Abstract
In all ages, love is an eternal subject. The research on it has never ended. As for the definition of love, everyone has his understanding. Someone thinks it is a hope on internal spirit, while others think it is bread, an accessory of money or power. Whatever their comprehensions are, perfect love is always moving. Many classical love stories make a clear definition of love: love is a sacrifice for each other. However, it is just endowed with a perfect sense, how many people could achieve that? After reading the love story about Elizabeth Ⅰ, this view is strengthened. Elizabeth Ⅰ refused to marry her lover because of power, and used the marriage as a chip of diplomatic policy, therefore, she is destined to be single for a whole life. In modern society, love is depreciating. It is becoming a tool to get fame, material desire and sexual desire. Although love is great, it is also in the shade in front of some material things. In this dog-eat-dog age, love is just a tool to get selfish desire.
Key Words
Love; marriage; diplomatic policy; interests
摘 要
从古至今，爱情都是一个永恒的主题。人们对于它的研究，也从来没有间断过。对于爱情的定义，每个人都有不同的理解。有人认为爱情是一种心灵的寄托，但也有人认为它不过就是“面包”，是金钱，权力的附属品。不管人们对它有着怎样的理解，完美的爱情总是让人感动。许多至今流芳百世的爱情故事则为爱情下了一个比较明确的定义：爱情就是两个人为了对方可以牺牲一切.不过这只是完美意义上的爱情，在现实生活中又有多少人能做到呢？看过一些关于英国历史上有名的女王伊丽莎白一世的爱情故事后，这种观点更加得到证实。她为了避免别人分享她的王冠，拒绝与所爱的人结婚，并把自己的婚姻作为外交政策的诱饵，因此孤独一生。在现实生活中，爱情正慢慢地贬值，正慢慢地成为一种人们获取名利、物质和性欲等一些东西的手段。爱情固然是伟大的，但是在一些实际的东西：金钱、名利等面前就逊色多了。在这个竞争激烈的年代，爱情只是满足自己私欲的手段。
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关键词
爱情；婚姻；外交政策；利益
Introduction
What is love? People from generation to generation try their best to define it. In dictionary, love is defined as follows: love, noun. 1. A strong feeling; 2.a strong rely; 3.an attract based on sex; 4.a person who is loved. But people do not want to waste time to look it up. Love is a kind of strong experience about life. The definition of love seems to be an imperfect and dull one. What is love? Maybe 100 people have 100 definitions. In fact, love is a kind of strong experience about life. How much the power of love? It is said that the power of love is huge. It can make a person from live to death. However, there is a love in the history that can change the destiny of a country. Whose love is so powerful? It is England queen — Elizabeth Ⅰ.It is just because of her marriage that her nation got 13 peace years became the navy overlord. For her people, she was a great monarch; for herself, she was a lonely woman. Because in the name of love, she sacrificed her love to get power.
I. Definition of love
A. Different Definition of Love under Different Situations
In the Indian story Gain Two Kingdoms, a famous prostitute said to a hermit which was attracted by her “love is some happy experience of sense of touch between two people.” Of the two people, one is a man, the other is a woman. They are very interested in each other that have the same experience. Her definition of love includes cardinal happiness, which is very suitable for her career. People under different cultures and ages also have different understanding about it. In some ages, people believed that love contains the element of sex; while in some other ages, they thought love was a noble and no sexy experience. The hero in The Love Affair in Cholera Days got an answer after suffering from the torture of sided-love. “Just take love as a favor, it is not a measure to reach any purpose, but a start and end of a matter. Love itself is a purpose”. So his view is that love is a circle. It is a goal about itself; the process of love is a purpose, and it returns to itself at last. But what is perfect love? Love in the story means a matter happening once in people’s life.
B.Perfect Love’s not Existing in Our Present Society
Just like food can be used to entice the one you love, it is also used to symbolize love. The metaphor of love not only describes the happiness of sense organ, but also the essential need of lovers. The story of an aboriginal Australia resident named A Dexterous Girl Who Can Make Pretty Handbags. A quiet girl Lawanda loved a hunter whose name is Jodi. When her family went to a place that is very far to attend a ceremony, she was left alone. When Jodi knew that, he went to pick her up. On the way to her home, he hunted some beasts as her present. When he saw her, she was about to sink in a faint because of hunger and miss. He gave her food and watched her eating them, and then he said he wanted to marry her. He took her to attend the ceremony where her family has been there. The metaphorical meaning of the story is that if you love a person, you must offer the food for her; if a person offers the food to you, you can love him. So, love can be described as a tool to get food, as well as other things. It had a precedent that love is also a tool. In modern society, the function of love is used everywhere. We do not marry each other because of love, but money, power and so on. But in history, there was a woman who did not marry her lover because of power, who used her marriage as a chip to win a period of development for her country. Who was the miserable woman? Whose marriage was so powerful? It is Elizabeth I whose marriage and diplomatic policy has been studied by historians until now.
Ⅱ. Elizabeth Ⅰ’s Marriage Affairs
A. The General Introduction of ElizabethⅠ
A famous historian and critic Strachey, L in Britain made such a comment:
“her story had been studied by politicians until now. Although her name was used to call the whole age by the descendants, her love life suffered a fatal hurt at the beginning.”
As a great monarch ElizabethⅠ established Britain’s overlord around world. As a famous spinster and an unmarried monarch in the world history —Elizabeth I, whose love life is a misery, is an eternal subject in the western biographic literature. Elizabeth I have been far off the world more than 400years. She was born in 1533, died in 1603, was in charge of Britain for 45 years. For the endless dominative history of feudal Britain, 45 years disappeared in a flash. However, it is just in the 45 years that the destiny of Britain has changed thoroughly. The formation of “on which the sun never sets” is from this delicate woman.
The accomplishments of this queen surprised us. In such an age that women were discriminated, how could she be a greatest monarch in the Britain history? Did she have any talent or ability?
B. The Growing up of ElizabethⅠ
Elizabeth I was an orphan. When she was less than 3years old, her mother was sentenced to death. In the following turbulent ages, her destiny began to turn around the policy and marriage of her father. From time to time, she was a favorite, at that time, she was the successor to the throne; and then she was ignored, so that she was a deserted bastard. From a picture of her 14 years old, we can see the trace of experiences left on her body—experiencing the palace of fierce fighting and appearing more sophisticated and stiff to her age untimely. Nobody can deny she is the person who was kissed by God. She was proficient in languages and versatile. We cannot imagine the brilliance belonging to the girl who lived in an endless terror. In her temperament, she did not avoid the jealousy and hesitation belonging to a woman. However, these are just a skimming over the surface on the part of Elizabeth. After the decline of Spanish armada; after the conceited Scotland queen being put on guillotine, after her lover losing her pardon, who dares to underestimate the iron decisiveness and will hiding behind her indecisive veil. Just because of the inherited, combined temperament with man and woman, she could always overcome all the dangers and pull them through. Then growing in the circle of Britain, she was in a complicated situation.
Besides those, the generosity of Elizabeth which benefits Britain is a counteraction to her bloody father and sister. It is such the counteraction that produced a rare peaceful period and varied cultures, and also produced such masters as Shakespeare, Marlowe. But it also ruined her happiness as a woman—marriage is too terrible for her, the tragedy made by her father was a shadow in her love world. She stifled her marriage by herself and swore not to marry for all her life. Her decision is much fashionable. Because it was a time that dominated by men. Even her people agreed that they would feel relieved if she depended on a man. After she ascended throne, parliament pleaded her to choose a husband, wishing her leave a successor for British royal family. However the queen did not give them any response. At last, when parliament begged her with the same request again, she put on a ring and said: “I have contributed myself to a husband, his name is Britain.” The intelligent queen took the weakness of female as a chip in her political balance. She asserted that she would keep virginity, but at the same time, she took this trump card out when it is necessary. An American historian Will Duran said the most secret diplomatic methods for Elizabeth are her unmarried life. She ever said： “I hate the idea about marriage, the reason would not be revealed even to a twin sister.” Yes, she abhorred marriage. Because if she married, she had to share her throne with her husband, so she did not want it to be shared. Another reason for it is that she experienced more in her early years, she thought nothing could make her feel safe except power.
Compared with an ordinary family life, maybe she preferred to hold power in her hands. For her, throne was everything, she could sacrifice everything to strengthen her power, including her marriage. While on the other hand, she treated marriage as a chip. She put the cover of marriage in front of the covetous men across the world—Spain, France, the dependencies of Britain and so on. All of them could not escape from her diplomatic net. Just as her body was a mysterious axis, the destiny of the whole Europe was turning around it. Because of these factors, she was on the list of greatest monarchs in Britain history at last.
Elizabeth I had the ambition as well as the ability of politics, diplomacy and military science. Her characteristic was putting all her energy and soul in to the imperial affairs. Her personal love was full of romantic sentiment and it experienced the endless struggle between the emotion and senses, the alternative between love and worry. But for throne, she did not hold the hands of love, making her love flower wither from day to day. She missed the chance on love affairs, but did not miss the opportunity supported by history.
C. The Proposing Affairs
Her careful, incredulous and cautious personality was not only expressed in the politics, but also in her marriage. When she considered her marriage, she put the political element in the first place. So, we can say she was a rare woman. We have heard a lot of examples about the princesses’ opposing the political marriage. But Elizabeth I took the political interests as the chip of her marriage. At that time, the English ministers also hoped their queen marry quickly so that a successor could be born. But for Elizabeth, how to choose a husband was a complicated problem. From the European situation at that time, as Britain monarch, whoever she married to, it also means forming alliance with that country. Just as Churchill said, “The marriage of monarch can be a peaceful link with her neighbor, and also a guarantee to win a war”. In terms of the European situation, avoiding the alliance with any countries is the interests of Britain. So Elizabeth had to keep the balance among the big countries, weaken the two biggest countries by the utilization of contradictions, and then sought for the development of itself.
When Elizabeth came into power, the first person proposing to her was her brother-in-law, the Spanish king Philip Ⅱ. At that time, Philip was contending with France. He tried his best to keep the alliance between Spain and Britain that formed in the Mary time. So after his former wife died, he wanted to marry Elizabeth. But being aligned with Spain to fight France publicly was not in accordance with the interests of Britain. What Britain needed at that time was sowing dissension between France and Spain and prompting them to fight with each other. So Britain would be away from them and developed its strength, especially the sea power. When the chance came, it could defend Span and then became the maritime overlord. Elizabeth used her marriage affair to help this policy. She refused the marriage respectably in manner of her outstanding diplomacy. Then she favored the dependency of Spain actively— Netherlands Revolution, to strike and weaken Spain. The sea power of Spain was the most threat for Britain, so the war between Britain and Spain was inevitable. But Elizabeth used France to hamper Spain on purpose and tried her best to postpone the war until Britain got enough strength.
When French royal family got the news about the refusal of marriage by Elizabeth, they proposed to her one by one. Elizabeth was worth the title—a tricky diplomat and shrewd ruler. As a woman, she loved beauty and was good at dressing. She was also an attractive woman in the ball. She needed love and was eager to bring up children, but she preferred throne. She was so characteristic that she did not want to share the throne with others, let alone being inferior to others. Besides that, if she married a French who believed in Catholicism, she must alienate Britain people who believed in Protestantism inevitably. So she did not intend to be connected with France by marriage at the beginning. But she wanted to utilize France to hamper Spain. So she did not refuse the marriage directly, but feigned the enthusiasm of being glad to talk about her marriage. She always invited the French little prince to Britain palace and did her best to attract him. She was playing a political trick on Philip Ⅱ. Because what she did was to break the possibility of the alliance between France and Spain.