Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-10
elder son. the Duke Of Anjou, set about
negotiating a marriage for the younger.
Was Famed for Protestant Rule.

Was Famed for Protestant Rule.
The time was scarcely propitious. Eliza
beth reigned over England as the great
Protestant monarch of the day. All that
her immediate predecessor, Bloody
Mary Tudor, had done to establish Ca
tholicism in England. she had undone.
Yet. the French ambassador, bearing the
proposals from Catherine de Medici, ar
rived at the English court almost SINFUL
taneousIy with the news OF the massacre
of st, Bartholomew, plotted ana executeo
by Catherine de Medici and Charles Ia.
II the moment Of presenting the tender
propositions of the DUO d Alencon seemed
Unfortunate, what is to be said OF the
nersonal qualities he brought for her cap
ffyation? The queen was forty. He had
youth.was barely past wentyrC con hS,ae
ton of deformities and blemisnes. In
stature he was q dwarf; in face he was
hideous. Smallpox in early youth mao
stunted and deformed his body while put
ting its ineradicable stamp upon his face
AS il this were not enough, some other
evil had divided his nose In revolving
fashion. His enemies, who were many,
referred to his double nose as mt EN-.
blem Of double-facedness. For the rest
he was a debauchee, a man without po-
litical or religious principles, posing now
al a devout Roman Catholic, and then as
a leader and protector Of the Huguenots
In France.
Lover Was Kept Dangling at Side.
Still, Elizabeth loved him. For twelve
long years she kept him dangling at her
skirts, granting him every recognition ex-
cept that of marriage. She petted him
openly, kissed him on the lips in the pres
ence Of the French ambassador and called
him her petite grenouille,' or little
frog" from the fact that his distorted
air of fat frog when he sank into a
chair In the archives at Hatfield are
hundred or more letters from the Good
Queen Bess' to this misshapen mass of
mortality which are said to Guido any
records Of the modern breach OF promise
courts.
For the first twenty years OF Eliza
beth's rule her chief occupation was the
consideration of the political effect of
suggested marriages. One after another
the great figures Of Europe offered her
their hands in marriage, but she lived to
her SEVENTEEN year and rounded out forty
five as q monarch, without marriage. Per-
haps she loved. Certainly she sometimes
showed mad jealousy and vanity. 1t Is
said that the journey of Essex to the
block was expedited by his remark in
moment Of wrath: Her mind Is as crook
ed as her body"
Rejected Offers Good for Nation.
Nevertheless, when we look back upon
the various marriages planned for Eliza
beth we are compelled to concede that
whatever her cause for rejecting them,
the outcome was good for England. Philip
of Spain. widower Of Mary Tudor, Of
fered his hand before his wifes sepulcher
was fairly finished. But Philip was an
ardent Catholic and would have alienated
the English Protestants. Then followed
Robert Dudley. whom Elizabeth created
Earl of Leicester. and for whom she show
ed marked affection. But between Leices-
ter and Elizabeth the shadow of an I'M
explained tragedy interviewed. His lawful
wife, Amy Robsart, died in lonely coun-
try mansion whittier he had sent her in
charge OF a servant whose reputation was
none OF the best. Public clamor was loud
against the husband, but Elizabeth pro-
tected him, though marriage was by that
event made impossible.
The long episode with the DUO d'Alen-
con seems to have been but one of those
firtations with which a queen, debarred
physically or politically from marriage,
amused herself. And when parliament
formally besought her to take a mate and
raise heirs to the throne, she responded
that her coronation was her marriage;
the English people We're the sole objects
of her affection; that she would have no
other spouse, but desired her epitaph to
be: Here lies queen who lived and
died virgin"