Editing Elizabeth I (section)

==Marriage question==
From the start of Elizabeth's reign it was expected that she would marry, and the question arose to whom. Although she received many offers, she never married and remained childless; the reasons for this are not clear. Historians have speculated that [[Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley|Thomas Seymour]] had put her off sexual relationships.<ref>Loades, 38.</ref><ref>Haigh, 19.</ref> She considered several suitors until she was about 50 years old. Her last courtship was with [[Francis, Duke of Anjou]], 22 years her junior. While risking possible loss of power like her sister, who played into the hands of King Philip II of Spain, marriage offered the chance of an heir.<ref>Loades, 39.</ref> However, the choice of a husband might also provoke political instability or even insurrection.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Warnicke |first=Retha |date=September 2010 |title=Why Elizabeth I Never Married |journal=History Review |issue=67 |pages=15–20}}</ref>

===Robert Dudley===
[[File:Elizabeth and Leicester miniatures by Hilliard.png|thumb|Pair of [[Portrait miniature|miniatures]] of Elizabeth and Leicester, {{Circa|1575}}, by [[Nicholas Hilliard]]. Their friendship lasted for over 30 years, until his death.]]

In the spring of 1559, it became evident that Elizabeth was in love with her childhood friend [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Robert Dudley]].<ref>Loades, 42; Wilson, 95.</ref> It was said that his wife [[Amy Robsart|Amy]] was suffering from a "malady in one of her breasts" and that the Queen would like to marry Robert if his wife should die.<ref>Wilson, 95.</ref> By the autumn of 1559, several foreign suitors were vying for Elizabeth's hand; their impatient envoys engaged in ever more scandalous talk and reported that a marriage with her [[favourite]] was not welcome in England:<ref>Skidmore, 162, 165, 166–168.</ref> "There is not a man who does not cry out on him and her with indignation&nbsp;... she will marry none but the favoured Robert."<ref>Chamberlin, 118.</ref> Amy Dudley died in September 1560, from a fall from a flight of stairs and, despite the coroner's [[inquest]] finding of accident, many people suspected her husband of having arranged her death so that he could marry the Queen.<ref>Somerset, 166–167.</ref>{{Efn|Most modern historians have considered murder unlikely; breast cancer and suicide being the most widely accepted explanations.<ref>Doran, ''Monarchy'', 44.</ref> The [[coroner]]'s report, hitherto believed lost, came to light in [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] in the late 2000s and is compatible with a downstairs fall as well as other violence.<ref>Skidmore, 230–233.</ref>}} Elizabeth seriously considered marrying Dudley for some time. However, [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|William Cecil]], [[Nicholas Throckmorton]], and some conservative [[Peerage of England|peers]] made their disapproval unmistakably clear.<ref>Wilson, 126–128.</ref> There were even rumours that the nobility would rise if the marriage took place.<ref>Doran, ''Monarchy'', 45.</ref>

Among other marriage candidates being considered for the queen, Robert Dudley continued to be regarded as a possible candidate for nearly another decade.<ref>Doran, ''Monarchy'', 212.</ref> Elizabeth was extremely jealous of his affections, even when she no longer meant to marry him herself.<ref>Adams, 384, 146.</ref> She raised Dudley to the peerage as [[Earl of Leicester]] in 1564. In 1578, he finally married [[Lettice Knollys]], to whom the queen reacted with repeated scenes of displeasure and lifelong hatred.<ref>Jenkins (1961), 245, 247; Hammer, 46.</ref> Still, Dudley always "remained at the centre of [Elizabeth's] emotional life", as historian [[Susan Doran]] has described the situation.<ref>Doran, ''Queen Elizabeth I'', 61.</ref> He died shortly after the defeat of the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588. After Elizabeth's own death, a note from him was found among her most personal belongings, marked "his last letter" in her handwriting.<ref>Wilson, 303.</ref>

===Foreign candidates===
Marriage negotiations constituted a key element in Elizabeth's foreign policy.<ref name="haigh2">Haigh, 17.</ref> She turned down the hand of Philip, her half-sister's widower, early in 1559 but for several years entertained the proposal of King [[Eric XIV of Sweden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Elizabeth |title=Elizabeth the Great |date=1959 |publisher=Victor Gollancz |isbn=978-0-6981-0110-4 |page=59 |author-link=Elizabeth Jenkins (author) |orig-date=1958}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Falkdalen |first=Karin Tegenborg |title=Vasadöttrarna |date=2010 |publisher=Historiska media |isbn=978-9-1870-3126-7 |page=126}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Michael |title=The Early Vasas: A History of Sweden, 1523–1611 |date=1968 |publisher=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-0012-9698-2 |pages=159, 207 |author-link=Michael Roberts (historian)}}</ref> Earlier in Elizabeth's life, a Danish match for her had been discussed; [[Henry VIII]] had proposed one with the Danish prince [[Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp]], in 1545, and Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, suggested a marriage with Prince [[Frederick II of Denmark|Frederick]] (later Frederick II) several years later, but the negotiations had abated in 1551.<ref name=adams/> In the years around 1559, a Dano-English Protestant alliance was considered,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lockhart |first=Paul Douglas |title=Denmark, 1513–1660: the rise and decline of a Renaissance monarchy |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1992-7121-4 |pages=111 |oclc=844083309}}</ref> and to counter Sweden's proposal, King Frederick II proposed to Elizabeth in late 1559.<ref name="adams">{{Cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=S. |last2=Gehring |first2=D. S. |date=2013 |title=Elizabeth I's Former Tutor Reports on the Parliament of 1559: Johannes Spithovius to the Chancellor of Denmark, 27 February 1559 |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=128 |issue=530 |pages=43 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ces310 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>

[[File:Fd'Alençon.jpg|thumb|150px|upright|Elizabeth was engaged for a time to [[Francis, Duke of Anjou]]. The Queen called him her "frog", finding him "not so deformed" as she had been led to expect.<ref>Frieda, 397.</ref>]]

For several years, she seriously negotiated to marry Philip's cousin [[Charles II, Archduke of Austria]]. By 1569, relations with the [[Habsburgs]] had deteriorated. Elizabeth considered marriage to two French [[House of Valois|Valois]] princes in turn, first [[Henry, Duke of Anjou]], and then from 1572 to 1581 his brother [[Francis, Duke of Anjou]], formerly Duke of Alençon.<ref>Loades, 53–54.</ref> This last proposal was tied to a planned alliance against Spanish control of the [[Southern Netherlands]].<ref>Loades, 54.</ref> Elizabeth seems to have taken the courtship seriously for a time, wearing a frog-shaped earring that Francis had sent her.<ref>Somerset, 408.</ref>

In 1563, Elizabeth told an imperial envoy: "If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married".<ref name="haigh2"/> Later in the year, following Elizabeth's illness with [[smallpox]], the [[succession to Elizabeth I of England|succession question]] became a heated issue in Parliament. Members urged the Queen to marry or nominate an heir, to prevent a civil war upon her death. She refused to do either. In April she [[legislative session#Procedure in Commonwealth realms|prorogued]] the Parliament, which did not reconvene until she needed its support to raise taxes in 1566.

Having previously promised to marry, she told an unruly House:
{{Blockquote|I will never break the word of a prince spoken in public place, for my honour's sake. And therefore I say again, I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself, or else some other great let [obstruction]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/let#dictionary-entry-2 |title=Let Definition & Meaning |access-date=19 July 2023 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719085404/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/let#dictionary-entry-2 |url-status=live }}</ref> happen.<ref>Doran, ''Monarchy'', 87.</ref>}}

By 1570, senior figures in the government privately accepted that Elizabeth would never marry or name a successor. William Cecil was already seeking solutions to the succession problem.<ref name="haigh2"/> For her failure to marry, Elizabeth was often accused of irresponsibility.<ref>Haigh, 20–21.</ref> Her silence, however, strengthened her own political security: she knew that if she named an heir, her throne would be vulnerable to a coup; she remembered the way that "a second person, as I have been" had been used as the focus of plots against her predecessor.<ref>Haigh, 22–23.</ref>

===Virginity===
Elizabeth's unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity related to [[Perpetual virginity of Mary|that of the Virgin Mary]]. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin, a goddess, or both, not as a normal woman.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=King |first=John N. |date=1990 |title=Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=30–74 |doi=10.2307/2861792 |jstor=2861792 |s2cid=164188105}}</ref> At first, only Elizabeth made a virtue of her ostensible virginity: in 1559, she told the Commons, "And, in the end, this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin".<ref name="Hh">Haigh, 23.</ref> Later on, poets and writers took up the theme and developed an [[iconography]] that exalted Elizabeth. Public tributes to the Virgin by 1578 acted as a coded assertion of opposition to the queen's marriage negotiations with the Duke of Alençon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doran |first=Susan |date=1995 |title=Juno versus Diana: The Treatment of Elizabeth I's Marriage in Plays and Entertainments, 1561–1581 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=257–274 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00019427 |jstor=2639984 |s2cid=55555610}}</ref> Ultimately, Elizabeth would insist she was married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. In 1599, she spoke of "all my husbands, my good people".<ref>Haigh, 24.</ref>

[[File:Procession Portrait of Elizabeth I.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Procession Picture'', c. 1600, showing Elizabeth I borne along by her courtiers]]

This claim of virginity was not universally accepted. Catholics accused Elizabeth of engaging in "filthy lust" that symbolically defiled the nation along with her body.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 February 2019 |title=Elizabeth I Was Likely Anything But a Virgin Queen |url=https://www.realclearhistory.com/2019/02/04/elizabeth_i_was_likely_anything_but_a_virgin_queen_10097.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181000/https://www.realclearhistory.com/2019/02/04/elizabeth_i_was_likely_anything_but_a_virgin_queen_10097.html |archive-date=1 October 2020 |access-date=1 August 2020}}</ref> [[Henry IV of France]] said that one of the great questions of Europe was "whether Queen Elizabeth was a maid or no".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gristwood |first=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=va6kKyjQOMYC&dq=%22whether+Queen+Elizabeth+was+a+maid+or+no%22&pg=PA125 |title=Elizabeth and Leicester |year=2008 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-1431-1449-9 |access-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126124137/https://books.google.com/books?id=va6kKyjQOMYC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=%22whether+Queen+Elizabeth+was+a+maid+or+no%22 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A central issue, when it comes to the question of Elizabeth's virginity, was whether the Queen ever consummated her love affair with Robert Dudley. In 1559, she had Dudley's bedchambers moved next to her own apartments. In 1561, she was mysteriously bedridden with an illness that caused her body to swell.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Dudley: Queen Elizabeth I's great love |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/robert-dudley-queen-elizabeth-is-great-love |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808120644/https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/robert-dudley-queen-elizabeth-is-great-love |archive-date=8 August 2020 |access-date=1 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgess |first=Steve |title=Famous Past Lives |date=2011 |publisher=John Hunt |isbn=978-1-8469-4494-9 |quote=Could it be that when Elizabeth was confined to bed in 1561 (at the time when her love affair with Dudley was at its height) with a mysterious illness she was in fact pregnant?[...] The Spanish ambassador reported that she had a swelling of the abdomen...}}</ref>

In 1587, a young man calling himself [[Arthur Dudley]] was arrested on the coast of Spain under suspicion of being a spy.<ref name="simancas"/> The man claimed to be the illegitimate son of Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, with his age being consistent with birth during the 1561 illness.<ref name="levin1">{{Cite book |last=Levin |first=Carole |title=The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power |date=1994 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3252-3 |pages=81–82}}</ref> He was taken to [[Madrid]] for investigation, where he was examined by [[Francis Englefield]], a Catholic aristocrat exiled to Spain and secretary to King Philip II.<ref name="simancas">{{Cite web |title=British History Online: Simancas: June 1587, 16-30 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol4/pp101-118 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927080610/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol4/pp101-118 |archive-date=27 September 2020 |access-date=1 August 2020}}</ref> Three letters exist today describing the interview, detailing what Arthur proclaimed to be the story of his life, from birth in the royal palace to the time of his arrival in Spain.<ref name="simancas"/> However, this failed to convince the Spaniards: Englefield admitted to King Philip that Arthur's "claim at present amounts to nothing", but suggested that "he should not be allowed to get away, but [...] kept very secure."<ref name=levin1/> The King agreed, and Arthur was never heard from again.<ref name="levin2">{{Cite journal |last=Levin |first=Carole |date=2 December 2004 |title=All the Queen's Children: Elizabeth I and the Meanings of Motherhood |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/erc/30/1/article-p57_5.xml |url-status=live |journal=Explorations in Renaissance Culture |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=57–76 |doi=10.1163/23526963-90000274 |issn=2352-6963 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819042547/https://brill.com/view/journals/erc/30/1/article-p57_5.xml |archive-date=19 August 2021 |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> Modern scholarship dismisses the story's basic premise as "impossible",<ref name=levin1/> and asserts that Elizabeth's life was so closely observed by contemporaries that she could not have hidden a pregnancy.<ref name=levin2/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rozett |first=Martha |title=Constructing a World: Shakespeare's England and the New Historical Fiction |date=2003 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-5551-7 |page=129}}</ref>