Queen Elizabeth’s and Alencon’s Theatrics: The Betrayal, the Barge and the Bargain

Part III of V, Stage-craft as State-craft

“TITANIA: Thou art as wise, as thou art beautiful.

BOTTOM (in the ass’s head): Not so, neither;

 but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood,

 I have enough to serve mine own turn.

TITANIA: Out of this wood do not desire to go;

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no!

I am a spirit of no common rate;

The Summer still doth tend upon my state;

And I do love thee; therefore go with me,

I’ll give thee Fairies to attend on thee;

And they shall fetch thee Jewels from the deep,

And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep.

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so,

That thou shalt like an aery spirit go.”

                                     A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.i

ACT III

Come sail away? Was Alencon free to sail away to the Netherlands on Queen Elizabeth’s ships? Or was he, like Bottom, trapped by the “Fairy Queen” as her prisoner? Alencon’s fate depended, day-to-day, on the ever-shifting tides of Anglo-French alliance

In Act II of this drama (Catch up on Act II here), Hercule Francois, Duke of Alencon, “as wise as [he was] beautiful” (i.e., he was neither), finally realized that his dream of marrying Queen Elizabeth I and sharing the English throne was just - - a (midsummer night’s) dream.

The final clue clicked when Jean Simier, sent ahead to warm up the Queen for Alencon’s wooing, used a secret key to access her private Whitehall gallery. Alencon had been humiliated: not only had the Queen played him for a fool before her entire court, Simier’s rumored expertise with love toys made it look like something more than diplomacy had been at work. 

But the royal theatrics didn’t end there. The action hurtles us forward into Act III!

⚜️ Act III, Scene I: Sibling Rivalry in the Royal House of Valois

Consumed with rage, Alencon assembled his advisors at the English court (minus Simier) behind closed doors, and vowed revenge against his brother, King Henri III of France. He claimed that Henri had always tried to impede his advancement and had instructed Simier to sabotage his ambitions for the English throne. Alencon vowed to fight his brother either in the Netherlands or in France on behalf of the French Huguenots, thousands of whom had been slaughtered in the 1572 St. Bartholomew Day’s Massacre. Without delay, Alencon boarded a barge on the Thames, determined to reach Gravesend where Elizabeth’s ships waited to take him across the Channel.

🥊 Act III, Scene II: Enter the French Secretary of State

Alencon’s threats alarmed Claude Pinart, the visiting French Secretary of State.  He warned Elizabeth: if she were seen as stoking a royal fraternal feud, Henri (not to mention his formidable mother, Marie de Medici) would unite all her enemies and ruin her completely.

Location, location, location. Located near modern Vlissigen (then Flushing) at a crucial approach to Antwerp, Fort Rammekens served England’s defense strategy during Alencon’s courtship debacle. The fort stands today, concealing even more Elizabethan secrets behind its walls. We will hunt for them, later.

🚣‍♂️ Act III, Scene III: The Chase on the Thames 

Elizabeth lost not a moment. She boarded her gilded barge (discover more about Jean Simier’s trips on Elizabeth’s royal barge here) and ordered her oarsmen to chase Alencon’s. Londoners gawked from the banks at the impromptu regatta as the Queen’s barge cut through the water and overtook Alencon’s.  Once aboard, Elizabeth sweetened her pleas to Alencon not to fight his brother on her account, not with endearments, but with a promise of £30,000 in cash for Alencon to travel to the Netherlands and a regular subsidy for his military campaign against the Spanish there.

😧 Act III, Scene IV: Panic at Court

Back at the English court, Pinart sent a messenger to Paris with a letter advising Henri to keep Alencon from crossing the Channel at all costs. When she returned, Pinart reminded Elizabeth that France might still ally with Spain to invade England and place Mary, Queen of Scots on the English throne.

Elizabeth took Pinart’s words to heart. She ordered that the sailors on her ships at Gravesend be dismissed. She had promised Alencon £30,000 and it was well known that parting with money was the hardest thing in the world for her.  Now, to delay Alencon’s departure and keep him from spending it, she feigned one of her famous “fevers” and stayed in bed all the next day, leaving everyone guessing.

France's Henri III. Although Queen Elizabeth acted the part of the swooning fangirl with the Duke of Alencon, the real audience for her performance was his elder brother, Henri III, King of France and his mother, Marie de Medici. France could come to England’s aid or work to destroy it, depending on what they willed.

⚔️ Act III, Scene V:  Chaos in the Privy Council

Elizabeth summoned the Earl of Sussex to her bedside and confessed that she feared she must marry Alencon. Too many dangers surrounded England. She needed someone to “enable her to bridle the insolence of her favorites” – meaning Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton, both strongly opposed to Alencon. Later that day, Sussex and Leicester had to be separated for arguing in the Privy Council. Amid the chaos, Elizabeth reversed her orders to Gravesend yet again, releasing sailors and ships.

💔 Act III, Scene VI: It’s Not Over Yet . . .

It took £70,000 and Leicester as genial but armed escort to obtain Alencon’s agreement to leave England by the end of January.  But . . . Elizabeth also told Alencon that she would travel with him to Dover and if he returned within two weeks she might marry him. . .

Alencon thanked her graciously, retired to his chamber and spouted angry tears. He swore that he would not rest until he had taken his revenge on Elizabeth for humiliating him!

🔮 What Happened Next?

More drama, more secrets and more surprises await on the frigid road to Dover in Act IV of this larger-than-Shakespeare drama.

Meanwhile, you may have notice that the historic personalities, conversations and political secrets uncovered in Acts I, II and III are reflected accurately in the A Midsummer Night’s Dream quotations that open each Act. How did Shakespeare know so many intimate details about this unpublished 1582 royal court, high-stakes melodrama when the lad was a 17-year-old who had never been to court and was busy with his own romances 100 miles away in tiny Stratford-Upon-Avon?

Although Alencon threatened civil war against his brother in France, his heart was set on leading in the Netherlands. He hoped the theater of war would win him Elizabeth’s hand and the English throne. Alas for Alencon! It was Love’s Labors Lost.

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