Characters
* historically identified personal
* Carleill, Christopher – 33, step-son of Francis Walsingham
* Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester – 51, chief advisor and former love interest of Queen Elizabeth
* Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of England – 51
* Farnese, Alexander, Duke of Parma – 38, nephew of King Philip of Spain. Governor and captain general of the Netherlands under King Philip’s authority
* Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon – 29, heir to the throne of France, died in 1584. Possible marriage to Elizabeth used to discourage King Philip from attempting to remove Elizabeth from her throne
* Gilbert, Humphrey – half brother of Walter Raleigh, colonizer who dies at sea, 1583, 44 at time of death
* Hatton, Christopher – 43, Captain of the Queen’s Guard
* Hayes, Edward – 34, captain of the Golden Hind
* Ingram, David – English sailor and explorer who claimed to have walked across the interior of the North American continent from Mexico to Nova Scotia in 1568
* Peckham, George – merchant venturer
* Philip II, King of Spain – 57, former husband of Queen Elizabeth’s sister Mary, defender of Catholicism in Europe, intent on overthrowing the Protestant Elizabeth
* Raleigh, Walter – 32, courtier of Queen Elizabeth
* Stuart, Mary – 41, former Queen of Scotland. A devout Catholic, deemed a threat to Elizabeth (her cousin), she was confined for many years in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England.
* Walsingham, Francis – 52, Queen Elizabeth’s principal secretary
* William, Prince of Orange – 50, the main leader of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1581
Commentary
On this blogsite, under the label “Blogs about English Settlements at Roanoke,” I have posted detailed information about Queen Elizabeth’s difficulties with King Philip of Spain and other problems she faced up to late 1583, if you wish to investigate. Take from this section of Chapter 5 the knowledge that Queen Elizabeth and her advisors were greatly concerned about King Philip’s intentions of deposing her and placing Mary Stuart on the throne.
This novel focuses on the conflicts of coastal Algonquians in the years 1583 and 1584, especially those of sister and brother Alsoomse and Wanchese, each not content to live a subordinate life determined by their tribal culture and superiors. Because the English will affect the two protagonists’ and the entire tribe’s conflicts, I narrate throughout the novel how their mission to establish contact with the native population along the coast of North America came about and the portray the major characters involved.
Section 2
Leaning back in his leather upholstered chair, Walter Raleigh stared at the Thames River through his upstairs turret window. He half expected the Queen’s barge being made ready for her to avail herself of this October day’s clement weather. If so, he would be summoned to provide her visual and intellectual stimulation, their meeting providing him, concomitantly, fortuitous opportunity.
He would reinforce Leicester and Walsingham’s views that rebel forces in the Netherlands needed her military support. But he would put a twist to their basic argument. He would again apprise her of the danger to her person of Mary Stuart’s continued confinement at Sheffield Castle or whatever other property to which the Earl of Shrewsbury chose to imprison her. After the Ridolfi Plot had been exposed and Norfolk had been executed, Elizabeth should have had Mary beheaded! Keeping the Scottish vixen alive provided Catholic traitors, the Pope, and Philip of Spain all the more cause to attempt Elizabeth’s assassination. That Philip had not invaded was verification of the importance of keeping Parma’s army preoccupied in the Low Lands, notwithstanding Anjou’s abject failure to forestall him.
Anjou! That fawning French smell-smock! Good riddance to him! The Queen was finally done with him, in great measure due to the virile presence and ardor of that newcomer to Court, that man with the Devon burr, that soldier who had cut his teeth in Paris during the Huguenot suppression, that leader of the defeat of the Desmond Rebellions, Humphrey Gilbert’s right hand (not to mention half-brother), to wit: Walter Raleigh!
Anjou! The queen no longer pined for him. Heir to the French throne, he had been useful. The possibility of Elizabeth’s marriage to him had kept Philip at bay. But now the likelihood of an alliance with France to forestall Spanish aggression seemed remote. All the more reason to assist aggressively William, the Prince of Orange.
Yes, he had much to fill Her Majesty’s ear, and infuriate his rivals! “Jack the Upstart” and “that Knave” they called him. Leicester, at fifty corpulent, bad-tempered, believing every man his enemy, was no longer the “Sweet Robin” of Elizabeth’s youth. Christopher Hatton, Captain of the Queen’s Guard, member of the Privy Council, pretty boy dancer petulant that Her Majesty no longer looked upon him as her most handsome courtier, had sulked, until she had tended his lacerated heart. He had sent her a miniature gold bucket, a symbol of his fear of being displaced by “Water,” the name she used to address Raleigh, a tease about his Devon accent. In return she had given Hatton an olive branch and a dove, to indicate he would not be destroyed by the flood. Two months later Hatton had given her a jewel cut in the shape of a fish.
Hatton did not compare in physical appearance, military acumen, scholarly endeavor, intellect or wit. He was the least of Raleigh’s rivals.
Thinking about Hatton, Raleigh laughed. Hatton played the courtly game of unrequited lover -- which Elizabeth craved and at which he, Raleigh, was far superior. Two months ago using his diamond ring Raleigh had carved on a lattice window in the Queen’s Presence Room the message: “Fain would I climb, yet I fear to fall.” Taking his ring from him the next day, she had inscribed: “If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.”
To Elizabeth, he was “Water.” He was her Shepherd of the Ocean. She “died of thirst” whenever he left her presence. In his poems he called her Cynthia, goddess of the moon and symbol of chastity. He had penned the past two days two stanzas that, if he were quick about it, he might complete before her inevitable summons. He walked to his desk, bent over its surface, and quickly read.
Those eyes which set my fancy on a fire,
Those crisped hairs which hold my heart in chains,
Those dainty hands which conquered my desire,
That wit which on my thought does hold the reins!
Those eyes for clearness do the stars surpass,
Those hairs obscure the brightness of the sun,
Those hands more bright than every ivory was,
That wit even to the skies hath glory won.
One more stanza might suffice. He would sit at his desk this very afternoon to write it if he were not summoned. If not this day, then he would tomorrow. She would read it; he would win greater favor; he would press more aggressively his request to acquire Gilbert’s patent.
#
He had not been summoned. Riding the newly paved road to the palace the following morning, Raleigh thought about his goal. He had competition. Because of what Humphrey had experienced, he believed he knew his competitor’s identity.
Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s primary secretary. Humphrey had communicated his frustration to Raleigh during the final days before he had left England for Newfoundland.
Desperate to raise money to finance his voyage and intended colonial settlement, Raleigh’s half-brother had sub-granted large parcels of land where he expected the settlement might be founded to Catholic elites, they seeking refuge from onerous fines and penalties imposed for religious nonconformity. These investors had thereupon petitioned Walsingham for permission to establish a colony. Then, quite unexpectedly, they had withdrawn their investments. Shortly thereafter, Gilbert had learned that Walsingham, his stepson Christopher Carleill, and Sir George Peckham had interviewed the English seaman David Ingram about his purported journey by foot past the Bahia de Santa Maria all the way to Cape Breton. “Why their particular interest, Walter? Why their interest?” Humphrey had sarcastically asked him.
Unable to raise investment capital, the six year time limitation on his patent a year from expiring, Gilbert had sold his estate. In March 1583 Walsingham had informed him that the Queen doubted his competency. Gilbert was not “of good hap at sea.” Because of this, and because he still needed money, he should, therefore, relinquish his patent. He would not! “I went to London! I repudiated their perfidious slanders!” Gilbert had informed Raleigh. Fortuitously, Raleigh had come into wealth. The Queen had provided him not only his residence, Durham House, on the Thames. She had granted him a substantial income from leased property and from commercial monopolies that included a license to tax retailers of wine. He had provided Gilbert a 200 ton ship that he had purchased from the Southampton merchant, Henry Oughtred. Raleigh had renamed it the Bark Ralegh and had equipped it at a cost of 2,000 pounds. Weeks before Gilbert’s delayed departure Raleigh had learned that the mayor of Bristol had persuaded local merchants to pledge funds to provide a ship and a bark for Carleill, not Gilbert!
Raleigh had passed that information along. He did not know if his half-brother had learned of the discourse that Carleill had had published in April. It had laid out his plans for a voyage to North America later that year. Gilbert had not mentioned it in their communication. Raleigh had learned of the discourse only recently. Aggrieved that he lacked the Queen’s confidence, Gilbert had asked Raleigh to speak to her. Raleigh had persuaded her to send Gilbert an affectionate letter.
Gilbert had left Southampton June 11 with five ships. Regrettably, the Bark Ralegh had returned but days later. The captain and crew had deserted. Sickness and lack of provisions to make the Atlantic crossing had been their excuses. Captain Edward Hayes and the Golden Hind had returned to England September 22. The news: Raleigh’s half brother and good friend and his ship the Squirrel and crew had been swallowed during a violent storm.
Raleigh had set in motion plans to outfit his own expedition. He had already gathered together at Durham House diverse people to ensure that his expedition would be well organized and equipped. Sometime in April of 1584 he expected to send two or more ships to North America, perhaps somewhat south of Gilbert’s intended settlement, to locate a practical place to found a settlement and a base from which privateers would operate. He believed he could convince Elizabeth to award him Humphrey’s patent. But he had to be vigilant! Walsingham, and Carleill, had their own designs!
No comments:
Post a Comment