On September 7, 1533, Elizabeth Tudor was born. Her parents had married just months before, generating shock and disapproval all around Europe. In his dispatch to Francis I of France, Jean de Dinteville, the French ambassador to the English court, reported the June 1 coronation of âAnne de Boulenâ and Henry VIIIâs displeasure on learning that many courtiers were gossiping about it.1 The relationship between Elizabethâs parents swiftly deteriorated, and in 1536 Anne Boleyn was accused of high treason for incestuous and promiscuous relationships with several men, including her brother George. On May 19, she was beheaded. Soon after, Elizabeth was declared bastard and illegitimate, precipitating more than a decade of tumult for the young princess. She was third in line to the throne, after her half-brother Edward and her half-sister Mary. During their respective reigns, Elizabeth survived countless false accusations and even imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Events in England , France, and Spain were usually locked together. The Italian wars that ravaged Europe from 1494 to 1559 had a profound impact on diplomatic relations between the three countries.2 Francis I of France (and before him Charles VIII and Louis XII) and Charles V of Spain had been fighting over the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples in an atmosphere of seemingly irreconcilable tension between the two royal houses.3 In 1522, Henry VIII of England had chosen to join the league formed by the Pope Leo X and Charles V of Spain against France. Following a military catastrophe at Pavia in 1525, in January of the following year Francis was forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid, by which he renounced his claims to Italy, Flanders , and Burgundy.4 However, Clement VII, who had succeeded to the papacy in 1523, did not wish to see Charles Vâs empire grow any further. Another alliance was formed, this time with France and England ranged against Spain, but it collapsed and Charles V surrounded the papal states.5
Francis I died on March 31, 1547. Four years later, his son, Henry II, declared war on Spain in a bid to regain some glory and the Italian territories. In 1556, Charles V abdicated, leaving his imperial title to his brother Ferdinand and his Spanish crown to his son Philip II. The latter was married to Mary I of England , which paved the way for a political and military alliance. Two years later, the French invaded and regained control of Calais , which had been under English jurisdiction since 1347. In 1559, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis brought the Italian wars to an end by forcing Henry II to renounce his Italian claims. But Calais remained French.
Mary I had died on November 17, 1558, whereupon, to many peopleâs surprise, Elizabeth had become Queen of England . The loss of Calais during her sisterâs reign was a profound national disgrace, and Elizabeth was determined to reclaim it.6 In 1562, ostensibly to help the Huguenots in their struggles against French Catholics, she sent 6000 troops to Newhaven (Le Havre ), and expressed the hope that âthe English occupation of Le Havre could be treated for the return of Calais.â7 However, the English expedition ended in failure as the French forces united against Elizabethâs troops and Calais was lost forever.8 Despite the 1572 Treaty of Blois, which stated that England and France would form an alliance against Spain, relations between the two courts continued to be characterized by mistrust.9
Representations of Elizabeth: Power, Persuasion, and Perpetual Youth
This book focuses on how Elizabeth was perceived by the French royal family and their ambassadors from 1558 to 1588. It also examines the dynamics of Anglo-French relations at that time and argues that, contrary to assumptions based on the fact that France was a Catholic country while England was officially Protestant, the representations of Elizabeth in French diplomatic correspondence were not entirely negative. Indeed, the general traffic of diplomatic correspondence offers a wide range of perspectives on the English queen.
These representations of the English queen have fascinated scholars for centuries. Interestingly, her contemporaries in FranceâCharles IX and Henry IIIâhave not attracted nearly as much attention, and the French historiography covering their reigns does not engage so intensively with their representations.10 From the portrayals of Elizabeth as the Virgin Queen and Deborah the Israelite judge who freed her people from oppression, the image of a Protestant heroine who managed to rule effectively amid a horde of Catholic enemies has been extensively studied and developed, notably by Sir John Neale and Roy Strong.11 But this image is a complex one,12 not least because her depiction as Protestant heroine was as much imposed upon Elizabeth as it was generated by the actions and proclamations of the queen herself.13 Indeed, in many ways, she was a reluctant heroine of the Reformation, because, while she could not ignore the struggles of continental Protestants, she had no desire to go to war against her neighbors in order to defend her coreligionists.14
Another image of Elizabeth that has been explored in depth is âmother of her country.â15 Her gender has been studied as a significant part of her queenship , and a number of scholars, such as Maria Petty and Ilona Bell, have attempted to problematize the gendered representations of the queen.16 In The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power, Carole Levin evolves a more complex image of Elizabeth.17 Though Levin does not dismiss the importance of Elizabethâs sex, she rightly explains that, as she remained single, she was both Queen and King of England , which played an important role in her self-representation.18 This dualityâa male and female representation of the Tudor queenâis also examined by Kevin Sharpe, for example in his analysis of the famous 1588 Tilbury speech.19 Many other historians have similarly explored Elizabethâs image in the context of her warlike rhetoric.20 This dual representation of Elizabeth as both King and Queen of England was echoed in French writings, tooâdemonstrating that her reign was perceived as unusual both inside and outside the borders of her realm.
Elizabethâs portraits have also drawn the attention of numerous scholars.21 For instance, Anna Riehl Bertolet focuses on the English queenâs face and its importance in both written accounts and portraiture.22 Meanwhile, Frances Yates explores Elizabethâs representation as Astraea, the Greek goddess of innocence, in literary works and links this depiction to the queenâs faith.23 More recently, Mary Villeponteaux and others have examined how the English viewed their queen and shaped some of her images.24 These works have established that Elizabethâs reputation and representation were multi-layered in England , and I argue that this was also the case within the French court.
In this study, I suggest a series of fresh and complementary approaches on these issues by looking at the French royal family and their ambassadorsâ letters and official reports. Close examination of these royal and diplomatic sources has revealed that some familiar images, such as Elizabeth as Protestant champion, were not reported by the Valois, while other, often rather different, images and perceptions of Elizabeth did emerge in their correspondence.
Monarchs tended to use familial tropes when engaging with one another and to maintain alliances. While this is hardly surprising, the way in which they shaped fictional familial relationships is intriguing.25 The following chapters investigate the important categorization of Elizabeth as a member of the French royal family and trace the significant changes in the terms that were chosen to accompany this image. Furthermore, the French rulers and their ambassadors developed many other representations of the Tudor monarchâfrom pirate queen to benevolent rulerâlargely in response to the state of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In some respects, this bookâs approach is similar to those of two significant works that have touched on foreign perceptions of the Tudor queen. In his essay ...