Mary was also a temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. In a letter of 1586 to Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned ... to take my life and ruin my kingdom ... I never proceeded so harshly against you.' Despite Elizabeth's reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587. The wisest woman that ever was; for she understood the interests and dispositions of all the princes in her time, and was so perfect in the knowledge of her own realm, that no counsellor could tell her anything she did not know before. Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.

Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume Two: The New World (1956), p. 133 The volatility forced on Britain since 2016 and Brexit has been contained – somewhat – in the person of the Queen. Surely, if she was still there, we were still there, a permanent presence on the world stage, part James Bond, part Paddington Bear, icons both, and how we fondly imagine ourselves – daring and successful, recognised and loved, eccentric, doing things our own way, world class, but sitting down with a sandwich and a pot of tea. Jae Jerkins, “Islam in the Early Modern Protestant Imagination: Religious and Political Rhetoric of English Protestant–Ottoman Relations”, (1528-1588), (Florida State University), Eras, Edn13, Issue 2, (June 2012), p. 17 As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586. By far the most troublesome of Bess’s relatives was Lady Arbella Stuart (1575-1615), one of her grandchildren. She was adopted by Bess aged 7 after the death of her parents, and her grandmother devoted huge amounts of money and energy to her upbringing. Unfortunately, despite all this and her candidacy for being Elizabeth’s successor, Arbella was a disappointment. She was sent home from court after making a faux pas in a procession, plotted a marriage without Elizabeth’s permission, and ran up huge debts. In 1607, Bess wrote her granddaughter out of her will due to her spendthrift nature.Must is not a word to be used to princes! Little man, little man, if your late father were here he would never dare utter such a word. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeth's birth. Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Her half-brother, Edward VI, ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, Elizabeth and the Roman Catholic Mary, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

Letter to Amyas Paulet, the gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots, after the discovery of the Babington Plot (August 1586), quoted in Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller and Mary Rose (eds.), Elizabeth I: Collected Works (2002), p. 284A father who had beheaded her mum before she was three, four more stepmothers, another one beheaded, the loss of Katherine Parr who had been a real mother and mentor to her, a creepy stepfather, the possibility of grooming behaviour, the danger she faced when implicated in Mary’s reign of being imprisonment and fear of death; it’s a wonder Elizabeth remained sane. She couldn’t marry the one man she did love, Robert Dudley as he was married and unsuitable and although she entertained many suitors, I am sure all of this put her in a determined mind to be independent and not marry. It would certainly put me off and deeply affect me. In fact, Good Queen Bess is a full-fledged pop phenomenon. New romance novels and thrillers about Elizabeth or her archrival, Mary Queen of Scots, appear almost monthly. A recent book, Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I, posits that the Earl of Oxford was not only the author of Shakespeare’s plays but also Elizabeth’s secret love child. Several new biographies are due out this year, and films and plays about her reign are being revived. “Her life was a classic survival story,” says Sian Flynn, curator of the London exhibition. “She was nearly executed twice by her own siblings, and she succeeded as a woman in a man’s world.” Richard Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England, 1485-1714: A Narrative History (2009), p. 121

And what a cutthroat world it was. Elizabeth’s father was King Henry VIII, rotund, red-haired and irascible. Her mother was Anne Boleyn, a coquettish young lady of the court who was pregnant with Elizabeth when Henry was still married to Catherine of Aragon. Henry, who was Roman Catholic, established the Church of England largely so he could have his marriage to Catherine annulled and marry Anne (a marriage the Catholic Church never recognized). Princess Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533. Within three years, Henry had her mother beheaded on a trumped-up charge of adultery. He married another fetching young lady of the court, Jane Seymour, 11 days later. By your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

Ancestry

She was the most remarkable princess that has appeared in the world for these many centuries. In all her actions she displayed the greatest prudence. ... I say, in conclusion, she was the most prudent in governing, the most active in all business, the most clear-sighted in seeing events, and the most resolute in seeing her resolutions carried into effect ... in a word, [she] possessed, in the highest degree, all the qualities which are required in a great prince. For rather will I never meddle with marriage than have such a bad covenant added to my part. Shall it be ever found true that Queen Elizabeth hath solemnized the perpetual harm of England under the glorious title of marriage with Francis, heir of France? No, no, it shall never be.

Richard Hakluyt, 'The Epistle Dedicatorie', The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, Vol. I [1589] (1885), p. 8 Bess lived a long life through one of the most unstable periods in British history, so it’s worth beginning by summarizing the events that were going on around her. When Bess was born, Henry VIII ruled over a Catholic country with his pious Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon. When Henry could not sire a son and heir, he broke England from the Catholic Church, divorced Catherine, and married Anne Boleyn. The religion changed from Catholicism to Protestantism, with Henry instead of the Pope as head. Meanwhile, Henry married a further four times, beheading two of his wives including poor Anne. The hunting tower Bess built in the 1580s still stands above the current house. But perhaps her most visible legacy at Chatsworth today is the outside. To the existing hunting park that adjoined the house, Bess added pleasure gardens, orchards, terraces, fish ponds, and gazebos. The wooded hillside behind the current house is covered with trees Bess had planted on the bare hill. Sadly, the house the Cavendishes built at Chatsworth was intended to be the seat of their new dynasty, but Sir William’s death but a stop to the plan. Bess, however, happily lived to see the project completed. I am already bound unto an husband, which is the kingdom of England... for every one of you, and as many as are English, are my children and kinsfolks. Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), quoted in The Works of Francis Bacon, Volume I (1884), p. 179

Sources and Further Reading

Letter to Edward Seymour, Lord Protector (28 January 1549), quoted in Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller and Mary Rose (eds.), Elizabeth I: Collected Works (2002), p. 24 Four years later, in 1558, Elizabeth took to the throne with alacrity, slipping into the royal plural on learning that Mary Tudor was dead of cancer: “This is the doing of the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes,” she declared on becoming queen, quoting Psalm 118. After Mary’s unpopular reign, much of England was elated at Elizabeth’s accession. She was now 25 years old, slender, with long golden-red hair and a suitably regal comportment. Accompanied by 1,000 mounted courtiers the day before her coronation, in January 1559, she rode smiling through the streets of London. She stopped the procession from time to time to accept bouquets, a purse of coins, a Bible, even a sprig of rosemary from an old woman. “I will be as good unto you as ever queen was to her people,” she vowed to the delight of onlookers. Although little remains of her building efforts at Chatsworth, the estate took its form under her ownership, and the house was only replaced and consumed by the current edifice in the 19 th century. Bess is also remembered by her collection of furniture, art and, of course, tapestries in the UK. One feels that the mixture of charity, in letting commoners view the art, and ostentation, with the collections loudly-proclaiming their former owner in both their decoration and through information boards where they are housed, would appeal to these conflicting sides to her personality, could she see them today. At 20, Elizabeth found herself in even greater peril. After Edward died in 1553 at age 15, most likely of tuberculosis, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth’s staunchly Catholic half sister, ruled England with her fiancé, Philip of Spain. England had been convulsed by religious violence for decades, and under “Bloody Mary,” as the queen was called, hundreds of English Protestants were burned at the stake for heresy. When a plot against the throne was uncovered in 1554, Mary was convinced that the Protestant Elizabeth—now next in line to be queen—was involved. Mary had her half sister arrested and sent to the Tower of London, the customary last stop before execution. Debarking in a wintry downpour at Traitor’s Gate, Elizabeth called out, “Here landeth as true a subject, being prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs.” She then dropped to the rain-soaked flagstones, saying, “It is better sitting here than in a worse place.” The sodden princess refused to budge until one of her manservants broke down in tears. Disgusted by his show of weakness, Elizabeth collected herself and strode into the prison. Ultimately, Mary’s fear of a Protestant rebellion probably spared Elizabeth, and she was released after two months. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history. During it a secure Church of England was established. Its doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.