Suppression of the rebellion in 1569), she was not overly attentive to his opinion. The Anjou match reached its crisis in 1579, when Anjou was granted the privilege, rare among her hopeful foreign suitors, of an invitation to England and to court. In fact, Anjou came and left in August without a cast-iron decision, but with the distinct impression that the queen was favourable. Yet it remains hard to see Elizabeth’s display of enthusiasm for the marriage as anything other than a ploy. Anjou was an ugly and ungainly little man. Though she treated him with every sign of affection during his visit, he was simply not her type - she liked handsome, dashing, athletic men like Leicester, Hatton, Raleigh and Essex.
The intricate politics of Elizabeth’s change of heart will be endlessly debated. But it seems likely that, in a move typical of her governmental technique, she wanted to shift the blame for her own unwillingness to marry onto her councillors. She wanted them to beg her not to marry Anjou, before graciously conceding in a way which would make it their fault, not hers, that she had never married. In the event, they called her bluff. Shortly after Anjou’s departure, they undertook, despite their misgivings, to do their best to implement her will. By the New Year, she was backing away from the marriage, and her councillors and ambassadors were busy disengaging her from whatever commitments she might be thought to have entered into. Queen and council had stared each other out, and the queen had blinked first. In fact, negotiations were kept open for a year or two, and Anjou made a second visit to England in the hope of rescuing his blighted prospects. But whatever favour Elizabeth might show him was discounted in her private dealings with her councillors, who now knew that she had no intention of going through with it, and helped her play the game to its conclusion - Anjou’s departure, with some suitable financial compensation, in February 1582.
World History
