Later, the Duke of Anjou, a son of Henry II of France, proposed.  He was favorably received, but the country became so alarmed at the prospect of having a Catholic King, that Stubbs, a Puritan lawyer, published a coarse and violent pamphlet denouncing the marriage.[2] For this attack his right hand was cut off; as it fell, says an eyewitness,[3] he seized his hat with the other hand, and waved it, shouting, “God save Queen Elizabeth!” That act was an index to the popular feeling.  A majority of the people, whether Catholics or Protestants, stood by the Crown even when they condemned its policy, determined, at all hazards, to preserve the unity of the nation.  That spirit of intense loyalty and love of country without regard to creed or calling found perfect expression in Shakespeare’s utterance: 

“This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. . . . . . . . .  Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them:  nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do but rest true."[4]

We shall see that this feeling showed itself still more unmistakably, when, years later, men of all classes and of widely different religious views rose to destroy the Armada,—­that great fleet which Spain sent to subjugate the English realm (SS398-401).

[2] Stubbs’s pamphlet was entitled “The Discovery of the Gaping Gulf, wherein England is likely to be swallowed up by another French marriage, unless the Lords forbid the bans by letting her see the sin and punishment thereof.” [3] Camden’s “Annals,” 1581. [4] Shakespeare’s “King John,” Act V, scene vii; written after the defeat of the Armada.

386.  The Queen a Coquette.

During all this time the court buzzed with whispered scandals.  Elizabeth was by nature an incorrigible coquette.  Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh were by turns her favorites.  Over her relations with Dudley there hangs the terrible shadow of the suspected murder of his wife, the beautiful Amy Robsart.[3]

[3] See the “De Quadra Letter” in Froude’s “England.”

Elizabeth’s vanity was as insatiable as it was ludicrous.  She issued a proclamation forbidding any one to sell her picture, lest it should fail to do her justice.  She was greedy of flattery even when long past sixty, and there was a sting of truth in the letter which Mary Queen of Scots wrote her, saying, “Your aversion to marriage proceeds from your not wishing to lose the liberty of compelling people to make love to you.”

387.  Violence of Temper; Crooked Policy.

In temper Elizabeth was arbitrary, fickle, and passionate.  When her blood was up, she would swear like a trooper, spit on a courtier’s new velvet suit, beat her maids of honor, and box Essex’s ears.  She wrote abusive and even profane letters to high Church dignitaries,[1] and she openly insulted the wife of Archbishop Parker, because she did not believe in a married clergy.