The Rise of England 183company of men. Tall, with reddish hair and an olive complexion, she was
cautious, even suspicious, having been raised in a world of conspiracy. The
queen preferred to wait out many pressing problems in the hope that they
would just go away. Educated in the tradition of Italian humanism, Eliza*
beth learned French, German, and Italian, as well as Latin, and enjoyed
translating texts from these languages into English.
Elizabeth never married. It was not uncommon for women to remain
unmarried in early modern Europe—in England, about 10 percent of all
women remained single throughout their lives—but it was unusual for a
monarch not to marry. The question of whether Elizabeth would ever take a
husband preoccupied the other rulers of Europe, as well as her subjects.
In response to a parliamentary petition that she marry and produce a
direct heir, Elizabeth responded that she trusted God to ensure that “the
realm shall not remain destitute of an heir.” As for her, it would be enough
that at the end of her life “a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having
reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.” Elizabeth rejected one conti
nental hopeful after another, beginning with the handsome but dull Philip II
of Spain, Catholic widower of Mary Tudor. Nor was marriage the outcome of
a two-year romance with the handsome Lord Robert Dudley, the death of
whose wife in 1560 from a suspicious fall down a flight of stairs understand
ably fueled rumors for some years.