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Leanda Lisle de. After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James
AFTER ELIZABETH. The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James. LEANDA DE LISLE
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
CONTENTS
GENEALOGY
MAP
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE ‘The world waxed old’ The twilight of the Tudor dynasty
CHAPTER TWO ‘A babe crowned in his cradle’ The shaping of the King of Scots
PART TWO
CHAPTER THREE ‘Westward … descended a hideous tempest’1. The death of Elizabeth, February–March 1603
CHAPTER FOUR ‘Lots were cast upon our land’1. The coming of Arthur, March–April 1603
CHAPTER FIVE ‘Hope and fear’ Winners and losers, April–May 1603
CHAPTER SIX ‘The beggars have come to town’ Plague and plot in London, May–June 1603
PART THREE
CHAPTER SEVEN ‘An Anointed King’ James and Anna are crowned, July–August 1603
CHAPTER EIGHT ‘The God of truth and time’ Trial, judgement and the dawn of the Stuart age
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
P.S. Ideas, interviews & features … About the Author
About the Book
Read On
ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Q and A with Leanda de Lisle
LIFE at a Glance
TOP FIVE, BOTTOM FIVE
A Writing Life
ABOUT THE BOOK. A Letter to the Reader
READ ON. If You Loved This, You Might Like …
FIND OUT MORE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AUTHOR’S NOTE
NOTES
CHAPTER ONE ‘The world waxed old’
CHAPTER TWO ‘A babe crowned in his cradle’
CHAPTER THREE ‘Westward … descended a hideous tempest’
CHAPTER FOUR ‘Lots were cast upon our land’
CHAPTER FIVE: ‘Hope and fear’
CHAPTER SIX ‘The beggars have come to town’
CHAPTER SEVEN ‘An Anointed King’
CHAPTER EIGHT ‘The God of truth and time’
PRAISE
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
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For Peter,Rupert, Christian and Dominic,my cornerstones.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
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In 1593, the first year of Arbella’s exile, the twenty-five-year-old Earl of Essex was appointed to the Privy Council. The average age of his fellow councillors was almost sixty, with the sclerotic Burghley holding a position of unrivalled authority. The only other young member was Burghley’s son, Robert Cecil, who had been appointed to the Privy Council in 1591 when he was twenty-eight. Just as Leicester had marked Essex out as his heir, so Burghley was grooming Cecil for his. A contemporary described Cecil as having a ‘full mind in an imperfect body’.34 He was short – no more than five foot two – and hunchbacked. His face was almost feminine with large, vivid eyes that suggested his quick wit. Elizabeth would sometimes refer to Cecil as her ‘pygmy’ and sometimes as her ‘elf’. Others preferred the sobriquet ‘Robert the Devil’.
Unfailingly polite, watchful and measured, Cecil had been raised a courtier from infancy. He was therefore completely familiar with the complex network of human relations that bound people at court by blood, marriage, love, friendship, honour and dependency and he was precisely attuned to its mores. Here the normal rules of morality did not apply. Harington complained you ended up a fool at court if you didn’t start out a knave – but this did not trouble Cecil. As one discourse argued: ‘The courtier knows the secrets of the court, judges them not, but uses them for his particular advantage.’35 Essex did his best to push his young clients forward for high office, but as Elizabeth’s old Councillors died she preferred to leave their posts vacant than replace them, arguing that younger men were too inexperienced – and Burghley was no keener on finding new talent than the Queen. He surrounded himself with fifth-rate men who could pose no threat to him. In this stagnant pool corruption flourished.36
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