Elizabeth I's Former Tutor Reports on the Parliament of 1559: Johannes Spithovius to the Chancellor of Denmark, 27 February 1559

Adams, Simon; Gehring, David Scott

Abstract

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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 5, 2012
• Online Publication Date: Jan 4, 2013
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 27, 2019
• Journal: The English Historical Review
• Print ISSN: 0013-8266
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-4534
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 128
• Issue: 530
• Pages: 35-54
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ces310
• Keywords: History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2234657
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/128/530/35/506576
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in The English Historical Review following peer review. The version of record Simon Adams, David Scott Gehring, Elizabeth I’s Former Tutor Reports on the Parliament of 1559: Johannes Spithovius to the Chancellor of Denmark, 27 February 1559, The English Historical Review, Volume 128, Issue 530, February 2013, Pages 35–54 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ces310.