Who were the suitors of Elizabeth I? Who did Elizabeth consider marrying? Let’s discuss.
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Hello and welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History Podcast. I am your host, Heather, and I have been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009, the original Tudor History Podcast.
This channel is where I put all of my episodes, as well as lots of extra content like this video right here. So today we are talking about the love life of Elizabeth I. The men who were courting Elizabeth. The men who would have liked to have been the King of England.
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So Elizabeth I and her love life. This is a topic that gets covered quite a lot. I’ve actually done other videos about Elizabeth and her suitors as well. Um, but it’s one of those subjects that never gets old and it’s always worth going back and revisiting it and looking for other spins you can put on it.
So we’re going to talk a little bit about the men who were courting Elizabeth today. The men who had hopes of being the future King of England and the way Elizabeth played them off each other. One interesting thing about Elizabeth, of course, maybe one of the most interesting things about her is that she was the first woman to rule without a husband by her side.
Of course, Mary I was the first queen regnant in England, um, but she got married right away to Philip of Spain. So Elizabeth comes along and she did not get married and she ruled for 45 years without a husband by her side, which was a choice that mystified the political world of her time.
But Elizabeth’s decision to stay unmarried wasn’t due to lack of offers. Of course, throughout her life, she had no fewer than six. 16 suitors from prominent English noblemen to European princes, all vying for her hand. She knew how to leverage these proposals as political tools. She dangled the possibility of marriage and used it to forge alliances and to gain strategic advantages without ever truly committing.
While she famously declared herself married to her country, her life, both real and speculative, was the source of endless romantic intrigue.
So let’s start with her early proposals. Elizabeth’s early years were, of course, very romantic. Quite tumultuous. She was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose marriage to Henry sparked England’s break with the Catholic Church. Elizabeth’s legitimacy was always being called into question, not least because her mother was executed for adultery.
So there was always this question around her legitimacy. Although Henry never questioned it himself, she looked like him, he always claimed her, there was never a question in his mind. But this uncertainty made her less appealing as a match for foreign princes when she was younger, unlike her half sister, Mary, who had been betrothed.
multiple times before reaching adolescence. Elizabeth, on the other hand, only had a few early proposals. One of the first came when she was just a toddler, just a wee little mite. Henry VIII attempted to secure a match between the one year old Elizabeth and Charles de Valois, the Duke of Angoulême, the youngest son of the French king.
But the French king refused to recognize Anne as Henry’s lawful wife, and that caused negotiations to fall through. A second attempt came during the reign of her brother, Edward VI, when Elizabeth was considered as a bride for Adolf, the Duke of Holstein Gottorp, a Protestant prince. However, like her earlier engagement, this too failed, leaving Elizabeth’s marriage prospects very uncertain during her early years.
Then came the scandal of her teenage years when she was living with her stepmother, Catherine Parr, and Tom Seymour. Seymour was ambitious, was unscrupulous, um, was a bit of a cad, seeking ways to gain more influence within the court.
At the time, Elizabeth was only about 14, Tom Seymour was in his 40s, but that did not stop him. Not only did he make all of those very inappropriate advances towards Elizabeth when she was living there, when she was dressed only in her nightgown and he would come in and tickle her and smack her butt.
And all of that kind of really gross stuff. Uh, but he also then proposed to her after his wife Catherine Parr had died. So he had proposed marriage to Elizabeth
And she was able to skillfully get out of that offer. And then Seymour’s political ambition got the best of him. He was arrested for treason and Elizabeth was actually implicated as a potential accomplice. But she was able to use her intelligence, her wit, to get herself out of that muddle.
Seymour was not so lucky and he was executed in 1549.
This whole mess with Seymour really influenced Elizabeth’s perception of marriage and power, and it likely contributed to her lifelong distrust of men and her determination to never let a man have any kind of control over her life or her reign.
So then when Mary was the queen, Elizabeth was the next in line for the throne, and so she became a little bit more of an attractive prospect than when she was second in line, and there was a young king who might still have children, and then there was, Mary who was still young and might have children, so things had been very distant for Elizabeth to potentially be queen That’s just a few years earlier and then Mary becomes Queen.
She’s older. She’s not having children. Elizabeth is next in line and one of the people who got caught up in that with her was Edward Courtney the Earl of Devon he was a great grandson of Edward IV, and he was seen as a potential match for Elizabeth, linking their Plantagenet blood with her Tudor blood, particularly by the people who opposed Mary’s reign.
In 1554, he became embroiled in Wyatt’s Rebellion, which was a plot aimed at overthrowing Mary and placing Elizabeth on the throne next to Edward Courtney.
The rebellion was crushed, but both Courtney and Elizabeth were implicated, and Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London under suspicion of conspiracy. Courtney was eventually banished to Venice. Elizabeth’s involvement was never proven, and she was released after intense questioning. However, again, the event cast a long shadow over her marriage prospects, and she was viewed with suspicion by both Mary’s supporters and foreign suitors alike.
Of all of Elizabeth’s suitors, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was by far the most significant and closest to her heart. Her true love, Robert Dudley. Dudley and Elizabeth had known each other since childhood. Their connection was deep and enduring. When Elizabeth became Queen, Dudley quickly rose in prominence, earning positions of power and privilege, including the Master of the Horse, a role that kept him very close to her.
to her. , as master of the horse, he was helping her when she would get up on the horse, for example. So there was a lot of like touching involved.
It was a role that you would only want someone that you were very comfortable with to have. Rumors of a romantic relationship between Elizabeth and Dudley began circulating almost immediately, fueled by the fact that he was nearly always by her side.
There was a problem, of course, though, and that was Dudley was married. His wife, Amy, did not live at court. She lived further away. There were rumors that she was sick and that maybe Dudley would be able to extricate himself early. from his marriage. But then in 1560, Amy died under very mysterious circumstances.
Jill McCracken did a talk about that at TudorCon this year, the whodunit of Amy Robsart. I’ll have to find his related video and link to it. Um, anyway, the official inquest found the death was accidental, but there were rumors this ruined any opportunity Elizabeth was ever going to have to marry Dudley.
Despite the scandal, Elizabeth would eventually keep Dudley close. She sent him away at first, but then she brought him back. But she realized she was never going to be able to marry him. Not just because of the suspicion over Dudley. what happened to Amy, but also because of the balance of power within the English nobility.
If she was going to show favoritism to one, it was all such a delicate balance of power. It was going to get all messed up. If she would show favoritism to Dudley, all the different factions would just, it would turn into a mess. People would be very angry. Nobles would be upset. It wouldn’t be good, but their bond remained strong.
And Elizabeth hinted that if she ever were to marry, it would be Dudley. At one point, she even proposed a potential solution which caught everybody off guard. The idea that Robert Dudley might marry Mary, Queen of Scots, because then their children could inherit the English and Scottish crowns.
Both Dudley and Mary. and Mary thought that was weird and were resistant to the idea. I guess she thought that Mary would come to England then and they would all live together and be a happy family. Um, the plan never came to any kind of fruition.
But Dudley of course would stay Elizabeth’s closest confidant and the one man who perhaps had a claim to her heart. Let’s talk about foreign suitors now.
One of the most significant foreign suitors to pursue Elizabeth was Philip II of Spain, who had previously been married to Elizabeth’s half sister, Mary. After Mary’s death in 1558, Philip quickly proposed to the new queen, hoping to maintain his influence there. over England and to continue pushing for the country’s return to Catholicism.
Now, interestingly, Philip had actually been a supporter of Elizabeth during Mary’s reign. He tried really hard to stay on her good side. He always wanted to keep her safe, even when Mary was uncertain about things. Mary actually might have done more to hurt Elizabeth, to make life difficult for Elizabeth, but Philip realized that they were never going to have any children. She was going to be the next in line, and he really wanted to stay on her good side.
But Elizabeth turned him down.
Not only did she realize how unpopular he was, he was deeply resented in England, but he was also her brother in law, and accepting his hand would have been accepting a man that she knew was going to try to dominate her and her country. She didn’t want to have any part of that, so she very tactfully declined.
That would set the stage for the future rivalry that would, of course, lead to the Armada 30 years later. Crazy how that works.
Next in line was Archduke Charles of Austria, a candidate promoted by the Holy Roman Emperor for Dan I. Negotiations between Charles and Elizabeth continued for years, but the match was doomed from the start because of religious differences. Charles was Catholic, and one of the key stipulations from his father was that Elizabeth would have to declare Charles her heir if they remained childless.
These terms with the tensions going on in England between the Protestants and the Catholics, um, made the match really impossible for Elizabeth. Despite some really important political advantages, she ultimately turned down the proposal, unwilling to risk England’s religious stability.
Then there was Eric XIV of Sweden, another royal who vied for Elizabeth’s hand. His courtship was one of the most persistent. Before either of them had become monarchs, even before he ascended to the Swedish throne, he had expressed interest in Elizabeth.
And once he became king, he continued to shower her with lavish gifts and love letters. But he also displayed some really erratic behavior, some Pretty important mental instability, and there was political instability going on in Sweden at the time, and that made the match undesirable for Elisabeth.
Eric himself came to a very grisly end. He tried to imprison a very powerful noble family in Sweden, alienating the Swedish nobility.
He was then imprisoned by his brother, later died likely of poisoning. So his end was not so good, so good job on Elizabeth for turning that one down.
One of the more awkward suitors was Henri III of France, who as a younger prince had shown little interest in Elizabeth.
His mother, Catherine de Medici, had promoted the match, but Henri, known for his vanity and his sharp tongue, reportedly made disparaging comments about Elizabeth’s age and appearance. The rude remarks effectively killed any serious consideration of a match between them, though Elizabeth entertained his suit briefly just to antagonize Philip in Spain.
The most serious foreign suitor was François, the Duke of Anjou, the youngest son of Catherine de Medici. There was a 22 year age gap between them, but despite that, they actually developed a very close bond. Elizabeth even came up with a nickname for him, which she only did with her favorites. She called him her father.
Frog. Unlike other suitors, Francois actually came to England to woo Elizabeth in person. At one point, she even gave him a ring potentially signaling an engagement, but the match was very controversial. Francois was Catholic and public opinion in England was fiercely against it. There were pamphlets circulated condemning the marriage and Elizabeth eventually broke it off despite her emotional attachment to Francois.
When he did leave England and went back to France, she was actually A little bit heartbroken. She had a little bit of a broken heart when he left, which, uh, very sad.
And this was one of the last serious proposals that she considered.
There were a couple of English suitors. Among them was Sir William Pickering, who was briefly considered for a potential match.
He was a tall and handsome diplomat. He was highly regarded at court. court known for his charm. For a time, foreign ambassadors speculated that Elizabeth might marry him, but their flirtation never materialized into anything serious. After a brief period of anticipation, Pickering returned to Yorkshire, and the possibility of marriage quietly faded away.
Then there was Henry FitzAlan, the Earl of Arundel, another suitor who invested heavily in trying to win Elizabeth’s hand. There was a huge age gap, and he was Catholic, but he spent vast sums entertaining the Queen and presented himself as a serious contender.
Elizabeth, however, did not trust Arundel. She sensed his ambition. She kept him at court for times to keep an eye on him, but she eventually distanced herself from him. Years later, Arundel would become embroiled in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, leading to his downfall and house arrest, where he died at the age of 67.
As Elizabeth aged, her declaration of being married to her kingdom became more than just a political statement. It became part of her public persona. A cult of virginity formed around her, likening her to the Virgin Mary, symbolizing purity and devotion to her people. Despite the many suitors who courted her, Elizabeth steadfastly maintained that she had never married or had ever had any kind of intimate relations, even with Robert Dudley, her true love.
Rumors persisted, however, particularly surrounding her relationship with Dudley. I just did a video on the secret pregnancies that people suspected of her with Dudley. Elizabeth’s refusal to marry had a significant impact on the politics of the time. It kept foreign powers guessing, preserving her autonomy, and protected England from potential political domination by a foreign prince or an English nobleman.
By refusing to marry, Elizabeth retained full control of her reign and safeguarded her legacy as one of England’s greatest monarchs. So we will leave it there.
Thank you so much for watching. If you made it to this point in the video and you liked it, I sure would appreciate a press of that like button. It helps to feed the algorithm and get my content to even more people. And I hope I earned your subscription to my channel, where I put out videos like this on the regular. If you want to keep watching Tudor content, why not check out this video on Cecilia Vassa? She was one of the noble women in the retinue that Eric of Sweden sent to woo Elizabeth. Or you can check out this video that YouTube thinks you will enjoy. Thank you so much. Have an amazing day and I will talk to you soon.
Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
