Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship by Jo Eldridge Carney Page A
Authors: Jo Eldridge Carney
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was correct and the rumors were eventually silenced. The commoner’s exposure of royal gullibility recalls another familiar fairy tale: “But the emperor has no clothes.”
In spite of the false alarm, many continued to affirm the pregnancy, though more reservations began to surface. On May 22, Gomez wrote to Charles’ secretary from Hampton Court, “I would have written to you as you asked me to do about the Queen’s giving birth if I had seen in her any sign of heaviness. These last days she has been walking all about the garden on foot, and she steps so well that it seems to me that there is no hope at all for this month. I asked Dr. Calagila what he thought about her Highness’s condition... He said it might happen any day now, for she had entered the month. But according to her count it would not be strange if her delivery were to be delayed until the 6th of June.” 81 Gomez followed this with a letter on June 1: “The Queen’s deliverance keeps us all greatly exercised in our minds, although our doctors always said that the nine months are not up until 6 June. She began to feel some pains yesterday, but not enough to make her take to her bed.” 82
When the postponed due date passed and still no child arrived, it became increasingly difficult to believe in the queen’s condition, but doubters were still reprimanded and there was no public acknowledgement of the failed pregnancy. Michiel reported on June 26, “So there is no one, either of the physicians, or of the women, or others, all having been deceived, who at present dare any longer form an opinion about it... Last week two gentlemen, of no ordinary repute, were imprisoned in the Tower on a charge, according to report, of having spoken about this delivery licentiously, in a tone unbecoming their rank.” 83 Even at the end of July, Michiel wrote the doge that the royal doctors “and two or three of her Majesty’s most intimate and familiar female attendants, who see and handle her frequently, taking part in it and giving their opinion, held a formal consultation last week, and came, in fact, to the conclusion that they had deceived themselves about the conception by two, or perhaps by three, months, it being undeniable, and beyond a doubt, from many manifest signs, that the Queen is certainly pregnant, but not so far gone as was believed and published at the time.” 84 It is not clear whether those attending the queen actually believed at this point in the pregnancy or only feared revealing the truth, but a web of communal misunderstanding and delusion emerges from these reports. A contemporary account reported that one of Mary’s closest attendants, “Mrs. Clarentius and divers others, as parasites about her, assured her to be with child, insomuch as the queen was fully so persuaded herself, being right desirous thereof...and hardly could she suffer any that would not say as she said, touching her being with child.” 85 However, another of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, Frideswide Strelly, had the courage to express her doubts about the pregnancy. When Mary was later forced to accept that the pregnancy was false, she thanked her honest servant: “Mrs. Frideswide Strelly, a good honorable woman of hers, would not yield to her desire and never told her an untruth...then when the uttermost time was come and the Queen thus deluded, she [said], ‘Ah Strelly, I see they all be flatterers and none true to me but thou,’ and then she was more in favor than ever she was before.” 86
By the end of August the royal couple moved from Hampton Court on the pretext that the palace needed cleaning, but the issue of the queen’s pregnancy was quietly put to rest and Mary gradually resumed her official functions. Michiel wrote on August 5, “I was told several days ago on high authority, perceiving not only that her Majesty’s belly did not increase, but rather diminished, have come to the conclusion, although they have hitherto dissembled it, that the
In spite of the false alarm, many continued to affirm the pregnancy, though more reservations began to surface. On May 22, Gomez wrote to Charles’ secretary from Hampton Court, “I would have written to you as you asked me to do about the Queen’s giving birth if I had seen in her any sign of heaviness. These last days she has been walking all about the garden on foot, and she steps so well that it seems to me that there is no hope at all for this month. I asked Dr. Calagila what he thought about her Highness’s condition... He said it might happen any day now, for she had entered the month. But according to her count it would not be strange if her delivery were to be delayed until the 6th of June.” 81 Gomez followed this with a letter on June 1: “The Queen’s deliverance keeps us all greatly exercised in our minds, although our doctors always said that the nine months are not up until 6 June. She began to feel some pains yesterday, but not enough to make her take to her bed.” 82
When the postponed due date passed and still no child arrived, it became increasingly difficult to believe in the queen’s condition, but doubters were still reprimanded and there was no public acknowledgement of the failed pregnancy. Michiel reported on June 26, “So there is no one, either of the physicians, or of the women, or others, all having been deceived, who at present dare any longer form an opinion about it... Last week two gentlemen, of no ordinary repute, were imprisoned in the Tower on a charge, according to report, of having spoken about this delivery licentiously, in a tone unbecoming their rank.” 83 Even at the end of July, Michiel wrote the doge that the royal doctors “and two or three of her Majesty’s most intimate and familiar female attendants, who see and handle her frequently, taking part in it and giving their opinion, held a formal consultation last week, and came, in fact, to the conclusion that they had deceived themselves about the conception by two, or perhaps by three, months, it being undeniable, and beyond a doubt, from many manifest signs, that the Queen is certainly pregnant, but not so far gone as was believed and published at the time.” 84 It is not clear whether those attending the queen actually believed at this point in the pregnancy or only feared revealing the truth, but a web of communal misunderstanding and delusion emerges from these reports. A contemporary account reported that one of Mary’s closest attendants, “Mrs. Clarentius and divers others, as parasites about her, assured her to be with child, insomuch as the queen was fully so persuaded herself, being right desirous thereof...and hardly could she suffer any that would not say as she said, touching her being with child.” 85 However, another of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, Frideswide Strelly, had the courage to express her doubts about the pregnancy. When Mary was later forced to accept that the pregnancy was false, she thanked her honest servant: “Mrs. Frideswide Strelly, a good honorable woman of hers, would not yield to her desire and never told her an untruth...then when the uttermost time was come and the Queen thus deluded, she [said], ‘Ah Strelly, I see they all be flatterers and none true to me but thou,’ and then she was more in favor than ever she was before.” 86
By the end of August the royal couple moved from Hampton Court on the pretext that the palace needed cleaning, but the issue of the queen’s pregnancy was quietly put to rest and Mary gradually resumed her official functions. Michiel wrote on August 5, “I was told several days ago on high authority, perceiving not only that her Majesty’s belly did not increase, but rather diminished, have come to the conclusion, although they have hitherto dissembled it, that the
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