In March 1603, Elizabeth I refused to go to bed. For days, she sat on cushions in her Richmond Palace chamber, silent and withdrawn, as her courtiers waited for the end. It’s a final moment that can be read not simply as the failing of her body, but as the last expression of a life defined by the quest for control.
Elizabeth’s vitality had been central to her image, so her retreat marked a striking change. The Venetian envoy Scaramelli and the courtiers John Clapham and Robert Carey describe her prolonged withdrawal from court, sleeplessness and rejection of food. Clapham noted that Elizabeth sat for six days without sleep and wanted to die.
