Editing Elizabeth I (section)

===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>