So I loved my adventurers and I was torn between a desire to have them with me at Court or to send them on those adventures which were fraught with danger.
So when Raleigh came to me with an idea for a new enterprise to go forth and bring back treasure for England, I agreed he must carry out his plan; but when the time came for departure, I decided that I could not spare Raleigh. He was too amusing, too brilliant an ornament at Court and I ordered that although the expedition should set sail, it should go without Raleigh. In his place Frobisher should go with Sir John Borough.
Raleigh was somewhat put out, but being Raleigh he did not make this obvious to me and pretended that to be near me was a complete compensation for having been denied the adventure.
I really was getting very fond of him. His manners were so much smoother than those of Essex; that was why his perfidy wounded me so deeply.
Nicholas Throckmorton's daughter, Elizabeth, was one of my maids of honor and she was an exceptionally pretty girl. I had promised myself that I owed it to her father to find a good husband for her, which I intended to do in due course.
I happened, however, to notice that she was becoming unusually absentminded. This came to a head when she dropped some of the pins which held my hair-pieces in place. I told her she was clumsy and she murmured apologies; but she did not improve. I had noticed this look in young women before and I had my suspicions. It invariably meant one thing. The girl had a lover and if my intuition did not deceive me, their frolicking had gone beyond the bounds of respectability.
I decided to question her.
“You are very clumsy lately, Bessie,” I said.
“I crave Your Majesty's pardon,” she replied.
“There is a reason, I believe.”
She flushed. Silly girl! She betrayed herself immediately.
“Well,” I went on, “you had better tell me. It is wiser in these cases before matters go too far. How far have they gone with you, Bess Throckmorton?”
She stammered and flushed and I knew the worst.
“Who is the scoundrel?” I demanded.
She stood before me, eyes downcast, the picture of guilty confusion.
“You know I will not have immorality at my Court!” I shouted.
I gave her a slap at the side of her face which sent her reeling. “Come here,” I said. “Closer.” I took her by the shoulders and shook her. “Now… tell me. Who is it?”
She stammered: “Your Majesty must forgive me if…if…”
“If what?”
“If…I cannot tell you.”
“You cannot tell me?” I caught her by the ear and she gave a squeal of pain as I nipped the lobe between my fingers. There were tears in her foolish eyes.
“Your Majesty,” she began, “we love each other…”
“And you think that is an excuse for misbehaving? Who is it? You had better tell me, girl. How dare you stand there defying me!”
“Your Majesty, I did not mean…”
“Tell me,” I commanded; and she knew then from the tone of my voice and my black looks that she could hold out against me no longer.
“It is Walter, Your Majesty.”
“Raleigh!” I cried.
Anger was my first emotion. It was so like other occasions. Robert and Lettice Knollys; Essex and Frances Walsingham. These young men… they professed to care above all people for me and all the time they were philandering with my maids of honor.
“Get out of my sight, you slut,” I said.
And she ran from the room.
Then I shouted to the guard: “Find Raleigh! Send him to me at once.”
He came, his urbane charming self. I said: “So, Sir Adventurer, you have seduced one of the girls who has been put by her family into my care.”
“Bess has been talking to you,” he said.
“I prized it out of the little harlot. As for you, you sly snake, I do not want to see your false face for a very long time.”
He began to protest. He had a way with words. He always had had, and it was one of the reasons why he had endeared himself to me. But I was hurt and angry. They meant nothing—these protestations of affection—except: What can I get by flattering the old woman?
My fury increased and I shouted: “Take him to the Tower.”
That was what I had said when Robert had married Lettice, and dear old Sussex had persuaded me that I could not send him to the Tower merely because he had married.
There was nobody to speak for Raleigh. In any case there had been no marriage. This was a case of seduction.
Let him go to the Tower. I would forget all about him. There were many handsome young men ready to dance attendance. Why should I regret the loss of one?
So with Bess Throckmorton banished from Court and Raleigh in the Tower, Essex was supreme—the favorite with no serious rival.
THE STAY AT the Court of France had changed Essex. He had been greatly influenced by the King of France who was, by all accounts, a very impressive man. He had that rare quality—which he shared with me—of winning the hearts of the people so that they would follow him even in disaster. He was a simple man; he lived with his men in battle; he did not stand on ceremony; his attitude said: I am one of you. I suffer with you. I share your lot in battle. We are of a kind. I just happen, by accident of my birth, to be your leader.
That was the right approach. He knew, as I did, that it was the ordinary people who decided whether or not the crown was secure on the sovereign's head.
But he had one great weakness—and that was his fondness for women. He had a host of mistresses and was constantly looking for more. His love affairs obsessed him while they lasted, even though they were of short duration.
When Essex came back, he had lost a certain honesty; he was becoming more acquisitive. He was promiscuous and neglected poor Frances shamefully and there was a scandal about one or two of the ladies at Court. This was kept from me in detail and I decided not to probe. He courted me with more finesse than he had shown hitherto and although I believed that genuine affection was still there, he had hardened, become ambitious; in other words the Essex who had set out for his sojourn at the Court of France was not the same man who had come back from it.
The Cecils were his enemies. It said much for the abilities of Robert Cecil that I was beginning to think of his father and himself as “the Cecils.” Burghley had superintended his son's education well and had brought him up to think as he did and work in the same way. I was not displeased by this. I knew that sooner or later I had to lose my dear Spirit; and it was comforting to know that when he went I should have his son Robert to help me.
Raleigh was in the Tower and therefore posed no threat, but it appeared that Essex was forming a party, rival to the Cecils, and people were beginning to gather about him.
In spite of my fondness for Essex, I never lost sight of his weaknesses. It soon became clear to me that he was not stable enough to form a party in opposition to the Cecils, and he confined himself to doing everything he could to damage them in my eyes—an impossible task.
He had made the acquaintance of the Bacon boys—Anthony and Francis—nephews of Burghley. They were two clever young men, particularly Francis, I believed; but they had not learned the art of graciousness, and Francis irritated me by his interference in political matters. They were disgruntled, both of them, because they had hoped their uncle would find them places at Court. That I was sure he was prepared to do, but he was so intent on looking after his own son, that he made sure no one should be given a chance to outshine him.
Francis should have been given something useful to do, but he was too sure of himself, too definite in his views, and not inclined to modify them; which brought him my displeasure.
Then an event took place which filled me with horror. Henri Quatre changed his religion with the cynical comment that Paris was worth a Mass.