June 10 - Elizabeth I's Frog

On this day in Tudor history, 10th June 1584, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon, died in Paris. It is thought that he died of malaria.

Why is Claire talking about a French duke? Well, for a time, he was a suitor of Queen Elizabeth I and the queen even affectionately called him her “frog”. It looked like Elizabeth would actually marry him.

 

Find out more about what happened between Elizabeth and her dear "frog" in today's talk from historian Claire Ridgway.

 

“On Monsieur’s Departure”

I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly to prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned.
Since from myself another self I turned.

My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be supprest.

Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.
(Elizabeth I)

 

Book recommendation: Anna Whitelock’s “Elizabeth’s Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen’s Court”.

 

You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:

https://youtu.be/FOzhpWWrfTM

Also on this day in Tudor history, 10th June 1540, King Henry VIII's right-hand man and 'fixer', Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was arrested. Find out more in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/5SJb-gDqa5E