Then, there were princes of Sweden and Denmark, an Archduke of Austria and two sons of Catharine de' Medici's.

The suit of one of the latter began when Elizabeth was thirty-nine years old and he was nineteen [Sidenote: 1566] and continued for ten years with apparent zest on both sides.
Parliament put all the pressure it could upon the queen to make her flirtations end in matrimony, but it only made Elizabeth angry.

Twice she forbade discussion of the matter, and, though she afterwards consented to hear the petition, she was careful not to call another Parliament for five years.
[Sidenote: Financial measures] Vexatious financial difficulties had been left to Elizabeth.

Largely owing to the debasement of the currency royal expenditure had risen from L56,000 per annum at the end of Henry's reign to L345,000 in the last year of Mary's reign.

The government's credit was in a bad way, and the commerce of the kingdom deranged.