As Queen of England, Elizabeth I wrote several hundred letters to the protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and over the years her correspondence with a wide variety of personalities covered a broad range of subjects. 1 She and the princes discussed concerns of practical politics such as commercial interests, births and deaths among ruling elites, and English as well as imperial affairs. They exchanged letters so regularly that they even tended on occasion to send gifts like birds for hunting. Anglo-German relations during the period, however, cannot be characterized only by the mundane minutiae of piracy complaints, babies, and hawks. 2 Indeed, written (and spoken) messages between Elizabeth and the princes more often concerned comparatively grave matters of religious solidarity and protestant security. The wars of religion in France and the Netherlands necessitated some degree of Anglo-German collaboration, and the implicit common confessional bond of anti-Catholicism became the foundation for an increasingly significant relationship. This chapter surveys the correspondence up to 1586 to show Elizabeth's activity and engagement with the German princes during the very years some historians have considered a period of relative inactivity and withdrawal from mainland Europe. 3 Scholars have not entirely neglected Elizabeth's relations with the princes, but most have either considered too narrow a body of sources or have largely dismissed religious sincerity in favor of secular interests. In some respects, the sources readily at the disposal of historians in England are limited relative to those for the Netherlands, France, and Spain.Considering the state papers in The National Archives in London is illustrative enough.
The fragmentary nature of the evidence for the proceedings of the Parliament of 1559 is one of the more obvious reasons for the continuing debate over the Elizabethan religious settlement. Philip II’s representative, the count of Feria, whose reports have been in print for more than a century, has been the primary diplomatic source.1 As a consequence of the war with France, there was no French diplomatic representation at the English court. However, in February 1559 three further envoys arrived on relatively brief missions. George, count of Helfenstein, the Emperor Ferdinand I’s ambassador in Brussels, was commissioned to greet Elizabeth I on her accession, but also to assess her intentions over religion and marriage. He has left a reasonably well-known series of reports.2 The other two envoys are more or less unknown, but both were Lutherans. One was Ludovico Vergerio, nephew of Pier Paulo Vergerio, spiritual advisor to Christopher, duke of Württemberg.3 The last envoy was sent by Dorothea, the recently widowed queen of Denmark.4 His sole surviving report is the only known commentary on the situation in England in February 1559 by a foreign Protestant observer. But he was not a stranger; he had previously been one of Elizabeth’s tutors.
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