Elizabeth I is regarded as one of the greatest Queens and Monarch’s that England ever had.
She is often referred to as the Virgin Queen, but during her length reign she managed to
defeat the threat of Mary Queen of Scots, but also the Spanish Armada.
She tried greatly to unite the country in a number of different ways, but one of her
closest and most valuable advisors was Sir Francis Walsingham.
He was the spymaster for the Queen who oversaw a network of spies who would conduct work
in overseas lands.
Walsingham’s network managed to disrupt a large amount of plots that all aimed to
bring about the assassination of Elizabeth I, and many of them wanted to replace her
on the throne with Mary Queen of Scots.
But his daughter became one of the Queen’s loyal ladies in waiting, and she also married
a man who caused great scandal when he was accused of treason, and plotting to rebel
against Elizabeth I. Today we look at Frances Walsingham, the daughter of Elizabeth I’s
spymaster.
Frances Walsingham was the only surviving child of her father the Secretary of State
for Queen Elizabeth I and Ursula St Barbe.
She was born in October 1567, and was brought up on the Isle of Wight at various different
houses and castles.
But as her father was a prominent member of the Queen’s court, it was obvious that his
daughter would become a member of the royal household too.
She became one of the ladies in waiting for the Queen, Elizabeth I.
Her father arranged for her to marry Philip Sidney, who was a prominent courtier and poet.
He was very well thought of, and he was also a member of parliament.
He and Frances married in 1583, and the couple had one daughter who was named Elizabeth who
later married the 5th earl of Rutland.
Initially the match was arranged by her father and Elizabeth I to begin with did oppose this,
as she was worried about a new powerful faction at court being made up of Walsingham and Sidney,
as Sidney was also the nephew of Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester.
This would have made Elizabeth’s spymaster linked through marriage to her favourite and
the man she was rumoured to have loved.
Sidney was appointed then as the Governor of Flushing, and he left England whilst Frances
was pregnant with her first child.
Frances then went with her husband to the Netherlands after her child was born, and
the child was named after the Queen.
Elizabeth I was named as the child’s godmother, but tragedy would mark Frances’ marriage
to Sidney.
Philip Sidney was injured in battle on the 22nd September 1586, and he then sustained
a wound which became infected.
Frances was pregnant at this time, and she tried her best to nurse him but he then died
in the following month.
Philip Sidney was repatriated back to England and was given a hero’s funeral, but Frances
miscarried their second child, probably due to the stress of losing her husband.
His death was a huge loss, as it was said that, "Sir Philip Sidney had seemed to represent
an Elizabethan ideal: the literate, gentle, courageous all-round courtier at ease writing
verses, fighting battles, on his knees at prayer or on his toes in courtly dances."
In the following years after her first husband’s death, Elizabeth I would win a number of spectacular
victories.
The biggest was probably the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which secured Elizabeth’s
legacy as one of the most fierce warrior Queens across Europe.
It also hammered home the superiority of the English Royal Navy, but in 1590, Sir Francis
Walsingham died.
He regularly complained of periods of ill health, and when he died his will stated that
‘the greatness of my debts and the mean state I shall leave my wife and heirs in,’
and it’s believed he left some money to his daughter, but he also left a huge amount
of debt.
He would spend much of his own money on his spy network and espionage, and Walsingham’s
daughter Frances received £300 each year.
But the month following her father’s death, Frances married Robert Devereux the 2nd Earl
of Essex.
Devereux was described as being a tall and strikingly attractive man with dark eyes and
auburn hair, and he was a man who was incredibly intelligent, flirtatious and witty.
He had a close relationship with the Queen despite the age gap, and many considered him
to have been one of her favourites.
Elizabeth I commented many times on his good looks and appearance, and the pair would often
play cards long into the night.
She would whisper to him and touch him fondly, but because of his close relationship with
the Queen, Devereux and Frances decided to keep their relationship a secret.
It’s believed that their match may have been arranged by her father before his death,
but when Elizabeth I found out she was greatly upset and outraged by this.
The couple had a son named Robert, and when Elizabeth found about the marriage, it was
said ‘she stamped and raged and roared when she heard of the marriage, yet by her own
standards her fury was curiously short lived.’
With regards to the marriage of Devereux and Frances it was said that, ‘His choice of
lady love was strange - or rather displayed the enthusiastic but erratic logic that inspired
the rest of his actions....
The lady was not wealthy, for her first husband had left her little but debts...
So did the Earl of Essex marry for love?
If he did, it was an emotion as fleeting as his other enthusiasms, for he was soon to
be as conspicuously unfaithful to his Frances as Sir Philip Sidney had been, and he showed
no evidence even of the redeeming low-key affection with which the most dissolute of
husbands depend on a steady if slighted life-mate....
Though she bore him five children Frances remained in her husband's life, letters and
in Elizabethan history generally a 'gracious silence', never cited in anger or affection
- placid, faithful and neutral, so colourless as to be strangely significant.
For never once in his life did Robert Devereux manage to construct a relationship that could
fairly be described as personal or lasting."
So many people questioned the marriage between Devereux and Frances, but few could have imagined
how it would end.
Robert Devereux following a terrible military campaign in Ireland lost the favour of the
Queen who effectively barred him from court.
He was accused of treason and making a pact with Irish Rebels, and was shamed and held
under house arrest.
But during a period of house arrest, he and a number of other conspirators plotted to
seize the City of London, the Tower of London and force a meeting with the Queen.
Because of this, Essex’s rebellion rose up and died very quickly after, and Devereux
was arrested.
He was then indicted on treason charges, held inside the Tower of London and was then executed
on Tower Green.
He was granted a private execution within the Tower’s walls, but with the swing of
the axe Frances lost her second husband who was incredibly wealthy.
Her son later became the Third Earl of Essex, and at this time Frances pleaded to see the
Queen, but she denied her council.
Frances would marry again, as in 1603 she married Richard De Burke, the Earl of St Albans
and Clanricarde.
Together they had one son and two daughters, and they lived in Ireland and England building
huge mansions and houses.
But in early 1632 she got sick, and then shortly after died and was buried at St Peter and
St Paul’s Church in Tonbridge.
She was around 65 years old when she died, which was considered a great age for people
of the Tudor Period, especially women who had a large amount of children, as childbirth
was incredibly dangerous at the time.
Frances Walsingham was the daughter of Elizabeth I’s spymaster who later married a traitor
and a man who was accused of plotting to kill the English Queen, or at least arrest her.
Through a number of marriages she lived very comfortably throughout her time at Tudor court,
and she would have been one of the most prominent ladies in waiting to the Queen.
Her father’s legacy was one that helped to secure and protect the realm, and if he
did manufacture the marriage between his daughter and Robert Devereux, it’s interesting to
consider how he would have been looked at in the Queens eyes, especially following Devereux’s
execution.
But Frances Walsingham today is remembered as a remarkable Tudor woman.
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