Queen Elizabeth - Kouroo Contexture

QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION,
THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
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1533
By this point John Heywood’s “The Play of Love,” “The Mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the
Curate and Neybour Pratte” and “The Play of the Wether, a new and mery interlude of all maner of Wethers”
were all being performed at court. W. Rastell printed “The Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very mery
interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler.” On New Year’s Day, Heywood received a “gilte cuppe
with a cover weing xxiii oz” from King Henry VIII. During this year the monarch, who had fallen out of favor
with Pope Clement VII due to his setting aside of Queen Consort Catherine of Aragón who had failed to
provide him with a male heir and marriage to Anne Boleyn who was pregnant with his child (that would be
another girl, Elizabeth), and had consequently declared himself to be the head of the Church of England and
the Church of Ireland, declared that the princess Mary Stuart, as a product of Catherine of Aragón, was
illegitimate and not in the royal succession, and would in the future be addressed by the court as “The Lady
Mary” rather than as “Princess.”
September 7, Sunday (Old Style): At Greenwich, a daughter, named Elizabeth, was born to Anne Boleyn and King
Henry VIII about six months subsequent to their nuptials. People said there wasn’t an heir on her head — with
this birth, however, Catherine of Aragón’s daughter Mary would no longer be a “princess.”
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
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1546
Bear-baiting was popular in London. While associated with brothels and taverns, its patrons included King
Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth, and some of the events were supervised by the actor Edward Alleyn
as “master of the king’s games of bears, bulls and dogs” (the derogatory term “blood sport” is a rather recent
coinage). Since bears were considerably more expensive than bulls, these events would soon return to the use
of bulls. However, this engraving is from the 17th Century rather than from the 16th:
John Heywood’s DIALOGUE OF PROVERBES was printed by T. Berthelet, the King’s printer (what I have to
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show you here is a recent reprint of the 1562 edition).
HEYWOOD’S PROVERBES
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?
— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.
LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
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1552
February 13, Saturday (1551, Old Style): The King’s drummer and fifer, John Heywood, Master Sebastian Westcott,
and the children of St Paul’s played for the Princess Elizabeth. Heywood received 30s.
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1553
July 10, Monday (Old Style): King Edward VI of England, the only remaining son of King Henry VIII, died of
tuberculosis at the age of 16. In accordance with a paper he signed before his death, the Duke of
Northumberland proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England. Her reign would endure all of nine days.
The throne would then pass first to Edward’s sister Princess Mary and then to his other sister the Princess
Elizabeth — the one who would reign big time as Queen of England.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
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1554
During this year the Tower of London hosted the Princess Elizabeth, for a couple of months before she was
relocated to Woodstock (when Queen Mary would die in 1558 this former resident of the Tower would become
Queen of England).
Jasper Heywood was elected probationary fellow of Merton College, Oxford, where he would distinguish
himself in public and private disputations, in writing verse translations of Seneca’s dramas, and in acting as
Lord of Misrule at the Christmas festivities (he was known among the students as a wild carouser).
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
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1558
England lost Calais, the last of its possessions on the mainland of Europe, and became an island nation.
Jasper Heywood, a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, was compelled to resign on account of carousing, but
was then elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (at the beginning of the reign of the Princess Elizabeth
as Queen of England he would, for reasons of religious conscience, give up this fellowship at Alsolne Colledge
in Oxenforde as well and journey to Rome, where in 1570 he would be received into the Society of Jesus).
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Chronological observations of America
Queen Mary dyed.
Elizabeth Queen of England began to Raign
November the Seventeenth.
BY John Josselyn Gent.
to the year of Christ 1673.
From the year of the World
November 17, Thursday (Old Style): “Bloody” Mary Tudor was succeeded by the Princess Elizabeth Tudor, daughter
of King Henry VIII with Queen Consort Ann Bolyn, who became the Queen regnant Elizabeth of England and
Ireland. Since Elizabeth was Church of England, the courtier John Heywood, who as a Roman Catholic and
poet and musician had been in great favor during the reign of Queen Mary, would lose favor.
After the accession of the Lady Elizabeth, the gaunt William Hunnis would suddenly one day toward the end
of the month be released from the Tower of London and provided with clothing against the cold weather. He
stepped back into his old office as choirmaster in “the Queene’s Chappell” with an appearance considerably
altered by his experiences. The conspiracies that during the regime of Mary had made him seem the traitor,
during the ascendancy of Elizabeth would make him seem the patriot.
Martin Luther had held that witches should be burnt for making a pact with the Devil even if they harmed no
one, and then at Wittenburg in his absence four persons had indeed been executed as witches (I do not know
that they were female, or that they were burned). The Reverend John Calvin was instructing Protestants that
“The BIBLE teaches us that there are witches and that they must be slain. This law of God is a universal law.”
Bishop John Jewell, who was living in exile in Geneva, would bring witchhunting with him on his return to
England in 1559 and would preach before the new Queen that:
It may please your Grace to understand that witches and
sorcerers within these last few years are marvelously increased
within your Grace’s realm, Your Grace’s subjects pine away even
unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their
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speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft.
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1559
Jasper Heywood, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Alsolne Colledge in Oxenforde), translated the
Troades (“Troas,” which was what we now refer to as “The Trojan Women”), the 1st of three of the ten
tragedies of Seneca the Younger that he would translate into English verse. This play had been written around
54 CE, largely based on Euripides’s The Trojan Women and Hecuba. This was the initial rendering of the
material into English, and was not a straightforward translation. Heywood not only took liberties with the Latin
text but also introduced material of his own creation.
Matthew Parker became Archbishop of Canterbury.
William Hunnis got married with the recently widowed Margaret Brigham. By about the middle of the year
she was on her deathbed, and made him sole heir of everything she had, and executor of her will, with the
exception that she left her Allmes House, the tenements and mansion house lying at Westchester, to her cousin
Francis Brigham, with her husband William being allowed the use of that home for his lifetime. By the 12th
of October she was dead, for that was the date on which her will was proved by Thomas Willot “procurator
for William Hunnis.”1
1. It seems that this inheritance was contested by a Brigham relative and that the decision was in his favor, but that when he ousted
William Hunnis from the Allmes House, Queen Elizabeth took care of the matter by the granting to her choirmaster of other patents.
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The Anglican church was restored in England and the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER was published.2
2. The edition illustrated is THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENTS, AND OTHER RITES AND
CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH, ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: TOGETHER WITH THE PSALTER OR PSALMS
OF DAVID, PRINTED AS THEY ARE TO BE SUNG, OR SAID, IN CHURCHES, that would be printed by John Baskett, printer to the King’s
Most Excellent Majesty, for the University of Oxford in 1716. There is a phrase “noble army of Martyrs” in the BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER that may explain Henry Thoreau’s remark about becoming willing to kill, or to die, to end enslavement. The phrase may
have come into the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER from the TE DEUM, quite a bit older.
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August 7, Nonesuch: John Heywood’s “Nice Wanton” was performed by the children of St Paul’s before Queen
Elizabeth.
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1560
Queen Elizabeth restored Protestantism in England. The Irish Parliament acknowledged Elizabeth as head of
the Irish Church (the Book of Common Prayer was imposed and Church attendance became compulsory).
It was in about this year that Thomas Hariot was born in Oxford, England.
John White was born, son of Bishop John White.
John Ferne was born, a son of William Ferne (died 1592) of Temple Belwood in the Isle of Axholme,
Lincolnshire, and Anne, daughter of John Sheffield of Beltoft, Lincolnshire. The lineage of this family was
anything but ancient, for the father had acquired the family’s Lincolnshire estates in the 1570s, and the
grandfather had been a mere yeoman from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire (the pedigree the upwardly mobile Sir
John would later register with the heralds would be such as to artfully conceal this quite humble and recent
origin).
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Queen Elizabeth was presented with presumably the 1st pair of black silk stockings made in the West.3
(Although this English queen can be fitly acclaimed as the 1st lady to wear sexy black silk stockings of local
manufacture, she has also been acclaimed as the 1st to translate Horace’s ARS POETICA into English verse. The
fact of that matter, however, is that although this queen of England did prepare a full translation into English
of the works of Boethius, we cannot actually say that she prepared the ARS POETICA because only fragments
of such an effort still exist — it is possible that she didn’t get very far into this project and it is likely that she
wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see what she had managed to complete.)
Jasper Heywood, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Alsolne Colledge in Oxenforde), translated the
Thyestes, the 2d of three of the ten tragedies of Seneca the Younger that he would translate into English verse.
The play had been written at some time during the 1st Century CE. This was the initial rendering of the
material into English, and was not a straightforward translation. Heywood not only took liberties with the Latin
text but also introduced material of his own creation.
John Heywood’s “The Play of the Wether, a new and mery interlude of all maner of Wethers” was printed by
A. Kytson, his “Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very mery interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary,
a pedler” was printed by W. Copland, and his A FOURTH HUNDRED OF EPYGRAMS was printed by T. Berthelet.
HEYWOOD’S EPYGRAMS
3. Of course, instantly one wonders when presented with such Eurocentric factoids, for how many centuries such articles of apparel
had been being fashioned in the East!
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1561
During Queen Elizabeth of England’s reign the guest apartments at the Tower of London would be kept full.
Bishops, archbishops, knights, barons, earls and dukes would be languishing for months, some for years, in its
various towers. In this year Sir Anthony Fortescue was taken to the Tower (this one would make good an
escape).
Jasper Heywood, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Alsolne Colledge in Oxenforde), translated the
Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules), the 3d of three of the ten tragedies of Seneca the Younger that
he translated into English verse. This was the initial rendering of the material into English, and was not a
straightforward translation. Heywood not only took liberties with the Latin text but also introduced material
of his own creation. (His verse translations of Seneca would be supplemented by translations of other of
Seneca’s ten tragedies contributed by Alexander Neville, Thomas Nuce, John Studley, and Thomas Newton,
and collected by Newton in 1581 into a single edition, SENECA, HIS TENNE TRAGEDIES TRANSLATED INTO
ENGLYSH (1581).
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1563
Queen Elizabeth decreed that landowners with 60 or more acres must grow some cannabis (field hemp grown
for naval fiber: you don’t smoke this, you bind your enemies with it) or pay a fee of five pounds.
The choirmaster “William Hunnys” became Keeper of the Royal Gardens at Greenwich, at a salary of 12d a
day and the chance of some few perquisites. In this capacity he would need to provide for the Queen’s
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satisfaction seven gallons of “sweet waters” annually.
WILLIAM HUNNIS
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND
YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
Queen Elizabeth (I)
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1566
August 31, Saturday (Old Style): Queen Elizabeth arrived to spend the week in Oxford. Te Deum in the Cathedral.
Well, it wasn’t all tedium. Richard Edwardes’s Palamon and Arcite would be performed for the monarch’s
amusement and the stage would collapse — three killed and five injured, but in order not to spoil the evening,
after the moment of panic and a bit of cleanup the performance would continue.
Do you suppose a poor boy like William Camden would have had a chance to stand in the back, and glimpse
Her Majesty?
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1570
May 30, Tuesday (Old Style): Queen Elizabeth had appointed William Hunnis to take the City-dues of wheelage and
passage on London Bridge, over which all the traffic of the city passed. The London municipal authorities on
this date offered Hunnis a lump sum to allow this office to revert to themselves. In the GUILDHALL RECORDS,
volume V:
William Hunnys Item. This daye the reversion and next avoidance
of the Office of Collections of the Cities’ rightes, duties, and
profits cominge and growinge from tyme to tyme at and uppon
London Bridge, for wheelage and passage over the same Bridge,
which office Thomas Makerley or Malecht, Cutler, and Hellin his
wife, nowe have, is by virtue of a graunte of this Court to them
made and graunted on the 6th day of November in the yeare of the
reign of Philip and Mary, formerly King and Queen of England,
5th and 6th [which is to day, 1558] for terme of one and twenty
yeares next ensuing after the feast of St. Michael the Archangel
then last paste, yf thei or one of them doe or shall so longe
lyve, was, at the contemplation of the Queen’s Majesties
letters, directed unto this court, in t he favour of William
Hunnys, citizen and grocer, of this citie, and also Master of
her Grace’s children of the Chapell Royall, freely given and
graunted to the same Mr. Hunnys for terme of his naturall lyfe,
to have and enioye the same, when, and as soon as the said
reversion shall fall after the death of the said Thomas Makerley
or Malecht, and Hellin his wife, and the longer liver of them.
He, the said Hunnys, yealding and paying therefore yearlie
during his saide terme and intereste to, of, and in the said
Office, to the Bridge Masters of the said Bridge for the time
beinge, towards the reparation and maintenance of the same
bridge, so much money, within 10 poundes as any other person or
personnes will, than without or fraude or guile given for the
same, provided always that yf the said Makerly [Thomas Makerley
or Malecht, Cutler] and Hellin his wife or either of them, shall
fortune to survive and outlive the end of their saide terme of
yeares of and in the saide Office, that then the said Hunneyes
shall quietly permit and suffer them and either of them, to holde
and enjoye the said Office during their naturall lives and that
of the longer liver of them, as fullye to all intentes and
purposes as though this present graunte thereof to him had never
been had or made, anie thinge therein contayned to the contrary
notwithstanding.
June 13, Tuesday (Old Style): Queen Elizabeth had appointed William Hunnis to take the City-dues of wheelage and
passage on London Bridge, over which all the traffic of the city passed. The London municipal authorities had
countered by offering Hunnis a lump sum to allow this office to revert to themselves, and on this date he
accepted from them the sum of £40. In the GUILDHALL RECORDS, volume V:
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Item at this court it was ordered that the Bridgemaster shall
paie unto Mr. Hunneyes, Master of the Children of the Queen’s
Majesties Chappell Royall the summe of £40 in gratification of
the Queen’s Majesties Highness’ letters to this courte in the
favour of the said WIlliam Hunneys for a lease in reversion of
the wheeling and passage of London Bridge by her Majestyes
gifte, the said Hunneys this day yielded and gave unto this
courte his moste hartie thankes.
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1571
William Camden moved to London. There he would transform himself into an antiquarian, a sort of study that
he had begun to find congenial.
When preparations were being made for Queen Elizabeth to receive the French ambassador, the Duke of
Montmorency, “William Hunnys” was compensated 46/ for 46 bushels of “Rozes,” 13/4 for “Pinke and Privet
flowers in all,” 40/ for 4 gallons of Rose water, etc. (The Rozes were of course to have their petals strewn on
the ground, with the Rose water sprinkled over them.)
WILLIAM HUNNIS
Posthumous publication of Richard Edwardes 1564 comedy Damon and Pythias (this has come to be his only
surviving such effort).
DAMON AND PYTHIAS
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1573
The 4th Round of the eight Civil Wars between Huguenots and Catholics in France, characterized for some
unknown reason by historians as the “Wars of Religion,” came to an end:
Civil
War
Began:
Ended:
1.)
1552
1563
2.)
1567
1568
3.)
1568
1570
4.)
1572
1573
5.)
1574
1576
6.)
1577
1577
7.)
1580
1580
8.)
1585
1589
When Queen Elizabeth offered to allow John Heywood to return to England, that family, at Malines in Brabant,
sat tight.
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1575
April 18, Monday (Old Style): John Heywood wrote to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Queen
Elizabeth, trying to persuade him that the sole reason why he had not returned from the continent to England
was that he had no funds to do so. Presumably, he wanted the Baron to believe that had he been able to make
the trip, he would of course have taken the Queen up on her kind proffer of clemency.
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1576
During this year and the next, Francis Drake would be coasting north to approximately 48° north latitude in
the Pacific Ocean. He may have sighted Vancouver Island.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, published DISCOURSE to suggest a passage by the
northwest to Cathay and the East Indies. Such ideas got the Queen’s support. She got the court to back a voyage
by Martin Frobisher. (An infamous pirate and privateer, Frobisher was turning to exploring after having
committed the understandable lapse in judgment of taking an English ship as booty in the name of the Queen.)
Frobisher would reach Baffin Island and return with some rocks he supposed inaccurately to contain an ore of
gold. With three small ships he would continue mapping the south-east coast of Baffin Island that now bears
his name, Frobisher Bay, in search for the hoped-for “Northwest Passage” into the Pacific Ocean.
CARTOGRAPHY
THE FROZEN NORTH
Sir Humphrey Gilbert a Devonshire Knight
attempted to discover Virginia, but without
success.
Sir Martin Frobisher’s third voyage to Meta
incognita. Freeze-land now called West-England,
25 leagues in length, in the latitude of 57.
Sir Francis Drake now passed the Streights of
Magellan in the Ship called the Pelican.
to the year of Christ 1673.
From the year of the World
Chronological observations of America
BY John Josselyn Gent.
His “colorful” exchanges with the Eskimo natives showed him to be a formidable opponent and warrior,
and he would die accordingly, mortally wounded in 1594 in sea battle against the Spanish Armada.
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WALDEN: What does Africa, –what does the West stand for? Is not our own
interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast,
when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the
Mississippi, or a North-West Passage around this continent, that we would
find? Are these the problems which most concern mankind? Is Franklin the
only man who is lost, that his wife should be so earnest to find him? Does
Mr. Grinnell know where he himself is? Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis
and Clarke and Frobisher, of your own streams and oceans; explore your
own higher latitudes, –with shiploads of preserved meats to support you,
if they be necessary; and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were
preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? Nay, be a Columbus to
whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of
trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the
earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the
ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice
the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but
have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay.
Patriotism is a maggot in their heads. What was the meaning of that SouthSea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect
recognition of the fact, that there are continents and seas in the moral
world, to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by
him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and
storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys
to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and
Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone.–
“Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.
Plus habet hic vitæ, plus habet ille viæ.”
Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.
I have more of God, they more of the road.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN
DR. ELISHA KENT KANE
LEWIS AND CLARK
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
MUNGO PARK
PEOPLE OF
WALDEN
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Chronological observations of America
Sir Martin Frobisher the first in Queen Elizabeths
days that sought for the North-west passage, or
the streight, or passage to China, and meta
incognita, in three several voyages, others will
have it in 1577.
BY John Josselyn Gent.
to the year of Christ 1673.
From the year of the World
QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
Arctic Explorations
Date
Explorer
Nation
Discovery
1501
Gaspar Corte Real
Portuguese
Newfoundland
1536
Jacques Cartier
French
St. Lawrence River, Gaspe Peninsula
1553
Richard Chancellor
English
White Sea
1556
Stephen Burrough
English
Kara Sea
1576
Martin Frobisher
English
Frobisher Bay
1582
Humphrey Gilbert
English
Newfoundland
1587
John Davis
English
Davis Strait
1597
Willem Barents
Dutch
Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemyla
1611
Henry Hudson
English
Hudson Bay
1616
William Baffin
English
Ellesmere and Devon Islands
1632
Thomas James
English
James Bay
1741
Vitus Bering
Russian
Alaska
1772
Samuel Hearne
English
Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean
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Arctic Explorations
Date
Explorer
Nation
Discovery
1779
James Cook
British
Vancouver Island, Nootka Sound
1793
Alexander Mackenzie
English
Bella Coola River to the Pacific
1825
Edward Parry
British
Cornwallis, Bathurst, Melville Islands
1833
John Ross
British
North Magnetic Pole
1845
John Franklin
British
King William Island
1854
Robert McClure
British
Banks Island, Viscount Melville Sound
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1579
Little John Byron was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
Queen Elizabeth of England approved legislation limiting rapiers to a yard and a half in length.
December 20, Sunday (Old Style): John Fletcher was baptized in Rye, Sussex, England (his father Richard Fletcher
was Dean of Peterborough — then would become Bishop of Bristol, then Bishop of Worcester, and finally
Bishop of London and chaplain to Queen Elizabeth).
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1583
Albert Alaskie, a noble Polonian, Prince of Sirad, who visited England to admire the wisdom of Queen
Elizabeth, was entertained with stage-plays in the Refectory of Christchurch at Oxford.
John Beaumont was born at Grace-Dieu in Leicestershire, England, 2d son of the judge Sir Francis Beaumont
(normally, being born as the 2d son of a “sir” would men that you would not yourself become a “sir,” but in
this case the eldest son, Sir Henry Beaumont, would predecease).
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1584
The initial patron for Edward Dyer at the court of Queen Elizabeth was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
In this year the queen sent Dyer on a mission to the Low Countries.
The Reverend Richard Hakluyt’s confidential report to Queen Elizabeth entitled THE DISCOURSE ON THE
WESTERN PLANTING included the materials indicated on the several following screens:4
[see following]
March 25, Wednesday (New Year’s Day, Old Style): Queen Elizabeth of England granted a charter to Walter Raleigh
to search and discover “remote and heathen lands.” In this year he would found the unsuccessful colony of
Roanoke on an island off the coast of what has become North Carolina.
READ THE FULL TEXT
September: Having stood on the soil of North Carolina’s Roanoke Island while perpetrating their little ceremony of
ownership in the name of Queen Elizabeth and Walter Raleigh, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe headed
back toward England.
4. Such materials would not be available to Thoreau since the veil of secrecy would not be lifted from this document until 1877.
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Topics covered in Richard Hakluyt’s DISCOURSE OF WESTERN PLANTING:
1. That this westerne discoverie will be greately for the inlargement
of the gospell of Christe whereunto the Princes of the refourmed
relligion are chefely bounde amongest whome her Majestie is principall.
2. That all other englishe Trades are growen beggerly or daungerous,
especially in all the kinge of Spaine his Domynions, where our men are
dryven to flinge their Bibles and prayer Bokes into the sea, and to
forsweare and renownce their relligion and conscience and consequently
theyr obedience to her Majestie.
3. That this westerne voyadge will yelde unto us all the commodities of
Europe, Affrica, and Asia, as far as wee were wonte to travell, and
supply the wantes of all our decayed trades.
4. That this enterprise will be for the manifolde imploymente of nombers
of idle men, and for bredinge of many sufficient, and for utterance of
the greate quantitie of the commodities of our Realme.
5.
of
of
of
That this voyage will be a great bridle to the Indies of the kinge
Spaine and a means that wee may arreste at our pleasure for the space
teime weekes or three monethes every yere, one or twoo hundred saile
his subjectes shippes at the fysshinge in Newfounde Lande.
6. That the rischesse that the Indian Threasure wrought in time of
Charles the late Emperor father to the Spanishe kinge, is to be had in
consideracion of the Q. moste excellent Majestie, leaste the contynuall
commynge of the like threasure from thence to his sonne, worke the
unrecoverable annoye of this Realme, whereof already wee have had very
dangerous experience.
7. What speciall meanes may bringe kinge Phillippe from his high Throne,
and make him equal to the Princes his neighbours, wherewithall is shewed
his weakenes in the west Indies.
8. That the limites of the kinge of Spaines domynions in the west Indies
be nothinge so large as is generally imagined and surmised, neither
those partes which he holdeth be of any such forces as is falsely geven
oute by the popishe Clergye and others his suitors, to terrffie the
Princes of the Relligion and to abuse and blinde them.
9. The Names of the riche Townes lienge alonge the sea coaste on the
northe side from the equinoctiall of the mayne lande of America under
the kinge of Spaine.
10. A Brefe declaracion of the chefe Ilands in the Bay of Mexico beinge
under the kinge of Spaine, with their havens and fortes, and what
commodities they yeide.
11. That the Spaniardes have executed most outragious and more then
Turkishe cruelties in all the west Indies, whereby they are every where
there, become moste odious unto them, whoe woulde joyne with us or any
other moste willingly to shake of their moste intollerable yoke, and
have begonne to doo it already in dyvers places where they were Lordes
heretofore.
12. That the passage in this voyadge is easie and shorte, that it cutteth
not nere the trade of any other mightie Princes, nor nere their Contries,
that it is to be perfourmed at all tymes of the yere, and nedeth but one
kinde of winde, that Ireland beinge full of goodd havens on the southe
and west sides, is the nerest parte of Europe to it, which by this trade
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Topics covered in Richard Hakluyt’s DISCOURSE OF WESTERN PLANTING:
13. That hereby the Revenewes and customes of her Majestie bothe
outwardes and inwardes shall mightely be inlarged by the toll, excises,
and other dueties which without oppression may be raised.
14. That this action will be greately for the increase, mayneteynaunce
and safetie of our Navye, and especially of greate shippinge which is
the strengthe of our Realme, and for the supportation of all those
occupacions that depende upon the same.
15. That spedie plantinge in divers fitt places is moste necessarie upon
these luckye westerne discoveries for feare of the daunger of being
prevented by other nations which have the like intentions, with the
order thereof and other reasons therewithall alleaged.
16. Meanes to kepe this enterprise from overthrowe and the enterprisers
from shame and dishonor.
17. That by these Colonies the Northwest passage to Cathaio and China
may easely quickly and perfectly be searched oute aswell by river and
overlande, as by sea, for proofe whereof here are quoted and alleaged
divers rare Testymonies oute of the three volumes of voyadges gathered
by Ramusius and other grave authors.
18. That the Queene of Englande title to all the west Indies, or at the
leaste to as moche as is from Florida to the Circle articke, is more
lawfull and righte then the Spaniardes or any other Christian Princes.
19. An aunswer to the Bull of the Donacion of all the west Indies
graunted to the kinges of Spaine by Pope Alexander the VI whoe was
himselfe a Spaniarde borne.
20. A brefe collection of certaine reasons to induce her Majestie and
the state to take in hande the westerne voyadge and the plantinge there.
21. A note of some thinges to be prepared for the voyadge which is sett
downe rather to drawe the takers of the voyadge in hande to the presente
consideracion then for any other reason for that divers thinges require
preparation longe before the voyadge, without which the voyadge is
maymed.
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1586
When Fulke Greville and Sir Philip Sidney tried to join Sir Francis Drake in his expedition to capture Spanish
cities in the West Indies, Queen Elizabeth expressly forbade this. The Queen also refused Greville permission
to join the Earl of Leicester in his campaign in the Netherlands, while allowing Sir Philip Sidney to go (he
would soon be killed in combat).
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1587
February 8, Wednesday (1586, Old Style): At the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots in Fotheringay Castle,
Richard Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough “knelt down on the scaffold steps and started to pray out loud and at
length, in a prolonged and rhetorical style as though determined to force his way into the pages of history,”
and then after the second blow, and her head finally had been quite removed with a sawing motion of the ax
blade, cried out “So perish all the Queen’s enemies!” (Clearly, this churchman loved Justice as much as he
loved Christ Jesus.)
It has been alleged that Mary’s lips continued to move as if in silent prayer for some 15 minutes after the 2d
fall of the ax had all but severed her neck. It has also been alleged that Mary had been wearing a red wig to
mask her prematurely gray head and the executioner, not being aware of this, attempted to pick up the head by
its hair — whereupon it fell thump on the scaffold. (Well, the one thing we can be confident of is that such
stories will never be allowed to lose interesting detail in the retelling.)
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(We may note that this murder by beheading, despite some apparent similarities, has never been compared to
the murder by beheading of King Charles I of England, or to the murders by beheading of King Louis XVI of
France and his queen Marie Antoinette, and that perhaps this has been because in this case it was the highborn who were murdering by beheading this person of birth privilege, whereas in those subsequent cases it
would be totally different for it would be the parliament or the people –which is to say the low-born– who
would be murdering by beheading those persons of birth privilege. Being low-born would be, how shall we
describe it, a horse of a different color?)
Soon the “regency” period for King James VI of Scotland would be over and, despite having developed some
sort of chronic problem with his legs that was causing him to fall repeatedly, injuring himself, he would begin
actual rule.
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1588
Queen Elizabeth had commissioned Edward Dyer to inquire into manors unjustly alienated from the crown in
the west country. His conduct of this mission, or what he found out, was not pleasing to the monarch, but
nevertheless she granted him some of the forfeited lands in Somerset.
William Byrd’s PSALMES, SONETS, & SONGS featured an a cappella song for five voices “The Heard-Man’s
Happie Life.”
What pleasure haue great Princes,
More daintie to their choice;
Then Heard-men wilde, who carelesse
In quiet life reioyce ?
And fortune’s fate not fearing,
Sing sweet in Sommer morning.
Their dealings plaine and rightfull,
Are voyd of all deceit:
They neuer know how spightful,
It is to kneele and waite,
On fauourite presumptuous,
Whose pride is vaine and sumptuous.
All day their flocks each tendeth.
At night they take their rest:
More quiet then who sendeth
His ship into the east;
Where gold and pearle are plentie,
But getting very daintie.
For lawyers and their pleading,
They ’steeme it not a straw:
They thinke that honest meaning,
Is of itselfe a law ;
Where conscience iudgeth plainely,
They spend no money vainley.
Oh happy who thus liueth,
Not caring much for gold :
With cloathing which suffiseth,
Too keepe him from the cold.
Though poore and plaine his diet,
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Yet merrie it is and quiet.
We also find in this volume a poem the first line of which is “My Mind to me a Kingdom is,” that would during
the 16th and 17th Centuries often be attributed to Sir Edward Dyer although, more likely, it had been penned
by Edward De Vere, 17th earl of Oxford:
My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
Which God or nature hath assign’d.
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
No princely port, nor wealthy store,
No force to win a victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to win a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall,—
For why? my mind despise them all.
I see that plenty surfeit oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall;
I see that such as are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all.
These get with toil and keep with fear;
Such cares my mind can never bear.
I press to bear no haughty sway,
I wish no more than may suffice,
I do no more than well I may,
Look, what I want my mind supplies.
Lo ! thus I triumph like a king,
My mind content with anything.
I laugh not at another’s loss,
Nor grudge not at another’s gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
I brook that is another’s bane.
I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend,
I loathe not life, nor dread mine end.
My wealth is health and perfect ease,
And conscience clear my chief defence;
I never seek by bribes to please,
Nor by desert to give offence.
Thus do I live, thus will I die,—
Would all did so as well as I!
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1589
In this year Queen Elizabeth sent Edward Dyer on a mission to Denmark.
James VI of Scotland got married with Anne of Denmark — at first by proxy, and then in person (the royal
couple would create nine children most of whom would succumb during early childhood).
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1595
January (1594, Old Style): Richard Barnfield’s CYNTHIA, WITH CERTAIN SONNETS, AND THE LEGEND OF CASSANDRA.
Written in Spenserian stanzas, this was a panegyric in honor of Queen Elizabeth.
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1597
Fulke Greville was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
A German visitor to England, Paul Henter, took note of its queen’s black teeth, ascribing the condition to the
excessive consumption of sugar (this constitutes our initial recorded association of sugars with tooth decay).
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1599
Robert Greene’s THE COMICAL HISTORY OF ALPHONSUS, KING OF ARAGON,
COMICAL KING ALPHONSUS
and A PLEASANT CONCEITED COMEDY OF GEORGE A GREEN, THE PINNER OF WAKEFIELD.
GEORGE-A-GREEN
Robert Devereux, 2d Earl of Essex arrived in Ireland with an army, only to find himself outmaneuvered by
O’Neill. Soon Queen Elizabeth would underscore the fact that this unfortunate English leader had not made
adequate use of his head by having him beheaded on the green of the Tower of London.
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1600
William Gilbert, court physician to Queen Elizabeth, described the earth’s magnetism in DE MAGNETE.
Between this year and 1614, first the British East India Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth, and then
the Dutch, Danish, and French East India Companies were being founded:
In the first voyage made to the East Indies on account of the
English East India Company [1600] there were employed four ships
commanded by Captain James Lancaster, their General, viz. the
Dragon, having the General and 202 men, the Hector 108 men, the
Susan 82 and the Ascension 32. They left England about 18 April;
in July the people were taken ill on their passage with the
scurvy; by the first of August all the ships except the General’s
were so thin of men that they had scarce enough to hand the
sails; and upon a contrary wind for fifteen or sixteen days the
few who were well before began also to fall sick. Whence the
want of hands was so great in these ships that the merchants who
were sent to dispose of their cargoes in the East Indies were
obliged to take their turn at the helm and do the sailors duty
till they arrived at Saldanha [near the Cape of Good Hope]; where
the General sent his boats and went on board himself to assist
the other three ships, who were in so weakly a condition that
they were hardly able to let fall an anchor without his
assistance. All this time the General’s ship continued pretty
healthy. The reason why his crew was in better health than the
rest of the ships was owing to the juice of lemons of which the
General having brought some bottles to sea, he gave to each, as
long as it lasted, three spoonfuls every morning fasting.
By this he cured many of his men and preserved the rest; so that
although his ship contained double the number of any of the
others yet (through the mersey of God and to the preservation
of the other three ships) he neither had so many men sick, nor
lost so many as they did.5
Freed of the Spanish yoke and the intermediary for a vast store of riches from the Eastern hemisphere,
Amsterdam suddenly became the most prosperous city of Europe. “They never complain of the pains they
take, and go as merrily to the Indies, as if they were going to their Countrey Houses.” Holland’s population
would be doubling every decade. Brownists and Jews were welcomed, if not exactly with open arms.
SPICE
5. Reverend Samuel Purchas. HAKLYUYTUS POSTHUMUS OR PURCHAS HIS PILGRIMES, OR AS A RELATION OR IOURNALL OF
THE BEGINNING AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENGLIFH PLANTATION FETTLED AT PLIMOTH, IN NEW-ENGLAND, BY CERTAINE …
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Queen Elizabeth of England granted a charter to the “Company and Merchants of London trading with the East
Indies.” Better known as the Honourable East India Company, this company would be the sole British agent
in India until 1858.
In Italy, the 1st import monopolies over tobacco were established. In France, despite high prices, smoking was
spreading among the lower classes; snuffing would be more prevalent among the nobility, who consider this
a more dignified and aristocratic mode of use. In the Italian and French courts and clergy, the use of tobacco
was spreading, and from there throughout the populace (the habit was being spread also by sailors returning
from the New World). Tobacco was selling in London for its weight in silver shillings. Cultivation for Europe
began in Brazil, while in England, Sir Walter Raleigh persuaded Queen Elizabeth to try some. The 17th
Century would be the great age of the pipe. Popes would need to ban smoking or even the taking of snuff in
holy places, under threat of excommunication. Tobacco would come into use as “Country Money” or “Country
Pay,” and would continue to be used as a monetary standard —literally a “cash crop”— throughout the 18th
Century, lasting as a standard of exchange twice as long as would the metal gold.
Increasingly, medicinal use in England would decline and smoking would become primarily a pleasurable
pastime. The government eventually would come to rely on tobacco duties as a main source of revenue. By
the 1630s, smoking would have overcome most opposition in England, and use would continue to spread as
tobacco prices declined markedly.
In England, coffee was introduced as a luxury, medicament, and panacea; its use was encouraged as a cure for
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widespread drunkenness. In Arabia and Turkey, another brief attempt to shut down coffee houses as centers of
sedition failed.
From the founding of the English colonies in America, drunkenness was so prevalent that it simply was not a
stigmatized behavior. As in England the consumption of beers and wines, particularly home-brews, was
integrated into every aspect of colonial family life. Abuse was condemned and temperance advocated, but
alcohol itself is highly esteemed as in England as the Good Creature of God, a beneficial gift to man. England.
During the reign of James I, numerous writers describe widespread drunkenness from beer and wine among
all classes. Alcohol use was tied to every endeavor and phase of life, a condition that would continue well into
the 18th Century.
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1601
February 8, Sunday (1600, Old Style): Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, led a plot to kidnap Queen Elizabeth in
order to force her to dismiss his enemies from her court. The leaders were taken to the Tower of London and
Francis Bacon was instrumental in securing for the queen a guilty verdict at Essex’s trial. Nevertheless,
apparently the monarch mistrusted Bacon and it would not be until James I became king that his career would
advance.
February 25, Wednesday (1600, Old Style): Robert Devereux, 2d Earl of Essex, had been one of Queen Elizabeth’s
favorite courtiers. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had become involved in his conspiracy to kidnap the queen,
would save himself by testifying against the earl.
The “Essex Ring” that can now be seen in Westminster Abbey is said to have been given to the earl by
Elizabeth with the understanding if ever he were in trouble he could send it to her and she would intercede.
However, when from the Tower of London he attempted to return it, either it did not reach her or she ignored
it. On this day he was beheaded on the Tower Green.6
6. This would turn out to be the final such beheading on the Tower Green, although during 1743 various Scottish deserters would be there executed by firing squad and although, during the world wars, German spies
would be being executed in a shed beneath the walls and in the vicinity that had once been the moat.
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1603
Samuel Daniel was appointed master of the queen’s revels. In this capacity he would be bringing out a series
of masques and pastoral tragi-comedies — of which were printed THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GODDESSES,
THE QUEEN’S ARCADIA (an adaptation of Guarini’s PASTOR FIDO), TETHYS’ FESTIVAL OR THE QUEENES
WAKE (written on the occasion of Prince Henry’s becoming a Knight of the Bath), and HYMEN’S TRIUMPH (in
honour of Lord Roxburghe’s marriage).
ELIZABETH I
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1604
Publication of Samuel Daniel’s masque THE VISION OF THE TWELVE GODDESSES. After a performance of the
play PHILOTAS he was called before the Privy Council to explain why the hero of the play had seemed to
resemble Robert Devereux, 2d Earl of Essex, who had on February 25, 1601 been beheaded with an ax on the
Tower Green in front of the chapel of the Tower of London, for the treason of having plotted to kidnap Queen
Elizabeth.
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1607
William Camden completed in this year his work on a new edition of BRITANNIA which included an illustration
depicting King Arthur’s supposed Burial Cross and,
as Lord Burghley had suggested to him in 1597, began work on a history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
ANNALES RERUM ANGLICARUM ET HIBERNICARUM REGNANTE ELIZABETHA (ANNALS OF THE AFFAIRS OF
ENGLAND AND IRELAND DURING THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH).
The initial part of this, dealing with her reign up to 1588, would be brought to press in 1615.
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1617
William Camden saw publication of the 1st volume, and completed writing on the 2d volume of his ANNALES
RERUM ANGLICARUM ET HIBERNICARUM REGNANTE ELIZABETHA (ANNALS OF THE AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND AND
IRELAND DURING THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH). This 2d volume, however, would not see publication until
several years after his death.
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1625
Posthumous publication at Leiden of the 2d volume of William Camden’s ANNALES RERUM ANGLICARUM ET
HIBERNICARUM REGNANTE ELIZABETHA (ANNALS OF THE AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND DURING THE
REIGN OF ELIZABETH). He had completed this work in 1617.
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1627
Posthumous publication at London of the 2d volume of William Camden’s ANNALES RERUM ANGLICARUM ET
HIBERNICARUM REGNANTE ELIZABETHA (ANNALS OF THE AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND DURING THE
REIGN OF ELIZABETH). He had completed this work in 1617 and initially it had been published at Leiden in
1625.
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1635
Translation into English of William Camden’s ANNALES RERUM ANGLICARUM ET HIBERNICARUM REGNANTE
ELIZABETHA, as ANNALS OF THE AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND DURING THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.
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1814
From this year until 1829, the creation of Sharon Turner’s HISTORY OF ENGLAND, concluding with the
completion of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
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1850
June 3, Monday: In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the East India Company’s founding by Queen Elizabeth,
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on behalf of the Company, Lord Dalhousie presented the famous Koh-i-noor diamond to Queen Victoria.
WALDEN: White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface
of the earth, Lakes of Light. If they were permanently congealed,
and small enough to be clutched, they would, perchance, be carried
off by slaves, like precious stones, to adorn the heads of
emperors; but being liquid, and ample, and secured to us and our
successors forever, we disregard them, and run after the diamond
of Kohinoor. They are too pure to have a market value; they
contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much
more transparent than our characters, are they! We never learned
meanness of them. How much fairer than the pool before the
farmer’s door, in which his ducks swim! Hither the clean wild
ducks come. Nature has no human inhabitant who appreciates her.
The birds with their plumage and their notes are in harmony with
the flowers, but what youth or maiden conspires with the wild
luxuriant beauty of Nature? She flourishes most alone, far from
the towns where they reside. Talk of heaven! ye disgrace earth.
LAKES OF LIGHT
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June 3: I visited this afternoon (June 3d) Goodman’s Hill in Sudbury–going through Lincoln over
Shermanns Bridge & Round Hill & returning through the Corner. It probably affords the best view of Concord
River meadows of any hill– The horizon is very extensive as it is, & if the top were cleared so that you could
get the western view–it would be one of the most extensive seen from any hill in the county. The most imposing
horizon are those which are seen from tops of hills rising out of a River valley The prospect even from a low
hill has something majestic in it in such a case. The landscape is a vast amphitheater rising to its rim in the
horizon– There is a good view of Lincoln lying high up in among the hills– You see that it is the highest town
heareabouts, & hence its fruit. The river at this time looks as large as the Hudson. I think that a river valley town
is much the handsomest & largest featured. Like Concord & Lancaster for instance. Natural centers. Upon the
hills of Bolton again the height of land between the Concord and Nashua I have seen how the peach flourishes.
Nobscot too is quite imposing as seen from the west side of Goodman’s Hill. On the western side of a
continuation of this hill is Wadsworth’s battle-field. Returning I saw in Sudbury 25 nests of the new–(cliff?)
swallow under the eaves of a barn They seemed particularly social and loquacious neighbors–though their
voices are rather squeaking. Their nests built side by side looked somewhat like large hornets nests, enough so
to prove a sort of connexion. Their activity sociability & chattiness make them fit pensioners & neighbors of
man–summer companions–for the barn yard.
The last of may & the first of June the farmers are every where planting their corn & beans & potatoes.
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1877
The Reverend Richard Hakluyt’s confidential report of the year 1584 to Queen Elizabeth entitled THE
DISCOURSE ON THE WESTERN PLANTING saw publication at this point — for the 1st time.
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1996
October 28, Monday: An article entitled “Singled Out” celebrating the celebrants of a single life
appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal. The article was illustrated with images of Queen Elizabeth and of
Henry Thoreau. Some fifteen persons not from Kentucky were identified as lifelong singletons.
Among these personages were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Joan of Arc
Chopin
Sir Isaac Newton
Marie Arouet de Voltaire
Jane Austen
Queen Elizabeth
Henry David Thoreau
Ludwig van Beethoven
President James Buchanan
We notice that the little hunchbacked Robert Hooke isn’t on this list despite the fact that he was a singleton,
because he isn’t famous (note also the fact that he isn’t famous not because he wasn’t great but because the
famous Newton so detested him).
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project
Queen Elizabeth (I)
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,
such as extensive quotations and reproductions of
images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great
deal of special work product of Austin Meredith,
copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will
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allows for an utter alteration of the context within
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in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”
Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please
contact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>.
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until
tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”
– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”
in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: May 5, 2014
HDT
QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
WHAT?
INDEX
QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a
human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that
we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the
shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these
chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by
ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the
Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a
request for information we merely push a button.
HDT
QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
WHAT?
INDEX
QUEEN ELIZABETH (I)
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious
deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in
the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we
need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —
but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary
“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this
originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,
and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever
has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire
operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished
need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect
to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic
research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge.
Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.