The Political Allegory i)i " The Faerie Queene" 5 



Duessa calls herself Fidessa. Mary prided herself on her 

 fidelity to the Catholic Church. Indeed, her allegiance to the 

 church became an obsession and she, contrary to all maxims 

 of statesmanship, outraged the consciences of her subjects, and 

 burned their bodies in Smithfield. Duessa is the daughter of the 

 Emperor of Rome, who in her youth had been betrothed to a 

 meek and debonair prince, but her hopes had been slain. Mary 

 was born in the shadow of the Romish Church, but early her, 

 hopes of becoming Queen of England were checked by the decree 

 of divorce that Henry insisted on obtaining from his Council, in 

 order that he might marry Anne Boleyn. 



Upton offers an interesting theory.^- He considers Duessa 

 as only the Catholic Church, the Pope's daughter. His plan to 

 marry her to the prince " meek and debonair " was his desire to 

 annex to Catholicism the eastern Church of Constantinople. This 

 plan was frustrated by the capture of the East by the Turks 

 (Sans Foy). But there are several inconsistencies in this view. 

 In the first place, the prince she was to marry was slain, but not 

 by Sans Foy ; and she came into his possession long after her 

 virgin widowhood began. Further, England never came into 

 conflict with the Turks as Upton's theory would have us believe. 

 It seems more reasonable to regard the defeat of Sans Foy as the 

 diplomatic check the French received when Mary became queen 

 and married Philip. ^^ This broke down Henry's policy of tempor- 

 izing with France and Spain, aiding each in turn, but never finding 

 himself engaged in any serious European war. The diplomatic 

 defeat of the French led to the war against France, when England 

 found herself suddenly attacked and Calais captured. As we shall 

 see, the result of the Red-Cross Knight's alliance with Duessa led 

 to his capture in an unexpected hour by Orgoglio. But of this 

 later. 



The next adventure that befalls the Red-Cross Knight, now 

 traveling with Duessa, is their meeting with Fradubio (the 

 wavering one) and Fraelissa ( the frail one), both of whom have 

 been turned into trees by the wiles of Duessa, and are so to remain 



"Upton's Faerie Queene, eel. 175S. See note on this canto. 

 ^* Martin Hume, Queens of Old Spain, p. 216. 



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