In the ninth canto of the sixth book, the court of Elizabeth is portrayed; in the tenth and eleventh, the war in Flanders--so brilliantly described in Mr.Motley's history.

The Lady Belge is the United Netherlands; Gerioneo, the oppressor, is the Duke of Alva; the Inquisition appears as a horrid but nameless monster, and minor personages occur to complete the historic pictures.
The adventure of Sir Artegal in succor of the Lady Irena, (Erin,) represents the proceedings of Elizabeth in Ireland, in enforcing the Reformation, abrogating the establishments of her sister Mary, and thus inducing Tyrone's rebellion, with the consequent humiliation of Essex.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS .-- With one more interpretation we close.

In the fifth book, Spenser is the apologist of Elizabeth for her conduct to her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, and he has been very delicate in his distinctions.

It is not her high abstraction of justice, Sir Artegal, who does the murderous deed, but his man _Talus_, retributive justice, who, like a limehound, finds her hidden under a heap of gold, and drags her forth by her fair locks, in such rueful plight that even Artegal pities her: Yet for no pity would he change the course Of justice which in Talus hand did lie, Who rudely haled her forth without remorse, Still holding up her suppliant hands on high, And kneeling at his feet submissively; But he her suppliant hands, those _hands of gold_, And eke her feet, those feet of _silver try_, Which sought unrighteousness and justice sold, Chopped off and nailed on high that all might them behold.
She was a royal lady, a regnant queen: her hands held a golden sceptre, and her feet pressed a silver footstool.

She was thrown down the castle wall, and drowned "in the dirty mud." "But the stream washed away her guilty blood." Did it wash away Elizabeth's bloody guilt?
No.