Elizabeth I Read online

  “I doubt there is a camel inside,” I told her. “I’d love an Arabian horse, but I know that’s not in there, either.”

  The crates turned out to contain sacks of dark beans, boxes of sticky, colored squares of jelly, and bags of spices. Some I could identify—cardamom, turmeric, hibiscus leaves, saffron. Others I could not. There was also an assortment of choice dried currants, apricots, dates, and figs. Featherlight scarves of rainbow colors were in an embroidered bag, and wooden cases contained two gleaming steel scimitars. Most magnificent of all, a huge carpet was folded on the bottom of one crate. When it was unrolled, an intricate design of colors and patterns revealed itself.

  “They say the Turks make gardens to look like paradise,” said Helena. “Here they have captured a paradise garden in thread for those of us who cannot go there.”

  The accompanying letter addressed me as “Most sacred queen and noble princess, cloud of most precious rain and sweetest fountain of nobleness and virtue.” I liked that. None of my fawning courtiers had come up with these phrases—not yet.

  The dark beans were identified as kahve. A merchant sailor who was familiar with them explained that in Turkey these beans were ground to a fine powder and boiled in a small amount of water, then drunk with honey or sugar. Islam forbade alcohol, and so they turned to this. Rather than stupefying the senses, it heightened them, he claimed.

  And what were those sticky little cubes?

  Something called loukoum, he said. Nothing to be afraid of, it was merely sugar, starch, and rose or jasmine flavoring.

  After he left, I helped myself to one. I had a weakness for sweet things. “This is paradise to go with the garden-of-paradise carpet,” I said, savoring it. “We should invite others to join us, else I will make myself sick by eating it all.”

  I issued a formal invitation to some thirty people—some I had not seen lately, and this would serve as a good excuse—to come to the privy chamber the next afternoon and “sample the delights of the East.” We would spread the carpet out and arrange the foods on a long table. The cooks would experiment with the kahve beans. But as a precaution, we would have ale and wine ready.

  The Cecils, father and son, were the first to arrive. They circled the table, examining the things on it, and finally took one loukoum each and made for the fireplace. In their wake my great protector, Secretary Walsingham, came forward.

  I had not seen him in weeks. He had not been present at the Christmas festivities. Rumor had it he was ill, but his daughter Frances had insisted on continuing to serve me and I believed she would have stayed home to nurse him if he had been in a bad way.

  “Francis!” I greeted him. “Your diplomacy is bearing fruit—literally. See what the sultan has sent us.” But as he approached, the words died in my mouth.

  “Oh, Francis!” As soon as I saw his drawn, yellowish face, I knew his illness had reached a critical stage; there was no hiding it. He was always swarthy, my Moor, but no Moor ever had a complexion like Francis’s today. Instantly I regretted the note of alarm in my voice. “Are you not taking care of yourself?” I said soothingly. “I must dispatch Frances back to your household. It is selfish of me to keep her here to wait upon me when her father needs her so much more.” I attempted to sound a note of lighthearted chiding. “You should have stayed home; it was not necessary to drag yourself out in such foul weather.”

  “Foul weather brings out foul spirits,” he said. “And I am neglecting my duty of protecting Your Majesty from her enemies if I let such an opportunity pass to try to spot them.”

  “You have agents to do that,” I reminded him.

  “None as good as I,” he said. It was a statement, not a brag.

  “Your agents have done fine duty up until now. You should learn to trust them, as I trust mine. Such as you! If it were not for you, I would toss and turn and worry constantly about my safety, but as it is, I can forget it.”

  “You should never forget it,” he said. As he spoke, I saw him clenching his teeth. It was hard for him to carry on a conversation.

  “Go home, Sir Francis. Mr. Secretary. That is a command.” God, I would not lose him, too! No more deaths, not now. My dear companion and keeper from my nursery days, Blanche Parry, had passed away just after the thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, as if she had willed herself to live to see that day.

  She had taken a chill and not been able to shake it off. This happens with the elderly, as if death sends his cold emissary to announce himself. She had sat by my side at the service, shivering and trembling. But still she murmured, “I do not need my sight to behold this day. I can hear it in the voices.”

  After we returned to the palace, she had taken to her bed and never left it. I tried to cajole her into rallying, but it was not to be. She had worn out the body that had faithfully served her for over eighty years.

  “Now let thy servant depart in peace,” she had murmured, asking permission with the formal biblical phrase.

  “I must, then,” I said, clasping her withered hands. “I must. But I would not, had I the power.”

  She smiled, that whimsical smile that I loved so well. “Ah, but you do not, my lady. So submit you must, and I as well.”

  She stole away that night. For me, to have lost both her and Leicester in close succession threw a pall of deep personal sorrow over the national rejoicing.

  Dragging himself, Walsingham turned away to obey me and go home.

  Next came Lord Hunsdon. Not much younger than Cecil, he was still vigorous in spite of his stiff legs. The only deference he gave to his age and joints was to leave the north during the stinging, bitter winter months and come back here to London.

  Just behind him came the other branch of my family—he had married Hunsdon’s sister—that had served me so well, the proper Puritan councillor Sir Francis Knollys. I tolerated his views because he was family, but I never let his religion impede his service. Francis produced a huge brood of children, some seven sons and four daughters. Odd in such a worthy father, none of the sons are worth mentioning here, and only one of the daughters, Lettice. And the things she is mentioned for—slyness, cuckoldry, adultery—would hardly make a father proud. I greeted Francis, trying not to hold his daughter against him.

  Not reading my mind, Francis smiled and greeted me. Then he passed on to the table, eager to try the exotic fare.

  I moved to the head of the table and announced, “Good Englishmen all! We have received gifts from the east. One you are walking upon—a fine Turkish carpet. Others are for you to handle and admire. Ladies, you may select a scarf. Men, you may handle the scimitars. But no dueling!” Lately there had been several attempted duels at court, in spite of their being strictly forbidden. “And most intriguing of all, there is a drink in the flagons—a heated drink, most welcome on this bone-chilling day—that warms your stomach and makes your head buzz, but not as ale does.” I had not tried it yet myself, but I would later—in private. “There are superlative dried fruits, and a special sweet that, I am told, the eunuchs love.” There, that should pique their interest.

  Dark was falling so early on this winter’s day. I ordered lamps and tapers to be lit, but the dark held sway in the corners and in the high roof. I had built this banqueting hall at Whitehall as a temporary structure, but I would never have the money to convert it into anything permanent.

  The war with Spain on all its fronts was bankrupting me. The defeat of the Armada had not ended the conflict. It was merely one stage of it.

  Recently our erstwhile ally France had been once again torn apart, this time by “the war of the three Henris”—the Catholic Henri, Duc de Guise, head of the Catholic League; the heir to the throne, Henri of Navarre, a Bourbon and a Protestant; and King Henri III, a Catholic and a Valois. But this was simplified when the Duc de Guise was assassinated, and so was Henri III. The French king, brave in his ribbons, perfume, and makeup, was removed from the stage of life, to be succeeded by his cousin from a different house and a different religion. The dea
th of his meddling mother, Queen Catherine de’ Medici, helped matters out immensely, from my point of view.

  “My most gracious and beautiful sovereign.” Standing by me was Robert Devereux, the young Earl of Essex. I snapped out of my musings on England’s financial straits. He bent low, kissing my hand and then raising his eyes to look directly into mine, letting a slow smile tease his lips. “I do confess that, as a man, I have been more subject to your natural beauty than as a subject to the power of the Queen.”

  Such beauty as his, in words and face, should not be allowed to roam free. It was too distracting.

  Standing beside him was a lovely woman. “May I present,” he began, “my friend Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton.”

  “Am I meeting the ghost of Henri III?” I had just been thinking about him, and here was this apparition before me: colored lips, rouged cheeks, tumbling cascades of virginal hair, a double earring.

  Southampton gave a tinkling laugh and laid his long, slender fingers on Essex’s sleeve. He did not have the decency to blush, but then his rouge would have disguised it. “It is my honor to serve you, my sovereign lady,” he said, falling to his knees.

  I let him remain there for a moment, examining the top of his head. It did not appear to be a wig. I could always tell by the part. They never look natural.

  “Arise,” I ordered him. “So you have come to London. How old are you?”

  “Seventeen, Your Most Glorious Majesty.”

  Seventeen. Perhaps he would grow out of it. “Do not keep overmuch company with Essex here. He has a bad influence on young lads like you.”

  “Oh, now that I am in my twenties, I am a bad influence on youth?” Essex teased. “You should keep us far from court, then. Send me out on another mission. I have the armor, and I am longing to go.”

  I had put him under Drake in Portugal in the so-called Counterarmada, meant to follow up our defensive victory with an offensive one. Essex’s role had been swashbuckling and, in the end, ineffectual. My investment was squandered.

  “Then you pay for it!” I snapped.

  Just then Sir Francis Drake appeared, as if we had conjured him up by speaking of naval operations. The former hero of the Armada was not my favorite sight just now. But with characteristic sangfroid, he pushed his way over to me and fell on his knees.

  “Your Gracious Majesty!” he said, kissing my hand.

  He had not dared to show his face at court since the bungled Portugal venture. The sultan’s generosity was providing him an opportunity.

  “Do not forget so soon all the services I have done you, all the jewels, the gold, the hidden passageways in the sea, and singeing the King of Spain’s beard. Let me prove myself again.”

  But I must hold fast to what financial reserves I had. There would be no missions for Francis Drake this year.

  My ladies were clumped together near one end of the table, hovering over a plate of the loukoum, as well as an artfully arranged tray of pistachios, almonds, and hazelnuts. I motioned to Frances Walsingham to come to me.

  “Frances, I have spoken to your father. He is very ill. You must leave court to go and attend him.”

  She bowed but I noticed her eyes straying to Essex. Everyone’s eyes strayed to Essex. She had a special relationship to him, though, as her late husband, Sir Philip Sidney, had bequeathed his sword to Essex, as though passing on his noble reputation. As yet, beyond looking noble, Essex had done little to earn it.

  Frances lingered a moment by his side, and then—did my eyes deceive me?—she touched her fingers to his. He hastily pulled them away, refraining from looking at me. Southampton pulled on his sleeve, his high voice distressed. “Come, sir,” he said.

  With one look back, Essex said plaintively, “If you might receive my mother—”

  I shot him a withering look and did not dignify his request with an answer. Lately he had pestered me about it, as if that would change my mind. My mind did not bend under advocacy. If it was right, it needed none. If it was wrong, no amount of wheedling would soften me. Lettice was in the latter category.

  Among my own ladies I tried to avoid the false and foolish, but often political considerations dictated that I take someone’s daughter or niece, and, pity has it, we cannot always know what will come from our loins. Thus solemn councillors had daughters like Bess Throckmorton. So even here, there were two sorts: the true, such as Helena, Marjorie, Catherine, and her sister Philadelphia, and the flighty—Bess Throckmorton, Mary Fitton, Elizabeth Southwell, and Elizabeth Vernon. As one might expect, the frivolous ones were prettier than the reliable ones. Still, as Solomon said, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.” Just as I was imagining a golden ring in Bess Throckmorton’s elegant nose, Sir Walter Raleigh’s broad shoulders hid her from view.

  He had been lingering overmuch in the privy chamber when Bess was about, I had noticed. He, as captain of the Queen’s Guard, was charged with protecting the virtue of my ladies, even holding a key to the chamber of the maids of honor. Thus far nothing improper had occurred that I could detect, but my suspicions were up. He seemed lately to have singled Bess out for his attentions. I made it my business to interrupt them.

  Bess immediately bowed her head and stepped back. She was always polite and subservient—on the surface. Raleigh turned around and, as always, the sheer presence of him was a marvel. Over six feet tall, solidly muscular, and now in his late thirties, he was a man in his prime.

  “Your Majesty,” he said. “I have tasted the kahve, and poetry is singing in my head.”

  Now he was about to present one of his verses. They were well wrought but I was not in the mood for any. I turned away, but he—without actually touching my arm—stayed me. As I looked over his shoulder, I saw Edmund Spenser, whom I had not seen for nine years, since he departed for Ireland. Raleigh all but pulled him over to me.

  “My Irish neighbor,” he said, grinning.

  “I am come to London to present you with my humble offering,” said Spenser. “It is dedicated in its entirety to you and presents your glittering and magic court in its epic grandeur. May I leave a copy with you?”

  “If you please,” I said. “What is the name of this wonder?”

  “The Faerie Queene,” he said. “It is only the first three books, of which there will be nine. The others will follow.” In the fast-deepening gloom I studied his face. He was all thin blades and angles. I hoped he had not been stricken with the Irish dysentery that weakened so many of our men there. “I shall have a presentation copy delivered to you,” he was saying.

  But already he was fading from my mind as Raleigh murmured, “I have a great concern for the colony. I beg you, let a relief ship sail right away. It has been almost three years.” He smiled that dazzling smile. “Let the Faerie Queen succor her child, Virginia.”

  “Is not my child thriving?”

  “Not having seen her myself,” he said heavily, “I cannot swear it.” He was referring to my allowing him to name the New World colony Virginia in my honor but forbidding him to go there himself. It had been set up five years ago, but no one had visited it for the past two. The coming of the Spanish Armada in 1588 meant that I could not spare ships to sail to the New World and that danger was still there. There was an embargo on ships leaving English ports.

  “There has been no word?”

  “None,” he said. “No one has seen the colony since the ships sailed back from Roanoke Island in November of 1587.” He paused. “The little girl born that first summer will be three years old soon. Virginia Dare. The colony needs supplies. It needed them two years ago. It may be desperate by now.”

  He was right. Something had to be done. “Very well,” I said. “I shall authorize a small fleet.” Our footing in the New World was but a toehold compared to that of the Spanish, but by staking out territory in the north, beyond their grasp, we could, in time, offset their advantage. The Spanish held the southernmost parts of that coast, a pl
ace they called Florida, but we could contain them there and prevent their spread.

  Was not the entire continent of South America enough for them? The riches of the Incas and Aztecs feeding their treasuries? As the landmass narrowed toward the wasp-waisted isthmus, the Spanish processed their loot before shipping it back to Spain. Twenty years ago Drake had realized that was their soft spot, where they could be surprised and raided. It had worked for a while, but then the element of surprise was lost and the Spanish raised their guard. Drake then moved his surprise to the west coast of South America, attacking them in Peru before they could transfer the goods to the isthmus. Drake. His genius was undeniable.

  But the Spanish had learned from their mistakes and fortified themselves; they were rebuilding the Armada with more modern ships copied from our designs. A ship falling into enemy hands is a disaster, for its secrets will be revealed. We captured and destroyed so many of their ships, but, sadly, they had no secrets to yield, nothing to tell us we did not already know.

  12

  LETTICE

  March 1590

  Did you achieve nothing at the sultan gathering?” I was looking at my foolish son, so gifted, so unable to use those gifts, so it would appear. “She noticed that you were there, did she not? Did you mention me? Did you mention another command? What did you mention?” Oh, my patience!

  “I introduced Southampton to Her Majesty.”

  “What an achievement! You know she cannot abide fops. Now when she thinks of you, she will think of him.”

  “Stop baiting me!” Suddenly Robert swirled around, a graceful turn that made his fashionable, and useless, short cloak fly out. The sweetness and charm I had always associated with my oldest son had disappeared—all that remained was the impetuous soldier and slick courtier that others saw. “I’ll not endure it!”

  “You endure it from her, you’ll endure it from me, your mother.”