a warning to the world to come, into what misery and barbarousness a kingdom that forsaketh the Church may be brought unto. And an honorable gentleman of an ancient family, for only receiving the said blessed priest into his house, remaineth condemned at this day to perpetual prison and hath lost both lands and goods of great importance for that fact. Likewise Thomas Sherwood, a layman indicted, adjudged, and put to death for questions of the Queen’s supremacy in causes spiritual and other articles made capital by the new laws only two years at the least before this fiction of conspiracy against the realm or person of the princess was made or heard of. The same year was a reverend priest named Mr. John Nelson condemned and executed for affirming (being driven thereunto by the commissioners’ captious interrogatories) the Queen’s religion to be heretical and schismatical, which is made death not by the old laws of the realm, nor by any other of any Christian country, but only by a statute made in the said thirteenth year of the Queen’s reign, providing by a special clause that none shall affirm Her Majesty that now is (for it holdeth not in other princes’ cases to come) to be an heretic or schismatic, under pain of incurring high treason and death. After these, Mr. Everard Hanse was indicted and so condemned to death (which he constantly suffered) only upon a statute made in the last Parliament of all (by which it is made a crime capital to persuade any man to the Catholic religion), into the compass of which law they violently drew the blessed man by calumnious interpretation of his speeches, when he affirmed (being urged thereunto) that the Pope was his superior in causes spiritual ‘‘and had in such matters spiritual as good right as he ever had in England or hath at this day in Rome,’’ for which words, though enforced from him, he was there presently indicted, arraigned, and condemned to death, and soon after most cruelly executed, whose case, together with that of Mr. Nelson, which goeth before, declareth what truth is in this libeler who writeth here in one place that none are for their contrary opinions in religion Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


persecuted or charged with any crimes or pains of treason, nor yet willingly searched in their consciences for their contrary opinions. And again within a leaf after he repeateth the same untruth, saying: ‘‘Without charging them in their consciences or otherwise by any inquisition to bring them into danger of capital law, so as not one was called into any capital or bloody question upon matters of religion, but have all enjoyed their life as the course of nature would.’’ . . .

What happened next . . . Cecil made sure that The Execution of Justice in England was widely read. A second edition appeared in 1584, and the pamphlet was translated into several languages, including Latin, French, Dutch, German, and Italian. This suggests that Cecil was deeply concerned about European opinion. Catholic sentiment was strong throughout the continent, and England could not let it appear that it was persecuting Catholics for their religious beliefs. If European Catholic monarchs became convinced that England was bent on exterminating Catholicism from the realm, they would most likely decide to invade the kingdom, depose Elizabeth, and install a Catholic ruler on the English throne. Meanwhile, despite his assertions that English Catholics had no interest in committing treason, Cardinal Allen actively conspired with the pope and several European monarchs to do just that. As early as 1575 he had plotted with Spain to send an armed force to England to depose Elizabeth and put Mary Stuart in power, and he continued to seek ways to remove Elizabeth from the throne. After 1585 he worked actively with the pope and the Spanish king, Philip II (1527–1598), to plan a massive naval invasion of England. Philip’s powerful Armada, the most formidable navy in the world, would carry troops across the English Channel; once this army landed, the English people, incited by a new papal bull urging resistance against the queen, would join the troops and overthrow the Protestant government. The Armada sailed in 1588, but the invasion failed due to tactical errors, poor weather, and the superiority of England’s naval technology. Even if troops had landed, however, it is doubtful that English Catholics would have heeded the pope’s command to join the invaders. As the country braced for attack, Catholics and Protestants alike rallied to England’s defense, showing that most English Catholics would remain loyal to their Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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country rather than accept foreign rule. The English considered the defeat of the Armada proof that God approved of Elizabeth’s Protestant government. Though religious unrest did not entirely subside after 1588, Protestantism became firmly established in English government and culture.

Did you know . . .

In 1584–1585 Parliament enacted a law stating that any English man who had been ordained as a Catholic priest could be put to death.

During the 1580s Cardinal Allen’s seminary sent 438 priests to England, 98 of whom were executed.

Cuthbert Mayne, whom Allen mentions in Defense of English Catholics, was the first English missionary priest to be put to death. He studied at Cardinal Allen’s seminary and returned to England in 1576. He was executed in 1577. Campion was the first of several Jesuit missionaries to be executed in England.

English Catholics who sheltered or gave support to priests also faced the death penalty.


Whose argument do you find most convincing, Cecil’s or Allen’s? What are some of the differences in the way they each try to influence their readers? Which technique do you find most effective?

Elizabeth’s government chose to pursue an aggressive antiCatholic policy after the pope excommunicated the queen. How well did her policy succeed? If you had been her advisor, what actions would you have recommended she take to deal with the problem of national security?


Brigden, Susan. New Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. 100



Bryant, Arthur. The Elizabethan Deliverance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981. Hogge, Alice. God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Kingdon, Robert M., ed. The Execution of Justice in England by William Cecil and A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense of English Catholics by William Allen. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1965. Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: Perennial, 2001. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Elizabethan Church and Catholics.’’ Elizabeth I. http://www.elizabethi.org/us/ elizabethanchurch/catholics.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabethan Plots and Rebellions.’’ http://hfriedberg.web.wesleyan.edu/ wescourses/2005f/engl205/01/histories/plotsandrebellions.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Protestant England.’’ http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/ ENGLAND.HTM (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh Excerpt from ‘‘The Letters patents, granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh, now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no more’’

Originally published in Hakluyt’s Voyages, 1600 Reprinted by the Viking Press, 1965

‘‘Walter Ralegh his heires and assignes [designated heirs], and every of them, shall have, holde, occupie and enjoy . . . all such landes, territories, and Countries, so to be discovered and possessed as aforesaid, and of all such Cities, Castles, Townes, Villages, and places in the same.’’

n the years before Elizabeth I (1533–1603) took the throne England had paid relatively little attention to exploration of North and South America. Spain and Portugal, however, had grown extremely rich from the vast quantities of gold and silver that they took from the New World, as the Americas were called, where they enjoyed exclusive trading rights under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. As its population and economy expanded rapidly in the 1500s, England realized the need to become more competitive in foreign trade. English merchants, eager to gain access to faster trade routes to Asia, began conducting voyages of discovery across the Atlantic. Their initial aim was to discover a shorter route to India. As reports of these voyages reached England, interest grew in exploring and claiming territories in the New World. Many businessmen who promoted exploration hoped to find the same kind of treasure that had made Spain the wealthiest kingdom in Europe. Queen Elizabeth supported the idea of English exploration of the New World, but such voyages were extremely costly. Her treasury had nowhere near the wealth available to Spain’s Philip II (1527–1598), who could outfit numerous voyages each year. In addition, English ventures

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Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh

into the Americas posed a military risk. For decades Spain had been England’s primary political rival; soon after Elizabeth took the throne in 1558 hostilities worsened as Roman Catholics petitioned Catholic kingdoms such as Spain for help in removing Elizabeth, a Protestant whose rule they considered illegitimate, from power. Though technically at peace, Spain and England were enemies. Spain had no intention of allowing England to share in the huge profits being made from the Americas. Elizabeth wanted to weaken Spain’s power and claim some of the riches of the New World for England. Yet she could not risk openly provoking King Philip. She gave permission to English sea captains to sail to the Caribbean and attack Spanish ships and ports. Soon seafarers were returning to England with wealth from Spanish ships. The queen secretly welcomed them, but she publicly maintained that they had acted on their own. Francis Drake (1540–1596) in particular became notorious for his ruthless piracy, or theft at sea. In 1577 Elizabeth sent Drake on a secret mission to circumnavigate, or sail around, the globe, with the intention that he would attack vulnerable Spanish outposts on the unguarded Pacific coast of South America. The success of his mission caused Spain considerable worry, increasing hostilities between the two nations. Meanwhile many English businessmen were beginning to call for the establishment of English colonies in North America. Among them were Humphrey Gilbert, an explorer and businessman; Gilbert’s half-brother, Walter Raleigh (1552–1618); and writer and geographer Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616). They saw colonization primarily as an economic venture that would open up hugely profitable new opportunities for English merchants. But the queen’s advisors pointed out that colonization could also improve England’s security by preventing Spain from gaining access to new territories in North America. In 1578 the queen granted Gilbert a charter to explore and settle territories in the New World that were not already claimed by a Christian monarch. His first expedition was forced to turn back after a Spanish attack. In 1583 he was able to launch a bigger expedition, which reached Newfoundland in Canada that summer. Gilbert claimed this land for the queen and intended to establish a permanent colony there. But he died on the return trip to England when his ship was lost in a storm. In 1584 Raleigh succeeded in petitioning the queen to bestow on him a charter similar to the one she had given Gilbert. It authorized Raleigh to explore and settle lands unclaimed by a Christian monarch, to enjoy any profits from those lands, and to govern those who settled there. It further 104



Walter Raleigh. # CO RBI S.

specified that one-fifth of any wealth Raleigh obtained from these possessions should go to the crown.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from ‘‘The Letters patents, granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh’’:

Sixteenth-century Europeans knew almost nothing about the lands of the North American continent.

England feared Spain’s power, and sought ways to weaken Spain’s economic and naval dominance. By claiming its own territorial


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rights in North America, England would prevent Spain from gaining control of the entire continent.

Expeditions to the New World were expensive and risky. England had little money to pay for such ventures. Granting charters to private explorers, who were responsible for financing their voyages, allowed England to benefit from exploration without assuming huge costs.

The Letters patents, granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh, now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no more

Heathen: Non-Christian.

Prerogatives: Exclusive rights. Royalties: The right to exploit specified natural resources. Franchises: The official right to sell goods in a certain area. Pre-eminences: The right to purchase something first.

ELIZABETH by the grace of God of England, France and Ireland Queene, defender of the faith, &c. [etc.] To all people to whom these presents shal come, greeting. Knowing ye that our especial grace, certaine science, & mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents for us, our heires and successors doe give and grant to our trusty and welbeloved servant Walter Ralegh Esquire, and his heires and assignes [designated heirs] for ever, free liberty & licence from time to time. And at all times for ever hereafter, to discover, search, finde out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as to him, his heires and assignes, and to every or any of them shall seeme good, and the same to have, holde, occupy & enjoy to him, his heirs and assignes for ever, with all prerogatives, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, priviledges, franchises and pre-emimences, thereto or thereabouts both by sea and land, whatsoever we by our letters patents may grant, and as we or any of our noble progenitors [direct ancestors] have heretofore granted to any person or persons, bodies politique or corporate: and the saide Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, and all such as from time to time, by licence of us, our heires and successors, shal toe or travaile thither to inhabite or remaine, there to build and fortifie, at the discretion of the said Walter Ralegh, his heires & assignes, the statutes or act of Parliament made against fugitives, or against such as shall depart, remaine or continue out of our Realme of England without licence, or any other statute, act law, or any ordinance [law] whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. . . . And further that the said Walter Ralegh his heires and assignes, and every of them, shall have, holde, occupie and enjoy to him, his heires and

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assignes, and every of them for ever, all the soyle of all such landes, territories, and Countries, so to be discovered and possessed as aforesaid, and of all such Cities, Castles, Townes, Villages, and places in the same, with the right, royalties, franchises, and jurisdictions, as well marine as other within the sayd landes, or Countreis, or the seas thereunto, adjoining, to be had, or used, with full power to dispose thereof, and of every part in fee simple or otherwise, according to the order of the lawes of England, as neere as the same conveniently may be, at his, and their wil and pleasure, to any persons then being, or that shall remaine within the allegiance of us, our heires and successors: reserving always to us, our heires and successors, for all services, dueties, and demaunds, the fift part of all the oare of golde and silver, that from time to time, and at all times after such discoverie, subduing and possessing, shall be there gotten and obtained: All which lands, Countries, and territories shall for ever be holden of the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, of us, our heires and successors, by homage, and by the sayd payment of the sayd fift part, reserved only for all services. . . . And forasmuch as upon the finding out, discovering, or inhabiting of such remote lands, countries, and territories as aforesaid, it shalbe [shall be] necessary for the safety of all men, that shall adventure themselves in those journeyes or voyages, to determine to live together in Christian peace, and civill quietnesse eches [each] with other, whereby every one may with more pleasure and profit enjoy that whereunto they shall atteine [attain] with great paine and peril, wee for us, our heires and successors, are likewise pleased and contented, and by these presents doe give & grant to the said Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes for ever, that he and they, and every or any of them, shall and may from time to time for ever hereafter, within the said mentioned remote lands and countries, in the way by the seas thither, and from thence, have full and mere power and authoritie to correct, punish, pardon, governe, and rule by their and every or any of their good discretions and policies, aswell [as well] causes capitall, or criminall, as civil, both marine and other, all such our subjects, as shall from time to time adventure themselves in the said journeys or voyages, or that shall at any time hereafter inhabite any such lands, countries, or territories as aforesaid, or that shall abide within 200. leagues of any of the sayde place or places, where the sayde Walter Ralegh, his heiress or assignes, or any of them, or any of his or their associats or companies, shall inhabite within 6. yeeres next ensuing the date hereof, according to such statutes, lawes and ordinances as shall be by him the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, and every or any of them devised, or established, for the better government of the said people as aforesaid. So always as the said statues, lawes, and ordinances may be, as nere as conveniently may bee, agreeable to the forme of the lawes, statues, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Fee simple: Legal ownership.

Discretions: Judgments.

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government, or pollicie of England, and also so as they be not against the true Christian faith, nowe professed in the Church of England, nor in any wise to withdrawe any of the subjects or people of those lands or places from allegance of us, our heires and successours, as their immediate Soveraigne under God. . . .

What happened next . . . Raleigh acted quickly. In 1584 he sent a scouting expedition to North America to identify possible locations for a colony. Unlike the Spanish, who had focused mostly on exploiting natural resources in their territories, Raleigh wanted to establish a colony where English families would settle permanently. Once a good site was chosen Raleigh would hire workers to set up buildings, plant crops, and complete other necessary tasks. Then the settlers themselves would arrive to begin new lives in their new American home. The scouting expedition returned to England with positive reports about the area along the coast of what is now Virginia and the Carolinas. Eager to establish a colony there, Raleigh set out to obtain funding from wealthy businessmen. He also hoped to convince the queen to lend financial support for the venture. He asked his friend, writer and geographer Richard Hakluyt, to write an argument describing all the potential benefits of establishing colonies in the New World. Hakluyt’s A Discourse on Western Planting impressed Elizabeth, but she offered Raleigh no money for his project. By 1585 Raleigh had finally gathered enough money to launch a colonizing expedition. The first group of colonizers arrived on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and set about building the colony. But they had arrived too late to plant crops. The ship and captain returned immediately to England for additional supplies. Meanwhile the colony soon ran short of food; in addition, they refused to work, choosing instead to search for gold. Though the English had initially established good relations with the native people, the colonists’ demands soon alienated the Indians. Conflicts escalated, and when Francis Drake arrived at Roanoke in 1586 he agreed to take the desperate colonists back with him to England. Despite the failure of this first colony Raleigh tried again in 1587. His second expedition carried several families who were instructed to establish a settlement in the Chesapeake Bay area. 108



An illustration depicting the arrival of English colonists at Roanoke Island. # BE TTM AN /C ORB IS .

But their captain refused to take them farther than Roanoke. Here they began building a colony, but as with the first Roanoke voyagers, they arrived too late for planting. As before, the ship and captain returned to England for more supplies. But because of war with Spain, it was unable to make the trip back to Roanoke until 1590. When it finally reached the island, it found no trace of the settlers. Raleigh’s second colony had disappeared. Though Raleigh had failed to establish a colony in North America, his mistakes helped future settlers plan more realistically for the harsh conditions they would face in the New World. They also devised better ways to fund colonial ventures. In 1606 Elizabeth’s successor, James I (1566–1625), chartered a pair of joint stock companies to establish settlements in North America. The Virginia Company of London established Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, which became England’s first permanent settlement in America. The Virginia Company of Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Plymouth established a settlement in Popham, Maine, but this colony did not succeed.

Did you know . . .

Advances in cartography (mapmaking) played a key role in England’s ability to launch voyages of exploration. A new map made by Gerard Mercator (1512–1594), which accounted for the earth’s spherical shape, greatly improved the accuracy of navigational charts used at sea.

In addition to his hopes of building a colony there, Raleigh considered Roanoke Island an ideal location from which to raid Spanish ships that were returning to Europe crammed with gold, silver, and other treasure. He used this as a selling point in attracting investors.

Some of the ships bringing fresh supplies to the Virginia colonists were delayed because they went after Spanish treasure ships instead of staying on their original course.


If you had been an advisor to the queen, would you have recommended that she provide financial support for Raleigh’s venture? Write a report to the queen explaining your reasons either for or against investing in the project.

By granting charters for the exploration and settlement of new lands, England gave individuals an investment in the success of any colonies established in these territories. All Spanish expeditions, however, were funded by the crown, and individual explorered did not face financial risk. If you were an explorer, which policy would be more likely to convince you to launch an expedition to the Americas?


Fecher, Constance. The Last Elizabethan: A Portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972. Hakluyt, Richard. Hakluyt’s Voyages. New York: The Viking Press, 1965. Trevelyan, Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002. 110


Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh WEB SIT ES

‘‘First English Settlement in the New World.’’ http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/ nc/ncsites/english1.htm#Introduction (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Sir Walter Raleigh’s American Colonies.’’ British Explorers. http:// www.britishexplorers.com/woodbury/raleigh1.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Sommerville, J. P. ‘‘Elizabeth I: Exploration and Foreign Policy.’’ http:// history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-19.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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11

The Voyages of John White Excerpts from Hakluyt’s Voyages

By Richard Hakluyt Originally published in 1600 Reprinted by the Viking Press, 1965

‘‘We let fall Grapnel [anchor] neere the shore, & sounded with a trumpet a Call, & afterwardes many familiar English tunes of Songs, and called to them friendly; but we had no answere.’’

ngland was a latecomer to the transatlantic trade, or trade with the Americas across the Atlantic Ocean, that had vastly enriched Spain and Portugal since the voyages of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) in the 1490s. But by the mid–1500s, English seafarers and merchants were increasingly becoming interested in exploring the Americas, where they hoped to find treasure and opportunities for trade. In 1578 Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) granted Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1537–1583) a charter to settle any territories in the New World that were not already claimed by a Christian monarch. Gilbert’s first expeditions reached Canada. He claimed Newfoundland for the queen in 1583, but he died on the return voyage to England with his entire crew when his ship sank in a storm. Walter Raleigh (1552–1618), Gilbert’s half-brother and business partner, continued the work of organizing and financing further explorations. In 1584 Raleigh sent two ships to North America to explore possible locations for a colony. The explorers reported that the land along the coast looked promising, and they brought back two Native Americans, Manteo and Wanchese. The Native Americans, who fascinated Londoners, became a sort of advertisement for the New World, and Raleigh was able to generate enough financial support to plan a colonial

E

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The Voyages of John White

Richard Grenville led Raleigh’s first expedition to Virginia. # MI CHA EL N IC HOL SO N/ C OR BI S.

venture. In 1585 he launched his first expedition to Virginia, a name he had chosen in honor of the queen. Richard Grenville, the leader of the venture, was instructed to set up the colony. The workers whom Raleigh hired to execute his plans did not necessarily intend to stay on as permanent settlers. Among these were scholar Thomas Harriot (1560–1621) and artist John White (died c. 1593), whose job was to record details about the region, including its animals, plants, geographical features, and people. The colonists had planned to arrive in time to plant crops, but delays at sea had made this impossible. In addition, much of their seed had been destroyed by salt water during the voyage. When Grenville discharged the colonists and returned to England for more supplies, Ralph Lane was left 114



in charge of 107 men, including Manteo, with only about twenty days’ worth of food. At first the colonists established good relations with the natives, building a fort near the Indian village at the northern end of the island. But as supplies dwindled, Lane demanded more and more food from the Native Americans, who grew increasingly hostile. The colonists refused to work, spending most of their time looking in vain for gold. By the summer of 1586, after only ten months, they were desperate to leave. When seafarer Francis Drake (1540–1596) stopped at Roanoke after conducting raids against the Spanish in the Caribbean, he took the colonists back with him to England. When Grenville arrived back in Virginia later that year, he found the colony abandoned. He left fifteen men there with a good store of food and supplies, and he returned to England. Raleigh organized a second colonial expedition in 1587, this time sending a group of families—including eighty-four men, seventeen women, and nine children—to settle in Virginia with John White as deputy governor. This group originally planned to settle in the Chesapeake Bay region, but the ship’s captain refused to take them farther than Roanoke. As with the first colony, this group soon ran short of supplies. White decided to return to England immediately for more provisions, leaving his family behind. If the colonists encountered dangers and had to leave the site, they were to leave a sign for White so that he would know where to find them. In 1589 the English writer and geographer Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616), a friend and business associate of Raleigh’s, published the first edition of Principle (sic) Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation. This book, known simply as Hakluyt’s Voyages, chronicled the entire history of English exploration. It also made a strong case for building colonies in North America, which would provide England with essential raw materials and also weaken Spanish influence in the New World. The book was quite popular, and it helped to promote interest in English colonization of North America. White equipped two ships with supplies for the Virginia settlers, but war with Spain prevented him from returning to Virginia until 1590. When he arrived at Roanoke he could find no sign of the colonists. Their houses had been abandoned. White found the word ‘‘CROATOAN’’ carved on a tree, but no other clues about the colonists’ whereabouts. Hakluyt published White’s accounts of his expeditions to Virginia in a later edition of his Voyages. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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When John White returned to Roanoke Island he found only a tree carved with the word ‘‘CROATOAN.’’ # B ETT MA N/ COR BI S.

Things to remember while reading the excerpts from Hakluyt’s Voyages:

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The Virginia colonists were not prepared for the hardships of life in North America. They expected to find easy sources of wealth, and they were surprised at the difficult conditions they faced in the New World.

The colonists had only the supplies they brought with them, and no way to communicate with England when supplies ran low or they encountered other problems. In addition, they could not return to England if their situation became too difficult or dangerous, as the ship that had brought them to the island returned home immediately. They were entirely on their own.

The colonists’s built a friendship with Native Americans on the island of Croatoan, as well as those living on the mainland. However, this relationship became increasingly strained, as the Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


colonists demanded more and more food from the Native Americans. Sometimes violence broke out between the two groups.

Hakluyt’s Voyages The fourth voyage made to Virginia with three ships, in the yere 1587. Wherein was transported the second Colonie Julie [July] . . . The two and twentieth of July wee arrived safe at Hatorask, where our ship and pinnesse ankered [anchored]: the Governour went aboord the pinnesse, accompanied with fortie of his best men, intending to passe´ up to Roanoak forthwith, hoping there to finde those fifteene Englishmen, which [Sir Richard Grinvile] had there the yeere before, with whom hee meant to have conference, concerning the state of the Countrey, and Savages, meaning after he had so done, to returne againe to the fleete, and passe´ along the coast, to the Bay of Chesepiok, where we intended to make our seate and forte [fort], according to the charge given us among other directions in writing, under the hande of Sir Walter Ralegh: but assoone as we were put with our pinnesse from the ship, a Gentleman by the meanes [name] of Ferdinando, who was appointed to returne for England, called to the sailers in the pinnesse, charging them not to bring any of the planters back againe, but to leave them in the Island, except the Governour, & two or three such as he approved, saying that the Summer was farre spent, wherefore hee would land all the planters in no other place. Unto this were all the saylers [sailors], both in the pinnesse, and shippe, perswaded by the Master, wherefore it booted [helped] not the Governour to contend [argue] with them, but passed to Roanoak, and the same night at sunne-set went aland on the Island, in the place where our fifteene men were left, but we found none of them, nor any signe that they had bene there, saving onely wee found the bones of one of those fifteene which the Savages had slaine long before. The three and twentieth of July the Governour with divers [various members] of his company, walked to the North ende of the Island, where Master Ralfe Lane had his forte, with sundry [various] necessary and decent dwelling houses, made by his men about it the yeere before, where wee hoped to find some signes, or certaine knowledge of our fifteene men. Where we came thither, we found the fort rased downe, but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that the neather [bottom] roomes of them, and also of the forte, were overgrowen with Melons of divers sortes, and Deere within them, feeding on those Melons: so wee returned to our company, without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteene men living. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Hatorask: Hatorask Island. Pinnace: Small boat.

Sir Richard Grinvile: Sir Richard Grenville.

Farre spent: Nearly over.

Master Ralfe Lane: Ralph Lane. Rased: Leveled to the ground.

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Master Stafford: Edward Stafford, one of the colonists.

Winginos men: The Native Americans on the mainland, ruled by Wingino.

The same day order was given, that every man should be employed for the repayring [repairing] of those houses, which wee found standing, and also to make other newe Cottages, for such as should neede. . . . On the thirtieth of July Master Stafford and twenty of our men passed by water to the Island of Croatoan, with Manteo, who had his mother, and many of his kinred [family] dwelling in that Island, of who wee hoped to understand some newes of our fifteene men, but especially to learne the disposition [mood] of the people of the countrey towards us, and to renew our old friendship with them. At our first landing they seemed as though they would fight with us: but perceiving us begin to march with our shot towards them they turned their backes, and fled. Then Manteo their countrey man called to them in their owne language, whom, assoone as they heard, they returned, and threwe away their bowes and arrows, and some of them came unto us, embracing and entertaining us friendly, desiring us not to gather or spill any of their corne, for that they had but little. We answered them, that neither their corne, nor any other thing of theirs, should be diminished by any of us, and that our coming was onely to renew the old love, that was betweene us and them at the first, and to live with them as brethren [brothers] and friends: which answere seemed to please them well, wherefore they requested us to walke up to their Towne, who there feasted us after their manner, and desired us earnestly, that there might bee some token or badge given them of us, whereby we might know them to be our friends, when we met them any where out of the Towne or Island. They told us further, that for want of some such badge, divers of them were hurt the yeere before, being found out of the Island by Master Lane his company, whereof they shewed us one, which at that very instant lay lame, and had lien of that hurt ever since: but they sayd, they knew our men mistooke them, and hurt them in stead of Winginos men, wherefore they held us excused.

August

Dasamonguepeuk: Native American settlement on the mainland.

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. . . The 13 of August our Savage Manteo, by the commandement of Sir Walter Ralegh, was christened in Roanoak, and called Lord thereof, and of Dasamonguepeuk, in reward of his faithful service. The 18 Elenor, daughter to the Governour, and wife to Ananias Dare one of the Assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoak, and the same was christened there the Sonday following, and because this child was the first Christian borne in Virginia, shee was named Virginia. By this tine [time] our ships had unladen the goods and victuals [food] of the planters, and began to take in wood, and fresh water, and to new calke and trimme them for England: the planters also prepared their letters and tokens to send backe into England. . . . Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


At this time some controversies arose betweene the Governour and Assistants, about choosing two out of the twelve Assistants, which should goe back as factors [representatives] for the company into England: for every one of them refused, save onely one, which all other thought not sufficient: but at length by much perswading of the Governour, Christopher Cooper only agreed to goe for England: but the next day, through the perswasion of divers of his familiar friends, hee changed his mind, so that now the matter stood as at the first. The next day, the 22 of August, the whole company both of the Assistants and planters came to the Governour, and with one voice requested him to returne hinselfe into England, for the better and sooner obtaining of supplies, and other necessaries for them. . . .

The fift voyage of M. John White into the West Indies and parts of America called Virginia, in the yeere 1590 August . . . The 15 of August towards Evening we came to an anker at Hatorask, in 36 degr. and one third, in five fadom water, three leagues from the shore. At our first coming to anker on this shore we saw a great smoke rise in the Ile [Isle] Raonoak neere the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 1587, which smoake put us in good hope that some of the Colony were there expecting my returne out of England. The 16 and next morning our 2 boates went a shore, & Captaine Cooke, & Cap. Spicer, & their company with me, with intent to passe´ to the place at Roanoak where our countreymen were left. At our putting from the ship we commanded our Master gunner to make readie 2 Minions and a Falkon well loden [loaded], and to shoot them off with reasonable space betweene every shot, to the ende that their reportes might bee heard to the place where wee hoped to finde some of our people. This was accordingly performed, & our twoe boats put unto the shore, in the Admirals boat we sounded all the way and found from our shippe untill we came within a mile of the shore nine, eight, and seven fadome but before we were halfe way betweene our ships and the shore we saw another great smoke to the Southwest of Kindrikers mountes: we therefore thought good to goe to that second smoke first: but it was much further from the harbour where we landed, then we supposed it to be, so that we were very sore tired before wee came to the smoke. But that which grieved [troubled] us more was that when we came to the smoke, we found no man nor signe that any had bene there lately, nor yet any fresh water in all this way to drinke. Being thus wearied Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Fadom; fathom: Unit of length equal to six feet.

Minions: Small cannons. Falkon; falcon: Small cannon.

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with this journey we returned to the harbour where we left our boates, who in our absence had brought their caske a shore for fresh water, so we deferred our going to Roanoak until the next morning, and caused some of those saylers to digge in those sandie hills for fresh water whereof we found very sufficient. That night wee returned aboord with our boates and our whole company in safety. . . .

Palisade: Fence.

Prigges: Blocks of metal.

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Our boates and all things fitted againe, we put off from Hatorask, being the number of 19 persons in both boates: but before we could get to the place, where our planters were left, it was so exceeding darke, that we overshot the place a quarter of a mile: there we espied towards the North end of the Iland [Island] ye light of a great fire thorow [through] the woods, to the which we presently rowed: when wee came right over against it, we let fall our Grapnel [anchor] neere the shore, & sounded with a trumpet a Call, & afterwardes many familiar English tunes of Songs, and called to them friendly; but we had no answere, we therefore landed at daybreake, and coming to the fire, we found the grasse & sundry rotten trees burning about the place. From hence we went thorow the woods to that part of the Iland directly over against Dasamongwepeuk, & from thence we returned by the water side, round about the North point of the Iland untill we came to the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 1586. In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the Salvages feet of 2 or 3 sorts troaden [trampled] ye night, and as we entred up the sandy banke upon a tree, in the very browe thereof were curiously carved these faire Romane letters C R O: which letter presently we knew to signifie the place, where I should find the planters seated, according to a secret token agreed upon betweene them & me at my last departure from them which was, that in any wayes they should not faile to write or carve on the trees or posts of the dores the name of the place where they should be seated; for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoak 50 miles into the maine. Therefore at my departure from them in An. 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name, a Crosse in this forme, but we found no such signe of distresse. And having well considered of this, we passed toward the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken downe, and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with cortynes [walls] and flankers [bastions] very Fort-like, and one of the chiefe trees or postes at the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and 5 foote from the ground in fayre Capital letters was graven CROATOAN without any crosse or signe of distresse; this done, we entred into the palisade, where we found many barres of Iron, two pigges of Lead, foure yron fowlers [shotguns], Iron sacket-shotte, and such like heavie things, throwen here and there, almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes. From thence wee went by the water side, towards the point of the Creeke to see if Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


we could find any of their botes or Pinnisse, but we could perceive no signe of them nor nay of the last Falkons and small Ordinance [ammunition] which were left with them, at my departure from them. . . . The next Morning it was agreed by the Captaine and my selfe, with the Master and others, to wey anchor, and goe for the place at Croatoan, where our planters were. . . .

What happened next . . . Historians are not certain about what happened to the lost colonists. Most scholars believe that they probably moved inland. Some evidence suggests that they may have settled among local Indian tribes, but their exact fate remains unknown. The failure of the first Virginia colonies was a setback for the English, but this proved to be temporary. They learned that they could not hope to discover rich deposits of gold and silver in North America. They also learned that colonization would require much hard work under difficult conditions. This knowledge prepared them for the hardships that lay ahead for those who succeeded in establishing England’s first permanent colonies at Jamestown, Virginia (1607) and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620).

Did you know . . .

Though Walter Raleigh organized two major colonial expeditions to Virginia, he never set foot there himself. Wanting to keep him close to her at court, Queen Elizabeth refused permission for him to sail to Virginia.

Raleigh wanted the Roanoke colony to include a school that would teach the settlers Algonkian, the language of the original inhabitants.

The first English child to be born on American soil, Virginia Dare, was born in the Roanoke Island colony in 1587. She was John White’s granddaughter.

The first specimens of two new crops, potatoes and tobacco, were probably brought to England by the Virginia colonists. Raleigh, who ordered potatoes planted on his estate in Ireland, was influential in persuading Europeans that potatoes were edible and nutritious.


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White was assigned to draw examples of things in the New World that were not known in England. Read about, and find photographs of, a place that you have never been. If you were to visit this place and were assigned to make a visual record of what you found there, what things would you draw, and why? Create a booklet of these drawings, and explain what they could teach to those who had never seen this region.

Given the evidence, write a credible account of what happened to the lost colony. You can write from the point of view of the colony’s leader or from the viewpoint of a modern historian.


Fecher, Constance. The Last Elizabethan: A Portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972. Hakluyt, Richard. Hayluyt’s Voyages. New York: Viking Press, 1965. Trevelyan, Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002. WEB SIT ES

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement: A Digital Library and Learning Center. http://www.americanjourneys.org/ aj-038/summary/index.asp (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Early Images of Virginia Indians.’’ Virginia Historical Society. http:// www.vahistorical.org/cole/overview.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). First English Settlements in the New World. http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/ ncsites/english1.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘John White Drawings/Theodor De Bry Engravings.’’ Virtual Jamestown. http:// www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/introduction.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Roanoke Revisited. http://www.nps.gov/fora/roanokerev.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Sir Walter Raleigh’s American Colonies.’’ British Explorers. http:// www.britishexplorers.com/woodbury/raleigh1.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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12

Richard II Excerpt from Richard II

By William Shakespeare Published in The Riverside Shakespeare, 1974

‘‘That England, that was wont to conquer others, / Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.’’

isputes regarding the succession, or the order in which descendants of the royal family should legally inherit the throne, were nothing new in the time of Elizabeth I (1533–1603). From 1455 to 1487 England had been embroiled in a civil war known as the War of the Roses. In this conflict the Lancaster family (represented by the red rose) and the York family (symbolized by the white rose) each had a competing claim to the throne. Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII (1457–1547), put an end to the conflict when he seized the throne from Richard III (1452–1485). When Henry defeated Richard in battle in 1485, he established the Tudor dynasty, which went on to rule England for more than a century. But during this period disputes about the succession did not disappear; indeed, they became particularly urgent because so many Tudor monarchs died without an heir. Despite marrying six times, Henry VIII (1491–1547) fathered only one legitimate son, Edward VI (1537–1553). Like his halfsisters, Mary I (1516–1558) and Elizabeth, Edward died childless. Though Mary succeeded him, she had had to fight against a Protestant faction that had attempted to place Edward’s cousin, Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), on the throne. The English welcomed Elizabeth I’s succession in 1558, but her claim to the throne was not without significant controversy. Many Roman Catholics regarded her birth as illegitimate because her father, Henry VIII, had broken away from the Roman Catholic Church after the pope refused to grant him a divorce from his first wife. Henry named

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himself the head of the church in England, declared his first marriage invalid, and married Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn (c. 1507–1536). Since neither Henry’s divorce nor his marriage to Boleyn were sanctioned by the Catholic Church, under Catholic law Elizabeth was considered illegitimate, and, therefore, not eligible to inherit the throne. In the Catholic view Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587), a greatgranddaughter of Henry VII and a Catholic, had a stronger claim to the English crown. Throughout her reign Elizabeth faced the threat of being deposed (overthrown) or even assassinated by rebels who supported the cause of Mary Stuart. Deposing a ruler was an act with grave implications. According to tradition the monarch ruled by the divine right of kings. This meant that his or her authority was absolute and came from God, not from any legislative body or from the will of the people. At the same time, however, England had a long tradition of conflict between the monarch and the people. In 1100 Henry I (1068–1135) had announced the Charter of Liberties, which established that the monarch was bound to obey laws protecting his subjects from abuses of the king’s power. This concept that the monarch’s powers were subject to law was expanded in 1215 in the Magna Carta. For more than three centuries before the founding of the Tudor dynasty, therefore, English monarchs had been forced to deal with the legitimate demands of Parliament, England’s legislative body. By the time William Shakespeare (1564–1616) wrote Richard II around 1595, Elizabeth I had been in power for almost forty years. Her rule had brought relative political stability to a kingdom that, at the time of her ascension to the throne, had been marked by factional disputes and deep religious discord. However, the questions about her legitimacy, combined with the lack of an heir, were a source great concern for the nation. In Richard II Shakespeare expresses the tensions felt by sixteenthcentury England about the problem of succession. As the reign of Richard II and the War of the Roses some fifty years later had shown, disputes about the succession created conflicts that damaged the country. Wars drained the economy and worsened disagreements between political factions. These social ills, according to Elizabethan philosophy, occurred because the king either lacked legitimacy or placed his desire for personal gain above the welfare of his realm. Shakespeare illustrated this way of thinking in John of Gaunt’s speech in Act II, Scene 1 of the play, when Gaunt tells York that England, once an almost perfect kingdom noted for 124


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its justice and prosperity, is now disgraced because of the king’s corruption and misrule. The historical Richard II (1367–1400) had inherited the throne legitimately from his grandfather, Edward III (1312–1377), at the age of ten. His uncles, including John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster; 1340– 1399), helped him rule during his first years as king, but during the 1380s Richard began to take more charge of affairs. In doing so, he alienated a group of influential nobles, including another uncle, Thomas of Woodstock (Duke of Gloucester; 1355–1397). These nobles, who called themselves the Lords Appellant, objected to Richard’s chosen advisors, who flattered the king and gave him bad advice. In 1387 the Lords Appellant persuaded Parliament to demand that the king remove his favorite advisors from his Privy Council, or the board of advisors that carried out the administrative function of the government in matters of economy, defense, foreign policy, and law and order, and its members served as the king’s chief advisors. Richard refused, raising a small army to defend his right to rule as he saw fit. The Lords Appellant easily defeated this force and imprisoned Richard in the Tower of London, a fortress on the Thames River in London that was used as a royal residence, treasury, and, most famously, as a prison for the upper class. They executed several of his advisors and exiled others, thus humiliating the king. For several years afterward Richard ruled without angering the nobles further, but he resented their restrictions on his power. In 1397 he had three of the most influential lords arrested; Woodstock, in the custody of Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk), was killed. In Shakespeare’s version of events, Henry Bolingbroke (Duke of Hereford, later Henry IV; 1387–1422), son of Gaunt and a cousin of the king, suggests that Mowbray killed Gloucester on Richard’s orders. Richard, who had no children, became concerned about a peaceful succession. His heir was his cousin, Edmund Mortimer, but Richard worried about Bolingbroke assuming too much power and possibly threatening the succession. In 1399 Richard banished Bolingbroke from England for ten years. When John of Gaunt died soon afterward, leaving behind huge wealth, Richard confiscated the estate so that Bolingbroke, Gaunt’s son, could not directly inherit it. Furious, Bolingbroke raised an army in exile and invaded England while Richard was in Ireland overseeing an expensive and unpopular military campaign. By the time the king returned, he found that his people had joined Bolingbroke and were urging the rebel to seize the crown. With Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The historical Richard II. CO URT ES Y OF THE L IB RA RY O F CO NGR ES S.

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strong popular support, Bolingbroke captured Richard, took him to London, and forced him to abdicate (relinquish power). In addition Parliament passed formal articles of deposition, assuring that Richard could not change his mind and later try to reclaim the throne. He was killed soon afterward in Pomfret Castle. Shakespeare based his play on Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed. Though the play generally adheres to the historical record, Shakespeare totally invented the scene in which Richard abdicates (Act IV, Scene 1). This scene gives Richard the opportunity to express his dignity, even while he is being stripped of his authority as king. The scene also makes a moving and poetic statement about the damaging consequences of deposing a monarch.

Things to remember while reading Richard II:

Questions about the proper rule of monarchs were extremely important in Elizabethan England. Though monarchs ruled by divine right, they had to balance their power with that of the lords.

If a king seized power illegitimately or ignored the needs of his people, he disrupted the social order. This circumstance led to violence and other social ills.

Richard II was a weak king who was forced to submit to the demands of powerful lords. Eventually they captured him, forced him to renounce his throne, and assassinated him.

Shakespeare presented Richard’s usurper, Henry Bolingbroke, as a sympathetic character with good reasons for deposing the king. For this reason the play Richard II was considered politically rebellious.

Shakespeare was also sympathetic to Richard. He showed the king to be a sensitive but flawed human being whose idea of kingship conflicted with that of the nobles.

Shakespeare’s historical plays were not always accurate according to modern standards. He based his research on books that emphasized English history as a glorious march of progress from civil war in the 1400s to the just and good rule of the Tudor monarchs in the 1500s.

During her reign Elizabeth I faced many rebellions against her rule. She felt that her circumstances were similar to Richard II’s.


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Act II, Scene I of Richard II by Shakespeare as performed at the Ludlow Festival in England, 2005. Actor Michael Cronin (seated) delivers Gaunt’s lines: ‘‘This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle. . . . ’’ # DO NAL D CO OK ER /PH OT OST AGE . R EPR OD UCE D BY PER MI SS IO N.

Richard II [Act II, Scene 1] Enter John of Gaunt, sick, with the Duke of York, etc. . . . Gaunt. Methinks I am a prophet new inspir’d, And thus expiring do fortell of him: His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, For violent fires soon burn out themselves; Small show’rs last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes [before time] that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder; 128


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Light vanity, insatiate [impossible to satisfy] cormorant [greedy person], Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. This royal throne of kings, this sceptred [ruled by authority] isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as [a] moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Fear’d by their breed, and famous by their birth, Renowned for their deeds as far from home, For Christian service and true chivalry [ideal knighthood], As is the sepulchre [sacred tomb] in stubborn Jewry Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son; This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leas’d out—I die pronouncing it— Like to a tenement or pelting farm. England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of wat’ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds; That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, How happy then were my ensuing death!

Enter King and Queen, etc. [Aumerle, Bushy, Green, Bagot, Ross, and Willoughby]. York. The King is come. Deal mildly with his youth, For young hot colts being rag’d do rage the more. How fares our noble uncle Lancaster? K. Rich. What comfort, man? How is’t with aged Gaunt? Gaunt. O how that name befits my composition! Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt [emaciated; haggard] in being old. Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast; And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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For sleeping England long time have I watch’d, Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt. The pleasure that some father feed upon Is my strict fast—I mean, my children’s looks; And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt. Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave, Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones. K. Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their names? Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself: Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, I mock my name, great King, to flatter thee. K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that live? Gaunt. No, no, men living flatter those that die. K. Rich. Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me. Gaunt. O no, thou diest, though I the sicker be. K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill. Gaunt. Now He that made me knows I see thee ill, Ill in myself to see, and in thee, seeing ill. Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land, Wherein thou liest in reputation sick, And thou, too careless patient as thou art, Commit’st thy anointed body to the cure Of those physicians that first wounded thee. A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, Whose compass [boundary] is no bigger than thy head, And yet, [incaged] in so small a verge [border], The waste is no whit lesser than thy land. O had thy grandsire with a prophet’s eye Seen how his son’s son should destroy his sons, From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame, Deposing thee before thou wert possess’d, Which art possess’d now to depose thyself. Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, It were a shame to let this land by lease; But for thy world enjoying but this land, Is it not more than shame to shame it so? Landlord of England art thou now, not king, Thy state of law is bond-slave to the law, And thou— K. Rich. A lunatic lean-witted fool, Presuming on an ague’s privilege, Darest with thy frozen admonition [warning] 130


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Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood With fury from his native residence. Now by my seat’s right royal majesty, Wert thou not brother to great Edward’s son, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders. Gaunt. O, spare me not, my [brother] Edward’s son, For that I was his father Edward’s son, That blood already, like the pelican, Hast thou tapp’d out and drunkenly carous’d. My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul, Whom fair befall in heaven ’mongst happy souls, May be a president and witness good That thou respect’st not spilling Edward’s blood. Join with the present sickness that I have, And thy unkindness be like crooked age, To crop at once a too long withered flower. Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee! These words hereafter thy tormentors be! Convey me to my bed, then to my grave; Love they to live that love and honor have.

Exit [borne off by his Attendants]. K. Rich. And let them die that age and sullens have. For both hast thou, and both become the grave. York. I do beseech your Majesty, impute [attribute] his words To wayward sickliness and age in him. He loves you, on my life, and holds your dear As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. K. Rich. Right, you say true: as Hereford’s love so his, As theirs, so mine, and all be as it is.

[Enter. Northumberland.] North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your Majesty. K. Rich. What says he? North. Nay, nothing, all is said. His tongue is now a stringless instrument, Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent. York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so! Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he; His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. So much for that. Now for our Irish wars: Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, Which live like venom where no venom else But only they have privilege to live. And, for these great affairs do ask some charge, Towards our assistance we do seize to us The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess’d. York. How long shall I be patient? ah, how long Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? Not Gloucester’s death, nor Hereford’s banishment, Not Gaunt’s rebukes, nor England’s private wrongs, Nor the prevention of poor Bullingbrook About his marriage, nor my own disgrace, Have ever made me sour my patient cheek, Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign’s face. I am the last of noble Edward’s sons, Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first. In war was never lion rag’d more fierce, In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, Than was that young and princely gentleman. His face thou hast, for even so look’d he, Accomplish’d with [the] number of thy hours; But when he frowned it was against the French, And not against his friends. His noble hand Did win what he did spend, and spent not that Which his triumphant father’s hand had won. His hands were guilty of no kindred blood, But bloody with the enemies of his kin. O Richard! York is too far gone with grief, Or else he never would compare between. K. Rich. Why, uncle, what’s the matter? York. O my liege, Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas’d Not to be pardoned, am content withal. Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands The royalties and rights of banish’d Hereford? Is not Gaunt dead? And doth not Hereford live? Was not Gaunt just? And is not Harry true? Did not the one deserve to have an heir? Is not his heir a well-deserving son? Take Hereford’s rights away, and take from Time His charters and his customary rights; Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day; 132


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Be not thyself; for how art thou a king But by fair sequence and succession? Now afore God—God forbid I say true!— If you do wrongfully seize Hereford’s rights, Call in the letters-patents that he hath By his attorneys-general to sue His livery [official delivery of property to a new owner], and deny his off’red homage, You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts, And prick my tender patience to those thoughts Which honor and allegiance cannot think. . . .

What happened next . . . In the abdication scene of Richard II (Act IV, Scene 1), Shakespeare again expresses the grave consequences of siezing the legitimate monarch’s power. The Bishop of Carlisle, for example, warns Bolingbroke that if he seizes the crown, ‘‘The blood of English shall manure the ground / And future ages groan for this foul act.’’ Richard, too, condemns Bolingbroke and his supporters, comparing the usurper to Judas (the apostle who betrayed Christ) and stating that ‘‘water cannot wash away your sin.’’ Shakespeare followed Richard II with Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, in which he further developed his theme of kingship, showing that both legitimate authority and wise rule were necessary attributes in a monarch. In Henry IV, Part 1 Bolingbroke (Henry IV) has become king after usurping the throne from Richard II. Almost Richard’s opposite, Henry understands the need to manipulate people in order to gain their approval and thus enhance his power. He has the qualities that should enable him to be an effective king. Yet his reign is marked by serious civil unrest—a consequence, he believes, of the fact that he seized the throne illegitimately. Though he has the necessary political talents to rule, he lacks the divine right of kings. His son Prince Hal, however, will be able to inherit the throne legitimately, as Henry states in Henry IV, Part 2: ‘‘God knows, my son, / By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways / I met this crown; and I myself know well / How troublesome it sat upon my head. / To thee it shall descend with Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Richard II resigning his crown. HU LT ON A RCH IV E/ GET TY I MA GE S.

better quiet, / . . . For all the soil of the achievement goes / With me into the earth. . . . ’’ In other words, the stain attached to Henry’s wrongdoing will end with his death, and Prince Hal, as Henry’s son and heir, can then ascend to the throne with the legitimacy of divine right. Indeed, Hal—who becomes Henry V—is shown to be the ideal ruler, possessing both the divine right of kings and the political skills to put England’s welfare above his personal wishes. Thus he returns his kingdom to safety and prosperity. Many scholars consider the four plays that concern Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V to be Shakespeare’s commentary on the importance of Elizabeth naming an appropriate successor. Because she had no children, the queen had to designate an heir who had a legitimate claim by ancestry to the English throne; otherwise, this new ruler would lack the divine right of kings. The heir should also possess the necessary skills to govern effectively; without these, the new king would jeopardize England’s best interests. As her heir, Elizabeth chose James I (1566–1625), son of Mary Stuart and king of Scotland since 1567. The great-great grandson of Henry VII, James was Elizabeth’s closest blood relative and therefore had the most legitimate claim to the throne. In addition, he had proved himself a capable ruler of Scotland. Though James’s legitimacy as king of England was unquestioned, his political skills proved disappointing. He had managed 134


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affairs relatively well in Scotland, but he was unable to adjust to the English parliament’s demands that he share power, making him an unpopular and ineffective ruler.

Did you know . . .

Queen Elizabeth found the play’s theme of the deposition of kings relevant in her own life. The supporters of Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex; 1566–1601), arranged to have Richard II performed at the Globe the night before Devereux entered London in rebellion against the queen in 1599. At Devereux’s trial for treason the performance was cited as part of the evidence against him.

The deposition scene in the play was considered so rebellious that it was not allowed to be printed in any published versions during Elizabeth’s lifetime.


The managers of the Globe were called in for questioning by Elizabeth’s government after they agreed to stage Richard II on the eve of Devereux’s failed rebellion. They were eventually released. Do you think they should have borne any responsibility for the uprising? Should writers or artists be held accountable for the ways in which others might interpret their creations?

List the attributes that you think are necessary in a government leader today and explain the importance of each. Is it realistic to expect that one person could possess all of these qualities? Can a government function effectively if its leader lacks any of these attributes?


Brigden, Susan. New Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: Perennial, 2001. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Richard II WEB SIT ES

‘‘Histories.’’ Hudson Shakespeare Company. http://hudsonshakespeare.org/ Shakespeare%20Library/Ful%20Play%20Text/text%20-%20Histories/ histories.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Mabillard, Amanda. ‘‘Representations of Kingship and Power in Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy.’’ Shakespeare Online. http://www.shakespeareonline.com/essays/Power.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Richard II.’’ Hudson Shakespeare Company. http://hudsonshakespeare.org/ Shakespeare%20Library/Main%20Pages/main_richard2.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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The Sonnets of William Shakespeare Sonnet 18 Sonnet 130

By William Shakespeare Published in The Riverside Shakespeare, 1974

‘‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade.’’

n the early 1500s English poets began experimenting with the sonnet, a type of poem first used in Italy in the fourteenth century. Thomas Wyatt (c. 1503–1542) and Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey; c. 1517– 1547) introduced the form to England by translating the sonnets of Italian poet Petrarch (1304–1374) and by writing sonnets of their own. Though the English language has very different sounds and rhythms than does Italian, these poets believed that their native language was creative enough to be used effectively in the sonnet form. In time the sonnet became one of the major poetic forms in English literature. The structure of the sonnet presents several challenges to the poet. A sonnet consists of only fourteen lines, and it follows a strict rhyme scheme (the pattern of rhymes in a poem) and rhythm. Yet within these boundaries the poem expresses a completely developed thought or emotion. It also allows the poet to demonstrate his brilliance in constructing complex and witty conceits, or complex extended metaphors, that fit within the parameters of the form. The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet consists of an eight-line stanza, or group of lines that form a section of a poem, called an octet and a six-line stanza (sestet), in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains ten syllables, with accents falling on the second syllable of each word or phrase. The octave tells a simple story or asks a question, and the sestet provides the resolution. English poets also used iambic pentameter, but they developed a sonnet form using three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a rhymed couplet of two lines. Though Shakespeare was not the first to use this form, it became known as the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet.

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The English sonnet also deviated from the Italian in its rhyme scheme. In the Italian sonnet, the octave rhymed abbaabba and the sestet rhymed cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce. The English sonnet, however, followed a different pattern: abab cdcd efef gg. One significant effect of this rhyme scheme was that it accentuated the closing couplet, which acted as an epigram—a brief but pointed concluding remark—to the poem. The sonnet was introduced into England at a time of intense literary innovation. Philip Sidney (1554–1599), for example, felt that conventional English poetry was too stiff and formal to convey passionate emotion, and he suggested that English writers should devote their energies to new themes and forms that could better convey strong feelings. In his Apology for Poetry, written during the 1580s, he defended poetry against critics who dismissed it as a less serious type of writing than history or philosophy. This work became the most influential literary essay of the Elizabethan Era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that is often considered to be a golden age in English history. Sidney experimented with many types of poems himself, among them the sonnet. The first sonnet sequence in English, Astrophel and Stella, was composed by Sidney in honor of a young noblewoman with whom he had fallen in love, but who had married someone else. A sonnet sequence consists of several individual poems about a general subject that are arranged in such a way that, read in order, they create a basic narrative or thematic pattern. In Astrophel and Stella, a young man, Astrophel (from the Greek words for star and lover) expresses the complexity of the feelings he holds for his beloved, Stella. Individual poems deal with such themes as the struggle between reason and passion, and the conflict between ideal love and physical desire, while the sequence as a whole traces the development and deepening of Astrophel’s love. Astrophel and Stella, which circulated among London’s leading young poets in manuscript form, was widely admired, and many of his contemporaries emulated Sidney by composing sonnet sequences of their own. Primarily a writer for the stage, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was also one of England’s greatest poets. He wrote his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter, a poetic form known as blank verse that had become popularized for the stage by playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564– 1593). In addition to this dramatic verse, Shakespeare also wrote in other poetic forms. In 1593 and 1594, when city officials closed theaters because of an outbreak of plague, Shakespeare occupied himself with 138



writing two long narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Composed for his patron, the earl of Southampton, these works confirmed Shakespeare’s status as one of the leading poets of the time. During this same period Shakespeare also began work on his sonnet sequence, which was published in 1609. Its 154 poems form an extended dialogue between the poet and two mysterious characters. Many of the poems in the first group of 126 sonnets address a young male friend to whom the poet feels a close attraction, while the later group addresses a ‘‘dark lady.’’ Though the sequence does not create an actual narrative, it does show that the poet cares deeply about the youth and may even be sexually attracted to him. But the author is also jealous of the young man’s attentions to another poet, and is upset that the youth is having an affair with the author’s mistress. The later poems in the sequence suggest that this mistress is the dark lady. Scholars are not certain whether Shakespeare intended these poems to be autobiographical. Many believe that he received a commission from a rich patron to write a series of poems to the patron’s son, urging the young man to settle down, marry, and father children. Indeed, seventeen of the early poems in the sequence focus directly on this theme. But in the view of many scholars, the sonnets express such deep and intimate feelings that they could not have been merely a paid assignment for a writer who needed additional income. Even if Shakespeare had accepted a commission, the resulting sonnets, in the opinion of many scholars, must also have had a more personal inspiration. When the sonnets were published, the book included a dedication to ‘‘Mr. W. H.,’’ the ‘‘onlie begetter’’ of the poems. The identity of Mr. W. H. has not been proven, but many believe it was Shakespeare’s patron, Henry Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton; 1573–1624). Many of those who consider the sonnet sequence autobiographical believe that Wriothesley was the beautiful youth to whom many of the sonnets are addressed. Others speculate that the poems were written to the young courtier William Herbert, who later became the earl of Pembroke. (A courtier is a person who serves or participates in the royal court or household as the king’s or queen’s advisor, officer, or attendant.) Herbert’s father had been an important supporter of the theater, and the younger Herbert later became Shakespeare’s patron. Some scholars believe it likely that Shakespeare was sexually attracted to the young man of the sonnets; the poems, they point out, use erotic language and sexual imagery. But other scholars disagree, arguing that such language was Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Some historians believe that Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to his patron, Henry Wriothesley. H ULT ON A RC HIV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

commonly used in Elizabethan times to express close friendships that did not necessarily have a sexual nature. Various theories about the identity of the dark lady have also been suggested. One candidate, according to Michael Wood’s Shakespeare, is Emilia Lanier, daughter of a famous family of royal musicians originally from Venice. Another possibility is Mary Fitton, a maid of honor to Elizabeth I (1533–1603) who became Herbert’s mistress. It is not known whether Shakespeare did in fact have a 140



mistress. He had married at age eighteen and fathered three children, but he lived in London apart from his wife for most of his adult life. If the poet did have an adulterous affair, scholars have pointed out, the troubled feelings he expressed in the late sonnets indicate that the relationship caused him some guilt and shame in addition to happiness. Whether the sonnets were autobiographical or fictional, they gave Shakespeare the opportunity to work in a more intimate literary form than did drama, which was meant for public performance. In his sonnets Shakespeare was able to expand the possibilities of this form by experimenting with, and also making fun of, the basic conventions of love poetry. Traditionally sonnets explored the theme of unrequited love. Poets demonstrated the depth of their feelings through the creation of a witty conceit. In many ways the sonnet was as much about the cleverness of the poet as it was about his devotion to his beloved. Shakespeare was well aware of these traditions, which he utilized himself but also questioned. Sonnets 18 and 130, for example, both use the poetic strategy of comparing the loved one to the ideal beauty of nature. But in Sonnet 18, Shakespeare gently mocks this type of comparison by showing that it is inadequate. The beauty of his beloved, he says, far surpasses anything in nature, which is always changeable. The poem begins by trying out the conventions of love poetry, then goes on to demonstrate the limits of these conventions. Sonnet 130 is even more direct in its challenge of standard poetic devices. Instead of presenting his mistress’s beauty in the usual ideal terms, Shakespeare writes that her features are anything but ideal. Elizabethan tastes considered fair skin, rosy cheeks, red lips, blue eyes, and blond hair as the ideal of beauty. But the poet’s beloved is dark with wiry hair, dark eyes, and pale lips. Instead of a melodious voice, she speaks like a normal woman; instead of floating along as gracefully as a goddess, she walks on the plain ground. Yet despite the fact that his beloved is nothing like the perfect women described in conventional love poems, Shakespeare writes that she is still more rare, or beautiful, than women whose charms are exaggerated falsely by other poets. Shakespeare shows how brilliantly he could make this convention work while simultaneously demonstrating its shortcomings. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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William Shakespeare at work. CO URT ES Y OF THE L IB RA RY O F CO NGR ES S.

Things to remember while reading The Sonnets of William Shakespeare:

The sonnet is a type of poem that originated in fourteenth-century Italy. It was introduced into English literature in the early 1500s.

Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence contains 154 poems. Many of the early ones express the poet’s affection for a young man, while the later poems address a dark lady.

Many scholars believe that the sonnets are autobiographical. It is not certain, however, whether this is the case.

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 142



Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines And often is his gold complexion dimm’d, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun [dull brown]; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks, And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go, My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied [contradicted] with false compare.

What happened next . . . Shakespeare’s innovations greatly expanded the possibilities in the sonnet form. Sonnets written by previous poets had been more rigid and formal. They followed patterns of expression that emphasized the cleverness of the poet, but that could seem elaborately artificial. By challenging these conventions, Shakespeare showed that the sonnet could be a more highly energized form while still conforming to the same basic structure. Several poets in the 1600s used the sonnet to explore religious themes. These included John Donne (c. 1572–1631), whose famous Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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sonnet ‘‘Death Be Not Proud’’ is still widely read; George Herbert (1593– 1633); and John Milton (1608–1674). Later in the seventeenth century, interest in the sonnet form faded. But it was revived in the nineteenth century by such poets as John Keats (1795–1821), William Wordsworth (1770–1850), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861). Though less common in the modern era, the sonnet remains an important poetic form in English literature.

Did you know . . .

Italian poet Dante Aligheri (1265–1321) is considered the first composer of a sonnet sequence. His La Vita Nuova, written between 1292 and 1300, contained several sonnets about his feelings for his ideal love, Beatrice. It included prose (non-poetry) pieces as well.

During the Elizabethan Era, more than three hundred thousand sonnets were written in England and western Europe.

Shakespeare placed several sonnets within his play about young love, Romeo and Juliet. For example, the lines in Act 1, Scene 5 that begin ‘‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand,’’ in which Romeo says that he is a pilgrim worshiping at Juliet’s shrine, form a sonnet spoken by the alternating voices of the two main characters.


Modern poetry in English has generally abandoned rigid forms. But some poets in recent years have devoted significant attention to writing sonnets. Why might they be attracted to this poetic form today?

If you were the person to whom Shakespeare addressed Sonnet 130, would you be flattered or insulted? Write a letter to the poet in response, explaining how the poem made you feel.

Try your hand at writing a sonnet of your own. You may wish to take one of Shakespeare’s sonnets as a model.


Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. 144



Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998. Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare for All Time. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Wood, Michael. Shakespeare. New York: Basic Books, 2003. WEB SIT ES

Delahoyde, Michael. ‘‘Shakespeare’s Sonnets.’’ http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/ shakespeare/sonnets.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Poetic Form: Sonnet.’’ Academy of American Poets. http://www.poets.org/ viewmedia.php/prmMID/5791 (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Shakespeare’s Dark Lady of the Sonnets.’’ London Walks. http://www.londonwalks.co.uk/64/shakespeares-dark-lady-of.shtml (accessed on July 24, 2006). Shakespeare’s Sonnets. http://www.handprint.com/SC/SHK/sonnets.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). Shakespeare’s Sonnets. http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/ (accessed on July 24, 2006). Tait, Simon. ‘‘Unmasked: The Identity of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady.’’ Independent Online, December 7, 2003. http://enjoyment.independent. co.uk/books/news/article81490.ece (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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The Faerie Queene Excerpt from The Faerie Queene

By Edmund Spenser Reprinted in The Norton Anthology of English Literature Published in 1986

‘‘This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, / A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: / Therefore I read beware.’’

he Faerie Queene is a famous English epic, or a long poem that relates the deeds of a hero and is of particular importance to a culture or nation. It presents English history as a complex allegorical struggle between good and evil. (An allegory is a story that represents abstract ideas or principles as characters, figures, or events.) Edmund Spenser (1552–1599), a devoted Protestant, intended the poem to include twelve books, each representing a moral virtue that could be related to the political and moral struggles of his day. In particular the poem represented the struggle of the Protestant church, first established under Henry VIII (1491–1547) but outlawed during the reign of Mary I (1516– 1558), to defeat what Spenser felt to be the false belief of Roman Catholicism. He died before completing The Faerie Queene, and only six books of the poem were published. Despite being incomplete, The Faerie Queene is considered one of the most important poems in the history of English literature, earning Spenser acclaim from his contemporaries as the ‘‘prince of poets.’’

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Coming from a family of little wealth, Spenser, an exceptionally bright student, received financial help to attend the Merchant Taylors’ School in his native London. He later studied at Cambridge University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1571 and his master’s degree in 1576. His education focused on the classics—Greek and Roman literature, history, and philosophy—in addition to French and Italian romance 147

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Edmund Spenser. P UBL IC DOM AI N.

literature. He drew on several of these influences, as well as English traditions and poetry, in his own work. The Faerie Queene, for example, shows the influence of Virgil’s Aeneid; Dante’s Inferno; and medieval stories of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Spenser had established a literary reputation by 1579, with publication of The Shepheard’s Calendar, a long poem following the structure of the twelve months of the year and based on the pastoral tradition, a type of literature that idealized the lives of shepherds and the natural world. Coming to the attention of the royal court, in 1580 the poet was given a 148


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government post in Ireland, where England was struggling to subdue rebellions against its colonial administration. Ireland remained his home for the rest of his life. In 1589 Spenser wrote a letter to his friend, Walter Raleigh (1552– 1618), stating that he had been working on an epic poem entitled The Faerie Queene. He explained that his purpose in this work was to describe the figure of an ideal knight, represented by the figure of Arthur, England’s legendary hero. In a dream, Arthur sees a fairy queene so beautiful that he is immediately inspired to go seek her. By this fairy queene, Spenser explained, ‘‘I meane glory in my generall intention, but in my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our soveraine the Queene [Elizabeth I; 1533–1603], and her kingdome in Faery Land.’’ Una, who represents Truth, is among several other figures also associated with Elizabeth. As Spenser explained, each book of The Faerie Queene deals with a moral virtue, personified in the figure of a knight. This knight faces challenges to this virtue. Canto (Book) One, for example, deals with Holiness, represented by the figure of the Redcrosse knight. Canto Two deals with Temperance (moderation in food and drink), and Canto Three deals with Chastity. Canto I begins with the Redcrosse knight riding out to fulfill a mission assigned to him by Gloriana, the queene of Faerie Land, who represents Elizabeth I. Spenser’s readers would have immediately recognized this knight as a symbol of England because he carries the emblem (a red cross on a white background) of England’s patron saint, St. George—who, according to myth, killed a dragon and rescued those who had been terrorized by the monster. Gloriana has ordered Redcrosse to accompany the maiden Una (Truth) to her parents’ lands, which are being threatened by a terrible dragon (Error). In Spenser’s view, Truth represented the true religion, Protestantism, while Error represented the false belief of the Roman Catholic Church.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Faerie Queene:

The Faerie Queene is an allegory, or symbolic representation, of the conflict between good and evil. It is also an allegory of the political situation in Elizabethan England.


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The title page of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. #BE TTM AN N/C OR BI S.

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Each book of The Faerie Queene focuses on a knight who represents a particular moral virtue and who must fight against the vices that threaten this virtue.

The Faerie Queene is an incomplete work. Spenser intended it to include twelve volumes, but only six were published. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The Faerie Queene was dedicated to Elizabeth I, and glorified her rule. In the poem she is associated with pure Truth and other virtues.

Spenser deliberately used outdated language in the poem in order to achieve a mythic and magical effect.

The Faerie Queene Canto 1 A Gentle Knight was pricking [cantering] on the plaine, Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde; Yet armes till that time did he never wield: His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, As much disdayning to the curbe to yield: Fully jolly [gallant] knight he seemed, and faire did sitt, As one for knightly giusts [jousts] and fierce encounters fitt. But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead as living ever him adored: Upon his shield the like was also scored, For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had: Right faithfull true he was in deede and word, But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad; Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad [dreaded]. Upon a great adventure he was bond, That greatest Gloriana to him gave, That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie Lond, To winne him worship [honor], and her grace to have, Which of all earthly things he most did crave; And ever as he rode, his hart did earne [yearn] To prove his puissance [skill] in battell brave Upon his foe, and his new force to learne; Upon his foe, a Dragon horrible and stearne. A lovely Ladie rode him faire beside, Upon a lowly Asse more white then snow, Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Under a vele, that wimpled [folded] was full low, And over all a blacke stole she did throw, As one that inly mourned: so was she sad, And heavie sat upon her palfrey [horse] slow: Seemed in heart some hidden care she had, And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad. So pure an innocent, as that same lambe, She was in life and every virtuous lore, And descent from Royall lynage came Of ancient Kings and Queenes, that had of yore Their scepters stretch from East to Westerne shore, And all the world in their subjection held; Till that infernall feend with foule uprore Forwasted all their land, and them expeld: Whom to avenge, she had this Knight from far compeld. Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag, That lasie seemed in being ever last, Or wearied with bearing of her bag Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past, The day with cloudes was suddeine overcast, And angry Jove an hideous storme of raine Did poure into his Lemans [lovers’; i.e., the earth’s] lap so fast, That every wight [creature] to shrowd [cover] it did constrain, And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were fain. Enforst to seeke some covert nigh at hand, A shaide grove not far away they spide, That promist ayde the tempest to withstand: Whose loftie trees yclad with sommers pride, Did spred so broad, that heavens light did hide, Not perceable with power of any starre: And all within were pathes and alleies wide, With footing worne, and leading inward farre: Faire harbour that them seemes [seems to them]; so in they entred arre. . . . Led with delight, they thus beguile the way, Untill the blustring storme is overblowne; When weening [thinking] to returne, whence they did stray, They cannot finde that path, which first was showne, But wander too and fro in wayes unknowne, Furthest from end then, when they nearest weene, That makes them doubt, their wits be not their owne: 152


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So many pathes, so many turning seene, That which of them to take, in diverse doubt they been. At last resolving forward still to fare, Till that some end they finde or [either] in or out, That path they take, that beaten seemed most bare, Which when by tract [track] they hunted had throughout, And like to lead the labyrinth about [likely to lead them out]; At length it brought them to a hollow cave, Amid the thickest woods. The Champion stout Eftsoones [Forthwith] dismounted from his courser brave, And to the Dwarfe a while his needlesse spere he gave. ‘‘Be well aware,’’ quoth then that Ladie milde, ‘‘Least suddaine mischiefe ye too rash provoke: The danger hid, the place unknowne and wilde, Breedes dreadfull doubts: Oft fire is without smoke, And peril without show: therefore your stroke Sir knight with-hold, till further triall made.‘‘ ‘‘Ah Ladie,’’ said he, ‘‘shame were to revoke The forward footing for an hidden shade [for an imagined evil]: Vertue gives her selfe light, through darknesse for to wade.’’ ‘‘Yea, but,’’ quoth she, ‘‘the peril of this place I better wot [know] then you, though now too late To wish you backe returne with foule disgrace, Yet wisedome warnes, whilest foot is in the gate, To stay the steppe, ere forced to retrate. This is the wandring wood, this Errours den, A monster vile, whom God and man does hate: Therefore I read [advise] beware.’’ ‘‘Fly, fly,’’ quoth then The fearefull Dwarfe: ‘‘this is no place for living men.’’ But full of fire and greedy hardiment, The youthfull knight could not for ought [anything] be staide, But forth unto the darksome hole he went, And looked in: his glistering armor made A little glooming light, much like a shade, By which he saw the ugly monster plaine, Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide, But th’other halfe did womans shape retaine, Most lothsom, filthie, foule, and full of vile disdaine. And as she lay upon the durtie ground, Her huge long taile her den all overspred, Yet was in knots and many boughtes [coils] upwound, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Pointed with mortall sting. Of her there bred A thousand yong ones, which she dayly fed, Sucking upon her poisonous dugs [nipples], each one Of sundry shapes, yet all ill favored: Soone as that uncouth [unfamiliar] light upon them shone, Into her mouth they crept, and suddain all were gone. Their dam [mother] upstart, out of her den effraide [afraid], And rushed forth, hurling her hideous taile About her cursed head, whose folds displaid Were stretched now forth at length without entraile [coiling]. She lookt about, and seeing one in mayle [armor] Armed to point, sought backe to tune againe; For light she hated as the deadly bale, Ay wont in desert darknesse to remain, Where plaine none might her see, nor she see any plaine. Which when the valiant Elfe [knight] perceived, he lept As Lyon fierce upon the flying pray [prey], And with his trenchand blade her boldly kept From turning backe, and forced her to stay: Therewith enraged she loudly gan [began] to bray, And turning fierce, her speckled taile advaunst, Threatning her angry sting, him to dismay: Who nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst [raised]: The stroke down from her head unto her shoulder glaunst. Much daunted with that dint [blow], her sence was dazd, Yet kindling rage, her selfe she gathered round, And all attonce [at once] her beastly body raizd With doubled forces high above the ground: Tho [then] wrapping up her wrethed sterne arownd, Lept fierce upon his shield, and her huge traine [winding tail] All suddenly about his body wound, That hand or foot to stirre he strove in vaine: God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endlesse traine. His Lady sad to see his sore constraint, Cride out, ‘‘Now now Sir knight, shew what ye bee, Add faith unto your force, and be not faint: Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee.’’ That when he heard, in great perplexitie, His gall did grate for griefe and high disdaine, And knitting all his force got one hand free, Wherewith he grypt her gorge [throat] with so great paine, 154


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That soone to loose her wicked bands did her contstraine [force]. Therewith she spewd out of her filthy maw [mouth] A floud of poyson horrible and blacke, Full of great lumpes of flesh and gobbets raw, Which stunck so vildly, that it forst him slacke His grasping hold, and from her turne him backe: Her vomit full of bookes and papers was, With loathly frogs and toades, which eyes did lacke, And creeping sought way in the weedy gras: Her filthy parbreake [vomit] all the place defiled has. As when old father Nilus [Nile River] gins to swell With timely [seasonal] pride above the Aegyptian vale, His fattie [rich] waves do fertile slime outwell [throw up], And overflow each plaine and lowly dale: But when his later spring gins to avale [diminish], Hugh heapes of mudd he leaves, wherein there breed Ten thousand kindes of creatures, partly male And partly female of his fruitfull seed; Such ugly monstrous shapes elsewhere may no man reed [see]. The same so sore annoyed has the knight, That welnigh choked with the deadly stinke, His forces faile, ne [nor] can no longer fight. Whose corage when the feend perceived to shrinke, She poured forth out of her hellish sinke Her fruitfull cursed spawne of serpents small, Deformed monsters, fowle, and blacke as inke, Which swarming all about his legs did crall, And him encombred sore, but could not hurt at all. As gentle Shepheard in sweete even-tide, When ruddy Phoebus [Sun] gins to welke [fade] in west, High on an hill, his flocke to vewen wide, Markes which do byte their hasty supper best; A cloud of combrous [annoying] gnattes do him molest, All striving to infixe their feeble stings, That from their noyance he no where can rest, But with his clownish hands their tender wings He brusheth oft, and oft doth mar their murmurings. Thus ill bestedd [hard pressed], and fearful more of shame, Then of the certaine perill he stood in, Halfe furious unto his foe he came, Resolved in minde all suddenly to win, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Or soone to lose, before he once would lin [quit]; And stroke at her with more then manly force, That from her body full of filthie sin He raft [chopped off] her hatefull head without remorse; A streamie of cole black bloud forth gushed from her corse [corpse]. Her scattred brood, soone as their Parent deare They saw so rudely falling to the ground, Groning full deadly, all with troublous feare, Gathred themselves about her body round, Weening their wonted entrance to have found At her wide mouth: but being there withstood They flocked all about her bleeding wound, And sucked up their dying mothers blood, Making her death their life, and eke her hurt their good. That detestable sight him much amazde, To see th’ unkindly Impes of heaven accurst, Devoure their dam; on whom while so he gazd, Having all satisfied their bloudy thurst, Their bellies swolne he saw with fulnesse burst, And bowels gushing forth: well worthy end Of such as drunke her life, the which them nurst; Now needeth him no lenger labour spend, His foes have slaine themselves, with whom he should contend. His Ladie seeing all, that chaunst, from farre Approcht in hast to greet his victorie, And said, ‘‘Faire knight, borne under happy starre, Who see your vanquisht foes before you lye: Well worthy be you of that Armorie [armor of a Christian knight], Wherein ye have great glory wonne this day, And proved your strength on a strong enimie, Your first adventure: many such I pray, And henceforth ever wish, that like succeed it may.’’

What happened next . . . Though the Redcrosse knight succeeds in defeating Error at the beginning of The Faerie Queene, soon afterward he encounters an enchanter, Archimago, who leads the knight astray. Redcrosse believes Archimago’s deceptions, separating himself from Truth and following 156


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St. George, the patron saint of England, is famous for killing a dragon. # D AVE G. H OUS ER / CO RB IS .

Duessa (Falsehood) instead. In time Redcrosse meets the knight Arthur and is reunited with Una; with their help, he struggles against knights who represent Faithlessness, Lawlessness, Joylessness, Pride, and Despair. Canto One of The Faerie Queene ends with Redcrosse’s betrothal to Una and his return to the court of the Faerie Queene. Archimago and Duessa represent what Spenser considered to be the false belief of the Roman Catholic Church. The Redcrosse knight’s Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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adventures, then, symbolize not only the abstract struggle of goodness against vice, but also the particular struggle of England against Catholicism. Redcrosse’s separation from Una represents England’s separation from the true religion under the reign of Mary I (1516– 1558), who outlawed Protestantism and persecuted its followers. Redcrosse’s reunion with Una represents the triumphant reunion of England to the true religion under the rule of Elizabeth.

Did you know . . .

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The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590, with an elaborate dedication to Elizabeth I. Cantos IV, V, and VI were published in 1595.

Spenser continued work on additional portions of The Faerie Queene, but these were destroyed when his castle in Ireland was burned down by rebels in 1598. He and his family barely escaped with their lives.

St. George’s flag, a red cross on a white background, was based on the symbol of the Knights Templar, a group of Christian soldiers. St. George’s cross is one of the earliest emblems of England and remains the country’s official flag (not to be confused with the Union Jack of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The English soccer team wore a stylized red cross on their jerseys in the 2006 World Cup.

In addition to being the patron saint of England, St. George is the patron of numerous other countries, including Canada, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Palestine, and Portugal. He is also the patron saint of several cities, including Beirut, Constantinople, Genoa, Moscow, and Venice. Among the vast number of groups who claim George as a patron are farmers, makers of armor, the Boy Scouts, butchers, riders and saddle makers, knights, soldiers, shepherds, and those who suffer from leprosy, skin diseases, and syphilis.

Though English tradition depicts St. George as an English knight in an English landscape, it is thought that the actual St. George grew up in Palestine. A Christian soldier of the Roman Empire, he was beheaded after refusing to obey the emperor’s orders to persecute Christians. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Why do you think Spenser made the Redcrosse knight fail in his first attempt to kill the dragon? Why is this initial failure important to the story?

Choose a passage from the excerpt that you find particularly striking. Discuss how the poet’s choice of words in this passage creates an especially memorable effect that relates to the poem’s theme.

If you were writing an allegory, what kind of creature would you create to symbolize evil? What kind of creature would symbolize good? Describe these figures in detail and explain why you chose them.


Adams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. Bernard, John D. Ceremonies of Innocence: Pastoralism in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989. King, John. Spenser’s Poetry and the Reformation Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990. Maclean, Hugh and Anne Lake Prescott, eds. Edmund Spenser’s Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. Ousby, Ian, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Ruoff, James E., ed. Major Elizabethan Poetry and Prose. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1972. PE RIODIC AL S

Dolven, Jeff. ‘‘Spenser’s Sense of Poetic Justice.’’ Raritan: A Quarterly Review, Summer 2001, pp. 127–141. Hunt, Maurice. ‘‘Hellish Work in The Faerie Queene. ’’ Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, Winter 2001, p. 91. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Edmund Spenser.’’ Renaissance English Literature. http:// www.luminarium.org/renlit/spenser.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene.’’ Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. http://www.uwm.edu/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/ clspg086.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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The Edmund Spenser Home Page. http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/ main.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on the Faerie Queene.’’ Famous Prefaces, The Harvard Classics. http://www.bartleby.com/39/14.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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Stubbes on Ruffs Excerpt from ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffs’’

By Philip Stubbes Originally published in The Anatomie of Abuses, 1583 Available online at http://www.elizabethancostume.net/stubbes.html#ruffs

‘‘Sometimes they [ruffs] are suffered to hang over their shoulders, like windmill sayles fluttering in the winde. . . . ’’

he Elizabethan Era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that is often considered to be a golden age in English history, was a time of rapid social change. Population growth and economic prosperity spurred both domestic industry and foreign trade. While in earlier times businessmen had possessed relatively low social status, their increased incomes now enabled them afford to live like aristocrats. This development made many people uneasy, for it confused their clear ideas about social class. Society had been built on the idea that rank and privilege were based on birth. Now, economic wealth was allowing people to challenge this assumption. One of the most visible signs of wealth was an infatuation with extravagant clothing. In earlier times, most English people wore simple garments made of wool. But as incomes increased and rich imported goods, such as velvets, silks, and lace, become more available and affordable, clothes made from these fabrics became extremely popular. The English adopted a more ornate style of dress, with the wealthiest adorning their garments with furs, rich embroideries, and jewels. While most people enjoyed dressing this way, the new demand for luxurious fashions caused some concern. Puritans, a group of Protestants who followed strict religious standards, for example, condemned excess in clothing because they believed it encouraged vanity.

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Large collars called ruffs were popular in Elizabethan fashion. # BUR NS TEI N CO LL ECT IO N/ C OR BI S.

Philip Stubbes (c. 1555–c. 1610) articulated this moralistic view in Anatomie of Abuses, an attack on Elizabethan manners, entertainments, and fashions. Published in 1583, the book was so widely read that it was reprinted four times in the next ten years. In the excerpt ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffs,’’ Stubbes criticizes one of the most popular Elizabethan fashions—the ruff, a large, circular collar worn by both 162


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men and women. Starch was used to make the ruff stiff. The wealthiest people wore the largest ruffs. To Stubbes, ruffs were a ridiculous display of vanity. For others, anxiety about luxurious clothing was directed mostly toward people with low incomes. London in the 1580s was crowded with newcomers; indeed, by 1587 its population had swelled so rapidly that Elizabeth I (1533–1603) attempted to ban new construction in the city. Most of the newcomers were young men who sought work as servants or apprentices, young men who work for an expert craftsman in order to learn a trade. Because it was impossible to know their backgrounds and because they were not necessarily employed, their growing numbers in the city caused some alarm. They were often seen as a threat to the social order because they could not easily be categorized or put in their place, especially when they wore fancy clothing that was considered to be above their rank.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffs’’:

Clothing in Elizabethan times served to identify individuals according to their rank in society.

Puritans believed that the luxurious dress that had become popular among upper and lower classes alike only encouraged the vice of vanity.

One of the most popular fashions during the Elizabethan Era was the ruff, a large, circular collar. The larger and more ornate the ruff, the wealthier the person.

Stubbes on Ruffs They have great and monsterous ruffes, made either of Camericke, Holland, Lawne, or els [else] of some other the finest cloth that can be got for money, whereof some be a quarter of a yard deep, yea, some more, very few lesse; So that they stand a full quarter of a yarde (and more) from their necks, hanging over their shoulder points, instead of a vaile. But if Aeollus with his blasts, or Neptune with his stormes chaunce to hit upon the crafie bark of their brused ruffes, then they goe flip flap in the winde, like rags flying abroad, and lye upon their shoulders like the dishcloute [dishcloth] of a slut. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Camericke, Holland, Lawne: Types of fine linen or cotton. Aeollus; Aeolus: Greek god of the wind. Neptune: Roman god of the sea. Crafie bark: Small boat.

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But wot [know] you what? The devil, as he in the fulnes of his malice, first invented these great ruffes, so hath hee now found out also two great stayes [underpinnings] to beare up and maintaine that his kingdome of great ruffs: the one arch or piller wherby his kingdome of great ruffes is under propped, is a certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call Starch, wherin the devil hath willed them to wash and dive his ruffes wel, which when they be dry, wil then stand stiffe and inflexible about their necks. The other piller is a certain device made of wyers, crested for the purpose, whipped over either with gold, thred, silver or silk, and this hee calleth a supportasse, or underpropper. This is to be applyed round about their necks under the ruffe, upon the out side of the band, to beare up the whole frame and body of the ruffe from falling and hanging down. . . .

Tiburne; Tyburn: Site of London’s gallows, where public executions took place.

Gradatim: Latin for gradually.

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So few have them, almost none is without them; for every one, how meane or simple soever they bee otherwise, will have of them three or foure appece. . . . And as though Cambrick, Holland, Lawne, and the finest cloth that maye bee got any where for money, were not good inough [enough], they have them wrought all over with silke woorke, and peradventure [possibly] laced with golde, and silver, or other costly lace of no small price. And whether they have Argente [money] to mayntaine this geare withal, or not, it forceth not much, for they will have it by one meane or another, or else they will eyther sell or mortgage their Landes (as they have good store) . . . with losse of their lives at Tiburne in a rope. & in sure token thereof, they have now newly found out a more monstrous kind of ruffe of xii, (12), uea, xvi (16) lengthes a peece, set 3 or 4 times double, & is of some, fitlie called: ‘‘Three steppes and a halfe to the Gallowes’’. The women there [in Ailgna; England] use geat ruffes, & neckerchers of holland, lawne, camerick, and such cloth, as the greatest thred shall not be so bigge as the least haire that is: then, least they should fall down, they are smeared and starched in the devils liquore, I meane Starch: after that, dryed with great diligence, streaked, patted and rubbed very nicely, and so applied to their goodly necks, and, withal, underpropped with supportasses (as I tolde you before) the stately arches of pride: beyond all this they have a further fetch, nothing inferiour to the rest; as, namely, three or foure degrees of minor ruffes, placed gradatim, step by step, one beneath the other, and all under the Maister devil ruffe. The skirts, then, of these great ruffes are long and wide every way, pleted and crested ful curiously, God wot. Then, last of all, they are either clogged with golde, silver, or silk lace of stately price, wrought all over with needle work, speckled and sparkled heer and there with the sonne, the moone, the stares, and many other antiquities straunge to beholde. Some are wrought with open work down to the midst of the ruffe and further, some with purled lace so cloyd, and other gewgaws so pestered, as the ruffe is the least parte of it Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Stubbes on Ruffs

self. Sometimes they are pinned up to their eares, sometimes they are suffered to hang over their shoulders, like windmill sayles fluttering in the winde; and thus every one pleaseth her self with her foolish devices, for suus cuiusque crepitus sibi bene olet, as the proverb saith: ‘‘every one thinketh his own wayes best’’.

What happened next . . . The government became so concerned about excesses in fashion that it proclaimed new sumptuary laws, which aimed to regulate personal spending. These laws were necessary, the queen argued, to protect poor people from the pressure to spend more than they could afford on luxurious clothes. The government also wished to discourage growing demand for imported fabrics, which lessened demand for English wool. The government hoped that sumptuary laws would reduce spending on foreign goods and lead to greater spending on domestic industries. At the same time, the sumptuary laws revealed a desire to limit or regulate upward mobility. Sumptuary laws were nothing new. Since the 1200s many European kingdoms had enacted regulations about apparel. Sumptuary laws were also common in other cultures. Elizabeth reinstituted many regulations that had been passed during the reign of her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547), but she also proclaimed several new and more detailed laws, many of which aimed to protect English textile industries. Sumptuary laws were virtually unenforceable. Though fines were collected against offenders in some cases, for the most part the laws were ignored. Economic growth continued to spur upward social mobility as new occupations opened up in trade, government service, and other professions. Since these new positions were associated with gentleman status, they contributed to the blurring of previously sharp distinctions between social classes. It became less and less possible to judge individuals by their clothes. Elizabeth’s successor, James I (1566–1625), feared that regulations governing apparel caused public resentment. To avoid alienating his subjects, he repealed these laws. Even so, Puritan factions insisted on regulations about dress. The Puritan colonists in North America, for example, enacted strict laws there requiring modest attire suitable to the harsh conditions of colonial life. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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A man and woman wearing typical Elizabethan clothing. Sumptuary laws were passed to to protect poor people from the pressure to buy luxurious clothes. HU LT ON AR CH IV E/ GE TTY I MA GE S.

Did you know . . .

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By the 1540s, one out of every five workers in London was engaged in the manufacture of clothing for the aristocracy and prosperous classes.

Queen Elizabeth loved fancy garments. In the last year of her life her wardrobe included more than three thousand dresses.

Men spent lavishly on fashion in Elizabethan times. It was not unusual for aristocrats to spend half of their annual income on clothing. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Stubbes on Ruffs

Books about fashion began to appear in the 1500s, advising aristocrats to wear their fancy clothing in a nonchalant way. This would distinguish them from newly rich people, who were likely to appear ill at ease in their expensive new clothes.

Elizabeth decreed more clothing regulations than any other English ruler.


In Elizabethan times people aimed to imitate the dress of wealthier classes. Does clothing still play a role in identifying social status? Consider the importance of particular garments (such as jeans or sneakers), accessories (such as handbags or jewelry), and brand names. In what ways to people use these or other items to make a statement about their social identity?

Does your school have a dress code or require students to wear a uniform? If so, do you think this is a fair policy? Why or why not?


Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998. Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. PE RIODIC AL S

Bailey, Amanda. ‘‘‘Monstrous Manner’ Style and The Early Modern Theater.’’ Criticism, Summer, 2001. WEB SIT ES

‘‘The History of Footwear: Sumptuary Laws.’’ Department of Podiatry, Curtin University of Technology. http://podiatry.curtin.edu.au/ sump.html#female (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Queen Elizabeth’s Influence on Elizabethan Fashion.’’ Elizabethan Costume Page. http://www.elizabethancostume.net (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Regulating the Body: A Brief History of Sumptuary Law.’’ Jolique: Exploring Dress and Culture. http://www.jolique.com/social_status/ regulating_body.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Stubbes on Ruffs.’’ Elizabethan Costume Page. http:// www.elizabethancostume.net/stubbes.html#ruffs (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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16

Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England Excerpt from The Description of England

By William Harrison Originally published in 1587 Reprinted in The Renaissance in England, 1954

‘‘To use torment also or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred, sith [since] we are found always to be such as despise death and yet abhor to be tormented.’’

s all societies do, Elizabethan England faced issues relating to crime, punishment, and law and order. The beginnings of English common law, which protected the individual’s life, liberty, and property, had been in effect since 1189, and Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) respected this longstanding tradition. The law was seen as an institution that not only protected individual rights, but also validated the authority of the monarch.

A

Elizabethans attached great importance to the social order. In their view, every person and thing in the universe had a designated place and purpose. God was the ultimate authority; under him ruled the monarch, followed by a hierarchy of other church and government officials. Nobles, aristocrats, and ordinary people also had their places in this order; society functioned properly, it was thought, when all persons fulfilled the duties of their established positions. Crimes that threatened the social order were considered extremely dangerous offenses. These included heresy, or religious opinions that conflict with the church’s doctrines, which threatened religious laws; treason, which challenged the legitimate government; and murder. Those convicted of these crimes received the harshest punishment: death. Execution methods for the most serious crimes were designed to be as gruesome as possible. 169

Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England

In Elizabethan times executions were public events witnessed by large crowds of onlookers. HU LTO N AR CH IV E/G ET TY I MA GES .

Heretics were burned to death at the stake. Traitors were hanged for a short period and cut down while they were still alive. They were then disemboweled and their intestines were thrown into a fire or a pot of boiling water. Next, their arms and legs were cut off. Finally, they were beheaded. Their heads were mounted on big poles outside the city gates as a warning of the penalty for treason. Convicted traitors who were of noble birth were usually executed in less undignified ways; they were either hanged until completely dead before being drawn and quartered, or they were beheaded. Executions took place in public and drew huge crowds. Indeed, public executions were considered an important way of demonstrating the authority of the state, for witnesses could watch justice carried out according to the letter of the law. These harsh sentences show how seriously Elizabethan society took the threat of heresy and treason. Since the 1530s there had been serious religious tensions in England. Henry VIII (1491–1547) had severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church, declaring himself the supreme religious authority in England. Though Henry’s objective had been to free himself from the restraints of the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic 170



Church, who had refused to permit Henry to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), the action gave unintended support to those in England who wanted religious reform. A new Protestant church emerged as the official religion in England. Though a great number of people accepted the new church, many remained loyal to Catholicism. Catholics who refused to acknowledge Henry as head of the English church risked being executed for treason. The situation changed abruptly when Mary I (1516–1558) took the throne in 1553 after the death of Henry’s heir, Edward VI (1537–1553). Mary, a Catholic, wished to restore her religion to official status in England. To do so, she began enforcing heresy laws against Protestants. She ordered hundreds of Protestants burned at the stake, but this did not eliminate support for the Protestant church. When Elizabeth I succeeded Mary in 1558, she immediately restored Protestantism to official status and outlawed Catholicism. Many English Catholics resented Elizabeth’s rule, and there were several attempts to overthrow her and place her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587) on the throne. Some of these plots involved England’s primary political rivals, France and Spain. If one of these bigger and more powerful countries were to launch an invasion, England’s independence would almost certainly be destroyed. Under these conditions Elizabeth’s government became extremely wary of dissent, and developed an extensive intelligence system to gather information about potential conspiracies against the queen. A vast network of spies followed suspects and, according to some historians, may sometimes have enticed individuals to develop treasonous plots. When conspirators were arrested, they were often tortured to reveal details about the plot and the names of their accomplices. This practice, though, was regulated by law. Torture was not allowed without the queen’s authorization, and was permitted only in the presence of officials who were in charge of questioning the prisoner and recording his or her confession. Despite its legality, torture was brutal. Prisoners were often ‘‘racked,’’ which involved having their arms and legs fastened to a frame that was then stretched to dislocate their joints. They could also be suspended by their wrists for long periods or placed in an iron device that bent their bodies into a circle. While Elizabethan society greatly feared crimes against the state, many lesser crimes were also considered serious enough to warrant the death penalty. Murder that did not involve a political assassination, for example, was usually punished by hanging. Women who murdered their husbands, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Prisoners were often tortured on the rack in order to obtain a confession. # BE TTM AN N/ COR BI S.

though, were burned at the stake. Robbery, larceny (theft), rape, and arson were also capital offenses. Those accused of crimes had the right to a trial, though their legal protections were minimal. They had no automatic right to appeal, for example. And in some cases, particularly for crimes against the state, the courts ignored evidence. Walter Raleigh (1552–1618), for example, was convicted of treason in 1603. Though many believed that the charge against him had been fabricated, and though Raleigh presented a convincing defense, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Crime in England, and the number of prosecutions, reached unusually high levels in the 1590s. This development was probably related to a downturn in the economy, which increased the number of people living in poverty. Most property crime during Elizabethan times, according to The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain, was committed by the young, the poor, or the homeless. To address the problem of 172



escalating property crime, Parliament, England’s legislative body, enacted poor laws which attempted to control the behavior of the poor. Begging, for example, was prohibited by these laws. A 1572 law classified several categories of self-employed people as vagrants, including unlicensed healers, palm readers, and tinkers (traveling menders of cooking pots). As such, they risked whipping or other physical punishment unless they found a master, or employer. The poor laws failed to deter crime, however, and the government began exploring other measures to control social groups it considered dangerous or undesirable. Between 1546 and 1553, five ‘‘hospitals’’ or ‘‘houses of correction’’ opened in London. These institutions, which the Elizabethans called ‘‘bridewells’’ were places where orphans, street children, the physically and mentally ill, vagrants, prostitutes, and others who engaged in disreputable lifestyles could be confined. Inmates of the bridewells had not necessarily committed a crime, but they were confined because of their marginal social status. As the name suggested, houses of correction aimed to reform their inmates, who were expected to work long hours under harsh conditions. In addition, they were often abused by the hospital wardens. Houses of correction, which increased significantly in number throughout England during the sixteenth century, reflected a growing interest in the idea that the state should aim to change criminals’ behavior instead of merely imposing a punishment for offenses. Though Elizabethan prisons had not yet developed into a full-scale penal system, prisons and jails did exist. But they lacked the capacity to handle large numbers of prisoners who would remain behind bars for long periods. Jails in the sixteenth century were primarily places where suspects were kept while awaiting trial, or where convicts waited for their day of execution. Those who could not pay their debts could also be confined in jail. Unlike today, convicted criminals did not usually receive sentences to serve time in prison. Instead, punishments most often consisted of fines for small offenses, or physical punishments for more serious crimes. Though Elizabethan criminal penalties were undeniably cruel by modern standards, they were not unusual for their time. Throughout Europe and many other parts of the world, similar or even more brutal punishments were carried out. The Spanish agent who assassinated the Dutch Protestant rebel leader William of Orange (1553–1584), for example, was sentenced to be tortured to death for treason; it took thirteen days for this ordeal to be Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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completed. Capital punishment was common in other parts of the world as well. In Japan at this time, methods of execution for serious crimes included boiling, crucifixion, and beheading. In some parts of south Asia criminals were sentenced to be trampled to death by elephants. Historians have also pointed out that, although the gruesome punishments of Elizabethan England have received a great deal of attention, they were relatively infrequent and were reserved for the most shocking crimes. As noted in The Oxford History of the Prison, execution by prolonged torture was ‘‘practically unknown’’ in early modern England (the period from c. 1490s to the 1790s) but was more common in other European countries. Moreover, while criminal penalties were indeed strict in England, many prisoners received lesser punishments than the law allowed. According to The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain, ‘‘many fewer people were indicted than were accused, many fewer were convicted than indicted, and no more than half of those who could have faced the gallows actually did so. Charges were frequently downgraded so that the criminal, though punished, did not have to be executed. . . . Thus, although the criminal law was terrifying, and genuinely dangerous, its full vigor was usually directed primarily at those who were identified either as malicious or repeat offenders.’’ Though it may seem contradictory that writer William Harrison (1534–1593) should state that the English disapproved of extreme cruelty in their response to crime, he was reflecting England’s perception of itself as a country that lived by the rule of law and administered punishments accordingly.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Description of England:

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During Elizabethan times physical punishment for crimes was common throughout Europe and other parts of the world.

England did not have a well-developed prison system during this period. The practice of handing down prison sentences for crimes had not yet become routine.

The purpose of punishment was to deter people from committing crimes. It also demonstrated the authority of the government to uphold the social order.



Drawing and quartering was a common punishment during the Elizabethan Era. # M AR Y EV AN S PI CT URE LI BRA RY /T HE I MA GE WO RK S.

The Description of England The Second Book Chapter XI. Of Sundry Kinds of Punishments Appointed for Malefactors In cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, murther, rape, piracy, and such capital crimes as are not reputed for treason or hurt of the estate, our sentence pronounced upon the offender is to hang till he be dead. For of other punishments used in other countries we have no knowledge or use, and yet so few grievous [serious] crimes committed with us as elsewhere in the world. To use torment also or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred sith [since] we are found always to be such as despise death and yet abhor to be tormented, choosing rather frankly to open our minds than to yield our bodies unto such servile halings [draggings] and tearings as are used in other countries. And this is one cause wherefore our condemned persons do go so cheerfully to their deaths, for our nation is free, stout, hauty, prodigal of life and blood, as Sir Thomas Smith saith lib. II, cap 25 De republica, therefore cannot in any wise digest to be used as villans and slaves in suffering continually beating, servitude, and servile torments. No, our jailers are guilty of felony by an old law of the land if they torment Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Felony: Serious crime. Capital: Involving the death penalty.

Servile: Suitable to a slave.

Prodigal: Extravagant.

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any prisoner committed to their custody for the revealing of his complices [accomplices].

Trespass: Offense; crime. Heinous: Grossly wicked or disgusting. Inquest: A judicial inquiry. Yeomen: Small farmers.

Pillory: A wooden framework with openings for the head and hands, where prisoners were fastened to be exposed to public scorn. Seditious: Rebellious.

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The greatest and most grievious punishment used in England for such an offend against the state is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hardle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half dead and then taken down and quartered alive, after that their members [limbs] and bowels are cut from their bodies and thrown into a fire provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose. Sometimes, if the trespass be not the more heinous, they are suffered to hang till they be quite dead. And whensoever any of the nobility are convicted of high treason by their peers, that is to say equals (for an inquest of yeomen passeth not upon them, but only of the lords of the Parlement) this manner of their death is converted into the loss of their heads only, notwithstanding that the sentence do run after the former order. In trial of cases concerning treason, felony, or any other grievous crime not confessed the party accused doth yield, if he be a nobleman, to be tried by an inquest (as I have said) of his peers; if a gentlemen; and an inferior by God and by the country, to with the yeomanry (for combat or battle is not greatly in use); and, being condemned of felony, manslaughter, etc., he is eftsoons [soon afterwards] hanged by the neck till he be dead, and then cut down and buried. But if he be convicted of willful murther done either hanged alive in chains near the place where the fact was committed, or else, upon compassion taken, first strangled with a rope, and so continueth till his bones consume in nothing. We have use neither of the wheel [a large wheel to which a condemned prisoner was tied so that his arms and legs could be broken] nor of the bar [the tool used to break the bones of prisoners on the wheel], as in other countries, but when wilful manslaughter is perpetrated, beside hanging, the offender hath his right hand commonly striken off before or near unto the place where the act was done, after which he is led forth to the place of execution and there put to death according to the law. . . . If a woman poison her husband she is burned alive; if the servant kill his master he is to be executed for petty treason; he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death in water or lead, although the party die not of the practice; in cases of murther all the accessories are to suffer pains of death accordingly. Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the letter P, the rewalting [destruction] of the trees growing upon the grounds of the offenders, and loss of all his movables [possessions]. Many trespasses also are punished by the cutting off one or both ears from the head of the offender, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates, fray-makers, petty robbers, etc. Rogues are burned through the ears, carriers of sheep out of the land by the loss of their heads, such as kill by poison are either boiled or scalded to death in lead or seething water. Heretics are burned quick, harlots Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


[prostitutes] and their mates by carting, ducking [dunking in the river], and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and marketsteads are often put to rebuke. Howbeit, as this is counted with some either as no punishment at all to speak of, or but smally regarded of the offenders, so I would wish adultery and fornication to have some sharper law. For what great smart [hurt] is it to be turned out of an hot sheet into a cold, or after a little washing in the water to be let loose again unto their former trades? Howbeit, the dragging of some of them over the Thames between Lambeth and Westminister at the tail of a boat is a punishment that most terrifieth them which are condemned thereto, but this is inflicted upon them by none other than the knight marshal, and that within the compass of his jurisdiction and limits only. . . .

Carting: Being placed on a cart and led through town, for all to see. Doing of open penance in sheets: Standing in a public place wearing only a sheet as a sign of remorse for a crime.

Witches are hanged or sometimes burned, but thieves are hanged (as I said before) generally on the gibbet or gallows. . . . Rogues and vagabonds are often stocked and whipped; scolds are ducked upon cucking-stools in the water. Such felons as stand mute and speak not at the arraignment are pressed to death by huge weights laid upon a boord that lieth over their breast and a sharp stone under their backs, and these commonly hold their peace, thereby to save their goods [money and possessions] unto their wives and children, which if they were condemned should be confiscated [seized] to the prince. . . .

Scolds: Women who nagged their husbands. Cucking-stools: Dunking stools; chairs attached to a beam used to lower criminals into the river.

What happened next . . . By the end of the sixteenth century some were arguing for a new solution to criminal sentencing: transporting convicts to the North American colonies. In 1615 James I decreed transportation to be a lawful penalty for crime. But it was not often used until 1718, when new legislation confirmed it as a valid sentence and required the state to pay for it. Until about 1790 transportation remained the preferred sentence for noncapital offenses; it could also be imposed instead of the death penalty. The vast majority of transported convicts were men, most of them in their twenties, who were sent to the colonies of Maryland and Virginia. By 1772, three-fifths of English male convicts were transported. During the late 1780s, when England was at war with France, it became common practice to force convicts into service on naval ships. After 1815 transportation resumed—this time to Australia, which became, in effect, a penal colony. About 187,000 convicts were sent there from 1815 to 1840, when transportation was abolished. Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Imprisonment did not become a regularly imposed sentence in England until the late 1700s. Even then, only about ten percent of English convicts were sent to prison. In 1853 the Penal Servitude Act formally instituted the modern prison system in Britain. From around the late 1700s the government sought more humane ways to conduct executions. Rather than inflict physical suffering on the condemned person, as was the custom in earlier times, the government became more concerned about the rights of the prisoner. In Scotland, for example, an early type of guillotine was invented to replace beheadings by axe; since it could often take two or more axe blows to sever a head, this guillotine was considered a relatively merciful method of execution. Better ways to conduct hangings were also developed, so that condemned prisoners died quickly instead of being slowly strangled on the gallows. The Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill of 1868 abolished public hangings in Britain, and required that executions take place within the prison. The death penalty was abolished in England in 1965, except for treason, piracy with violence, and a type of arson. In 1998 the Criminal Justice Bill ended the death penalty for those crimes as well.

Did you know . . .

Murder rates may have been slightly higher in sixteenth-century England than they were in the late twentieth century.

Most murders in Elizabethan England took place within family settings, as is still the case today.

Henry VIII authorized a law in 1540 giving surgeons the bodies of four hanged criminals a year. The surgeons dissected these bodies to learn more about human anatomy. This use of criminals’ bodies became more widespread in the 1700s.

When James I ascended the English throne in 1603, there were about as many lawyers per capita in England as there were in the early 1900s.


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Why did Elizabethan society consider it necessary to lock up those without permanent homes or employment? Discuss what this policy reveals about Elizabethan attitudes toward property, status, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


and order. How does your own community deal with problems associated with vagrancy, homelessness, and unemployment?

If you had been an advisor to King James, what action would you have recommended he take regarding the use of transportation as a sentence for serious crimes? Draw up a list of the pros and cons, and construct a thorough argument to support your recommendation.


Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth: England, AD 1533–1603. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998. Rollins, Hyder E. and Herschel Baker, eds. The Renaissance in England. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1954. Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Morris, Norval and David J. Rothman, eds. The Oxford History of the Prison. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. PE RIODIC AL S

Griffiths, Paul. ‘‘Contesting London Bridewell, 1576–1580.’’ Journal of British Studies, July 2003, p. 283. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Burning at the Stake.’’ Capital Punishment U.K. http:// www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/index.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabethan Crime.’’ http://www.burnham.org.uk/elizabethancrime.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabethan Law Overview. http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/ Renaissance/Courthouse/ElizaLaw.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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17

History of the World Excerpt from History of the World

By Walter Raleigh Originally published in 1614 Reprinted in The Norton Anthology of English Literature Published in 1986

‘‘Man . . . was an abstract or model, or brief story of the universal, in whom God concluded the creation and work of the world, and whom he made the last and most excellent of his creatures.’’

alter Raleigh’s (1552–1618) The History of the World was one of the most influential prose works of the seventeenth century. Though it focused primarily on the history of the ancient world, analyzing events only up to the second century BCE , it expressed strong concerns about the English monarchy and the dangers of misrule. Raleigh argued that God had created an ordered and harmonious world in which human affairs should be governed by rulers who recognized God’s ultimate authority. A monarch who held himself above the law of God threatened the world order and would bring ruin to his dynasty.

W

Raleigh worked on The History of the World while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1603 he had been arrested on a charge of treason for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow James I (1566– 1625) and put the king’s cousin, Arabella Stuart (1575–1615), on the throne. There was little evidence against Raleigh, and many of his supporters believed the charge had been fabricated by his enemies. Nevertheless, Raleigh was found guilty and sentenced to death. King James, however, ordered the sentence to be postponed indefinitely. Raleigh remained in the Tower until 1616, when the king allowed him 181

History of the World

Walter Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London (pictured) for more than ten years. HU LTO N AR CHI VE /G ETT Y I MAG ES .

to make a trip to Venezuela to look for gold. Provoking the Spanish during this unsuccessful expedition, Raleigh returned to London to find that Spain was demanding his execution for piracy. King James refused to authorize another trial, stating that this was impossible because Raleigh’s original death sentence was still valid. In 1618 the king ordered Raleigh beheaded on the original treason charge. His long years of confinement gave Raleigh the opportunity to further his studies and to write. Imprisonment in the Tower was nothing like incarceration in a modern correctional facility. The Tower, which still stands in London, was a walled fortress containing not only dungeons and prison apartments, but also a royal residence, the royal mint (where the country’s coins were made), and even a small zoo. The Tower’s less fortunate inmates might be chained up in small underground cells, or even be subjected to torture to obtain confessions of treason. But those who were considered less dangerous could live in relative comfort. As a man of wealth and high status, Raleigh was treated well at the Tower. He 182



occupied a large apartment, where his family was allowed to join him and where he was able to keep his extensive private library. He spent his time investigating scientific matters, reading, and writing what he intended to be a multi-volume history of human civilization. Raleigh dedicated this book to the king’s son, Prince Henry (1594– 1612), who considered Raleigh something of a father figure. Raleigh most likely hoped that the prince might intervene on his behalf with the king and thus secure his eventual release from the Tower. But when Prince Henry died in 1612, Raleigh abandoned the project. He wrote a long preface to the work and published it as an unfinished piece in 1614. The History of the World began with the creation of the universe as described in the Bible, and it traced the history of the ancient world through the second century BCE . In the book Raleigh presents history as a record of God’s divine will. He argued that God intervenes in the affairs of humankind, rewarding just rulers and punishing unjust ones. Indeed, no monarch, according to Raleigh, stood above the law of God. Raleigh also expressed the Elizabethan philosophy that a human being was a microcosm, or ‘‘little world,’’ in which each part corresponded to a larger element of the universe (the macrocosm). A human body, for example, was like the earth: bones corresponded to rocks, blood corresponded to rivers, and hair corresponded to grass. Thoughts, feelings, and even stages of life, such as infancy or old age, also corresponded to parts of the universe. According to Raleigh, thoughts corresponded to the action of angels, while each stage of life corresponded to a planet of the solar system. This worldview demonstrated the importance that Elizabethans placed on order. In his preface to the book Raleigh emphasized that bad rule threatened this order and resulted in God’s punishment. He did not attempt to hide his critical views toward English kings who overstepped the bounds of their authority. He referred specifically to Richard III (1452–1485), who had seized the crown in 1483 from the legitimate heir, and who was suspected of ordering the murder of his young nephews in order to eliminate them as potential political rivals. Raleigh described Richard as ‘‘the greatest master in mischief of all that forwent him,’’ and stated that his murderous acts made him ‘‘a spectacle of shame and dishonor both to his friends and enemies.’’ Furthermore, God punished Richard by ending his life before the tyrannical king had a chance to enjoy his power. Richard was killed in 1485 at the battle of Bosworth Field, Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Raleigh criticized the rule of Richard III, who is believed to have murdered his nephews, Edward the V and Richard, pictured here. #B ET TMA NN /CO RB IS .

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when Henry Tudor (later Henry VII; 1457–1509) led a revolt against him. Richard’s dynasty was destroyed, and the Tudor dynasty—the last monarch of which was Elizabeth I (1533– 1603)—was established.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from History of the World:

The History of the World is incomplete. Raleigh had originally planned an even longer and more comprehensive work.

The History of the World expressed the Elizabethan view of an ordered universe. Every person had a specific place in society, determined by God. As long as no one tried to step out of their divinely assigned role, society would run smoothly and England would prosper.

History of the World That Man Is, As It Were, A Little World: With A Digression Touching Our Mortality. Man, thus compounded and formed by God, was an abstract or model, or brief story of the universal, in whom God concluded the creation and work of the world, and whom he made the last and most excellent of his creatures, being internally endued [endowed] with a divine understanding, by which he might contemplate and serve his Creator, after whose image he was formed, and endued with the powers and faculties of reason and other abilities, that thereby also he might govern and rule the world, and all other God’s creatures therein. And whereas God created three sorts of living natures, to wit, angelical, rational, and brutal; giving to angels an intellectual, and to beasts a sensual nature, he vouchsafed unto man both the intellectual of angels, the sensitive of beasts, and the proper rational belonging unto man, and therefore, saith Gregory Nazianzen, Homo est utriusque naturae vinculum: ‘‘Man is the bond and chain which tieth together both natures.’’ And because in the little frame of man’s body there is a representation of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts thereof, therefore was man called microcosmos, or the little world. Deus igitur hominem factum, velut alterum quendam mundum, in brevi magnum, atque exiguo totum, in terries statuit: ‘‘God therefore placed in the earth the man whom he had made, as it were another world, the great and large world in the small and little world.’’ For out of earth and dust was formed the Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Vouchsafed: Granted; bestowed. Gregory Nazianzen: Fourth century bishop, also known as Saint Gregory the Theologian.

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flesh of man, and therefore heavy and lumpish; the bones of his body we may compare to the hard rocks and stones. . . .

Generative: Procreative; ability to produce offspring.

Similitude: Similarity; resemblance.

Complexions: Natural colors of the skin.

Ascribed: Attributed.

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His blood, which disperseth itself by the branches of veins through all the body, may be resembled to those waters which are carried by brooks and rivers over all the earth; his breath to the air; his natural heat to the enclosed warmth which the earth hath in itself—which, stirred up by the heat of the sun, assisteth nature in the speedier procreation of those varieties which the earth bringeth forth; our radical moisture, oil, or balsamum (whereon the natural heat feedeth and is maintained) is resembled to the fat and fertility of the earth; the hairs of man’s body, which adorns, or overshadows it, to the grass, which covereth the upper face and skin of the earth; our generative power, to nature, which produceth all things; our determinations, to the light, wandering, and unstable clouds, carried every where with uncertain winds; our eyes, to the light of the sun and moon; and the beauty of our youth, to the flowers of spring which either in a very short time, or with the sun’s heat, dry up and wither away, or the fierce puffs of wind blow them from the stalks; the thoughts of our mind, to the motion of angels; and our pure understanding (formerly called mens, and that which always looketh upwards) to those intellectual natures which are always present with God; and, lastly, our immortal souls (while they are righteous); are by God himself beautified with the title of his own image and similitude. And although, in respects of God, there is no man just, or good, or righteous . . . yet, with such a kind of difference as there is between the substance and the shadow, there may be found a goodness in man: which God being pleased to accept, hath therefore called man the image and similitude of his own righteousness. In this also is the little world of man compared, and made more like the universal . . . and that four complexions resemble the four elements, and the seven ages of man the seven planets; whereof our infancy is compared to the moon, in which we seem only to live and grow as plants, the second age to Mercury, wherein we are taught and instructed, our third age to Venus, the days of love, desire, and vanity; the fourth to the sun, the strong, flourishing, and beautiful age of man’s life; the fifth to Mars, in which we seek honor and victory, and in which our thoughts travel to ambitious ends; the sixth age is ascribed to Jupiter, in which we begin to take account of our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the perfection of our understanding; the last and seventh to Saturn, wherein our days are sad, and overcast, in which we find by dear and lamentable [regrettable] experience, and by the loss which can never be repaired, that of all our vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth: our attendants are sickness, and variable infirmities [weaknesses]; and by how much the more we are accompanied with plenty, by so much the more greedily is our end desire, whom when time hath made unsociable to others, we become a burden to ourselves: being of no other use, than to hold the riches we have from our successors. . . . Elizabethan World: Primary Sources


Tourists view a copy of The History of the World by Walter Raleigh. # DE AN CO NG ER/ CO RB IS.

For if there were any baiting place, or rest, in the course or race of man’s life, then . . . the same might also perpetually be maintained. But as there is a continuance of motion in natural living things, and as the sap and juice, wherein the life of plants is preserved, doth evermore ascend or descend; so is it with the life of man, which is always either increasing towards ripeness and perfection or declining and decreasing towards rottenness and dissolution.

Baiting place: Site where the baiting of animals took place for entertainment.

Dissolution: Decomposition into fragments or parts.

What happened next . . . King James was intensely displeased with The History of the World, which he felt was too bold in its criticism of monarchs. James ordered that Raleigh’s name and portrait be removed from all copies of the book before it could go on sale. Despite the king’s negative response, however, The History of the World became the most influential history book in England during the early 1600s. It is Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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considered an outstanding example of Elizabethan prose (nonpoetry). The defiant political message in The History of the World appealed to those in England who resented the monarch’s power, such as Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). In 1641 civil war broke out between those who advocated for a strong Parliament and those who supported the traditional monarchy. In 1649 the Parliamentarian faction took control, ordering the execution of King James’s son and successor, Charles I (1600–1649). Cromwell then declared himself head of the government. (The monarchy was not restored in England until 1660.) Raleigh became so associated with the idea of rebellion against tyranny that in 1658 the poet John Milton (1608–1674) published a collection of sayings about liberty and government, The Cabinet-Council, that he attributed incorrectly to Raleigh. Raleigh’s political views also inspired American revolutionary leaders in the 1770s. The American navy named one of its warships after him.

Did you know . . .

In his preface to The History of the World Raleigh bitterly thanked those who had imprisoned him, saying that his long confinement had given him the time to write.

The History of the World took one million words to cover only the period up to 130 BCE .


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In The History of the World, Raleigh compared the infancy of human beings to the moon. Why do you think this correspondence seemed appropriate to seventeenth-century thinkers? Why would ‘‘the strong, flourishing, and beautiful age of man’s life’’ be viewed as corresponding to the sun?

Raleigh expressed the view that mankind’s purpose was to govern and rule the world. In other words, all of the world’s resources— plants, animals, minerals—existed for the use of human beings. Do you think a twenty-first-century historian would be likely to agree with this view? How would you define humanity’s role in relationship to other living things? Elizabethan World: Primary Sources



Adams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. Fecher, Constance. The Last Elizabethan: A Portrait of Sir Walter Ralegh. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972. Trevelyan, Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002. PE RIODIC AL S

Lawson-Pebbles, Robert. ‘‘The Many Faces of Sir Walter Raleigh.’’ History Today, March 1998. WEB SIT ES

‘‘Excerpt from The History of the World, 1614.’’ http://www.towson.edu/ %7Etinkler/prose/417.html#raleigh (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘General Characteristics of the Renaissance.’’ http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ english/melani/cs6/ren.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Sir Walter Raleigh.’’ BBC: Historic Figures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ historic_figures/raleigh_walter.shtml (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Sir Walter Raleigh.’’ British Explorers. http://www.britishexplorers.com/ woodbury/raleigh.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).


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A Survey of London Excerpt from A Survey of London

By John Stowe Originally published in 1598 Reprinted in The Renaissance in England, 1954

‘‘In the holy days all sommer [summer] the youths are exercised in leaping, dancing, shooting, wrastling, casting the stone, and practicing their shields.’’

ost English people in the sixteenth century worked very hard. Though wealthy nobles, or the elite men and women who held social titles, did not usually need income, they often held demanding jobs in government or in the military. Ordinary people, who worked to support themselves and their families, put in long hours at their jobs. In the countryside most people did agricultural work; in the city most residents worked in trades and crafts. Hard work was considered an important virtue. But the English also valued leisure time, and they participated eagerly in a wide variety of sports, games, and other types of entertainment. For most ordinary people, leisure activities took place on Sundays or religious holidays, after church attendance.

M

According to one Elizabethan writer, quoted in Jeffrey L. Singman’s Daily Life in Elizabethan England, the English were ‘‘strangely addicted to all kinds of pleasure above all other nations.’’ English cities and towns, he noted, ‘‘swarm[ed] with companies of musicians and fiddlers,’’ and Londoners frequently enjoyed fencing matches, tightrope walking performances, and similar entertainments. Also common were gambling houses, where people played at dice or cards. Though the Puritans, a group of Protestants who followed strict religious standards, disapproved of many types of merrymaking, arguing 191

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Tightrope walking performances were a popular entertainment in Elizabethan times. # K EV IN F LEM IN G/ C OR BI S.

that frivolous activities wasted people’s time and might lure them into sin, they agreed with the general view that idleness was a danger to be avoided. One important way to fill time in an enjoyable and productive way was to practice sports. Not only did athletic activities keep men strong and healthy in case they might be needed for military service, but they also provided men with the opportunity to practice military skills. Fencing, for example, improved a man’s ability to use a sword, while archery taught the use of the bow and arrow. Military drills, in which men had to learn a complicated pattern of positions using pikes, became a popular entertainment for both participants and spectators. 192


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Dancing was one of the few activities available for both women and men. # GIR AU DON /A RT R ES OUR CE , NY . R EPR OD UCE D BY PER MI SS ION .

Many nonmilitary sports were enjoyed as well. These included football (soccer), handball, tennis, bowling, badminton, foot races, swimming, and throwing weights. The wealthier classes particularly enjoyed horseback riding, and people of all social classes liked to take long walks or leisurely strolls in their gardens. In general athletics were reserved exclusively for men. But women and men participated together in some activities, particularly dancing. Elizabeth I (1533–1603), for example, loved to demonstrate her skill at executing complex dance steps, and she insisted that all of her courtiers be graceful dancers. (A courtier is a person who serves or participates in the royal court or household as the king’s or queen’s advisor, officer, or attendant.) Ordinary people also enjoyed Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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dancing, which gave unmarried men and women a socially acceptable occasion to meet. Hunting was another common pastime in which women could participate with men. Only the wealthier classes hunted for sport, since common folk did not own any land and had no legal right to take game from private property. Many people used hounds to chase their quarry, but some continued to enjoy the ancient art of falconry, in which falcons were trained to hunt game. In addition to athletic activities, people in sixteenth-century London enjoyed many different spectator sports. Cockfighting, bull baiting, and bear baiting drew huge audiences among all social classes, with many spectators gambling on the outcome of these fighting matches between animals. In cockfights, specially trained roosters fought against each other. In bull and bear baiting, however, specially bred dogs were trained to attack the large animal, clamping their powerful jaws shut on its face. The dogs would hang on while the baited animal tried, with increasing desperation, to shake it off. The queen herself enjoyed bear baiting and attended matches frequently. So popular were these sports that permanent buildings, called bear gardens, were erected near London where matches could be held. These structures, however, were situated just outside the city—often on the south bank of the Thames River—where they would not be subject to Puritan restrictions on their operation. Of all the entertainments available to Londoners in the late 1500s, the theater was among the most significant. English people had enjoyed plays for centuries, but these had been relatively simple works that dramatized religious stories or moral dilemmas. In the sixteenth century, however, brilliant new playwrights and performers transformed the stage, thrilling audiences with plays that challenged old ideas and demonstrated the full expressive possibilities of the English language. Playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) and William Shakespeare (1564– 1616), for example, created works that were immensely popular and drew thousands of people to performances. New theaters were built in which plays, which had formerly been performed in the large courtyards of inns, could be staged. Like the bull and bear baiting establishments, these buildings were located outside the city walls to avoid Puritan restrictions. Among the most famous London theaters was the Globe, built by the theatrical company in which Shakespeare was a business partner. Situated on the south bank of the Thames, the Globe could hold an audience of about three thousand people. Admission was relatively 194


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cheap—comparable to the price of a movie in modern times—so all sorts of people were able to attend. Theaters were built in a roughly circular shape around a large courtyard. The stage occupied one end, and roofed galleries surrounded the yard on three sides. Gallery seats were occupied by the wealthier audience members, while common folk, for the price of a penny ticket, could stand on the ground. For this reason, they became known as ‘‘groundlings.’’ Elizabethan audiences could be extremely rowdy. People brought food and drink into the theater, made a lot of noise, and thought nothing of jeering the actors or even throwing food at the stage in response to a poor performance. Audiences expected, and got, spectacular entertainment at the theater. Plays were filled with music, dancing, battles, swordfights, and murders, as well as jokes, trickery, and couples in love. Though stages lacked scenery, producers enjoyed using gorgeous costumes and often experimented with special effects. One such effect caused a fire that destroyed the Globe in 1613. A cannon, shot off during a battle scene in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, ignited the thick straw roof over the galleries and consumed the building. The fact that its owners were able to rebuild the Globe that same year demonstrates how popular and financially successful the theater had become. These and other popular Elizabethan leisure activities are described in the excerpt from A Survey of London by sixteenth-century historian John Stowe (1525–1605). Because A Survey of London presents highly detailed descriptions of the buildings, customs, and daily activities of London in the 1500s, historians have found this text extremely valuable to the study of Elizabethan society.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from A Survey of London:

People from all levels of society enjoyed sports and entertainments.

Athletic activities were considered important ways to keep men fit and trained, in case they were needed for military action.

Sports and games were usually segregated by gender. The major exception was dancing.

Puritan leaders disapproved of many kinds of entertainments and advocated for laws restricting them.


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John Stowe, author of A Survey of London. # MA RY E VA NS P ICT UR E LI BR ARY /T HE IM AG E WO RK S.

A Survey of London Sports and Pastimes of Old Time Used in This City

Shrove Tuesday: The day before Ash Wednesday.

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Let us now, saith Fitzstephen, come to the sports and pastimes, seeing it is fit that a city should not only be commodious [useful] and serious but also merry and sportful. . . . London, for the shews upon theaters and comical pastimes, hath holy plays, representations of miracles which holy confessors have wrought, or representations of torments wherein the constancy [faithfulness] of martyrs appeared. Every year also, Shrove Tuesday (that we may begin with children’s sports, seeing we all have been children), the schoolboys do bring cocks of the game to their maister and all the forenoon they delight themselves in cockfighting; after dinner all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The schollers of every school have their ball (or bastion) in their hands; the ancient and wealthy men of the city come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men and to take part of the pleasure Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

A Survey of London

in beholding their agility. Every Friday in Lent a fresh company of young men comes into the field on horseback, and the best horsemen conducteth the rest. Then march forth the citizens’ sons and other young men with disarmed lances and shields, and there they practice feats of war. Many courtiers likewise, when the king lieth near, and attendants of noblemen do repair to these exercises, and while the hope of victory doth inflame their minds do shew good proof how serviceable they would be in martial affairs. In Easter holidays they fight battails [battles] on the waters: a shield is hanged upon a pole fixed in the midst of the stream, a boat is prepared without oars to be carried by violence of the water, and in the forepart thereof standeth a young man ready to give charge upon the shield with his lance; if so be he breaketh his lance against the shield and doth not fall, he is thought to have performed a worthy deed. If so be without breaking his lance he runneth strongly against the shield, down he falleth into the water, for the boat is violently forced with the tide; but on each side of the shield ride two boats furnished with young men which recover him that falleth as soon as they may. Upon the bridge, wharfs, and houses by the river’s side stand great numbers to see and laugh thereat. In the holy days all sommer [summer] the youths are exercised in leaping, dancing, shooting, wrastling, casting the stone, and practicing their shields. The maidens trip it with their timbrels [tambourines] and dance as long as they can well see. In winter, every holy day before dinner the boars prepared for brawn [strength] are set to fight, or else bulls and bears are baited. When the great fen or moor [later call Moorfields] (which watereth the walls of the city on the north side) is frozen, many young men play upon the ice; some, striding as wide as they may, do slide swiftly; others make themselves seats of ice as great as millstones; one sits down, many hand-in-hand do draw him, and one slipping on a sudden, all fall together; some tie bones to their feet and under their heels, and, shoving themselves by a little picked staff, do slide as swiftly as a bird flyeth in the air or an arrow out of a crossbow. Sometime two rub together with poles and, hitting one the other, either one or both do fall, not without hurt; some break their arms, some their legs, but youth, desirous of glory, in this sort exerciseth itself against the time of war. Many of the citizens do delight themselves in hawks and hounds, for they have liberty of hunting in Middlesex, Hartfordshire, all Chiltron, and in Kent to the Water of Cray. Thus far Fitzstephen of sports. These or the like exercises have been continued till our time, namely in stage plays, whereof ye may read in anno 1391 a play to be play’d by the parish clerks of London at the Skinners’ well besides Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

Martial: Relating to war or to the military.

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Meaner: Poorer.

Smithfield; which play continued three days together, the king, queen, and nobles of the realm being present. And of another play’d in the year 1409 which lasted eight days and was of matter from the creation of the world, whereat was present most part of the nobility and gentry of England, etc. Of late time, in place of those stage plays hath been erected. Also cocks of the game are yet cherished by divers [various] men for their pleasures, much money being laid on their heads when they fight in pits, whereon some be costly made for that purpose. The ball is used by noblemen and gentlemen in tennis courts, and by people of meaner sort in the open fields and streets. The youths of this city, time out of mind, have left off to practice the disarmed lance and shield on horseback in the fields, but I have seen some few upon the river of Thames rowed in boats, with staves flat at the fore-end, running one against another, and for the most part either one or both overthrown and well ducked. . . .

What happened next . . . Some of the entertainments available to sixteenth-century Londoners caused controversy among religious leaders. Puritans disapproved of activities that distracted people from the serious business of serving God. They worried that pastimes such as dancing or theatergoing could lead people into sin, and they urged lawmakers to restrict entertainments on Sundays. Puritans objected to bear baiting, for example, not because it was cruel to animals but because it gave spectators enjoyment. Puritans also disapproved of dancing and gambling, and they objected to plays for several reasons, including the fact that male actors had to dress in women’s clothes to play female roles. The fact that theaters were located in neighborhoods near taverns, bear gardens, and brothels only worsened the Puritans’ opposition. In 1642 the Puritans took control of the government and ordered all playhouses in London to be closed. But the theaters reopened in 1660 when the monarchy was restored to power. Many contemporary sports are quite similar to those played in Elizabethan times. Football was the most popular outdoor game in England in the sixteenth century; it was much like present-day soccer, but with fewer rules. Bandyball was an early form of field hockey; stoolball was an early form of cricket and baseball. Shuttlecock developed into the modern game of badminton. The modern sport of bowling evolved from 198


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an earlier game with many names: skittle pins, skittles, kittles, nine-pegs, and ten-pins. Among card games, Noddy was an early form of cribbage, and Primero developed into the modern game of poker.

Did you know . . .

The Thames River often froze during Elizabethan times, and winter festivals were held on the ice. These included ox barbeques, games, performing animals, and other attractions.

English law required every commoner to practice archery on a regular basis, in order to be prepared to defend the country in an emergency.

Elizabethans enjoyed jokes so much that books of them were printed and sold.

Music played a large role in daily life and in festivities. Most people made their own music, and musical ability was an expected social skill among the upper classes.

People from all levels of society gambled heavily on sports and games during Elizabethan times.

Bear baiting did not become illegal in England until 1835. It is now banned throughout the world.


Many people in sixteenth-century England enjoyed playing active sports. Are amateur athletics still important today? How have attitudes toward sports changed since Elizabethan times?

Though public entertainments were quite popular in London, they often presented challenges to public safety. Pickpockets, for example, were attracted to the crowds attending the theater, and assaults in these neighborhoods were common. If you were in charge of reducing crime in sixteenth-century London, how would you deal with public entertainments?

People in the Elizabethan age had no access to recording technology; they either made their own music and other entertainments, or they attended live performances. Think about the ways in which modern recording technology has changed popular culture.


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How have these changes affected artists and performers? How have they affected audiences and consumers?


Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1998. Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Rollins, Hyder E. and Herschel Baker, eds. The Renaissance in England. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1954. Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport, CT and London, England: Greenwood Press, 1995. WEB SIT ES

‘‘City Life.’’ The New Internet Shakespeare Editions. http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/ SLT/society/citylifesubj.html (accessed on July 24, 2006. ‘‘Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting.’’ http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/ elizabethan-bear-bull-baiting.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Elizabethan Sports.’’ Elizabethan England. http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/ schools/springfield/eliz/sportsandentertainment.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Hunting in Tudor England.’’ Tudor Place. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/ Documents/hunting.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). ‘‘Shakespeare’s Globe.’’ Shakespeare Resource Center. http://www.bardweb.net/ globe.html (accessed on July 24, 2006).

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Where to L earn More

Books Bernard, G. W. The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2005. Brigden, Susan. New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Brimacombe, Peter. All the Queen’s Men: The World of Elizabeth I. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Bryant, Arthur. The Elizabethan Deliverance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981. Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth: England A . D . 1533–1603. Alexandria, VA: Time-Warner Books, 1998. Doran, Susan. Queen Elizabeth I. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Dunn, Jane. Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: Norton, 2004. Gregory, Brad S. Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: Harvard University Press, 1999. Hanson, Neil. The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada. New York: Knopf, 2005. Kirkpatrick, Robin. The European Renaissance, 1400–1600. Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2002. Martin, Colin and Geoffrey Parker. The Spanish Armada. New York: Norton, 1988. Miller, Helen Hill. Captains from Devon: The Great Elizabethan Seafarers Who Won the Oceans for England. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1985. xxix

WHERE TO LEARN MORE

Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Orme, Nicholas. Medieval Schools: From Roman Britain to Tudor England. New Haven, CT and London, England: Yale University Press, 2006. Palliser, D. M. The Age of Elizabeth: England Under the Later Tudors, 1547– 1603, 2d ed. London and New York: Longman, 1992. Picard, Liza. Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003. Powicke, Sir Maurice. The Reformation in England. London: Oxford University Press, 1941. Ridley, Jasper. Bloody Mary’s Martyrs: The Story of England’s Terror. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2001. Rollins, Hyder E. and Herschel Baker, eds. The Renaissance in England. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1954. Rowse, A. L. Eminent Elizabethans. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983. ———.The England of Elizabeth: The Structure of Society. New York: Macmillan, 1961. Ruoff, James E. Major Elizabethan Poetry & Prose. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1972. Schama, Simon. A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 BC –1603 AD . New York: Hyperion, 2000. Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport, CT and London, England: Greenwood Press, 1995. Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: Perennial, 2001. Strachey, Lytton. Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History. Harvest Books, 2002. Thomas, Jane Resh. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. Boston, MA: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture. New York: Vintage Books, 1942. Watkins, Susan, with photographs by Mark Fiennes. In Public and in Private: Elizabeth I and Her World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Weir, Alison The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare for All Time. Oxford, England and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Wightman, W. P. D. Science in a Renaissance Society. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1972. Wood, Michael. Shakespeare. New York: Basic Books, 2003. xxx


WHERE TO LEARN MORE

Web Sites BBC: Historic Figures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). BBC History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html (accessed on July 11, 2006). Classic Literature Library: British Authors. http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/ british-authors/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Educating Shakespeare. http://www.likesnail.org.uk/welcome-es.htm (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabeth I. http://www.elizabethi.org/ (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabeth’s Pirates. http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/ pirates/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Elizabethan Authors. http://www.elizabethanauthors.com (accessed on July 11, 2006). Elizabethan Costume Page. http://www.elizabethancostume.net (accessed on July 24, 2006). Elizabethan Era. http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Elizabethan Holiday Customs. http://guildofstgeorge.com/holiday.htm (accessed on July 11, 2006). Elizabethan Law Overview. http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/ Renaissance/Courthouse/ElizaLaw.html (accessed on July 24, 2006). English Bible History. http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). History of the British Monarchy. http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp (accessed on July 24, 2006). In Search of Shakespeare. http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). The Marlowe Society. http://www.marlowe-society.org/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Mary, Queen of Scots. http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Medieval History. http://www.medievalhistory.net (accessed on July 11, 2006). Renaissance Central. http://www.rencentral.com (accessed on July 11, 2006). Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography. Published in Amsterdam by N. Israel, 1970. Copyright # 1970 by H. P. Kraus. Library of Congress: Rare Books and Special Collections Reading Room. http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ catalog/drake/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). 16th Century Renaissance English Literature. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Elizabethan World: Primary Sources

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Shakespeare Homepage. http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/10/10/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria: Victoria, BC, 2001–2005. http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/intro/ introcite.html (accessed on July 11, 2006). Shakespeare Online. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/index.html (accessed on July 11, 2006). Shakespeare Resource Center. http://www.bardweb.net/ (accessed on July 11, 2006). Sonnet Central. http://www.sonnets.org/eliz.htm (accessed on July 11, 2006). Tudor England: 1485 to 1603. http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html (accessed on July 11, 2006). Tudor History. http://tudorhistory.org (accessed on July 24, 2006). Tudor Place. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/ (accessed on July 11, 2006).

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