Stage-craft as State-craft: Queen Elizabeth I and the Alencon Affair
- Jan 15, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: May 14
Part III of VI, Stage-craft as State-craft
In 1582, Queen Elizabeth I pretended to be in love with a man whom many of her courtiers considered asinine, Hercule Francois, Duke of Alencon and younger brother of the King of France. But underneath the theatrics of kisses and declarations of undying love, the on-again-off-again "courtship" was really a cleverly-orchestrated performance of state-craft as stage-craft. The charade bedecked in fairy gossamer veiled both English and French government secrets and was backed by hard-nosed negotiations about military defense.
Shakespeare not only noticed, he put his queen and her braggadocious buffoon of a suitor on his stage.
Ringing in the Elizabethan New Year 1582 with Sparkle and a Hanky explored the melodrama of New Year’s Day 1582 at Whitehall, where Alencon tearily declared his undying love for Queen Elizabeth, while she wielded her hanky in response. But amid an unexpected shower (of jewels), we must as ask:
What was really happening behind the scenes?
⚔️ Act II, Scene I: A Game of Thrones – Elizabethan Style
Elizabeth’s courtiers and diplomats knew that the Queen’s public flirtation with the ungainly Alencon was not about romance. It was a strategic lure to secure a French military force to halt the Spanish from advancing towards England, through modern Belgium and then the Dutch provinces. The Spanish sought control of Dutch ports to launch an invasion across the Channel. As Dutch Protestant towns fell rapidly, fears mounted that the French might back their former Catholic queen, Mary Queen of Scots, as a rival for the English throne. For more on the religious tensions in Elizabeth's England and how she sought to quell them, see: Why Religion Was Such a Dangerous Mess in Elizabeth I’s England, and How the Fitzalan Chapel Still Shows Her Plan for Fixing It.
Desperate to outmaneuver these threats, Elizabeth mixed dazzling drama on stage with closed-door negotiations backstage. Shakespeare couldn't resist the comedy of his queen, at nearly 50, sighing and simpering over the unimpressive 27-year-old French Duke. He caught their real life performances and put them on stage in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
“TITANIA: I pray, thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape:
And thy fair virtue’s force (perforce)* doth move me.
BOTTOM (wearing an ass’s head):
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that; and yet,
to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together, now-a-days.
The more the pity, that some honest neighbors will not make them friends.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.i
*perforce = inevitably, by necesssity
For now, let’s watch the real-life theatrics unfold!
🗡️ Act II, Scene II: A Dagger to the Heart
By mid-January 1582, Alencon still remained in England. To buy time, at William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s suggestion, Elizabeth demanded that his brother, King Henri, return Calais and Harve de Grace to English control. In the heated argument that followed, Alencon, ever the dramatist, countered by pressing his dagger to his chest and swearing to end his own life if she did not banish his envoy, the dashing Jean Simier from the country.
Elizabeth outwardly agreed, but secretly stayed her ships waiting to take Alencon to France. Privately, she confided to her Privy Council her regret at how far the marriage negotiations had gone. Meanwhile alarming news arrived: Ghent was considering surrendering to the Spanish. The Netherlands campaign was unraveling, threatening England’s defenses.
🗝️ Act II, Scene III: The Secret Key to the Queen’s Gallery
That night, Elizabeth summoned Simier to visit her at their usual hour and place – her private long gallery overlooking the Thames - which he accessed via a private stair, unlocked with his private key. Rumors about with whom Simier had deployed his considerable charm and amorous talents had already made waves at court.
Simier arrived in the candlelit gallery to find Elizabeth strolling with Alencon. She was trying to dissuade him from continuing the Dutch campaign, whether or not she married him. Their conversation halted when Alencon realized that Simier had let himself in through the locked secret stair.
The Queen excused herself diplomatically, leaving Alencon to vent his frustration on his envoy for the marriage negotiations’ stalemate and Alencon’s failure to secure help in the war in the Netherlands. Alencon accused Simier of sabotaging his influence over Elizabeth by exposing to her Robert Dudley, Lord Leicester’s secret marriage to someone else. Alencon mistakenly considered Leicester his greatest friend.
💋 Act II, Scene IV: Diplomatic Secrets and a Confession
Afterwards, Simier relayed the entire conversation to an attentive Elizabeth, adding that the court was shocked that she paid Leicester such favor after he had tried to deceive her by assuring her that he was not married, although it was publicly known that he was. Elizabeth confessed to Simier that there was hardly a place in England where she could overthrow Leicester, as he had taken advantage of the authority she had given him to place kinsmen and friends in almost every port and principal place in the kingdom.
♟️ Act II, Scene V: The Queen’s Gambit
Elizabeth gathered her Privy Council to devise a strategic exit from the marriage theater. She issued Alencon an ultimatum designed to fail: unless Calais and Havre de Grace were restored and garrisoned by English troops, as security for the French King’s maintaining a war on behalf of the Protestant Dutch, she would not proceed with the marriage.
The stage is set for Act III, the players poised, stakes higher than ever. Will the English Queen’s gambit succeed? Find out here: Queen Elizabeth’s and Alencon’s Theatrics: The Betrayal, the Barge and the Bargain.
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