Full text of "The history of England, from the invasion of Julius Cæser to the revolution in 1688"

THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

VOL IV.

THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

FROM THE

INVASION OF JULIUS CJESAR

THE REVOLUTION O 1688

DAVID HUME, ESQ.

A NEW EDITION,
WITH THE AUTHOR'S LAST CORRECTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
A SHORT ACCOUNT OP HIS LIFE, WRITTEN BT HIMSELF.

IN SIX V GLUMES.
VOL. IV.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY,
1854.

CAMBRIDGE:
ALtSH AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS,

REMINGTON STREET.
BTONE AND SMART, STEREOTTPER8.

CONTENTS

VOL. IV.

CHAPTER XLL

ELIZABETH.

Affairs of Scotland. Spanish Affairs. Sir Francis Drake. A
Parliament. Negotiations of Marriage with the Duke of Anjou.
Affairs of Scotland. Letter of Queen Mary to Elizabeth. Con-
spiracies in England. A Parliament. The Ecclesiastical Com-
mission. Affairs of the Low Countries. Hostilities with Spain

Page 1

CHAPTER XLII.

Zeal of the Catholics. Babington's Conspiracy. Mary assents to
the Conspiracy. The Conspirators seized and executed. Reso-
lution to try the Queen of Scots. The Commissioners prevail on
her to submit to the Trial. The Trial. Sentence against Mary.
Interposition of King James. Reasons for the Execution of
Mary. The Execution. Mary's Character. The Queen's
affected Sorrow. Drake destroys the Spanish Fleet at Cadiz.
Philip projects the Invasion of England. The Invincible Armada.
Preparations in England. The Armada arrives in the Chan-
nel Defeated. A Parliament. Expedition against Portu-
gal. Affairs of Scotland 44

CHAPTER XLIIL

French Affairs. Murder of the Duke of Guise. Murder of Henry
III. Progress of Henry IV. Naval Enterprises against Spain.
A Parliament. Henry IV. embraces the Catholic Religion.
Scotch Affairs. Naval Enterprises. A Parliament. Peace of
Vervins. The Earl of Essex 104

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XLIV.

State, of Ireland. Tyrone's Rebellion. Essex sent over to Ire-
land. His ill Success. Returns to England Is Disgraced.
His Intrigues. His Insurrection. His Trial and Execution.
French Affairs. Mountjoy's Success in Ireland. Defeat of the
Spaniards and Irish. A Parliament. Tyrone's Submission.
Queen's Sickness and Death and Character . . Page 138

APPENDIX III.

Government of England. Revenues. Commerce. Military
Force. Manufactures. Learning 184

CHAPTER XLV.

JAMES !.,<

Introduction. James's first Transactions. State of Europe.
Rosni's Negotiations. Raleigh's Conspiracy. Hampton- Court
Conference. A Parliament. Peace with Spain . . . . 219

CHAPTER XL VI.

Gunpowder Conspiracy. A Parliament. Truce between Spain
and the United Provinces. A Parliament. Death of the French
King. Arminianism. State of Ireland 242

CHAPTER XL VII.

Death of Prince Henry. Marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with
the Palatine. Rise of Somerset. His Marriage. Overbury
poisoned. Fall of Somerset. Rise of Buckingham. Caution-
ary Towns delivered. Affairs of Scotland 268

CHAPTER XL VIII.

Sir Walter Raleigh's Expedition. His Execution. Insurrections
in Bohemia. Loss of the Palatinate. Negotiations with Spain.
A Parliament. Parties. Fall of Bacon. Rupture between the
King and the Commons. Protestation of the Commons . . 293

CHAPTER XLIX.

Negotiations with regard to the Marriage and the Palatinate.
Character of Buckingham. Prince's Journey to Spain. Mar-

CONTENTS. vii

riage Treaty broken. A Parliament. Return of Bristol. Rup-
ture with Spain. Treaty with France. Mansfeldt's Expedition.
Death of the King. His Character Page 317

APPENDIX

TO THE REIGN OF JAMES I.

Civil Government of England during this Period. Ecclesiastical
Government. Manners. Finances. Navy. Commerce.
Manufactures. Colonies. Learning and Arts . . . . 345

CHAPTER L.

CHARLES I.

A Parliament at Westminster. At Oxford. Naval Expedition
against Spain. Second Parliament. Impeachment of Bucking-
ham. Violent Measures of the Court. War with France. Ex-
pedition to the Isle of Rhe 380

CHAPTER LI.

Third Parliament. Petition of Right. Prorogation. Death of
Buckingham. New Session of Parliament. Tonnage and Pound-
age. Arminianism. Dissolution of the Parliament . 412

CHAPTER LII.

Peace with France. Peace with Spain. State of the Court and
Ministry. Character of the Queen. Strafford. Laud. Inno-
vations in the Church. Irregular Levies of Money. Severities
in the Star- Chamber and High Commission. Ship Money.
Trial of Hambden . 445

CHAPTER LIIL

Discontents in Scotland. Introduction of the Canons and Liturgy.
A Tumult at Edinburgh. The Covenant. A General Assem-
bly. Episcopacy abolished. War. A Pacification. Renewal
of the War. Fourth English Parliament. Dissolution. Dis-
contents in England. Rout at Newburn. Treaty of Rippon.
Great Council of the Peers .... .... 479

THE

HISTORY

ENGLAND,

CHAPTER XL!
ELIZABETH.

AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. SPANISH AFFAIRS. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. A PAR-
LIAMENT. NEGOTIATIONS OF MARRIAGE WITH THE DUKE OF ANJOTJ. AF-
FAIRS OF SCOTLAND. LETTER OF QUEEN MART TO ELIZABETH. CONSPIRA-
CIES IN ENGLAND. A PARLIAMENT. THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION.
AFFAIRS OF THE Low COUNTRIES. HOSTILITIES WITH SPAIN.

THE greatest and most absolute security that Elizabeth
enjoyed during her whole reign never exempted
from vigilance and attention ; but the scene began now isso
to be more overcast, and dangers gradually multiplied
on her from more than one quarter.

The Earl of Morton had hitherto retained Scotland
in strict alliance with the queen, and had also restored
domestic tranquillity to that kingdom. But it was not
to be expected that the factitious and legal authority of
a regent would long maintain itself in a country unac-
quainted with law and order, where even the natural
dominion of hereditary princes so often met with oppo-
sition and control. The nobility began anew to break
into factions : the people were disgusted with some in-
stances of Morton's avarice : and the clergy, who com-
plained of farther encroachments on their narrow revenue,
joined and increased the discontent of the other orders.
The regent was sensible of his dangerous situation ; and

VOL. iv. 1

5 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, having dropped some peevish expressions, as if he were
XLI '_, willing or desirous to resign, the noblemen of the oppo-
1580 site party, favourites of the young king, laid hold of this
concession, and required that demission which he seemed
so frankly to offer them. James was at this time but
eleven years of age ; yet Morton, having secured himself,
as he imagined, by a general pardon, resigned his authority
into the hands of the king, who pretended to conduct,
in his own name, the administration of the kingdom.
The regent retired from the government, and seemed to
employ himself entirely in the care of his domestic
affairs ; but, either tired with this tranquillity, which
appeared insipid after the agitations of ambition, or
thinking it time to throw off dissimulation, he came
again to court ; acquired an ascendant in the council ;
and, though he resumed not the title of regent, governed
with the same authority as before. The opposite party,
after holding separate conventions, took to arms on pre-
tence of -delivering their prince from captivity, and re-
storing him to the free exercise of his government :
Queen Elizabeth interposed by her ambassador, Sir
Kobert Bowes, and mediated an agreement between the
factions : Morton kept possession of the government :
but his enemies were numerous and vigilant, and his
authority seemed to become every day more precarious.
The Count d'Aubigney, of the house of Lenox, cousin-
german to the king's father, had been born and educated
in France ; and being a young man of good address and
a sweet disposition, he appeared to the Duke of Guise a
proper instrument for detaching James from the English
interest, and connecting him with his mother and her
relations. He no sooner appeared at Stirling, where
James resided, than he acquired the affections of the
young monarch ; and joining his interest with those of
James Stuart, of the house of Ochiltree, a man of pro-
fligate manners, who had acquired the king's favour, he
employed himself, under the appearance of play and
amusement, in instilling into the tender mind of the
prince new sentiments of politics and government. He
represented to him the injustice which had been done
to Mary in her deposition, and made him entertain
thoughts either of resigning the crown into her hands ;

ELIZABETH.

or of associating her with him in the administration*. CHAP.
Elizabeth, alarmed at the danger which might ensue ^ XLL
from the prevalence of this interest in Scotland, sent 1580
anew Sir Robert Bowes to Stirling ; and accusing d'Au-
bigney, now created Earl of Lenox, of an attachment to
the French, warned James against entertaining such sus-
picious and dangerous connexions b . The king excused
himself by Sir Alexander Hume, his ambassador ; and
Lenox, finding that the queen had openly declared
against him, was farther confirmed in his intention of
overturning the English interest, and particularly of
ruining Morton, who was regarded as the head of it.
That nobleman was arrested in council, accused as an
accomplice in the late king's murder, committed to
prison, brought to trial, and condemned to suffer as a
traitor. He confessed that Bothwell had communicated
to him the design, had pleaded Mary's consent, and had
desired his concurrence ; but he denied that he himself
had ever expressed any approbation of the crime ; and,
in excuse for his concealing it, he alleged the danger of
revealing the secret, either to Henry, who had no reso-
lution nor constancy, or to Mary, who appeared to be an
accomplice in the murder c . Sir Thomas Randolph was
sent by the queen to intercede in favour of Morton ;
and that ambassador, not content with discharging this
duty of his function, engaged, by his persuasion, the
Earls of Argyle, Montrose, Angus, Marre, and Glen-
carne, to enter into a confederacy for protecting, even
by force of arms, the life of the prisoner. The more to
overawe that nobleman's enemies, Elizabeth ordered
forces to be assembled on the borders of England ; but
this expedient served only to hasten his sentence and
execution d . Morton died with that constancy and reso-
lution which had attended him through all the various
events of his life ; and left a reputation, which was less
disputed with regard to abilities than probity and virtue.
But this conclusion of the scene happened not till the
subsequent year.

Elizabeth was, during; this period, extremely anxious Spanish

affairs.

_ , p. 412. 428. Melvil, p. 130. b Spotswood, p. 309.

c Ibid. p. 314. Crawford, p. 333. Moyse's Memoirs, p. 54.
d Spotswood, p. 312.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, on account of every revolution in Scotland ; both because
that country alone, not being separated from England

1580. by sea > an ^ bordering on all the catholic and malecontent
counties, afforded her enemies a safe and easy method of
attacking her; and 'because she was sensible that Mary,
thinking herself abandoned by the French monarch, had
been engaged by the Guises to have recourse to the
powerful protection of Philip, who, though he had not
yet come to an open rupture with the queen, was every
day, both by the injuries which he committed and suf-
fered, more exasperated against her. That he might
retaliate the assistance which she gave to his rebels in
the Low Countries, he had sent, under the name of the
pope e , a body of seven hundred Spaniards and Italians
into Ireland ; where the inhabitants, always turbulent,
and discontented with the English government, were
now more alienated by religious prejudices, and were
ready to join every invader. The Spanish general, San
Josepho, built a fort in Kerry ; and being there besieged
by the Earl of Ormond, president of Munster, who was
soon after joined by Lord Gray, the deputy, he made a
weak and cowardly defence. After some assaults, feebly
sustained, he surrendered at discretion ; and Gray, who
commanded but a small force, finding himself encum-
bered with so many prisoners, put all the Spaniards and
Italians to the sword without mercy, and hanged about
fifteen hundred of the Irish : a cruelty which gave great
displeasure to Elizabeth f .

Sir Francis "When the English ambassador made complaints of
this invasion, he was answered by like complaints of the
piracies committed by Francis Drake, a bold seaman,
who had assauUed the Spaniards in the place where they
deemed themselves most secure, in the new world. This
man, sprung from mean parents in the county of Devon,
having acquired considerable riches by depredations made
in the isthmus of Panama, and having there gotten a
sight of the Pacific Ocean, was so stimulated by ambition
and avarice, that he scrupled not to employ his whole
fortune in a new adventure through those seas, so much
unknown at that time to all the European nations 8 . By

e Digges, p. 359. 370. f Camden, p. 475. Cox's Hist, of Ireland, p. 368.

e Camden, p. 478. Stowe, p. 689.

ELIZABETH.

means of Sir Christopher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain, CHAP.
a great favourite of the queen's, he obtained her consent ^
and approbation and he set sail from Plymouth in 1577, 1580 .
with four ships and a pinnace, on board of which were
one hundred and sixty-four able sailors h . He passed
into the South Sea by the Straits of Magellan, and at-
tacking the Spaniards, who expected no enemy in those
quarters, he took many rich prizes, and prepared to return
with the booty which he had acquired. Apprehensive of
being intercepted by the enemy, if he took the same way
homewards by which he had reached the Pacific Ocean,
he attempted to find a passage by the north of California ;
and failing in that enterprise, he set sail for the East
Indies, and returned safely this year by the Cape of Good
Hope. He was the first Englishman who sailed round
the globe, and the first commander-in-chief ; for Ma-
gellan, whose ship executed the same adventure, died in
his passage. His name became celebrated on account of
so bold and fortunate an attempt; but many, appre-
hending the resentment of the Spaniards, endeavoured
to persuade the queen that it would be more prudent to
disavow the enterprise, to punish Drake, and to restore
the treasure. But Elizabeth, who admired valour, and
was allured by the prospect of sharing in the booty, de-
termined to countenance that gallant sailor ; she con-
ferred on him the honour of knighthood, and accepted
of a banquet from him at Deptford, on board the ship
which had achieved so memorable a voyage. When
Philip's ambassador, Mendoza, exclaimed against Drake's
piracies, she told him that the Spaniards, by arrogating
a right to the whole new world, and excluding thence all
other European nations, who should sail thither, even
with a view of exercising the most lawful commerce,
naturally tempted others to make a violent irruption
into those countries 1 . To pacify, however, the catholic
monarch, she caused part of the booty to be restored to
Pedro Sebura, a Spaniard, who pretended to be agent
for the merchants whom Drake had spoiled. Having
learned afterwards, that Philip had seized the money,
and had employed part of it against herself in Ireland,

h Camden, p. 478. Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 730. 748. Purchas's Pilrim,
Wl. i. p. 46. i Camden, p. 480.

6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, part of it in the pay of the Prince of Parma's troops, she
i J 2 ^ 1 ' ' determined to make no more restitutions.
1581 There was another cause which induced the queen to
take this resolution : she was in such want of money,
that she was obliged to assemble a Parliament ; a mea-
sure which, as she herself openly declared, she never em-
braced, except when constrained by the necessity of her
APariia an<a i rs - The Parliament, besides granting her a supply
ment. ' of one subsidy and two fifteenths, enacted some statutes
for the security of her government, chiefly against the
attempts of the Catholics. Whoever, in any way, recon-
ciled any one to the church of Rome, or was himself
reconciled, was declared to be guilty of treason ; to say
mass was subjected to the penalty of a year's imprison-
ment, and a fine of two hundred marks ; the being pre-
sent was punishable by a year's imprisonment, and a fine
of one hundred marks ; a fine of twenty pounds a month
was imposed on every one who continued, during that
time, absent from church k . To utter slanderous or sedi-
tious words against the queen was punishable, for the
first offence, with the pillory and loss of ears ; the second
offence was declared felony : the writing or printing of
such words was felony even on the first offence 1 . The
puritans prevailed so far as to have farther applications
made for reformation in religion 111 ; and Paul Went-
worth, brother to the member of that name who had
distinguished himself in the preceding session, moved,
that the Commons, from their own authority, should
appoint a general fast and prayers ; a motion to which
the House unwarily assented. For this presumption
they were severely reprimanded by a message from the
queen, as encroaching on the royal prerogative and
supremacy ; and they were obliged to submit, and ask
forgiveness 11 .

The queen and Parliament were engaged to pass these
severe laws against the Catholics by some late discoveries
of the treasonable practices of their priests. When the
ancient worship was suppressed, and the reformation
introduced into the universities, the King of Spain re-
flected, that as some species of literature was necessary

k 23 Eliz. cap. 1. l Ibid. cap. 2.

"i D'Ewes, p. 302. n Ibid. p. 284, 285.

ELIZABETH.

for supporting these doctrines and controversies, the CHAP.
Romish communion must decay in England, if no means ^j
were found to give erudition to the ecclesiastics ; and 1581
for this reason he founded a seminary at Doiiay, where
the Catholics sent their children, chiefly such as were
intended for the priesthood, in order to receive the
rudiments of their education. The Cardinal of Lor-
raine imitated this example, by erecting a like seminary
in his diocese of Rheims ; and though Rome was some-
what distant, the pope would not neglect to adorn, by a
foundation of the same nature, that capital of ortho-
doxy. These seminaries, founded with so hostile an
intention, sent over every year a colony of priests, who
maintained the Catholic superstition in its full height
of bigotry ; and being educated with a view to the
crown of martyrdom, were not deterred, either by dan-
ger or fatigue, from maintaining and propagating their
principles. They infused into all their votaries an ex-
treme hatred against the queen, whom they treated as
an usurper, a schismatic, a heretic, a persecutor of the
orthodox, and one solemnly and publicly anathematized
by the holy father. Sedition, rebellion, sometimes assas-
sination, were the expedients by which they intended to
effect their purposes against her ; and the severe re-
straint, not to say persecution, under which the Catholics
laboured, made them the more willingly receive, from
their ghostly fathers, such violent doctrines.

These seminaries were all of them under the direction
of the Jesuits, a new order of regular priests erected in
Europe, when the court of Rome perceived that the
lazy monks and beggarly friars, who sufficed in times of
ignorance, were no longer able to defend the ramparts of
the church, assailed on every side, and that the inquisitive
spirit of the age required a society more active and more
learned to oppose its dangerous progress. These men,
as they stood foremost in the contest against the Pro-
testants, drew on them the extreme animosity of that
whole sect ; and by assuming a superiority over the
other more numerous and more ancient orders of their
own communion, were even exposed to the envy of their
brethren : so that it is no wonder, if the blame, to which
their principles and conduct might be exposed, has in

8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, many instances been much exaggerated. This reproach,
^J^_, however, they must bear from posterity, that, by the very
1581 nature of their institution, they were engaged to pervert
learning, the only effectual remedy against superstition,
into a nourishment of that infirmity ; and as their erudi-
tion was chiefly of the ecclesiastical and scholastic kind,
(though a few members have cultivated polite literature,)
they were only the more enabled, by that acquisition,
to refine away the plainest dictates of morality, and to
erect a regular system of casuistry, by which prevarica-
tion, perjury, and every crime, when it served their
ghostly purposes, might be justified and defended.

The Jesuits, as devoted servants to the court of Rome,
exalted the prerogative of the sovereign pontiff above
all earthly power ; and, by maintaining his authority of
deposing kings, set no bounds, either to his spiritual
or temporal jurisdiction. This doctrine became so pre-
valent among the zealous Catholics in England, that the
excommunication fulminated against Elizabeth excited
many scruples of a singular kind, for which it behoved
the holy father to provide a remedy. The bull of Pius,
in absolving the subjects from their oaths of allegiance,
commanded them to resist the queen's usurpation ; and
many Romanists were apprehensive, that, by this clause,
they were obliged in conscience, even though no favour-
able opportunity offered, to rebel against her, and that
no dangers or difficulties could free them from this in-
dispensable duty. But Parsons and Campion, two Jesuits,
were sent over with a mitigation and explanation of the
doctrine. ; and they taught their disciples, that, though
the bull was for ever binding on Elizabeth and her
partizans, it did not oblige the Catholics to obedience,
except when the sovereign pontiff should think proper,
by a new summons, to require it . Campion was after-
wards detected in treasonable practices ; and being put
to the rack, and confessing his guilt, he was publicly
executed. His execution was ordered at the very time
when the Duke of Anjou was in England, and prosecuted,
with the greatest appearance of success, his marriage with
the queen ; and this severity was probably intended to
appease her Protestant subjects, and to satisfy them, that,

Camden, p. 477.

ELIZABETH. <

whatever measures she might pursue, she never would CHAP.
depart from the principles of the reformation. ^_

The Duke of Alen^on, now created Duke of Anjou, 1581
had never entirely dropped his pretensions to Elizabeth ;
and that princess, though her suitor was near twenty-
five years younger than herself, and had no knowledge
of her person but by pictures or descriptions, was still AHOU
pleased with the image, which his addresses afforded
her of love and tenderness. The duke, in order to
forward his suit, besides employing his brother's am-
bassador, sent over Simier, an agent of his own, an artful
man, of an agreeable conversation ; who, soon remarking
the queen's humour, amused her with gay discourse, and
instead of serious political reasonings, which, he found,
only awakened her ambition, and hurt his master's in-
terest, he introduced every moment all the topics of
passion and of gallantry. The pleasure which she found
in this man's company soon produced a familiarity be-
tween them ; and amidst the greatest hurry of business,
her most confidential ministers had not such ready access
to her, as had Simier, who, on pretence of negotiation,
entertained her with accounts of the tender attachment
borne her by the Duke of Anjou. The Earl of Leicester,
who had never before been alarmed with any courtship
paid her, and who always trusted that her love of do-
minion would prevail over her inclination to marriage',
began to apprehend, that she was as last caught in her
own snare, and that the artful encouragement which she
had given to this young suitor had, unawares, engaged
her affections. To render Simier odious, he availed
himself of the credulity of the times, and spread reports
that that minister had gained an ascendant over the
queen, not by any natural principles of her constitution,
but by incantations and love-potions. Simier, in revenge,
endeavoured to discredit Leicester with the queen ; and
he revealed to her a secret, which none of her courtiers
dared to disclose, that this nobleman was secretly, with-
out her consent, married to the widow of the Earl of
Essex ; an action which the queen interpreted either to
proceed from want of respect to her, or as a violation
of their mutual attachment ; and which so provoked her,

10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, that she threatened to send him to the Tower p . The
quarrel went so far between Leicester and the French
agent, that the former was suspected of having employed
one Tudor, a bravo, to take away the life of his enemy ;
and the queen thought it necessary, by proclamation,
to take Simier under her immediate protection. It
happened, that while Elizabeth was rowed in her barge
on the Thames, attended by Simier and some of her
courtiers, a shot was fired which wounded one of the
bargemen ; but the queen finding, upon inquiry, that
the piece had been discharged by accident, gave the
person his liberty, without farther punishment. So
far was she from entertaining any suspicion against her
people, that she was often heard to say, " that she would
lend credit to nothing against them, which parents would
not believe of their own children V

The Duke of Anjou, encouraged by the accounts sent
him of the queen's prepossessions in his favour, paid her
secretly a visit at Greenwich ; and after some conference
with her, the purport of which is not known, he departed.
It appeared, that though his figure was not advantageous,
he had lost no ground by being personally known to her ;
and, soon after, she commanded Burleigh, now treasurer,
Sussex, Leicester, Bedford, Lincoln, Hatton, and secre-
tary Walsingham, to concert with the French ambas-
sadors the terms of the intended contract of marriage.
Henry had sent over, on this occasion, a splendid embassy,
consisting of Francis de Bourbon, Prince Dauphin, and
many considerable noblemen ; and as the queen had, in
a manner, the power of prescribing what terms she
pleased, the articles were soon settled with the English
commissioners. It was agreed that the marriage should
be celebrated within six weeks after the ratification of
the articles ; that the duke and his retinue should have
the exercise of their religion; that after the marriage
he should bear the title of king, but the administration
remain solely in the queen; that their children, male
or female, should succeed to the crown of England ;
that if there be two males, the elder, in case of Henry's
death without issue, should be King of France, the

P Camden, p. 471. <i Idem, ibid.

ELIZABETH. 11

younger of England; that if there be but one male, CHAP.
and he succeed to the crown of France, he should be ,_, ^ '_,
obliged to reside in England eight months every two 158L
years ; that the laws and customs of England should be
preserved inviolate ; and that no foreigner should be
promoted by the duke to any office in England 1 .

These articles, providing for the security of England in
case of its annexation to the crown of France, opened but
a dismal prospect to the English; had not the age of
Elizabeth, who was now in her forty-ninth year, contri-
buted very much to allay their apprehensions of this
nature. The queen, also, as a proof of her still remaining
uncertainty, added a clause, that she was not bound to
complete the marriage, till farther articles, which were
not specified, should be agreed on between the parties,
and till the King of France be certified of this agreement.
Soon after, the queen sent over "Walsingham, as ambas-
sador to France, in order to form closer connexions with
Henry, and enter into a league, offensive and defensive,
against the increasing power and dangerous usurpations
of Spain. The French king, who had been extremely
disturbed with the unquiet spirit, the restless ambition,
the enterprising yet timid and inconstant disposition of
Anjou, had already sought to free the kingdom from his
intrigues, by opening a scene for his activity in Flanders ;
and having allowed him to embrace the protection of the
states, had secretly supplied him with men and money
for the undertaking. The prospect of settling him in
England was, for a like reason, very agreeable to that
monarch; and he was desirous to cultivate, by every
expedient, the favourable sentiments which Elizabeth
seemed to entertain towards him. But this princess,
though she had gone farther in her amorous s dalliance
than could be justified or accounted for by any principles
of policy, was not yet determined to carry matters to a
final conclusion; and she confined Walsingham in his
instructions, to negotiating conditions of a mutual alli-
ance between France and England*. Henry with re-
luctance submitted to hold conferences on that subject;
but no sooner had Walsingham begun to settle the terms
of alliance, than he was informed that the queen, fore-

r Camden, p. 484. B Digges, p. 387. 396. 408. 426. * Ibid. p. 352.

12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, seeing hostility with Spain to be the result of this con-
federacy, na d declared that she would prefer the marriage
with the war, before the war without the marriage u . The
French court, pleased with this change of resolution, broke
off the conferences concerning the league, and opened a
negotiation for the marriage w . But matters had not long
proceeded in this train, before the queen again declared
for the league, in preference to the marriage, and ordered
Walsingham to renew the conferences for that purpose.
Before he had leisure to bring this point to maturity, he
was interrupted by a new change of resolution x ; and not
only the court of France, but Walsingham himself, Bur-
leigh, and all the wisest ministers of Elizabeth, were in
amazement, doubtful where this contest between incli-
nation and reason, love and ambition, would at last
terminate 7 .

In the course of this affair, Elizabeth felt another
variety of intentions, from a new contest between her
reason and her ruling passions. The Duke of Anjou ex-
pected from her some money, by which he might be en-
abled to open the campaign in Flanders : and the queen
herself, though her frugality made her long reluctant,
was sensible that this supply was necessary ; and she was
at last induced, after much hesitation, to comply with
his request z . She sent him a present of a hundred thou-
sand crowns, by which, joined to his own demesnes, and
the assistance of his brother and the queen-dowager, he
levied an army, and took the field against the Prince of
Parma. He was successful in raising the siege of Cam-
bray ; and being chosen by the states governor of the
Netherlands, he put his army into winter-quarters, and
came over to England, in order to prosecute his suit to
the queen. The reception which he met with made him
expect entire success, and gave him hopes that Elizabeth
had surmounted all scruples, and was finally determined
nth NOV. to make choice of him for her husband. In the midst of
the pomp which attended the anniversary of her corona-
tion, she was seen, after long and intimate discourse with
him, to take a ring from her own finger, and to put it

u Digges, p. 375. 391. * Ibid. p. 392. * Ibid. p. 408.

y See note [A], at the end of the volume.

z Digges, p. 357. 387, 388. 409. 426. 439. Kymer, xv. p. 793.

ELIZABETH. 13

upon his ; and all the spectators concluded, that in this CHAP.
ceremony she had given him a promise of marriage, and ^j _,
was even desirous of signifying her intentions to all the 1581
world. St. Aldegonde, ambassador from the states, des-
patched immediately a letter to his masters, informing
them of this great event ; and the inhabitants of Antwerp,
who, as well as the other Flemings, regarded the queen
as a kind of tutelar divinity, testified their joy by bonfires
and the discharge of their great ordnance a . A puritan
of Lincoln's-inn had written a passionate book, which he
entitled " The Gulf in which England will be swallowed
by the French Marriage." He was apprehended and
prosecuted by order of the queen, and was condemned
to lose his right hand as a libeller. Such was the con-
stancy and loyalty of the man, that immediately after the
sentence was executed, he took off his hat with his other
hand, and, waving it over his head, cried " God save the
queen."

But, notwithstanding this attachment, which Elizabeth
so openly discovered to the Duke of Anjou, the combat
of her sentiments was not entirely over ; and her ambi-
tion, as well as prudence, rousing itself by intervals, still
filled her breast with doubt and hesitation. Almost all
the courtiers whom she trusted and favoured, Leicester,
Hatton, and Walsingham, discovered an extreme aver-
sion to the marriage : and the ladies of her bedchamber
made no scruple of opposing her resolution with the most
zealous remonstrances b . Among other enemies to the
match, Sir Philip, son of Sir Henry Sidney, deputy of
Ireland, and nephew to Leicester, a young man, the most
accomplished of the age, declared himself; and he used
the freedom to write her a letter, in which he dissuaded
her from her present resolution, with an unusual elegance
of expression, as well as force of reasoning. He told her,
that the security of her government depended entirely
on the affections of her Protestant subjects ; and she
could not, by any measure, more effectually disgust them,
than by espousing a prince, who was son of the per-
fidious Catherine, brother to the cruel and perfidious
Charles, and who had himself imbrued his hands in the
blood of the innocent and defenceless Protestants : that

a Caraden, p. 486. Thuan. lib. 74. b Camden, p. 486.

VOL. IV. 2

14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, the Catholics were her mortal enemies, and believed,
y_ X ^ L _^ either ^ na ^ sne nac ^ originally usurped the crown, or was
1581 now lawfully deposed by the pope's bull of excommuni-
cation ; and nothing had ever so much elevated their
hopes as the prospect of her marriage with the Duke of
Anjou : that her chief security at present, against the
efforts of so numerous, rich, and united a faction, was,
that they possessed no head who could conduct their
dangerous enterprises ; and she herself was rashly supply-
ing that defect, by giving an interest in the kingdom to
a prince whose education had zealously attached him to
that communion : that though he was a stranger to the
blood royal of England, the dispositions of men were now
such that they preferred the religious to the civil con-
nexions ; and were more influenced by sympathy in theo-
logical opinions, than by the principles of legal and heredi-
tary government : that the duke himself had discovered
a very restless and turbulent spirit and having often
violated his loyalty to his elder brother and his sovereign,
there remained no hopes that he would passively submit
to a woman, whom he might, in quality of husband, think
himself entitled to command : that the French nation,
so populous, so much abounding in soldiers, so full of
nobility, who were devoted to arms, and for some time
accustomed to serve for plunder, would supply him with
partisans dangerous to a people unwarlike and defence-
less, like the generality of her subjects : that the plain
and honourable path which she had followed, of cultiva-
ting the affections of her people, had hitherto rendered
her reign secure and happy ; and however her enemies
might seem to multiply upon her, the same invincible
rampart was still able to protect and defend her : that so
long as the throne of France was filled by Henry, or his
posterity, it was in vain to hope that the ties of blood
would ensure the amity of that kingdom, preferably to
the maxims of policy or the prejudices of religion and
if ever the crown devolved on the Duke of Anjou, the
conjunction of France and England would prove a burden
rather than a protection to the latter kingdom : that the
example of her sister Mary was sufficient to instruct her
in the danger of such connexions ; and to prove that the
affection and confidence of the English could never be

ELIZABETH. 15

maintained, where they had such reason to apprehend CHAP.
that their interests would every moment be sacrificed to ._, X ^ I '_.
those of a foreign and hostile nation : that notwithstand- 1581
ing these great inconveniences, discovered by past experi-
ence, the house of Burgundy, it must be confessed, was
more popular in the nation than the family of France ;
and what was of chief moment, Philip was of the same
communion with Mary, and was connected with her by
this great band of interest and affection : and that, how-
ever the queen might remain childless, even though old
age should grow upon her, the singular felicity and glory
of her reign would preserve her from contempt : the
affections of her subjects, and those of all the Protestants
in Europe, would defend her from danger ; and her own
prudence, without other aid or assistance, would baffle all
the efforts of her most malignant enemies 6 .

These reflections kept the queen in great anxiety and
irresolution ; and she was observed to pass several nights
without any sleep or repose. At last her settled habits
of prudence and ambition prevailed over her temporary
inclination ; and having sent for the Duke of Anjou, she
had a long conference with him in private, where she
was supposed to have made him apologies for breaking
her former engagements. He expressed great disgust
on his leaving her ; threw away the ring which she had
given him ; and uttered many curses on the mutability
of women, and of islanders d . Soon after, he went over to
his government of the Netherlands ; lost the confidence
of the states, by a rash and violent attempt on their lib-
erties ; was expelled that country ; retired into France ;
and there died. The queen, by timely reflection, saved
herself from the numerous mischiefs which must have
attended so imprudent a marriage ; and the distracted
state of the French monarchy prevented her from feel-
ing any effects of that resentment which she had reason
to dread from the affront so wantonly put upon that
royal family.

The anxiety of the queen, from the attempts of the l5 . 82 -
English Catholics, never ceased during the whole course Scotland.
of her reign ; but the variety of revolutions which hap-

c Letters of the Sidneys, vol. i. p. 287, et seq. Cabala, p. 363.
d Camden, p. 486.

16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, pened in all the neighbouring kingdoms was the source,
^ LL sometimes of her hopes, sometimes of her apprehensions.

i5 88> This year the affairs of Scotland strongly engaged her
attention. The influence which the Earl of Lenox, and
James Stuart, who now assumed the title of Earl of Arran,
had acquired over the young king, was but a slender
foundation of authority, while the generality of the
nobles and all the preachers were so much discontented
with their administration. The assembly of the church
appointed a solemn fast; of which one of the avowed
reasons was, the danger to which the king was exposed
from the company of wicked persons 6 ; and on that day
the pulpits resounded with declamations against Lenox,

Aug. 23. Arran, and all the present counsellors. When the minds
of the people were sufficiently prepared by these lectures,
a conspiracy of the nobility was formed, probably with
the concurrence of Elizabeth, for seizing the person of
James at Ruthven, a seat of the Earl of Gowry's ; and
the design, being kept secret, succeeded without any op-
position. The leaders in this enterprise were the Earl
of Gowry himself, the Earl of Marre, the Lords Lindesey
and Boyd, the Masters of Glamis and Oliphant, the
Abbots of Dumfermling, Paisley, and Cambuskenneth.
The king wept when he found himself detained a priso-
ner; but the Master of Glamis said, "No matter for his
tears ; better that boys weep than bearded men :" an ex-
pression which James could never afterwards forgive f .
But, notwithstanding his resentment, he found it neces-
sary to the present necessity. He pretended an entire
acquiescence in the conduct of the associators ; acknow-
leged the detention of his person to be acceptable ser-
vice ; and agreed to summon both an assembly of the
church and a convention of estates, in order to ratify that
.enterprise.

The assembly, though they had established it as an
inviolable rule, that the king, on no account and on
no pretence, should ever intermeddle in ecclesiastical
matters, made no scruple of taking civil affairs under
their cognizance, and of deciding, on this occasion, that
the attempt of the conspirators was acceptable to all

Spotswood, p. 319. f Ibid. p. 320.

ELIZABETH. 17

that feared God, or tendered the preservation of the CHA^P.
king's person, and prosperous state of the realm. They ^1^_,
even enjoined all the clergy to recommend these senti- 1582
ments from the pulpit ; and they threatened with eccle-
siastical censures every man who should oppose the
authority of the confederated lords g . The convention,
being composed chiefly of these lords themselves, added
their sanction to these proceedings. Arran was confined
a prisoner in his own house : Lenox, though he had power
to resist, yet rather than raise a civil war, or be the cause
of bloodshed 11 , chose to retire into France, where he
soon after died. He persevered to the last in the Pro-
testant religion, to which James had converted him,
but which the Scottish clergy could never be persuaded
that he had sincerely embraced. The king sent for his
family, restored his son to his paternal honours and
estate, took care to establish the fortunes of all his other
children ; and to his last moments never forgot the early
friendship which he had borne their father : a strong
proof of the good dispositions of that prince 1 .

No sooner was this revolution known in England, than
the queen sent Sir Henry Gary and Sir Robert Bowes to
James, in order to congratulate him on his deliverance
from the pernicious counsels of Lenox and Arran; to
exhort him not to resent the seeming violence com-
mitted on him by the confederated lords ; and to procure
from him permission for the return of the Earl of Angus,
who, ever since Morton's fall, had lived in England.
They easily prevailed in procuring the recall of Angus ;
and as James suspected that Elizabeth had not been
entirely unacquainted with the project of his detention,
he thought proper before the English ambassadors to
dissemble his resentment against the authors of it.
Soon after, La Mothe-Fenelon and Menneville appeared 1583 -
as ambassadors from France : their errand was to in-
quire concerning the situation of the king, make pro-
fessions of their master's friendship, confirm the ancient
league with France, and procure an accommodation
between James and the Queen of Scots. This last
proposal gave great umbrage to the clergy; and the

* Spotswood, p. 322. h Heylin's Hist. Presbyter, p. 277. Spotswood.

i Ibid. p. 328.

18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, assembly voted the settling of terms between the mother
XLL and son to be a most wicked undertaking. The pulpits
resounded with declamations against the French am-
bassadors ; particularly Fenelon, whom they called the
messenger of the bloody murderer, meaning the Duke
of Guise : and as that minister, being knight of the
Holy Ghost, wore a white cross on his shoulder, they
commonly denominated it, in contempt, the badge of
Antichrist. The king endeavoured, though in vain, to
repress these insolent reflections ; but in order to make
the ambassadors some compensation, he desired the
magistrates of Edinburgh to give them a splendid dinner
before their departure. To prevent this entertainment,
the clergy appointed that very day for a public fast;
and finding that their orders were not regarded, they
employed their sermons in thundering curses on the
magistrates, who, by the king's direction, had put this
mark of respect on the ambassadors. They even pur-
sued them afterwards with the censures of the church ;
and it was with difficulty they were prevented from
issuing the sentence of excommunication against them,
on account of their submission to royal, preferably to
clerical, authority 1 ".

What increased their alarm with regard to an accom-
modation between James and Mary was, that the Eng-
lish ambassadors seemed to concur with the French
in this proposal; and the clergy were so ignorant as
to believe the sincerity of the professions made by the
f rmer - The Queen of Scots had often made overtures
Elizabeth, to Elizabeth, which had been entirely neglected; but
hearing of James's detention, she wrote a letter in a
more pathetic and more spirited strain than usual;
craving the assistance of that princess both for her own
and her son's liberty. She said, that the account of the
prince's captivity had excited her most tender concern ;
and the experience which she herself, during so many
years, had of the extreme infelicity attending that situa-
tion, had made her the more apprehensive lest a like
fate should pursue her unhappy offspring : that the long
train of injustice which she had undergone, the calum-
nies to which she had been exposed, were so grievous,

k Spotswood, p. 324.

ELIZABETH. 19

that, finding no place for right or truth among men, she CHAP.
was reduced to make her last appeal to Heaven, the ^J ^ L _ v
only competent tribunal between princes of equal juris- 1583
diction, degree, and dignity : that after her rebellious
subjects, secretly instigated by Elizabeth's ministers,
had expelled her the throne, had confined her in prison,
had pursued her with arms, she had voluntarily thrown
herself under the protection of England ; fatally allured
by those reiterated professions of amity which had been
made her, and by her confidence in the generosity of a
friend, an ally, and a kinswoman : that, not content
with excluding her from her presence, with supporting
the usurpers of her throne, with contributing to the
destruction of her faithful subjects, Elizabeth had re-
duced her to a worse captivity than that from which
she had escaped, and had made her this cruel return
for the unlimited confidence which she had reposed in
her : that though her resentment of such severe usage
had never carried her farther than to use some disap-
pointed efforts for her deliverance, unhappy for herself,
and fatal to others, she found the rigours of confine-
ment daily multiplied upon her, and at length carried
to such a height, that it surpassed the bounds of all
human patience any longer to endure them : that she
was cut off from all communication, not only with the
rest of mankind, but with her only son ; and her ma-
ternal fondness, which was now more enlivened by their
unhappy sympathy in situation, and was her sole re-
maining attachment to this world, deprived even of that
melancholy solace which letters or messages could give :
that the bitterness of her sorrows, still more than her
close confinement, had preyed upon her health, and had
added the insufferable weight of bodily infirmity to all
those other calamities under which she laboured : that
while the daily experience of her maladies opened to
her the comfortable prospect of an approaching deliver-
ance into a region where pain and sorrow are no more,
her enemies envied her that last consolation ; and,
having secluded her from every joy on earth, had done
w r hat in them lay to debar her from all hopes in her
future and eternal existence : that the exercise of her
religion was refused her ; the use of those sacred rites

2Q HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, in which she had been educated ; the commerce with
XLL those holy ministers whom Heaven had appointed to
receive the acknowledgment of our transgressions, and
to seal our penitence by a solemn re-admission into
heavenly favour and forgiveness : that it was in vain
to complain of the rigours of persecution exercised in
other kingdoms, when a queen and an innocent woman
was excluded from an indulgence which never yet, in
the most barbarous countries, had been denied to the
meanest and most obnoxious malefactor : that could she
ever be induced to descend from that royal dignity in
which Providence had placed her, or depart from her
appeal to Heaven, there was only one other tribunal to
which she could appeal from all her enemies ; to the
justice and humanity of Elizabeth's own breast, and to
that lenity which, uninfluenced by malignant counsel,
she would naturally be induced to exercise towards her :
and that she finally entreated her to resume her natural
disposition, and to reflect on the support, as well as
comfort, which she might receive from her son and her-
self, if, joining the obligations of gratitude to the ties of
blood, she would deign to raise them from their present
melancholy situation, and reinstate them in that liberty
and authority to which they were entitled 1 .

Elizabeth was engaged to obstruct Mary's restoration,
chiefly because she foresaw an unhappy alternative at-
tending that event. If this princess recovered any con-
siderable share of authority in Scotland, her resentment,
ambition, zeal, and connexions both domestic and
foreign, might render her a dangerous neighbour to
England, and enable her, after suppressing the Pro-
testant party among her subjects, to revive those pre-
tensions which she had formerly advanced to the crown,
and which her partisans in both kingdoms still supported
with great industry and assurance. If she were rein-
stated in power with such strict limitations as could not
be broken, she might be disgusted with her situation
and, flying abroad, form more desperate attempts than
any sovereign who had a crown to hazard would willingly
undertake. Mary herself, sensible of these difficulties,
and convinced by experience that Elizabeth would for

1 Camden, p. 489.

ELIZABETH. 21

ever debar her the throne, was now become more humble CHAP.
in her wishes ; and as age and infirmities had repressed ^ ^
those sentiments of ambition by which she had formerly 1583
been so much actuated, she was willing to sacrifice all
her hopes of grandeur, in order to obtain a little liberty :
a blessing to which she naturally aspired with the
fondest impatience. She proposed, therefore, that she
should be associated with her son in the title to the
crown of Scotland, but that the administration should
remain solely in him ; and she was content to live in
England in a private station, and even under a kind of
restraint ; but with some more liberty, both for exercise
and company, than she had enjoyed since the first dis-
covery of her intrigues with the Duke of Norfolk. But
Elizabeth, afraid lest such a loose method of guarding
her would facilitate her escape into France or Spain, or,
at least, would encourage and increase her partisans, and
enable her to conduct those intrigues to which she had
already discovered so strong a propensity, was secretly
determined to deny her requests; and, though she
feigned to assent to them, she well knew how to disap-
point the expectations of the unhappy princess. While
Lenox maintained his authority in Scotland, she never
gave any reply to all the applications made to her by
the Scottish queen m : at present, when her own creatures
had acquired possession of the government, she was re-
solved to throw the odium of refusal upon them ; and
pretending that nothing farther was required to a perfect
accommodation, than the concurrence of the council of
state in Scotland, she ordered her ambassador, Bowes,
to open the negotiation for Mary's liberty, and her asso-
ciation with her son in the title to the crown. Though
she seemed to make this concession to Mary, she re-
fused her the liberty of sending any ambassador of her
own; and that princess could easily conjecture from
this circumstance what would be the result of the pre-
tended negotiation. The privy council of Scotland,
instigated by the clergy, rejected all treaty ; and James,
who was now a captive in their hands, affirmed, that he
had never agreed to an association with his mother, and

m Jebb, vol. ii. p. 540.

22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, that the matter had never gone farther than some loose
XLL proposals for that purpose n .

The affairs of Scotland remained not long in the
present situation. James, impatient of restraint, made
his escape from his keepers ; and, flying to St. Andrew's,
summoned his friends and partisans to attend him.
The Earls of Argyle, Marshal, Montrose, and Rothes,
hastened to pay their duty to their sovereign ; and the
opposite party found themselves unable to resist so
powerful a combination. They were offered a pardon
upon their submission, and an acknowledgment of their
fault in seizing the king's person, and restraining him
from his liberty. Some of them accepted of the
terms : the greater number, particularly Angus, Hamil-
ton, Marre, Glamis, left the country, and took shelter
in Ireland or England, where they were protected by
Elizabeth. The Earl of Arran was recalled to court ;
and the malecontents, who could not brook the autho-
rity of Lenox, a man of virtue and moderation, found
that by their resistance they had thrown all power into
the hands of a person whose counsels were as violent as
his manners were profligate .

Elizabeth wrote a letter to James ; in which she
quoted a moral sentence from Isocrates, and indirectly
reproached him with inconstancy, and a breach of his
engagements. James, in his reply, justified his mea-
sures; and retaliated by turning two passages of Iso-
crates against her p . She next sent Walsingham on an
embassy to him ; and her chief purpose in employing
that aged minister in an errand where so little business
was to be transacted, was to learn, from a man of so
much penetration and experience, the real character of
James. This young prince possessed good parts, though
not accompanied with that vigour and industry which
his station required ; and as he excelled in general
discourse and conversation, Walsingham entertained a
higher idea of his talents than he was afterwards found,
when real business was transacted, to have fully merited q .
The account which he gave his mistress induced her to

* MS. in the Advocates' Library, A. 3. 28. p. 401, from the Cot. Lib. Calig. c. 9.

Spotswood, p. 325, 326, et seq.

P Melvil, p. 140, 141. Strype, vol. iii. p. 165.

<i Melvil, p. 148. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 530.

ELIZABETH. 23

treat James thenceforth with some more regard than CHAP.
she had hitherto been inclined to pay him.

The King of Scots, persevering in his present views, ^^^~
summoned a Parliament ; where it was enacted, that no
clergyman should presume in his sermons to utter false,
untrue, or scandalous speeches against the king, the
council, or the public measures, or to meddle, in an im-
proper manner, with the affairs of his majesty and the
states 1 . The clergy, finding that the pulpit would be
no longer a sanctuary for them, were extremely offended ;
they said that the king was become popish in his heart ;
and they gave their adversaries the epithets of gross
libertines, belly-gods, and infamous persons 8 . The vio-
lent conduct of Arran soon brought over the popularity
to their side. The Earl of Gowry, though pardoned for
the late attempt, was committed to prison, was tried on
some new accusations, condemned and executed. Many
innocent persons suffered from the tyranny of this fa-
vourite ; and the banished lords, being assisted by Eliza-
beth, now found the time favourable for the recovery of
their estates and authority. After they had been foiled
in one attempt upon Stirling, they prevailed in another ;
and, being admitted to the king's presence, were par-
doned and restored to his favour.

Arran was degraded from authority ; deprived of that
estate and title which he had usurped ; and the whole
country seemed to be composed to tranquillity. Eliza-
beth, after opposing, during some time, the credit of the
favourite, had found it more expedient, before his fall, to
compound all differences with him, by means of Davison,
a minister whom she sent to Scotland ; but having more
confidence in the lords whom she had helped to restore,
she was pleased with this alteration of affairs ; and main-
tained a good correspondence with the new court and
ministry of James.

These revolutions in Scotland would have been re- 00 ? 8 ? 1 -
garded as of small importance to the repose and security England,
of Elizabeth, had her own subjects been entirely united,
and had not the zeal of the Catholics, excited by con-
straint more properly than persecution, daily threatened
her with some dangerous insurrection. The vigilance

r Spotswood, p. 333. Ibid. p. 334.

94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, of the ministers, particularly of Burleigh and Walsing-
ham, was raised in proportion to the activity of the
malecontents ; and many arts, which had been blam-
able in a more peaceful government, were employed in
detecting conspiracies, and even discovering the secret
inclinations of men. Counterfeit letters were written
in the name of the Queen of Scots, or of the English
exiles, and privately conveyed to the houses of the Ca-
tholics: spies were hired to observe the actions and
discourse of suspected persons : informers were counte-
nanced : and though the sagacity of these two great
ministers helped them to distinguish the true from the
false intelligence, many calumnies were, no doubt,
hearkened to, and all the subjects, particularly the
Catholics, kept in the utmost anxiety and inquietude.
Henry Piercy, Earl of Northumberland, brother to the
earl beheaded some years before, and Philip Howard,
Earl of Arundel, son of the unfortunate Duke of Nor-
folk, fell under suspicion ; and the latter was, by order
of council, confined to his own house. Francis Throg-
morton, a private gentleman, was committed to custody,
on account of a letter which he had written to the
Queen of Scots, and which was intercepted. Lord
Paget and Charles Arundel, who had been engaged with
him in treasonable designs, immediately withdrew be-
yond sea. Throgmorton confessed that a plan for an
invasion and insurrection had been laid; and though,
on his trial, he was desirous of retracting this confession,
and imputing it to the fear of torture, he was found
guilty, and executed. Mendoza, the Spanish ambassa-
dor, having promoted this conspiracy, was ordered to
depart the kingdom ; and Wade was sent into Spain, to
excuse his dismission, and to desire the king to send
another ambassador in his place ; but Philip would not
so much as admit the English ambassador to his presence.
Creighton, a Scottish Jesuit, coming over on board a ves-
sel, which was seized, tore some papers, with an intention
of throwing them into the sea ; but the wind blowing
them back upon the ship, they were pieced together,
and discovered some dangerous secrets*.

Many of these conspiracies were, with great appear-

* Camden, p. 499.

ELIZABETH. 25

ance of reason, imputed to the intrigues of the Queen CHAP.
of Scots u ; and as her name was employed in all of them,^ _,
the council thought that they could not use too many 1584
precautions against the danger of her claims, and the
restless activity of her temper. She was removed from
under the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, though
vigilant and faithful in that trust, had also been indul-
gent to his prisoner, particularly with regard to air and
exercise : and she was committed to the custody of Sir
Amias Paulet, and Sir Drue Drury ; men of honour, but
inflexible in their care and attention. An association
was also set on foot by the Earl of Leicester and other
courtiers ; and as Elizabeth was beloved by the whole
nation, except the more zealous Catholics, men of all
ranks willingly flocked to the subscription of it. The
purport of this association was to defend the queen, to
revenge her death, or any injury committed against her,
and to exclude from the throne all claimants, what title
soever they might possess, by whose suggestion, or for
whose behoof, any violence should be offered to her
majesty w . The Queen of Scots was sensible that this
association was levelled against her ; and to remove all
suspicion from herself, she also desired to subscribe it.

Elizabeth, that she might the more discourage male- 23d Nov -

i i_ j.i ,1 n ,i . A Parlia-

contents, by showing them the concurrence of the nation men t.
in her favour, summoned a new Parliament ; and she
met with that dutiful attachment which she expected.
The association was confirmed by Parliament ; and a
clause was added, by which the queen was empowered
to name commissioners for the trial of any pretender to
the crown, who should attempt or imagine any invasion,
insurrection, or assassination against her : upon con-
demnation, pronounced by these commissioners, the
guilty person was excluded from all claim to the suc-
cession, and was farther punishable as her majesty should
direct. And for the greater security, a council of re-
gency, in case of the queen's violent death, was ap-
pointed to govern the kingdom, to settle the succession,
and to take vengeance for that act of treason x .

A severe law was also enacted against Jesuits and

" Strype, vol. iii. p. 246. w State Trials, vol. i. p. 122, 123.

* 27 Eliz. cap. 1.
VOL. IV. 3

2G HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, popish priests. It was ordained that they should depart
kingdom within forty days ; that those who should
remain beyond that time, or should afterwards return,
should be guilty of treason that those who harboured
or relieved them should be guilty of felony ; that those
who were educated in seminaries, if they returned not
in six months after notice given, and submitted not
themselves to the queen, before a bishop, or two jus-
tices, should be guilty of treason ; and that if any, so
submitting themselves, should within ten years approach
the court, or come within ten miles of it, their submis-
sion should be void 7 . By this law the exercise of the
Catholic religion, which had formerly been prohibited
under lighter penalties, and which was in many in-
stances connived at, was totally suppressed. In the
subsequent part of the queen's reign, the law was some-
times executed by the capital punishment of priests ;
and though the partisans of that princess asserted that
they were punished for their treason, not their religion,
the apology must only be understood in this sense, that
the law was enacted on account of the treasonable views
and attempts of the sect, not that every individual who
suffered the penalty of the law was convicted of trea-
son 2 . The Catholics, therefore, might now with justice
complain of a violent persecution ; which we may safely
affirm, in spite of the rigid and bigoted maxims of that
age, not to be the best method of converting them, or
of reconciling them to the established government and
religion.

The Parliament, besides arming the queen with these
powers, granted her a supply of one subsidy and two-
fifteenths. The only circumstance in which their pro-
ceedings were disagreeable to her, was an application
made by the Commons for a farther reformation in ec-
clesiastical matters. Yet even in this attempt, which
affected her as well as them in a delicate point, they
discovered how much they were overawed by her au-
thority. The majority of the House were puritans, or
inclined to that sect a ; but the severe reprimands which

y 27 Eliz. cap. 2.

z Some even of those who defend the queen's measures allow, that in ten years
fifty priests were executed, and fifty-five banished. Camden, p. 649.

a Besides the petition after-mentioned, another proof of the prevalence of the

ELIZABETH. 27

they had already, in former sessions, met with from the CHAP.
throne, deterred them from introducing any bill con-
cerning religion ; a proceeding which would have been 1584
interpreted as an encroachment on the prerogative :
they were content to proceed, by way of humble peti-
tion, and that not addressed to her majesty, which
would have given offence, but to the House of Lords,
or rather the bishops, who had a seat in that House,
and from whom alone they were willing to receive all
advances towards reformation 1 ": a strange departure
from what we now apprehend to be the dignity of the
Commons.

The Commons desired, in their humble petition, that
no bishop should exercise his function of ordination but
with the consent and concurrence of six presbyters : but
this demand, as it really introduced a change of eccle-
siastical government, was firmly rejected by the prelates.
They desired that no clergyman should be instituted
into any benefice without previous notice being given to
the parish, that they might examine whether there lay
any objection to his life or doctrine : an attempt towards
a popular model, which naturally met with the same
fate. In another article of the petition, they prayed that
the bishops should not insist upon every ceremony,
or deprive incumbents for omitting part of the service :
as if uniformity in public worship had not been esta-
blished by law ; or as if the prelates had been endowed
with a dispensing power. They complained of abuses
which prevailed in pronouncing the sentence of excom-
munication, and they entreated the reverend fathers to
think of some law for the remedy of these abuses ; im-
plying that those matters were too high for the Commons
of themselves to attempt.

But the most material article which the Commons
touched upon in their petition, was the court of eccle-
siastical commission and the oath, ex officio, as it was

puritans among the Commons was, their passing a bill for the reverent observance
of Sunday, which they termed the Sabbath, and the depriving the people of those
amusements which they were accustomed to take on that day. D'Ewes, p. 335.
It was a strong symptom of a contrary spirit in the Upper House, that they pro-

Sosed to add Wednesday to the fast-days, and to prohibit entirely the eating of
esh on that day. D'Ewes, p. 373.
b D'Ewes, p. 357.

siastical
court.

28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, called, exacted by that court. This is a subject of such
XLL importance as to merit some explanation.

The first primate after the queen's accession was
The'eccic- Parker ; a man rigid in exacting conformity to the esta-
blished worship, and in punishing, by fine or deprivation,
all the puritanical clergymen who attempted to innovate
any thing in the habits, ceremonies, or liturgy of the
church. He died in 1575 ; and was succeeded by Grin-
dal, who as he himself was inclined to the new sect, was
with great difficulty brought to execute the laws against
them, or to punish the nonconforming clergy. He de-
clined obeying the queen's orders for the suppression of
prophesy ing s, or the assemblies of the zealots in private
houses, which she apprehended had become so many
academies of fanaticism; and for this offence she had,
by an order of the star-chamber, sequestered him from
his archiepiscopal function, and confined him to his own
house. Upon his death, which happened in 1583 ; she
determined not to fall into the same error in her next
choice ; and she named Whitgift, a zealous churchman,
who had already signalized his pen in controversy, and
who, having in vain attempted to convince the puritans
by argument, was now resolved to open their eyes by
power, and by the execution of penal statutes. He in-
formed the queen that all the spiritual authority lodged
in the prelates was insignificant without the sanction of
the crown ; and as there was no ecclesiastical commission
at that time in force, he engaged her to issue a new one,
more arbitrary than any of the former, and conveying
more unlimited authority . She appointed forty-four
commissioners, twelve of whom were ecclesiastics ; three
commissioners made a quorum ; the jurisdiction of the
court extended over the whole kingdom, and over all
orders of men ; and every circumstance of its authority,
and all its methods of proceeding, were contrary to the
clearest principles of law and natural equity. The com-
missioners were empowered to visit and reform all errors,
heresies, schisms ; in a word, to regulate all opinions, as
well as to punish all breach of uniformity in the exercise
of public worship. They were directed to make inquiry,

c Neal's History of the Puritans, vol i. p. 410.

ELIZABETH. 29

not only by the legal methods of juries and witnesses, CHAP.
but by all other means and ways which they could de-
vise; that is, by the rack, by torture, by inquisition, by^^^"
imprisonment. Where they found reason to suspect any
person, they might administer to him an oath, called ex
officio, by which he was bound to answer all questions,
and might thereby be obliged to accuse himself or his
most intimate friend. The fines which they levied were
discretionary, and often occasioned the total ruin of the
offender, contrary to the established laws of the king-
dom. The imprisonment to which they condemned any
delinquent was limited by no rule but their own pleasure.
They assumed a power of imposing on the clergy what
new articles of subscription, and consequently of faith,
they thought proper. Though all other spiritual courts
were subject, since the reformation, to inhibitions from
the supreme courts of law, the ecclesiastical commis-
sioners were exempted from that legal jurisdiction, and
were liable to no control. And the more to enlarge their
authority, they were empowered to punish all incests,
adulteries, fornications ; all outrages, misbehaviours, and
disorders in marriage ; and the punishments which they
might inflict, were according to their wisdom, conscience,
and discretion. In a word, this court was a real inquisi-
tion, attended with all the iniquities, as well as cruelties,
inseparable from that tribunal. And as the jurisdiction
of the ecclesiastical court was destructive of all law, so
its erection was deemed by many a mere usurpation of
this imperious princess ; and had no other foundation
than a clause of a statute, restoring the supremacy to the
crown, and empowering the sovereign to appoint com-
missioners for exercising that prerogative. But preroga-
tive in general, especially the supremacy, was supposed
in that age to involve powers which no law, precedent,
or reason, could limit and determine.

But though the Commons, in their humble petition to
the prelates, had touched so gently and submissively on
the ecclesiastical grievances, the queen, in a speech from
the throne at the end of the session, could not forbear
taking notice of their presumption, and reproving them
for those murmurs, which, for fear of offending her, they
had pronounced so low, as not directly to reach her

: ;n HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. rov;il ears. After giving them some general thanks for
their attachment to her, and making professions of ailec-
on to her subjects, she told them that whoever found
fault with the church, threw a slander upon her, since
she was appointed by God supreme ruler over it, and no
heresies or schisms could prevail in the kingdom but by
her permission and negligence : that some abuses must
necessarily have place in every thing ; but she warned
the prelates to be watchful ; for if she found them care-
less of their charge, she was fully determined to depose
them: that she was commonly supposed to have em-
ployed herself in many studies, particularly philosophical,
(by which I suppose she meant theological,) and she
would confess that few, whose leisure had not allowed
them to make profession of science, had read or reflected
more : that as she could discern the presumption of
many, in curiously canvassing the Scriptures, and starting
innovations, she would no longer endure this licentious-
ness ; but meant to guide her people, by God's rule, in
the just mean between the corruptions of Rome, and the
errors of modern sectaries : and that as the Romanists
were the inveterate enemies of her person, so the other
innovators were dangerous to all kingly government;
and, under colour of preaching the word of God, pre-
sumed to exercise their private judgment, and to censure
the actions of the prince d .

From the whole of this transaction we may observe,
that the Commons, in making their general application
to the prelates, as well as in some particular articles of
their petition, showed themselves wholly ignorant, no
less than the queen, of the principles of liberty, and a
legal constitution. And it may not be unworthy of
remark, that Elizabeth, so far from yielding to the dis-
pleasure of the Parliament against the ecclesiastical com-
mission, granted, before the end of her reign, a new com-
mission ; in which she enlarged, rather than restrained,
the powers of the commissioners 6 .

During this session of Parliament there was discovered
a conspiracy, which much increased the general animosity
against the Catholics, and still farther widened the breach

d See note [B], at the end of the volume.
e Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 292. 386. 400.

ELIZABETH. 31

between the religious parties. William Parry, a Catholic CHAP.
gentleman, had received the queen's pardon for a crime, ._^ I '_^
by which he was exposed to capital punishment ; and, 1584
having obtained permission to travel, he retired to Milan,
and made open profession of his religion, which he had
concealed while he remained in England. He was here
persuaded by Palmio, a Jesuit, that he could not perform
a more meritorious action than to take away the life of
his sovereign and his benefactress; the nuncio, Cam-
peggio, when consulted, approved extremely of this pious
undertaking; and Parry, though still agitated with
doubts, came to Paris, with an intention of passing over
to England, and executing his bloody purpose. He w r as
here encouraged in the design by Thomas Morgan, a
gentleman of great credit in the party ; and though
Watts and some other Catholic priests told him that the
enterprise was criminal and impious, he preferred the
authority of Raggazzoni, the nuncio at Paris, and de-
termined to persist in his resolution. He here wrote a
letter to the pope, which was conveyed to Cardinal Conio ;
he communicated his intention to the holy father ; and
craved his absolution and paternal benediction. He re-
ceived an answer from the cardinal, by which he found
that his purpose was extremely applauded ; and he came
over to England with a full design of carrying it into
execution. So deeply are the sentiments of morality
engraved in the human breast, that it is difficult even
for the prejudices of false religion totally to efface them;
and this bigoted assassin resolved, before he came to ex-
tremities, to try every other expedient for alleviating the
persecutions under which the Catholics at that time
laboured. He found means of being introduced to the
queen ; assured her that many conspiracies were formed
against her : and exhorted her, as she tendered her life,
to give the Romanists some more indulgence in the ex-
ercise of their religion : but, lest he should be tempted,
by the opportunity, to assassinate her, he always came
to court unprovided with every offensive weapon. He
even found means to be elected member of Parliament,
and having made a vehement harangue against the severe
laws enacted this last session, was committed to custody
for his freedom, and sequestered from the House. His

32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, failure in these attempts comfirmed him the more in his
XLI. f ormer resolution; and he communicated his intention

^^^ to Nevil, who entered zealously into the design, and was
determined to have a share in the merits of its execu-
tion. A book, newly published by Dr. Allen, afterwards
created a cardinal, served farther to efface all their
scruples with regard to the murder of an heretical
prince ; and having agreed to shoot the queen while she
should be taking the air on horseback, they resolved, if
they could not make their escape, to sacrifice their lives in
fulfilling a duty so agreeable, as they imagined, to the
will of God and to true religion. But while they were
watching an opportunity for the execution of their pur-
pose, the Earl of Westmoreland happened to die in
exile ; and as Nevil was next heir to that family, he
began to entertain hopes, that, by doing some acceptable
service to the queen, he might recover the estate and
honours, which had been forfeited by the rebellion of
the last earl. He betrayed the whole conspiracy to the
ministers ; and Parry, being thrown into prison, confessed
the guilt both to them and to the jury who tried him.
The letter from Cardinal Como, being produced in court,
put Parry's narrative beyond all question; and that
criminal, having received sentence of death f , suffered the
punishment which the law appointed for his treasonable
conspiracy 2 .

These bloody designs now appeared everywhere as the
result of that bigoted spirit by which the two religions,
especially the Catholic, were at this time actuated. Somer-
ville, a gentleman of the county of Warwick, somewhat
disordered in his understanding, had heard so much of
the merit attending the assassination of heretics and per-
secutors, that he came to London with a view of murder-
ing the queen; but having betrayed his design by some
extravagances, he was thrown into prison, and there

The affairs perished by a voluntary death h . About the same time,

Countries? Baltazar Gerard, a Burgundian, undertook and executed
the same design against the Prince of Orange ; and that
great man perished at Delft by the hands of a desperate
assassin, who, with a resolution worthy of a better cause,

f State Trials, vol. i. p. 103, et seq. Strype, vol. iii. p. 255, et seq.

e See note [CJ, at the end of the volume* t Camden, p. 495.

ELIZABETH. 33

sacrificed his own life in order to destoy the famous CHAP.
restorer and protector of religious liberty. The Flemings, vJ^Q
who regarded that prince as their father, were filled with 1584
great sorrow, as well when they considered the miserable
end of so brave a patriot, as their own folorn condition
from the loss of so powerful and prudent a leader, and
from the rapid progress of the Spanish arms. The
Prince of Parina had made every year great advances
upon them, had reduced several of the provinces to
obedience, and had laid close siege to Antwerp, the
richest and most populous city of the Netherlands, whose
subjection, it was foreseen, w r ould give a mortal blow to
the already declining affairs of the revolted provinces.
The only hopes which remained to them arose from the
prospect of foreign succour. Being well acquainted with
the cautious and frugal maxims of Elizabeth, they ex-
pected better success in France ; and, in the view of
engaging Henry to embrace their defence, they ten-
dered him the sovereignty of their provinces. But
the present condition of that monarchy obliged the king
to reject so advantageous an offer. The Duke of Anjou's
death, which he thought would have tended to restore
public tranquillity, by delivering him from the intrigues
of that prince, plunged him into the deepest distress;
and the King of Navarre, a professed Hugonot, being
next heir to the crown, the Duke of Guise took thence
occasion to revive the catholic league, and to urge Henry,
by the most violent expedients, to seek the exclusion of
that brave and virtuous prince. Henry himself, though
a zealous Catholic, yet, because he declined complying
with their precipitate measures, became an object of aver-
sion to the league ; and as his zeal in practising all the
superstitious observances of the Eomish church, was
accompanied with a very licentious conduct in private
life, the Catholic faction, in contradiction to universal ex-
perience, embraced thence the pretext of representing his
devotion as mere deceit and hypocrisy. Finding his
authority to decline, he was obliged to declare war
against the Hugonots, and to put arms into the hands of
the league, whom, both on account of their dangerous
pretensions at home, and their close alliance with Philip,
he secretly regarded as his most dangerous enemies.

34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. Constrained by the same policy, he dreaded the danger
XLL of associating himself with the revolted Protestants in the
^^^ Low Countries, and was obliged to renounce that inviting
opportunity of revenging himself for all the hostile in-
trigues and enterprises of Philip.

The states, reduced to this extremity, sent over a solemn
embassy to London, and made anew an offer to the queen,
of acknowledging her for their sovereign, on condition
of obtaining her protection and assistance. Elizabeth's
\visest counsellors were divided in opinion with regard to
the conduct which she should hold in this critical and
important emergence. Some advised her to reject the
offer of the states, and represented the imminent dangers,
as well as injustice, attending the acceptance of it. They
said, that the suppression of rebellious subjects was the
common cause of all sovereigns, and any encouragement
given to the revolt of the Flemings might prove the ex-
ample of a like pernicious licence to the English : that,
though princes were bound by the laws of the Supreme
Being not to oppress their subjects, the people never
were entitled to forget all duty to their sovereign,
or transfer, from every fancy or disgust, or even from the
justest ground of complaint, their obedience to any other
master : that the queen, in the succours hitherto afforded
the Flemings, had considered them as labouring under
oppression, not as entitled to freedom : and had intended
only to admonish Philip not to persevere in his tyranny,
without any view of ravishing from him those provinces
which he enjoyed by hereditary right from his ancestors :
that her situation in Ireland, and even in England, would
afford that powerful monarch sufficient opportunity of
retaliating upon her and she must thenceforth expect
that, instead of secretly fomenting faction, he would
openly employ his whole force in the protection and de-
fence of the Catholics : that the pope would undoubtedly
unite his spiritual arms to the temporal ones of Spain :
and that the queen would soon repent her making so
precarious an acquisition in foreign countries, by expos-
ing her *own dominions to the most imminent danger 1 .

Other counsellors of Elizabeth maintained a contrary
opinion. They asserted, that the queen had not, even

i Camden, p. 507. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4.

ELIZABETH. 35

from the beginning of her reign, but certainly had not CHAP.
at present, the choice, whether she would embrace friend- ,__" ^ '_,
ship or hostility with Philip : that, by the whole tenor 1585
of that prince's conduct, it appeared that his sole aims
were the extending of his empire, and the entire subjec-
tion of the Protestants, under the specious pretence of
maintaining the catholic faith: that the provocations
which she had already given him, joined to his general
scheme of policy, would for ever render him her impla-
cable enemy ; and as soon as he had subdued his revolted
subjects, he would undoubtedly fall, with the whole force
of his united empire, on her defenceless state : that the
only question was, whether she would maintain a war
abroad, and supported by allies, or wait till the subjection
of all the confederates of England should give her ene-
mies leisure to begin their hostilities in the bowels of the
kingdom : that the revolted provinces, though in a de-
clining condition, possessed still considerable force ; and
by the assistance of England, by the advantages of their
situation, and by their inveterate antipathy to Philip,
might still be enabled to maintain the contest against the
Spanish monarchy : that their maritime power, united to
the queen's, would give her entire security on the side
from which alone she could be assaulted, and would even
enable her to make inroads on Philip's dominions, both
in Europe and the Indies : that a war which was necessary
could never be unjust; and self-defence was concerned,
as well in preventing certain dangers at a distance, as in
repelling any immediate invasion : and that, since hostility
with Spain was the unavoidable consequence of the pre-
sent interests and situations of the two monarchies, it
were better to compensate that danger and loss by the
acquisition of such important provinces to the English
empire k .

Amidst these opposite counsels, the queen, apprehensive
of the consequences attending each extreme, was inclined
to steer a middle course ; and though such conduct is
seldom prudent, she was not, in this resolution, guided
by any prejudice or mistaken affection. She was deter-
mined not to permit, without opposition, the total sub-
jection of the revolted provinces, whose interests she

k Camden, p. 507. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4.

3(5 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, deemed so closely connected with her own : but foresee-
XLL ing that the acceptance of their sovereignty would oblige
her to employ her whole force in their defence, would
give umbrage to her neighbours, and would expose her
to the reproach of ambition and usurpation, imputations
which hitherto she had carefully avoided, sbe imme-
diately rejected this offer. She concluded a league with
the states on the following conditions : that she should
send over an army to their assistance, of five thousand
foot and a thousand horse, and pay them during the
war ; that the general, and two others whom she should
appoint, should be admitted into the council of the states:
that neither party should make peace without the con-
sent of the other ; that her expenses should be refunded
after the conclusion of the war ; and that the towns of
Flushing and the Brille, with the castle of Eammekins
should in the meantime be consigned into her hands, by
way of security.

The queen knew that this measure would immediately
engage her in open hostilities with Philip ; yet was not
she terrified with the view of the present greatness of
that monarch. The continent of Spain was at that time
rich and populous ; and the late addition of Portugal, be-
sides securing internal tranquillity, had annexed an opu-
lent kingdom to Philip's dominions, had made him master
of many settlements in the East Indies, and of the whole
commerce of those regions, and had much increased his
naval power, in which he was before chiefly deficient.
All the princes of Italy, even the pope and the court of
Kome, were reduced to a kind of subjection under him,
and seemed to possess their sovereignty on terms some-
what precarious. The Austrian branch in Germany, with
their dependent principalities, was closely connected with
him, and was ready to supply him with troops for every
enterprise. All the treasures of the West Indies were
in his possession ; and the present scarcity of the precious
metals in every country of Europe rendered the influence
of his riches the more forcible and extensive. The 'Nether-
lands seemed on the point of relapsing into servitude ;
and small hopes were entertained of their withstanding
those numerous and veteran armies which, under the
command of the most experienced generals, he employed

ELIZABETH. 37

against them. Even France, which was wont to counter- CHAP.

"VT T

balance the Austrian greatness, had lost all her force from,_ __^
intestine commotions ; and as the Catholics, the ruling 1585
party, were closely connected with him, he rather expected
thence an augmentation than a diminution of his power.
Upon the whole, such prepossessions were everywhere
entertained concerning the force of the Spanish monarchy,
that the King of Sweden, when he heard that Elizabeth
had openly embraced the defence of the revolted Flem-
ings, scrupled not to say, that she had now taken the
diadem from her head, and had ventured it upon the
doubtful chance of war 1 . Yet was this princess rather
cautious than enterprising in her natural temper : she
needed more to be impelled by the vigour, than restrained
by the prudence, of her ministers : but when she saw an
evident necessity, she braved danger with magnanimous
courage ; and trusting to her own consummate wisdom,
and to the affections, however divided, of her people, she
prepared herself to resist, and even to assault, the whole
force of the catholic monarch.

The Earl of Leicester was sent over to Holland at
the head of the English auxiliary force's. He carried
with him a splendid retinue ; being accompanied by the
young Earl of Essex, his son-in-law, the Lords Audley
and North, Sir William Eussel, Sir Thomas Shirley,
Sir Arthur Basset, Sir Walter Waller, Sir Gervase
Clifton, and a select troop of five hundred gentlemen.
He was received, on his arrival at Flushing, by his
nephew Sir Philip Sidney, the governor; and every
town through which he passed expressed their joy by
acclamations and triumphal arches, as if his presence
and the queen's protection had brought them the most
certain deliverance. The states, desirous of engaging
Elizabeth still farther in their defence, and knowing the
interest which Leicester possessed with her, conferred
on him the title of governor and captain-general of the
United Provinces, appointed a guard to attend him, and
treated him in some respects as their sovereign. But
this step had a contrary effect to what they expected.
The queen was displeased with the artifice of the states,
and the ambition of Leicester. She severely reprimanded

1 Camden, p. 508.
VOL. IV. 4

gg HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, both, and it was with some difficulty that, after many
XLL humble submissions, they were able to appease her.
~^7" America was regarded as the chief source of Philip's
Hostilities power, as w r ell as the most defenceless part of his domi-
wth Spain. niong . and Elizabet h ? finding that an open breach
with that monarch was unavoidable, resolved not to
leave him unmolested in that quarter. The great suc-
cess of the Spaniards and Portuguese in both Indies
had excited a spirit of emulation in England; and as
the progress of commerce, still more that of colonies,
is slow and gradual, it was happy that a war in this
critical period had opened a more flattering prospect
to the avarice and ambition of the English, and had
tempted them, by the view of sudden and exorbitant
profit, to engage in naval enterprises. A fleet of twenty
sail was equipped to attack the Spaniards in the West
Indies : two thousand three hundred volunteers, besides
seamen, engaged on board it; Sir Francis Drake was
appointed admiral ; Christopher Carlisle, commander of
Januar 6 ' ^ ie ^ u ^ f rces - They took St. Jago, near Cape Yerde,
mrj by surprise ; and found in it plenty of provisions, but no
riches. They sailed to Hispaniola ; and, easily making
themselves masters of St. Domingo by assault, obliged
the inhabitants to ransom their houses by a sum of money.
Carthagena fell next into their hands after some more
resistance, and was treated in the same manner. They
burned St. Anthony and St. Helens, two towns on the
coast of Florida. Sailing along the coast of Virginia,
they found the small remains of a colony which had
been planted there by Sir Walter Ealeigh, and which
had gone extremely to decay. This was the first at-
tempt of the English to form such settlements ; and
though they have since surpassed all European nations,
both in the situation of their colonies, and in the noble
principles of liberty and industry on which they are
founded, they had here been so unsuccessful, that the
miserable planters abandoned their settlements, and pre-
vailed on Drake to carry them with him to England.
He returned with so much riches as encouraged the
volunteers, and with such accounts of the Spanish weak-
ness in those countries as served extremely to inflame the
spirits of the nation to future enterprises. The great mor-

ELIZABETH. 39

tality which the climate had produced in his fleet was, as is CHAP.
usual, but a feeble restraint on the avidity and sanguine ,_ X] " L ^ y
hopes of young adventurers 01 . It is thought that Drake's 1586
fleet first introduced the use of tobacco into England.

The enterprises of Leicester were much less success-
ful than those of Drake. This man possessed neither
courage nor capacity equal to the trust reposed in him
by the queen ; and as he was the only bad choice she
made for any considerable employment, men naturally
believed that she had here been influenced by an affec-
tion still more partial than that of friendship. He
gained at first some advantage in an action against the
Spaniards : and threw succours into Grave, by which
that place was enabled to make a vigorous defence ; but
the cowardice of the governor, Van Hemert, rendered
all these efforts useless. He capitulated after a feeble
resistance ; and, being tried for his conduct, suffered a
capital punishment from the sentence of a court-martial.
The Prince of Parma next undertook the siege of Venlo,
which was surrendered to him after some resistance.
The fate of Nuys was more dismal, being taken by
assault while the garrison was treating of a capitulation.
Khimberg, which was garrisoned by twelve hundred
English, under the command of Colonel Morgan, was
afterwards besieged by the Spaniards ; and Leicester,
thinking himself too weak to attempt raising the siege,
endeavoured to draw off the Prince of Parma by forming
another enterprise. He first attacked Doesburgh, and
succeeded : he then sat down before Zutphen, which
the Spanish general thought so important a fortress
that he hastened to its relief. He made the Marquis
of Guasto advance with a convoy, which he intended
to throw into the place. They were favoured by a fog ;
but, falling by accident on a body of English cavalry,
a furious action ensued, in which the Spaniards were
worsted, and the Marquis of Gonzaga, an Italian noble-
man of great reputation and family, was slain. The
pursuit was stopped by the advance of the Prince of
Parma with the main body of the Spanish army ; and
the English cavalry, on their return from the field,
found their advantage more than compensated by the

m Camden, p. 509.

40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, loss of Sir Philip Sidney, who, being mortally wounded
XLL in the action, was carried off by the soldiers, and soon
'after died. This person is described by the writers of
that age as the most perfect model of an accomplished
gentleman that could be formed even by the wanton
imagination of poetry or fiction. Virtuous conduct,
polite conversation, heroic valour, and elegant erudition,
all concurred to render him the ornament and delight of
the English court ; and as the credit which he possessed
with the queen and the Earl of Leicester was wholly
employed in the encouragement of genius and literature,
his praises have been transmitted with advantage to pos-
terity. No person was so low as not to become an ob-
ject of his humanity. After this last action, while he
was lying on the field mangled with wounds, a bottle of
water was brought him to relieve his thirst ; but observ-
ing a soldier near him in a like miserable condition, he
said, This man's necessity is still greater than mine ; and
resigned to him the bottle of water. The King of Scots,
struck with admiration of Sidney's virtue, celebrated his
memory in a copy of Latin verses, which he composed
on the death of that young hero.

The English, though a long peace had deprived them
of all experience, were strongly possessed of military
genius ; and the advantages gained by the Prince of
Parma were not attributed to the superior bravery and
discipline of the Spaniards, but solely to the want of
military abilities in Leicester. The states were much
discontented with his management of the war, still more
with his arbitrary and imperious conduct, and at the end
of the campaign they applied to him for a redress of all
their grievances. * But Leicester, without giving them
any satisfaction, departed soon after for England 11 .

The queen, while she provoked so powerful an enemy
as the King of Spain, was not forgetful to secure herself
on the side of Scotland ; and she endeavoured both to
cultivate the friendship and alliance of her kinsman
James, and to remove all grounds of quarrel between
them. An attempt which she had made some time
before was not well calculated to gain the confidence
of that prince. She had despatched Wotton as her

n Camden, p. 512. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4. -

ELIZABETH. 41

ambassador to Scotland ; but though she gave him pri- CHAP.
vate instructions with regard to her affairs, she informed v _ '_,
James, that when she had any political business to discuss 1586>
with him she would employ another minister ; that this
man was not fitted for serious negotiations ; and that
her chief purpose in sending him was to entertain the
king with witty and facetious conversation, and to par-
take, without reserve, of his pleasures and amusements.
Wotton was master of profound dissimulation, and knew
how to cover, under the appearance of a careless gaiety,
the deepest designs and most dangerous artifices. When
but a youth of twenty, he had been employed by his
uncle, Dr. Wotton, ambassador in France, during the
reign of Mary, to ensnare the constable, Montmorency ;
and had not his purpose been frustrated by pure acci-
dent, his cunning had prevailed over all the caution and
experience of that aged minister. It is no wonder that,
after years had improved him in all the arts of deceit,
he should gain an ascendant over a young prince of so
open and unguarded a temper as James ; especially when
the queen's recommendation prepared the way for his
reception. He was admitted into all the pleasures of
the king ; made himself master of his secrets ; and had
so much the more authority with him in political trans-
actions, as he did not seem to pay the least attention
to these matters. The Scottish ministers, who ob-
served the growing interest of this man, endeavoured to
acquire his friendship ; and scrupled not to sacrifice to
his intrigues the most essential interests of their master.
Elizabeth's usual jealousies with regard to her heirs
began now to be levelled against James ; and as that
prince had attained the years proper for marriage, she
was apprehensive lest, by being strengthened with chil-
dren arid alliances, he should acquire the greater interest
and authority with her English subjects. She directed
Wotton to form a secret concert with some Scottish
noblemen, and to procure their promise that James,
during three years, should not on any account be per-
mitted to marry. . In consequence of this view, they en-
deavoured to embroil him with the King of Denmark,
who had sent ambassadors to Scotland on pretence of
demanding restitution of the Orkneys, but really with a

2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, view of opening a proposal of marriage between James
XLL and his daughter. Wotton is said to have employed
^~' his intrigues to purposes still more dangerous. He
formed, it is pretended, a conspiracy with some male-
contents to seize the person of the king, and to deliver
him into the hands of Elizabeth, who would probably
have denied all concurrence in the design, but would
have been sure to retain him in perpetual thraldom, if
not captivity. The conspiracy was detected, and Wotton
fled hastily from Scotland, without taking leave of the
king .

James's situation obliged him to dissemble his resent-
ment of this traitorous attempt, and his natural temper
inclined him soon to forgive and forget it. The queen
found no difficulty in renewing the negotiations for a
strict alliance between Scotland and England ; and the
more effectually to gain the prince's friendship, she
granted him a pension equivalent to his claim on the
inheritance of his grandmother, the Countess of Lenox,
lately deceased p . A league was formed between Eliza-
beth and James for the mutual defence of their domi-
nions, and of their religion, now menaced by the open
combination of all the catholic powers of Europe. It
was stipulated that, if Elizabeth were invaded, James
should aid her with a body of two thousand horse and
five thousand foot ; that Elizabeth, in a like case, should
send to his assistance three thousand horse and six
thousand foot ; that the charge of these armies should
be defrayed by the prince who demanded assistance ;
that if the invasion should be made upon England,
within sixty miles of the frontiers of Scotland, this latter
kingdom should march its whole force to the assistance
of the former ; and that the present league should super-
sede all former alliances of either state with any foreign
kingdom, so far as religion was concerned q .

By this league James secured himself against all at-
tempts from abroad, opened a way for acquiring the con-
fidence and affections of the English, and might enter-
tain some prospect of domestic tranquillity, which, while
he lived on bad terms with Elizabeth, he could never

o Melvil. p Spotswood, p. 351.

<i Spotswood, p. 349. Camden, p. 513. Rymer, torn. xv. p. 803.

ELIZABETH. 43

expect long to enjoy. Besides the turbulent disposition CHAP.
and inveterate feuds of the nobility, ancient maladies of ^^^
the Scottish government, the spirit of fanaticism had 1586
introduced a new disorder ; so much the more dangerous,
as religion, when corrupted by false opinion, is not re-
strained by any rules of morality, and is even scarcely
to be accounted for in its operations by any principles
of ordinary conduct and policy. The insolence of the
preachers, who triumphed in their dominion over the
populace, had, at this time, reached an extreme height ;
and they carried their arrogance so far, not only against
the king, but against the whole civil power, that they
excommunicated the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, be-
cause he had been active in Parliament for promoting a
law which restrained their seditious sermons r . Nor
could that prelate save himself by any expedient from
this terrible sentence, but by renouncing all pretensions
to ecclesiastical authority. One Gibson said in the pulpit,
that Captain James Stuart (meaning the late Earl of
Arran) and his wife, Jezebel, had been deemed the chief
persecutors of the church ; but it was now seen that the
king himself was the great offender ; and for this crime
the preacher denounced against him the curse which fell
on Jeroboam, that he should die childless, and be the last
of his race 8 .

The secretary Thirlstone, perceiving the king so much
molested with ecclesiastical affairs, and with the refrac-
tory disposition of the clergy, advised him to leave them
to their own courses ; for that in a short time they would
become so intolerable, that the people would rise against
them, and drive them out of the country. " True," re-
plied the king : " if I purposed to undo the church and
religion, your counsel were good ; but my intention is to
maintain both ; therefore cannot I suffer the clergy to
follow such a conduct as will, in the end, bring religion
into contempt and derision V

* Spotswood, p. 345, 346. Ibid. p. 344. * Ibid. p. 348.

44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTEE XLH.

ZEAL OF THE CATHOLICS. BABINGTON'S CONSPIRACY. MART ASSENTS TO
THE CONSPIRACY. THE CONSPIRATORS SEIZED AND EXECUTED. EESOLU-

TION TO TRY THE QUEEN OP SCOTS. THE COMMISSIONERS PREVAIL ON HER
TO SUBMIT TO THE TRIAL. THE TRIAL. SENTENCE AGAINST MARY. IN-
TERPOSITION OF KING JAMES. KEASONS FOR THE EXECUTION OF MARY.
THE EXECUTION. MARY'S CHARACTER. THE QUEEN'S AFFECTED SOR-
E0 w. DRAKE DESTROYS THE SPANISH FLEET AT CADIZ. PHILIP PROJECTS
THE INVASION OF ENGLAND. THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. PREPARATIONS
IN ENGLAND. THE ARMADA ARRIVES IN THE CHANNEL. DEFEATED. A
PARLIAMENT. EXPEDITION AGAINST PORTUGAL. AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND.

THE dangers which arose from the character, princi-
pies, and pretensions of the Queen of Scots, had very early
1586. engaged Elizabeth to consult, in her treatment of that
unfortunate princess, the dictates of jealousy and politics,
rather than of friendship or generosity : resentment of
this usage had pushed Mary into enterprises which had
nearly threatened the repose and authority of Elizabeth :
the rigour and restraint, thence redoubled upon the
captive queen a , still impelled her to attempt greater
extremities ; and while her impatience of confinement,
her revenge b , and her high spirit concurred with reli-
gious zeal, and the suggestions of desperate bigots, she
was at last engaged in designs which afforded her ene-
mies, who watched the opportunity, a pretence or reason
for effecting her final ruin.
Zeal of the The English seminary at Rheims had wrought them-

Cathohcs. , , . , ../, ., . .

selves up to a high pitch ol rage and animosity against
the queen. The recent persecutions from which they
had escaped ; the new rigours which they knew awaited
them in the course of their missions ; the liberty, which
at present they enjoyed, of declaiming against that prin-
cess ; and the contagion of that religious fury which every-
where surrounded them in France : all these causes had
obliterated with them every maxim of common sense,
and every principle of morals or humanity. Intoxicated

a Digges, p. 139. Haynes, p. 607.

b See note [D], at the end of the volume.

ELIZABETH. 45

with admiration of the divine power and infallibility of CHAP.
the pope, they revered his bull, by which he excommu- v j~*'_,
nicated and deposed the queen ; and some of them had 1586
gone to that height of extravagance as to assert, that
that performance had been immediately dictated by the
Holy Ghost. The assassination of heretical sovereigns,
and of that princess in particular, was represented as the
most meritorious of all enterprises; and they taught,
that whoever perished in such pious attempts enjoyed,
without dispute, the glorious and never-fading crown of
martyrdom. By such doctrines, they instigated John
Savage, a man of desperate courage, who had served
some years in the Low Countries under the Prince of
Parma, to attempt the life of Elizabeth ; and this assas-
sin, having made a vow to persevere in his design, w r as
sent over to England, and recommended to the confi-
dence of the more zealous Catholics.

About the same time, John Ballard, a priest of that
seminary, had returned to Paris, from his mission in
England and Scotland ; and as he had observed a spirit
of mutiny and rebellion to be very prevalent among the
Catholic devotees in these countries, he had founded on
that disposition the project of dethroning Elizabeth, and
of restoring, by force of arms, the exercise of the ancient
religion c . The .situation of affairs abroad seemed favour-
able to this enterprise. The pope, the Spaniard, the
Duke of Guise, concurring in interests, had formed a
resolution to make some attempt against England ; and
Mencloza, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, strongly en-
couraged Ballard to hope for succours from these princes.
Charles Paget alone, a zealous Catholic, and a devoted
partisan of the Queen of Scots, being well acquainted
with the prudence, vigour, and general popularity of
Elizabeth, always maintained, that so long as that prin-
cess was allowed to live, it was in vain to expect any
success from an enterprise upon England. Ballard, per-
suaded of this truth, saw more clearly the necessity of
executing the design formed at Eheims : he came over
to England in the disguise of a soldier, and assumed the
name of Captain Fortescue ; and he bent his endeavours

c Murden's State Papers, p. 517.

40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, to effect at once the project of an assassination, an insurrec-
XLIL tion, and an invasion 4 .

s y ' The first person to whom he addressed himself was

Bab?n Anthony Babington, of Dethic, in the county of Derby.

ton's c on- rp n ^ g young gentleman was of a good family, possessed
tacy ' a plentiful fortune, had discovered an excellent capacity,
and was accomplished in literature beyond most of his
years or station. Being zealously devoted to the Catholic
communion, he had secretly made a journey to Paris
some time before; and had fallen into intimacy with
Thomas Morgan, a bigoted fugitive from England, and
with the Bishop of Glasgow, Mary's ambassador at the
court of France. By continually extolling the amiable
accomplishments and heroical virtues of that princess,
they impelled the sanguine and unguarded mind of
young Babington to make some attempt for her service ;
and they employed every principle of ambition, gallantry,
and religious zeal, to give him a contempt of those
dangers which attended any enterprise against the vigi-
lant government of Elizabeth. Finding him well dis-
posed for their purpose, they sent him back to England,
and secretly, unknown to himself, recommended him to
the Queen of Scots, as a person worth engaging in her
service. She wrote him a letter full of friendship and
confidence ; and Babington, ardent in his temper, and
zealous in his principles, thought that these advances
now bound him in honour to devote himself entirely to
the service of that unfortunate princess. During some
time, he had found means of conveying to her all her
foreign correspondence ; but after she was put under the
custody of Sir Amias Paulet, and reduced to a more
rigorous confinement, he experienced so much difficulty
and danger in rendering her this service, that he had
desisted from every attempt of that nature.

When Ballard began to open his intentions to Babing-
ton, he found his zeal suspended, not extinguished : his
former ardour revived on the mention of any enterprise
which seemed to promise success in the cause of Mary
and of the Catholic religion. He had entertained senti-
ments conformable to those of Paget, and represented
the folly of all attempts which, during the lifetime of

a Camden, p. 515.

ELIZABETH. 47

Elizabeth, could be formed against the established reli- CHAP.
gion and government of England. Ballard, encouraged ^^^^
by this hint, proceeded to discover to him the design 1586<
undertaken by Savage 6 ; and was well pleased to ob-
serve, that instead of being shocked with the project,
Babington only thought it not secure enough, when
entrusted to one single hand, and proposed to join five
others with Savage in this desperate enterprise.

In prosecution of these views, Babington employed
himself in increasing the number of his associates ; and
he secretly drew into the conspiracy many Catholic '
gentlemen discontented with the present government.
Barnwel, of a noble family in Ireland, Charnoc, a gen-
tleman of Lancashire, and Abington, whose father had
been cofferer to the household, readily undertook the
assassination of the queen. Charles Tilney, the heir
of an ancient family, and Tichbourne, of Southampton,
when the design was proposed to them, expressed some
scruples, which were removed by the arguments of
Babington and Ballard. Savage alone refused, during
some time, to share the glory of the enterprise with any
others f ; he challenged the whole to himself; and it was
with some difficulty he was induced to depart from this
preposterous ambition.

The deliverance of the Queen of Scots at the very
same instant when Elizabeth should be assassinated was
requisite for effecting the purpose of the conspirators;
and Babington undertook, with a party of a hundred
horse, to attack her guards while she should be taking
the air on horseback. In this enterprise he engaged
Edward Windsor, brother to the lord of that name,
Thomas Salisbury, Kobert Gage, John Travers, John
Jones, and Henry Donne ; most of them men of family
and interest. The conspirators much wanted, but could
not find, any nobleman of note whom they might place
at the head of the enterprise ; but they trusted that the
great events of the queen's death and Mary's deliverance
would rouse all the zealous Catholics to arms ; and that
foreign forces, taking advantage of the general confusion,
would easily fix the Queen of Scots on the throne, and
re-establish the ancient religion.

e Camden, p. 515. State Trials, p. 114. f State Trials, vol. i. p. 111.

8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. These desperate projects had not escaped the vigilance
XLII. O f Elizabeth's council, particularly of Walsingliam, secre-
of state. That artful minister had engaged Maud,
a Catholic priest, whom he retained in pay, to attend
Ballard in his journey to France, and had thereby got a
hint of the designs entertained by the fugitives. Polly,
another of his spies, had found means to insinuate him-
self among the conspirators in England; and though
not entirely trusted, had obtained some insight into
their dangerous secrets. But the bottom of the con-
spiracy was never fully known till GifFord, a seminary
priest, came over, and made a tender of his services to
Walsingham. By his means the discovery became of
the utmost importance, and involved the fate of Mary,
as well as of those zealous partisans of that princess.

Babington and his associates, having laid such a plan
as they thought promised infallible success, were impa-
tient to communicate the design to the Queen of Scots,
and to obtain her approbation and concurrence. For this
service they employed GifFord, who immediately applied
to Walsingham, that the interest of that minister might
forward his secret correspondence with Mary. Walsing-
ham proposed the matter to Paulet, and desired him to
connive at Gifford's corrupting one of his servants ; but
Paulet, averse to the introducing of such a pernicious
precedent into his family, desired that they would rather
think of some other expedient. Gifford found a brewer,
who supplied the family with ale, and bribed him to
convey letters to the captive queen. The letters, by
Paulet's contrivance, were thrust through a chink in the
wall; and answers were returned by the same con-
veyance.

Ballard and Babington were at first diffident of Gif-
ford's fidelity and to make trial of him, they gave him
only blank papers made up like letters : but finding by
the answers that these had been faithfully delivered,
they laid aside all farther scruple, and conveyed by his
hands the most criminal and dangerous parts of their
conspiracy. Babington informed Mary of the design laid
for a foreign invasion, the plan of an insurrection at home,
the scheme for her deliverance, and the conspiracy for
assassinating the usurper, by six noble gentlemen, as he

ELIZABETH. 49

termed them, all of them his private friends ; who, from CHAP.
the zeal which they bore to the catholic cause, and . J^ 11 ^
her majesty's service, would undertake the tragical 1586
execution. Mary replied, that she approved highly of Mary as-
the design; that the gentlemen might expect all the^* p *?
rewards which it should ever be in her power to confer ; rac J-
and that the death of Elizabeth was a necessary circum-
stance, before any attempts were made, either for her
own deliverance or an insurrection g . These letters, with
others to Mendoza, Charles Paget, the Archbishop of
Glasgow, and Sir Francis Inglefield, were carried by
Gifford to secretary Walsingham, were deciphered by the
art of Philips, his clerk, and copies taken of them. Wal-
singham employed another artifice in order to obtain full
insight into the plot : he subjoined to a letter of Mary's
a postscript in the same cipher, in which he made her
desire Babington to inform her of the names of the con-
spirators. The indiscretion of Babington furnished Wal-
singham with still another means of detection, as well as
of defence. That gentleman had caused a picture to be
drawn, where he himself was represented Banding amidst
the six assassins: and a motto was subjoined, expressing
that their common perils were the band of their confe-
deracy. A copy of this picture was brought to Elizabeth,
that she might know the assassins, and guard herself
against their approach to her person.

Meanwhile, Babington, anxious to ensure and hasten
the foreign succours, resolved to despatch Ballard into
France ; and he procured for him, under a feigned name,
a licence to travel. In order to remove from himself all
suspicion, he applied to Walsingham, pretended great
zeal for the queen's service, offered to go abroad, and
professed his intentions of employing the confidence
which he had gained among the Catholics to the detection
and disappointment of their conspiracies. Walsingham
commended his loyal purposes ; and promising his own
counsel and assistance in the execution of them, still fed
him with hopes, and maintained a close correspondence
with him. A warrant, meanwhile, was issued for seizing
Ballard; and this incident, joined to the consciousness
of guilt, begat in all the conspirators the utmost anxiety

g State Trials, vol. i. p. 135. Camden, p. 515.
VOL. IV. 5

50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, and concern. Some advised that they should immediately
XLII. ma k e their escape: others proposed that Savage and
^~^6 Charnoc should without delay execute their purpose
against Elizabeth ; and Babington, in prosecution of this
scheme, furnished Savage with money, that he might
buy good clothes, and thereby have more easy access to
the queen's person. Next day they began to apprehend
that they had taken the alarm too hastily ; and Babing-
ton, having renewed his correspondence with Walsing-
ham, was persuaded by that subtle minister, that the
seizure of Ballard had proceeded entirely from the usual
diligence of informers in the detection of popish and
seminary priests. He even consented to take lodgings
secretly in Walsingham's house, that they might have
more frequent conferences together, before his intended
departure for France ; but observing that he was watched
and guarded, he made his escape, and gave the alarm to
the other conspirators. They all took to flight, covered
themselves with several disguises, and lay concealed in
woods or barns ; but were soon discovered and thrown
The con- into prison. In their examinations they contradicted
seizedana each other ; and the leaders were obliged to make a full
executed, confession of the truth. Fourteen were condemned and
executed; of whom seven acknowledged the crime on
their trial ; the rest were convicted by evidence.
Sep. The lesser conspirators being despatched, measures

)er< were taken for the trial and conviction of the Queen of
Scots, on whose account and with whose concurrence
these attempts had been made against the life of the
queen and the tranquillity of the kingdom. Some of
Elizabeth's counsellors were averse to this procedure ;
and thought that the close confinement of a woman who
was become very sickly, and who would probably put a
speedy period to their anxiety by her natural death,
might give sufficient security to the government, without
attempting a measure of which there scarcely remains
any example in history. Leicester advised that Mary
should be secretly despatched by poison, and he sent a
divine to convince Walsingham of the lawfulness of that
action; but Walsingham declared his abhorrence of it,
and still insisted, in conjunction with the majority of the
counsellors, for the open trial of the Queen of Scots.

ELIZABETH. 51

The situation of England, and of the English ministers, CHAP.
had, indeed, been hitherto not a little dangerous. No^ ^
successor of the crown was declared; but the heir of 1586
blood, to whom the people in general were likely to
adhere, was, by education, an enemy to the national reli-
gion ; was, from multiplied provocations, an enemy to the
ministers and principal nobility; and their personal
safety, as well as the safety of the public, seemed to de-
pend alone on the queen's life, who was now somewhat
advanced in years. No wonder, therefore, that Eliza-
beth's counsellors, knowing themselves to be so obnoxious
to the Queen of Scots, endeavoured to push every mea-
sure to extremities against her, and were even more anx-
ious than the queen herself to prevent her from ever
mounting the throne of England.

Though all England was acquainted with the detection
of Babington's conspiracy, every avenue to the Queen of
Scots had been so strictly guarded, that she remained in
utter ignorance of the matter ; and it was a great surprise
to her, when Sir Thomas Gorges, by Elizabeth's orders,
informed her, that all her accomplices were discovered
and arrested. He chose the time for giving her this in-
telligence when she was mounted on horseback to go a
hunting; and she was not permitted to return to her
former place of abode, but was conducted from one gen-
tleman's house to another, till she was lodged in Fother-
ingay castle, in the county of Northampton, which it
was determined to make the last stage of her trial and
sufferings. Her two secretaries, Nau, a Frenchman, and
Curie, a Scot, were immediately arrested : all her papers
were seized, and sent up to the council: above sixty
different keys to ciphers were discovered : there were also
found many letters from persons beyond sea, and several
too from English noblemen, containing expressions of
respect and attachment. The queen took no notice of
this latter discovery; but the persons themselves, knowing
their correspondence to be detected, thought that they
had no other means of making atonement for their im-
prudence, than by declaring themselves thenceforth the
most inveterate enemies of the Queen of Scots h .

It was resolved to try Mary, not by the common Resolution

J J to try the

h Camclen, p. 518. Queen of

Scots.

52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, statute of treasons, but by the act which had passed the
XLII. f ormer year with a view to this very event ; and the queen,
in terms of that act, appointed a commission, consisting
of forty noblemen and privy-counsellors, and empowered
them to examine and pass sentence on Mary, whom she
denominated the late Queen of Scots, and heir to
James V. of Scotland. The commissioners came to
Fotheringay castle, and sent to her Sir 'Walter Mildmay,
Sir Amias Paulet, and Edward Barker, who delivered
her a letter from Elizabeth, informing her of the com-
mission, and of the approaching trial. Mary received
the intelligence without emotion or astonishment. She
said, however, that it seemed strange to her, that the
queen should command her, as a subject, to submit to a
trial and examination before subjects : that she was an
absolute independent princess, and would yield to noth-
ing which might derogate either from her royal majesty,
from the state of sovereign princes, or from the dignity
and rank of her son : that however oppressed by misfor-
tunes, she was not yet so much broken in spirit as her
enemies flattered themselves ; nor would she, on any ac-
count, be accessary to her own degradation and dishon-
our : that she was ignorant of the laws and statutes of
England ; was utterly destitute of counsel ; and could not
conceive who were entitled to be called her peers, or
could legally sit as judges on her trial : that though she
had lived in England for many years, she had lived in
captivity ; and not having received the protection of the
laws, she could not, merely by her involuntary residence
in the country, be supposed to have subjected herself to
their jurisdiction : that, notwithstanding the superiority
of her rank, she was willing to give an account of her
conduct before an English Parliament; but could not
view these commissioners in any other light than as men
appointed to justify, by some colour of legal proceeding,
her condemnation and execution : and that she warned
them to look to their conscience and their character in
trying an innocent person; and to reflect, that these
transactions would somewhere be subject to revisal, and
that the theatre of the whole world was much wider than
the kingdom of England.

* n return > tne commissioners sent a new deputation

ers.

ELIZABETH. 53

informing her that her plea, either from her royal dig- CHAP.
nity, or from her imprisonment, could not be admitted ; ,J_^^_,
and that they were empowered to proceed to her trial, 15 g 6
even though she should refuse to answer before them, prevail on
Burleigh the treasurer, and Bromley the chancellor, ^mit to
employed much reasoning to make her submit ; but the the trial -
person whose arguments had the chief influence was Sir
Christopher Hatton, vice-chamberlain. His speech was
to this purpose : " You are accused, madam," said he,
" but not condemned, of having conspired the destruction
of our lady and queen anointed. You say you are a
queen ; but in such a crime as this, and such a situation
as yours, the royal dignity itself, neither by the civil or
canon law, nor by the law of nature or of nations, is ex-
empt from judgment. If you be innocent, you wrong
your reputation in avoiding a trial. We have been
present at your protestations of innocence ; but Queen
Elizabeth thinks otherwise, and is heartily sorry for the
appearances which lie against you. To examine, there-
fore, your cause, she has appointed commissioners ; ho-
nourable persons, prudent and upright men, wiio are
ready to hear you with equity, and even with favour,
and will rejoice if you can clear yourself of the impu-
tations which have been thrown upon you. Believe me,
madam, the queen herself will rejoice, who affirmed to
me, at my departure, that nothing which ever befel
her had given her so much uneasiness, as that you should
be suspected of a concurrence in these criminal enter-
prises. Laying aside, therefore, the fruitless claim of
privilege from your royal dignity, which can now avail you
nothing, trust to the better defence of your innocence,
make it appear in open trial, and leave not upon your
memory that stain of infamy which must attend your
obstinate silence on this occasion 1 ."

By this artful speech Mary was persuaded to answer
before the court ; and thereby gave an appearance of
legal procedure to the trial, and prevented those diffi-
culties which the commissioners must have fallen into,
had she persevered in maintaining so specious a plea as
that of her sovereign and independent character. Her
conduct, in this particular, must be regarded as the more

i Camden, p. 523.

54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, imprudent, because formerly, when Elizabeth's commis-
:LIL sioners pretended not to exercise any jurisdiction over
, and only entered into her cause by her own consent
and approbation, she declined justifying herself, when
her honour, which ought to have been dearer to her than
life, seemed absolutely to require it.

The trial. Q n her first appearance before the commissioners,
Mary, either sensible of her imprudence, or still unwilling
to degrade herself by submitting to a trial, renewed her
protestation against the authority of her judges : the
chancellor answered her by pleading the supreme autho-
rity of the English laws over every one who resided in
England ; and the commissioners accommodated matters
by ordering both her protestation and his answer to be
recorded.

The lawyers of the crown then opened the charge
against the Queen of Scots. They proved, by intercepted
letters, that she had allowed Cardinal Allen and others
to treat her as the Queen of England ; and that she had
kept a correspondence with Lord Paget and Charles Pa-
get, in view of engaging the Spaniards to invade the
kingdom. Mary seemed not anxious to clear herself
from either of these imputations. She only said, that
she could not hinder others from using what style they
pleased in writing to her ; and that she might lawfully
try every expedient for the recovery of her liberty.

An intercepted letter of hers to Mendoza was next
produced, in which she promised to transfer to Philip
her right to the kingdom of England, if her son should
refuse to be converted to the catholic faith ; an event,
she there said, of which there was no expectation, while
he remained in the hands of his Scottish subjects 1 ". Even
this part of the charge she took no pains to deny, or ra-
ther she seemed to acknowledge it. She said that she
had no kingdoms to dispose of; yet it was lawful for her
to give at her pleasure what was her own, and she was
not accountable to any for her actions. She added, that
she had formerly rejected that proposal from Spain ; but
now, since all her hopes in England were gone, she was
fully determined not to refuse foreign assistance. There
was also produced evidence to prove, that Allen and

k State Trials, vol. i. p. 138.

ELIZABETH. 55

Parsons were at that very time negotiating by her orders, CHAP.
at Rome, the conditions of transferring her English^ '_,
crown to the King of Spain, and of disinheriting her 1586 .
heretical son 1 .

It is remarkable, that Mary's prejudices against her
son were at this time carried so far that she had even
entered into a conspiracy against him, had appointed Lord
Claud Hamilton Regent of Scotland, and had instigated
her adherents to seize James's person, and deliver him
into the hands of the pope or the King of Spain ; w r hence
he was never to be delivered, but on condition of his
becoming catholic m .

The only part of the charge which Mary positively de-
nied was her concurrence in the design of assassinating
Elizabeth. This article, indeed, was the most heavy, and
the only one that could fully justify the queen in pro-
ceeding to extremities against her. In order to prove the
accusation, there were produced the following evidence :
copies taken in secretary Walsingham's office of the in-
tercepted letters between her and Babington, in which
her approbation of the murder was clearly expressed ;
the evidence of her two secretaries, Nau and Curie, who
had confessed, without being put to any torture, both
that she received these letters from Babington, and that
they had written the answers by her order ; the confes-
sion of Babington, that he had written the letters and
received the answers 11 ; and the confession of Ballard
and Savage, that Babington had showed them these let-
ters of Mary, written in the cipher which had been set-
tled between them.

It is evident that this complication of evidence, though
every circumstance corroborates the general conclusion,
resolves itself finally into the testimony of the two
secretaries, who alone were certainly acquainted with
their mistress's concurrence in Babington's conspiracy,
but who knew themselves exposed to all the rigours of
imprisonment, torture, and death, if they refused to give
any evidence which might be required of them. In the
case of an ordinary criminal, this proof, with all its dis-
advantages, would be esteemed legal, and even satisfac-

1 See note [E], at the end of the volume.

m SL-C note |F], at the end of the volume. State Trials, vol. i. p. 113.

6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, tory, if not opposed by some other circumstances which
XL1L shake the credit of the witnesses ; but on the present
trial, where the absolute power of the prosecutor con-
curred with such important interests, and such a violent
inclination to have the princess condemned, the testi-
mony of two witnesses, even though men of character,
ought to be supported by strong probabilities, in order
to remove all suspicion of tyranny and injustice. The
proof against Mary, it must be confessed, is not desti-
tute of this advantage ; and it is difficult, if not impos-
sible, to account for Babington's receiving an answer
written in her name, and in the cipher concerted be-
tween them, without allowing that the matter had been
communicated to that princess. Such is the light in
which this matter appears, even after time has disco-
vered every thing which could guide our judgment with
regard to it : no wonder, therefore, that the Queen of
Scots, unassisted by counsel, and confounded by so ex-
traordinary a trial, found herself incapable of making a
satisfactory defence before the commissioners. Her re-
ply consisted chiefly in her own denial : whatever force
may be in that denial was much weakened by her posi-
tively affirming, that she never had had any correspondence
of any kind with Babington ; a fact, however, of which
there remains not the least question . She asserted,
that as Nau and Curie had taken an oath of secrecy
and fidelity to her, their evidence against her ought not
to be credited. She confessed, however, that Nau had
been in the service of her uncle, the Cardinal of Lor-
raine, and had been recommended to her by the King
of France as a man in whom she might safely confide.
She also acknowledged Curie to be a very honest man,
but simple, and easily imposed on by Nau. If these
two men had received any letters, or had written any
answers without her knowledge, the imputation, she
said, could never lie on her. And she was the more in-
clined, she added, to entertain this suspicion against
them, because Nau had, in other instances, been guilty of
a like temerity, and had ventured to transact business in
her name without communicating the matter to her p .

See note [G], at the end of the volume.
P See note [H], at the end of the volume.

ELIZABETH. 57

The sole circumstance of her defence, which to us CHAP.
may appear to have some force, was her requiring that^ _,
Nau and Curie should be confronted with her, and her 1586
affirming, that they never would to her face persist in
their evidence. But that demand, however equitable,
was not then supported by law in trials of high-treason,
and was often refused even in other trials where the
crown was prosecutor. The clause contained in an act
of the 13th of the queen was a novelty; that the species
of treason there enumerated must be proved by two
witnesses, confronted with the criminal. But Mary was
not tried upon that act; and the ministers and crown
lawyers of this reign were always sure to refuse every
indulgence beyond what the strict letter of the law, and
the settled practice of the courts of justice, required of
them : not to mention, that these secretaries were not
probably at Fotheringay castle during the time of the
trial, and could not, upon Mary's demand, be produced
before the commissioners q .

There passed two incidents in this trial which may be
worth observing. A letter between Mary and Babington
was read, in which mention was made of the Earl of
Arundel and his brothers : on hearing their names, she
broke into a sigh: "Alas!" said she, "what has the
noble house of the Howards suffered for my sake !" She
affirmed, with regard to the same letter, that it was easy
to forge the handwriting and cipher of another: she
was afraid that this was too familiar a practice with
Walsingham, who, she also heard, had frequently prac-
tised both against her life and her son's. Walsingham,
who was one of the commissioners, rose up. He pro-
tested, that in his private capacity he had never acted
any thing against the Queen of Scots : in his public capa-
city, he owned, that his concern for his sovereign's safety
had made him very diligent in searching out, by every
expedient, all designs against her sacred person or her
authority. For attaining that end, he would not only
make use of the assistance of Ballard or any other con-

i Queen Elizabeth was willing to have allowed Curie and Nau to be produced
in the trial, and writes to that purpose to Burleigh and Walsingham, in her letter
of the 7th of October, in Forbes's MS. collections. She only says, that she thinks
it needless, though she was willing to agree to it. The not confronting of the wit-
nesses was not the result of design, but the practice of the age.

58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, spirator ; he would also reward them for betraying their
XLIL companions. But if he had tampered in any manner

""^^unbefitting his character and office, why did none of the
late criminals, either at their trial or execution, accuse
him of such practices? Mary endeavoured to pacify
him, by saying that she spoke from information ; and
she begged him to give thenceforth no more credit to
such as slandered her, than she should to such as accused
him. The great character, indeed, which Sir Francis
Walsingham bears for probity and honour, should re-
move from him all suspicion of such base arts as forgery
and subornation- arts which even the most corrupt
ministers, in the most corrupt times, would scruple to
employ.

25th Oct. Having finished the trial, the commissioners adjourned
from Fotheringay castle, and met in the star-chamber
at London ; where, after taking the oaths of Mary's two
secretaries, who voluntarily, without hope or reward,
vouched the authenticity of those letters before produced,

Sentence they pronounced sentence of death upon the Queen of

Mary? Scots, and confirmed it by their seals and subscriptions.
The same day a declaration was published by the com-
missioners and the judges, "that the sentence did nowise
derogate from the title and honour of James, King of
Scotland ; but that he was in the same place, degree, and
right, as if the sentence had never been pronounced 1 "."

The queen had now brought affairs with Mary to that
situation which she had long ardently desired ; and had
found a plausible reason for executing vengeance on a
competitor, whom, from the beginning of her reign, she
had ever equally dreaded and hated. But she was re-
strained from instantly gratifying her resentment by
several important considerations. She foresaw the in-
vidious colours in which this example of uncommon
jurisdiction would be represented by the numerous par-
tisans of Mary, and the reproach to which she herself
might be exposed with all foreign princes, perhaps with
all posterity. The rights of hospitality, of kindred, and
of royal majesty, seemed, in one single instance, to be all
violated ; and this sacrifice of generosity to interest, of
clemency to revenge, might appear equally unbecoming

r Camden, p. 526.

ELIZABETH. 59

a sovereign and a woman. Elizabeth, therefore, who CHAP.

was an excellent hypocrite, pretended the utmost
luctance to proceed to the execution of the sentence ; 1586
affected the most tender sympathy with her prisoner ;
displayed all her scruples and difficulties ; rejected the
solicitation of her courtiers and ministers ; and affirmed,
that were she not moved by the deepest concern for her
people's safety, she would not hesitate a moment in
pardoning all the injuries which she herself had received
from the Queen of Scots.

That the voice of her people might be more audibly 2Q th Oct.
heard in the demand of justice upon Mary, she sum-
moned a new Parliament ; and she knew, both from the
usual dispositions of that assembly, and from the influ-
ence of her ministers over them, that she should not
want the most earnest solicitation to consent to that
measure which was so agreeable to her secret inclina-
tions. She did not open this assembly in person, but
appointed for that purpose three commissioners, Brom-
ley the chancellor, Burleigh the treasurer, and the Earl
of Derby. The reason assigned for this measure was,
that the queen, foreseeing that the affair of the Queen
of Scots would be canvassed in Parliament, found her
tenderness and delicacy so much hurt by that melan-
choly incident, that she had not the courage to be pre-
sent while it was under deliberation, but withdrew her
eyes from what she could not behold without the utmost
reluctance and uneasiness. She was also willing, that by
this unusual precaution the people should see the danger
to which her person was hourly exposed ; and should
thence be more strongly incited to take vengeance on the
criminal whose restless intrigues and bloody conspiracies
had so long exposed her to the most imminent perils 8 .

The Parliament answered the queen's expectations :
the sentence against Mary was unanimously ratified by
both Houses ; and an application was voted to obtain
Elizabeth's consent to its publication and execution*.
She gave an answer, ambiguous, embarrassed ; full of
real artifice and seeming irresolution. She mentioned
the extreme danger to which her life was continually
exposed ; she declared her willingness to die, did she

D'Ewes, p. 375. t Ibid. p. 379.

60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, not foresee the great calamities which would thence fall
u P on ^ e na ^ on > sne made professions of the greatest
tenderness to her people ; she displayed the clemency of
her temper, and expressed her violent reluctance to ex-
ecute the sentence against her unhappy kinswoman ;
she affirmed that the late law, by which that princess
was tried, so far from being made to ensnare her, was
only intended to give her warning beforehand not to en-
gage in such attempts as might expose her to the penal-
ties with which she was thus openly menaced ; and she
begged them to think once again, whether it were pos-
sible to find any expedient, besides the death of the
Queen of Scots, for securing the public tranquillity 11 .
The Parliament, in obedience to her commands, took
the affair again under consideration, but could find no
other possible expedient. They reiterated their solici-
tations, and entreaties, and arguments : they even re-
monstrated, that mercy to the Queen of Scots was
cruelty to them, her subjects and children ; and they
affirmed, that it were injustice to deny execution of the
law to any individual, much more to the whole body of
the people, now unanimously and earnestly suing for
this pledge of her parental care and tenderness. This
second address set the pretended doubts and scruples of
Elizabeth anew in agitation : she complained of her own
unfortunate situation ; expressed her uneasiness from
their importunity ; renewed the professions of affection
to her people ; and dismissed the committee of Parlia-
ment in an uncertainty what, after all this deliberation,
might be her final resolution w .

But though the queen affected reluctance to execute
the sentence against Mary, she complied with the request
of Parliament in publishing it by proclamation ; and this
act seemed to be attended with the unanimous and hearty
rejoicings of the people. Lord Buckhurst, and Beale,
clerk of the council, were sent to the Queen of Scots,
and notified to her the sentence pronounced against her,
its ratification by Parliament, and the earnest applications
made for its execution by that assembly, who thought
that their religion could never, while she was alive, at-
tain a full settlement and security. Mary was nowise

u D'Ewes, p. 402, 403. w g ee note [I], at the end of the volume.

ELIZABETH. 61

dismayed at this intelligence : on the contrary, she joy- CHAP.
fully laid hold of the last circumstance mentioned to v^^_,
her ; and insisted, that since her death was demanded 1586
by the Protestants for the establishment of their faith,
she was really a martyr to her religion, and was entitled
to all the merits attending that glorious character. She
added, that the English had often imbrued their hands
in the blood of their sovereigns : no wonder they exer-
cised cruelty against her, who derived her descent
from these monarchs x . Paulet, her keeper, received
orders to take down her canopy, and to serve her no
longer with the respect due to sovereign princes. He
told her that she was now to be considered as a dead
person, and incapable of any dignity 7 . This harsh treat-
ment produced not in her any seeming emotion. She
only replied, that she received her royal character from
the hands of the Almighty, and no earthly power was ever
able to bereave her of it.

The Queen of Scots wrote her last letter to Elizabeth,
full of dignity, without departing from that spirit of
meekness and of charity which appeared suitable to this
concluding scene of her unfortunate life. She preferred
no petition for averting the fatal sentence : on the con-
trary, she expressed her gratitude to Heaven for thus
bringing to a speedy period her sad and lamentable pil-
grimage. She requested some favours of Elizabeth,
and entreated her that she might be beholden for them
to her own goodness alone, without making applications
to those ministers who had discovered such an extreme
malignity against her person and her religion. She
desired, that after her enemies should be satiated with
her innocent blood, her body, which it was determined
should never enjoy rest while her soul was united to it,
might be consigned to her servants, and be conveyed by
them into France, there to repose in a catholic land,
with the sacred relics of her mother. In Scotland, she
said, the sepulchres of her ancestors were violated, and
the churches either demolished or profaned ; and in Eng-
land, where she might be interred among the ancient
kings, her own and Elizabeth's progenitors, she could
entertain no hopes of being accompanied to the grave

x Camden, p. 528. y Jebb, vol. ii. p. 293.

VOL. IV. 6

g2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, with those rites and ceremonies which her religion re-
XLIL quired. She requested that no one might have the
"7^^ power of inflicting a private death upon her, without
Elizabeth's knowledge ; but that her execution should
be public, and attended by her ancient servants, who
might bear testimony of her perseverance in the faith,
and of her submission to the will of Heaven. She begged
that these servants might afterwards be allowed to de-
part whithersoever they pleased, and might enjoy those
legacies which she should bequeath them. And she
conjured her to grant these favours by their near kin-
dred ; by the soul and memory of Henry VII. the com-
mon ancestor of both ; and by the royal dignity, of which
they equally participated 2 . Elizabeth made no answer
to this letter ; being unwilling to give Mary a refusal in
her present situation, and foreseeing inconveniences from
granting some of her requests.

While the Queen of Scots thus prepared herself to
meet her fate, great efforts were made by foreign powers,
with Elizabeth, to prevent the execution of the sentence
pronounced against her. Besides employing L'Aubes-
pine, the French resident at London, a creature of the
house of Guise, Henry sent over Bellievre, with a pro-
fessed intention of interceding for the life of Mary. The
Duke of Guise and the league at that time threatened
very nearly the king's authority ; and Elizabeth knew,
that though that monarch might, from decency and
policy, think himself obliged to interpose publicly in
behalf of the Queen of Scots, he could not secretly be
much displeased with the death of a princess on whose
fortune and elevation his mortal enemies had always
founded so many daring and ambitious projects*. It is
even pretended, that Bellievre had orders, after making
public and vehement remonstrances against the execution
of Mary, to exhort privately the queen, in his master's
name, not to defer an act of justice so necessary for their
common safety b . But whether the French king's inter-
cession were sincere or not, it had no weight with the
queen, and she still persisted in her former resolution.
interposi- The interposition of the young King of Scots, though

iion. x)t

z Camden, p. 529. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 295.
James - a Camden, p. 494. b D U Maurier.

ELIZABETH. 63

not able to change Elizabeth's determination, seemed, CHAP.

on every account, to merit more regard. As soon as v ^

James heard of the trial and condemnation of his mother, 1586
he sent Sir William Keith, a gentleman of his bed-
chamber, to London ; and wrote a letter to the queen,
in which he remonstrated, in very severe terms, against
the indignity of the procedure. He said that he was
astonished to hear of the presumption of English noble-
men and counsellors, who had dared to sit in judgment
and pass sentence upon a Queen of Scotland descended
from the blood-royal of England ; but he was still more
astonished to hear that thoughts were seriously enter-
tained of putting that sentence in execution : that he
entreated Elizabeth to reflect on the dishonour which
she would draw on her name by imbruing her hands in
the blood of her near kinswoman, a person of the same
royal dignity and of the same sex with herself: that in
this unparalleled attempt she offered an affront to all
diadems, and even to her own ; and, by reducing sove-
reigns to a level with other men, taught the people to
neglect all duty towards those whom Providence had
appointed to rule over them : that, for his part, he must
deem the injury and insult so enormous, as to be in-
capable of all atonement; nor was it possible for him
thenceforward to remain in any terms of correspondence
with a person, who, without any pretence of legal autho-
rity, had deliberately inflicted an ignominious death upon
his parent ; and that even if the sentiments of nature
and duty did not inspire him with this purpose of ven-
geance, his honour required it of him ; nor could he ever
acquit himself in the eyes of the world, if he did not use
every effort, and endure every hazard, to revenge so great
an indignity .

Soon after, James sent the master of Gray, and Sir
Kobert Melvil, to enforce the remonstrances of Keith,
and to employ with the queen every expedient of argu-
ment and menaces. Elizabeth was at first offended with
the sharpness of these applications, and she replied in
a like strain to the Scottish ambassadors. When she
afterwards reflected that this earnestness was no more
than what duty required of James, she was pacified;

c Spotswood, p. 351.

>4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, but still retained her resolution of executing the sen-

XLIL tence against Mary d . It is believed, that the master of

*~^ Gray, gained by the enemies of that princess, secretly

gave his advice not to spare her, and undertook, in all

events, to pacify his master.

The queen also, from many considerations, was in-
duced to pay small attention to the applications of James,
and to disregard all the efforts which he could employ
in behalf of his mother. She was well acquainted with
his character and interests, the factions which prevailed
among his people, and the inveterate hatred which the
zealous Protestants, particularly the preachers, bore to
the Queen of Scots. The present incidents set these dis-
positions of the clergy in a full light. James, observing
the fixed purpose of Elizabeth, ordered prayers to be
offered up for Mary in all the churches ; and, knowing
the captious humour of the ecclesiastics, he took care that
the form of the petition should be most cautious, as well
as humane and charitable : " That it might please God to
illuminate Mary with the light of his truth, and save
her from the apparent danger with which she was threat-
ened." But, excepting the king's own chaplains, and
one clergyman more, all the preachers refused to pollute
their churches by prayers for a Papist, and would not
so much as prefer a petition for her conversion. James,
unwilling or unable to punish this disobedience, and de-
sirous of giving the preachers an opportunity of amend-
ing their fault, appointed a new day when prayers should
be said for his mother ; and, that he might at least se-
cure himself from any insult in his own presence, he
desired the Archbishop of St. Andrew's to officiate be-
fore him. In order to disappoint this purpose, the clergy
instigated one Couper, a young man who had not yet
received holy orders, to take possession of the pulpit
early in the morning, and to exclude the prelate. When
the king came to church, and saw the pulpit occupied by
Couper, he called to him from his seat, and told him,
that place was destined for another ; yet since he was
there, if he would obey the charge given, and remember
the queen in his prayers, he might proceed to divine
service. The preacher replied, that he would do as the

d Spotswood, p. 353.

ELIZABETH. 65

Spirit of God should direct him. This answer sufficiently CHAP.

instructed James in his purpose ; and he commanded him v __,

to leave the pulpit. As Couper seemed not disposed to 1586
obey, the captain of the guard went to pull him from
his place ; upon which the young man cried aloud, that
this day would be a witness against the king in the
great day of the Lord ; and he denounced a woe upon
the inhabitants of Edinburgh for permitting him to be
treated in that manner 6 . The audience at first appeared
desirous to take part with him ; but the sermon of the
prelate brought them over to a more dutiful and more
humane disposition.

Elizabeth, when solicited, either by James or by foreign
princes, to pardon the Queen of Scots, seemed always
determined to execute the sentence against her : but
when her ministers urged her to interpose no more delays,
her scruples and her hesitation returned ; her humanity
could not allow her to embrace such violent and sangui-
nary measures ; and she was touched with compassion for
the misfortunes, and with respect for the dignity, of the
unhappy prisoner. The courtiers, sensible that they could
do nothing more acceptable to her, than to employ per-
suasion on this head, failed not to enforce every motive
for the punishment of Mary, and to combat all the objec-
tions urged against this act of justice. They said that Reasons
the treatment of that princess in England had been, on ecuticVof"
her first reception, such as sound reason and policy re- Mai 7-
quired ; and if she had been governed by principles of
equity, she would not have refused willingly to acquiesce
in it : that the obvious inconveniences, either of allowing
her to retire into France, or of restoring her by force to
her throne, in opposition to the reformers and the English
party in Scotland, had obliged the queen to detain her in
England till time should offer some opportunity of serving
her, without danger to the kingdom, or to the protestant
religion : that her usage there had been such as became
her rank ; her own servants in considerable numbers had
been permitted to attend her ; exercise had been allowed
her for health, and all access of company for amusement ;
and these indulgences would in time have been carried
farther, if by her subsequent conduct she had appeared

e Spotswood, p. 354.

66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, worthy of them : that after she had instigated the re-
XLIL bellion of Northumberland, the conspiracy of Norfolk,
the bull of excommunication of Pope Pius, an invasion
from Flanders after she had seduced the queen's friends,
and incited every enemy, foreign and domestic, against
her ; it became necessary to treat her as a most dangerous
rival, and to render her confinement more strict and
rigorous : that the queen, notwithstanding these repeated
provocations, had, in her favour, rejected the importunity
of her Parliaments, and the advice of her sagest ministers f ;
and was still, in hopes of her amendment, determined to
delay coming to the last extremities against her : that
Mary, even in this forlorn condition, retained so high and
unconquerable a spirit, that she acted as competitor to
the crown, and allowed her partisans everywhere, and in
their very letters, addressed to herself, to treat her as
Queen of England : that she had carried her animosity
so far as to encourage, in repeated instances, the atrocious
design of assassinating the queen ; and this crime was
unquestionably proved upon her by her own letters, by the
evidence of her secretaries, and by the dying confession of
her accomplices : that she was but a titular queen, and at
present possessed nowhere any right of sovereignty ; much
less in England, w r here, the moment she set foot in the
kingdom, she voluntarily became subject to the laws, and
to Elizabeth, the only true sovereign : that even, allowing
her to be still the queen's equal in rank and dignity, self-
defence was permitted by a law of nature, which could
never be abrogated ; and every one, still more a queen,
had sufficient jurisdiction over an enemy who, by open
violence, and still more by secret treachery, threatened the
utmost danger against her life : that the general combina-
tion of the Catholics to exterminate the Protestants was
no longer a secret ; and as the sole resource of the latter
persecuted sect lay in Elizabeth, so the chief hope which
the former entertained of final success consisted in the
person and in the title of the Queen of Scots : that this
very circumstance brought matters to extremity between
these princesses ; and, rendering the life of one the death
of the other, pointed out to Elizabeth the path which
either regard to self-preservation, or to the happiness of

f Digges, p. 276. Strype, vol. ii. p. 48. 135, 136. 139.

ELIZABETH. 67

her people, should direct her to pursue ; and that neces- CHAP.
sity, more powerful than policy, thus demanded of the yj^ 11 ^
queen that resolution which equity would authorize, and 1586
which duty prescribed g .

When Elizabeth thought that as many importunities
had been used, and as much delay interposed, as decency
required, she at last determined to carry the sentence
into execution ; but even in this final resolution she could
not proceed without displaying a new scene of duplicity
and artifice. In order to alarm the vulgar, rumours were
previously dispersed that the Spanish fleet was arrived at
Milford Haven; that the Scots had made an irruption
into England; that the Duke of Guise was landed in
Sussex with a strong army ; that the Queen of Scots was
escaped from prison, and had raised an army ; that the
northern counties had begun an insurrection ; that there
was a new conspiracy on foot to assassinate the queen,
and set the city of London on fire ; nay, that the queen
was actually assassinate d h . An attempt of this nature
was even imputed to L'Aubespine, the French ambassador;
and that minister was obliged to leave the kingdom. The
queen, affecting to be in terror and perplexity, was ob-
served to sit much alone, pensive and silent ; and some-
times to mutter to herself half-sentences, importing the
difficulty and distress to which she was reduced 1 . She
at last called Davison, a man of parts, but easy to be im-
posed on, and who had lately for that very reason been
made secretary, and she ordered him privately to draw a
warrant for the execution of the Queen of Scots; which,
she afterwards said, she intended to keep by her, in case
any attempt should be made for the deliverance of that
princess. She signed the warrant, and then commanded
Davison to carry it to the chancellor, in order to have
the great seal appended to it. Next day she sent Killi-
grew to Davison, enjoining him to forbear, some time,
executing her former orders ; and when Davison came
and told her that the warrant had already passed the
great seal, she seemed to be somewhat moved, and
blamed him for his precipitation. Davison, being in a
perplexity, acquainted the council with this whole trans-
action ; and they endeavoured to persuade him to send

g Camden, p. 533. & Id. ibid. i Ibid. p. 534.

6 g HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. ofFBeale with the warrant: if the queen should be dis-
XLIL pleased, they promised to justify his conduct, and to take
~^^on themselves the whole blame of this measure k . The
secretary, not sufficiently aware of their intention, com-
plied with the advice ; and the warrant was despatched
to the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, and some others,
ordering them to see the sentence executed upon the
Queen of Scots.

issT. The two earls came to Fotheringay castle, and being
The^xe- introduced to Mary, informed her of their commission,
cution. an( j d es i r ed her to prepare for death next morning at
eight o'clock. She seemed nowise terrified, though some-
what surprised with the intelligence. She said, with a
cheerful and even a smiling countenance, that she did not
think the queen, her sister, would have consented to her
death, or have executed the sentence against a person
not subject to the laws and jurisdiction of England.
"But as such is her will," said she, "death, which puts
an end to all my miseries, shall be to me most welcome ;
nor can I esteem that soul worthy the felicities of heaven,
which cannot support the body under the horrors of the
last passage to those blissful mansions 1 ." She then re-
quested the two noblemen, that they would permit some
of her servants, and particularly her confessor, to attend
her; but they told her, that compliance with this last
demand was contrary to their conscience, and that Dr.
Fletcher, Dean of Peterborough, a man of great learning,
^should be present to instruct her in the principles of true
feligion. Her refusal to have any conference with this di-
vine inflamed the zeal of the Earl of Kent ; and he bluntly
told her, that her death would be the life of their religion ;
as, on the contrary, her life would have been the death of
it. Mention being made of Babington, she constantly
denied his conspiracy to have been at all known to her ;
and the revenge of her wrongs she resigned into the hands
of the Almighty.

k It appears, by some letters published by Strype, vol. iii. book 2. c. 1, that Eliza-
beth had not expressly communicated her intention to any of her ministers, not
even to Burleigh : they were such experienced courtiers, * that they knew they
could not gratify her more than by serving her without waiting till she desired
them.

i Camden, p. 534. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 301. MS. in the Advocates' Library-, p. 2,
from the Cott. Lib. Cal. c. 9.

m Jebb, vol. ii. p. 802.

ELIZABETH. 69

"When the earls had left her, she ordered supper to be CHAP.
hastened, that she might have the more leisure after it^^^,
to finish the few affairs which remained to her in this 1587>
world, and to prepare for her passage to another. It
was necessary for her, she said, to take some sustenance,
lest a failure of her bodily strength should depress her
spirits on the morrow, and lest her behaviour should
thereby betray a weakness unworthy of herself n . She
supped sparingly, as her manner usually was, and her
wonted cheerfulness did not even desert her on this
occasion. She comforted her servants under the afflic-
tion which overwhelmed them, and which was too violent
for them to conceal it from her. Turning to Burgoin,
her physician, she asked him, whether he did not re-
mark the great and invincible force of truth ? " They
pretend," said she, " that I must die because I conspired
against their queen's life ; but the Earl of Kent avowed,
that there was no other cause of my death than the
apprehensions which, if I should livej they entertain for
their religion. My constancy in the faith is my real
crime ; the rest is only a colour, invented by interested
and designing men." Towards the end of supper, she
called in all her servants, and drank to them. They
pledged her, in order, on their knees, and craved her
pardon for any past neglect of their duty. She deigned,
in return, to ask their pardon for her offences towards
them; and a plentiful effusion of tears attended this
last solemn farewell, and exchange of mutual forgive-
ness .

Mary's care of her servants was the sole remaining
affair which employed her concern. She perused her
will, in which she had provided for them by legacies :
she ordered the inventory of her goods, clothes, and
jewels to be brought her ; and she wrote down the names
of those to whom she bequeathed each particular: to
some she distributed money with her own hands ; and
she adapted the recompense to their different degrees of
rank and merit. She wrote also letters of recommenda-
tion for her servants to the French king, and to her
cousin, the Duke of Guise, whom she made the chief
executor of her testament. At her wonted time she

* Jebb, vol. ii. p. 489. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 302. 626. Camden, p. 534.

Q HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, went to bed; slept some hours; and then rising, spent
XLIL the rest of the night in prayer. Having foreseen the
difficulty of exercising the rites of her religion, she had
had the precaution to obtain a consecrated hoste from
the hands of Pope Pius ; and she had reserved the use
of it for this last period of her life. By this expedient
she supplied, as much as she could, the want of a priest
and confessor, who was refused her p .

Towards the morning, she dressed herself in a rich
habit of silk and velvet, the only one which she had re-
served for herself. She told her maids that she would
willingly have left to them this dress rather than the
plain garb which she wore the day before ; but it was
necessary for her to appear at the ensuing solemnity in
a decent habit.

Thomas Andrews, sheriff of the county, entered the
room, and informed her that the hour was come, and
that he must attend her to the place of execution. She
replied that she was ready, and bidding adieu to her ser-
vants, she leaned on two of Sir Amias Paulet's guards,
because of an infirmity in her limbs ; and she followed
the sheriff with a serene and composed countenance. In
passing through a hall adjoining to her chamber, she
was met by the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, Sir
Amias Paulet, Sir Drue Drury, and many other gentle-
men of distinction. Here she also found Sir Andrew
Melvil, her steward, who flung himself on his knees
before her, and, wringing his hands, cried aloud, " Ah,
madam ! unhappy me ! what man was ever before the
messenger of such heavy tidings as- 1 must carry when I
shall return to my native country, and shall report that
I saw my gracious queen and mistress beheaded in Eng-
land ! " His tears prevented farther speech ; and Mary,
too, felt herself moved more from sympathy than afflic-
tion. " Cease, my good servant," she said, " cease to
lament ; thou hast cause rather to rejoice than to mourn ;
for now shalt thou see the troubles of Mary Stuart re-
ceive their long-expected period and completion. Know,"
continued she, " good servant, that all the world at best
is vanity, and subject still to more sorrow than a whole
ocean of tears is able to bew r ail. But I pray thee carry

P Jebb, vol. ii. p. 489.

ELIZABETH. 71

this message from me, that I die a true woman to my CHAP.
religion, and unalterable in my affections to Scotland .J^ 11 ^
and to France. Heaven forgive them that have long 1587
desired my end, and have thirsted for my blood as the
hart panteth after the water-brooks ! " " O God," added
she, " thou that art the Author of truth, and truth itself,
thou knowest the inmost recesses of my heart; thou
knowest that I was ever desirous to preserve an entire
union between Scotland and England, and to obviate
the source of all these fatal discords. But recommend
me, Melvil, to my son, and tell him, that, notwithstand-
ing all my distresses, I have done nothing prejudicial to
the state and kingdom of Scotland." After these words,
reclining herself, with weeping eyes, and face bedewed
with tears, she kissed him. " And so," said she, " good
Melvil, farewell : once again farewell, good Melvil ; and
grant the assistance of thy prayers to thy queen and
mistress q ."

She next turned to the noblemen who attended her,
and made a petition in behalf of her servants, that they
might be well treated, be allowed to enjoy the presents
which she had made them, and be sent safely into their
own country. Having received a favourable answer, she
preferred another request, that they might be permitted
to attend her at her death ; in order, said she, that their
eyes may behold, and their hearts bear witness, how pa-
tiently their queen and mistress can submit to her
execution, and how constantly she perseveres in her at-
tachment to her religion. The Earl of Kent opposed
this desire, and told her, that they would be apt by their
speeches and cries to disturb both herself and the spec-
tators : he was also apprehensive lest they should prac-
tise some superstition not meet for him to suffer, such
as dipping their handkerchiefs in her blood ; for that
was the instance which he made use of. "My lord,"
said the Queen of Scots, " I will give my word (although
it be but dead) that they shall not incur any blame in
any of the actions which you have named; but alas!
poor souls ! it would be a great consolation to them to
bid their mistress farewell. And I hope," added she,
" that your mistress, being a maiden queen, would vouch-

* MS. p. 4. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 634. Strype, vol. iii. p. 384.

2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, safe, in regard of womanhood, that I should have some
XLIL of my own people about me at my death. I know that
her majesty hath not given you any such strict command,
but that you might grant me a request of far greater
courtesy, even though I were a woman of inferior rank
to that which I bear." Finding that the Earl of Kent
persisted still in his refusal, her mind, which had fortified
itself against the terrors of death, was affected by this
indignity, for which she was not prepared. "I am
cousin to your queen," cried she, " and descended from
the blood-royal of Henry VII., and a married Queen of
France, and an anointed Queen of Scotland." The com-
missioners, perceiving how invidious their obstinacy
would appear, conferred a little together, and agreed that
she might carry a few of her servants along with her.
She made choice of four men and two maid-servants for
that purpose.

She then passed into another hall, where was erected
the scaffold covered with black ; and she saw, with an
undismayed countenance, the executioners, and all the
preparations of death. The room was crowded with
spectators ; and no one was so steeled against all senti-
ments of humanity, as not to be moved, when he reflected
on her royal dignity, considered the surprising train of
her misfortunes, beheld her mild but inflexible constancy,
recalled her amiable accomplishments, or surveyed her
beauties, which, though faded by years, and yet more by
her afflictions, still discovered themselves in this fatal
moment. Here the warrant for her execution was read
to her; and during this ceremony she was silent, but
showed in her behaviour an indifference and unconcern,
as if the business had nowise regarded her. Before the
executioners performed their office, the Dean of Peter-
borough stepped forth ; and though the queen frequently
told him that he needed not concern himself about her,
that she was settled in the ancient catholic and Eoman
religion, and that she meant to lay down her life in de-
fence of that faith ; he still thought it his duty to persist
in his lectures and exhortations, and to endeavour her
conversion^ The terms which he employed were, under
colour of pious instructions, cruel insults on her unfortu-
nate situation ; and, besides their own absurdity, may be

ELIZABETH. 73

regarded as the most mortifying indignities to which she CHAP.
had ever yet been exposed. He told her that the Queen .J^ 11 ^
of England had on this occasion shown a tender care of 1587
her ; and, notwithstanding the punishment justly to be
inflicted on her for her manifold trespasses, was deter-
mined to use every expedient for saving her soul from
that destruction with which it was so nearly threatened :
that she was now standing upon the brink of eternity, and
had no other means of escaping endless perdition, than
by repenting her former wickedness, by justifying the
sentence pronounced against her, by acknowledging the
queen's favours, and by exerting a true and lively faith
in Christ Jesus : that the Scriptures were the only rule
of doctrine, the merits of Christ the only means of sal-
vation ; and if she trusted in the inventions or devices
of men, she must expect in an instant to fall into utter
darkness, into a place where shall be weeping, howling,
and gnashing of teeth : that the hand of death was upon
her, the axe was laid to the root of the tree, the throne
of the great Judge of heaven was erected, the book of
her life was spread wide, and the particular sentence and
judgment was ready to be pronounced upon her : and
that it was now, during this important moment, in her
choice, either to rise to the resurrection of life, and hear
that joyful salutation, Come, ye blessed of my Father ; or
to share the resurrection of condemnation, replete with
sorrow and anguish ; and to suffer that dreadful denun-
ciation, Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire*.

During this discourse, Mary could not sometimes
forbear betraying her impatience by interrupting the
preacher ; and the dean, finding that she had profited
nothing by his lecture, at last bade her change her opi-
nion, repent her of her former wickedness, and settle
her faith upon this ground, that only in Christ Jesus
could she hope to be saved. She answered again and
again, with great earnestness, " Trouble not yourself any
more about the matter : for I was born in this religion ;
I have lived in this religion ; and in this religion I am
resolved to die." Even the two earls perceived that it
was fruitless to harass her any farther with theological
disputes ; and they ordered the dean to desist from his

r MS. p. 8, 9, 10, 11. Strype, vol. iii. p. 385.
VOL. IV. 7

74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, unseasonable exhortations, and to pray for her con-
XLII. vers i on> During the dean's prayer, she employed her-

*~^ 7 self in private devotion from the office of the Yirgin ;
and after he had finished, she pronounced aloud some
petitions in English, for the afflicted church, for an end
of her own troubles, for her son, and for Queen Eliza-
beth; and prayed God that that princess might long
prosper, and be employed in his service. The Earl of
Kent, observing that in her devotions she made fre-
quent use of the crucifix, could not forbear reproving
her for her attachment to that popish trumpery, as he
termed it ; and he exhorted her to have Christ in her
heart, not in her hand 8 . She replied, with presence of
mind, that it was difficult to hold such an object in her
hand without feeling her heart touched with some
compunction*.

She now began, with the aid of her two women, to
disrobe herself; and the executioner also lent his hand
to assist them. She smiled, and said, that she was not
accustomed to undress herself before so large a com-
pany, nor to be served by such valets. Her servants,
seeing her in this condition ready to lay her head upon
the block, burst into tears and lamentations : she turned
about to them ; put her finger upon her lips, as a sign of
imposing silence upon them u ; and having given* them
her blessing, desired them to pray for her. One of her
maids, whom she had appointed for that purpose, covered
her eyes with her handkerchief; she laid herself down
without any sign of fear or trepidation ; and her head
was severed from her body at two strokes by the execu-
tioner. He instantly held it up to the spectators stream-
ing with blood, and agitated with the convulsions of
death : the Dean of Peterborough alone exclaimed, " So
perish all Queen Elizabeth's enemies!" The Earl of
Kent alone replied, " Amen ! " The attention of all the
other spectators was fixed on the melancholy scene be-
fore them ; and zeal and flattery alike gave place to pre-
sent pity and admiration of the expiring princess.

character ^^ us P er i sne ^? m tne forty-fifth year of her age, and
" nineteenth of her captivity in England, Mary, Queen of

" MS. p. 15. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 307. 491. 637. t J e bb, ibid.

u Ibid. vol. ii. p. 307. 492.

ELIZABETH. 75

Scots ; a woman of great accomplishments both of body CHAP.
and mind, natural as well as acquired ; but unfortunate c _^ '
in her life, and during one period very unhappy in her 158 >
conduct. The beauties of her person, and graces of her
air, combined to make her the most amiable of women ;
and the charms of her address and conversation aided
the impression which her lovely figure made on the
hearts of all beholders. Ambitious and active in her
temper, yet inclined to cheerfulness and society ; of a
lofty spirit, constant and even vehement in her purpose,
yet polite, and gentle, and affable in her demeanour:
she seemed to partake only so much of the male virtues
as to render her estimable, without relinquishing those
soft graces which compose the proper ornament of her
sex. In order to form a just idea of her character, we
must set aside one part of her conduct, while she aban-
doned herself to the guidance of a profligate man ; and
must consider these faults, whether we admit them to
be imprudences or crimes, as the result of an inexpli-
cable, though not uncommon, inconstancy in the human
mind, of the frailty of our nature, of the violence of
passion, and of the influence which situations, and
sometimes momentary incidents, have on persons whose
principles are not thoroughly confirmed by experience
and reflection. Enraged by the ungrateful conduct of
her husband, seduced by the treacherous counsels of one
in whom she reposed confidence, transported by the vio-
lence of her own temper, which never lay sufficiently
under the guidance of discretion, she was betrayed into
actions which may with some difficulty be accounted for,
but which admit of no apology, nor even of alleviation.
An enumeration of her qualities might carry the appear-
ance of a panegyric ; an account of her conduct must in
some parts wear the aspect of severe satire and invective.
Her numerous misfortunes, the solitude of her long
and tedious captivity, and the persecutions to which she
had been exposed on account of her religion, had wrought
her up to a degree of bigotry during her later years ;
and such were the prevalent spirit and principles of the
age, that it is the less wonder if her zeal, her resentment,
and her interest uniting, induced her to give consent to

76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, a design which conspirators, actuated only by the first of

these motives, had formed against the life of Elizabeth.
^^*~ When the queen was informed of Mary's execution,
The she affected the utmost surprise and indignation. Her
affected countenance changed ; her speech faltered and failed
sorrow, her . f or a ] on g time her sorrow was so deep that she
could not express it, but stood fixed like a statue in
silence and mute astonishment. After her grief was able
to find vent, it burst out into loud wailings and lamenta-
tions ; she put herself in deep mourning for this deplora-
ble event ; and she was seen perpetually bathed in
tears, and surrounded only by her maids and women.
None of her ministers or counsellors dared to approach
her ; or if any had such temerity, she chased them from
her with the most violent expressions of rage and resent-
ment : they had all of them been guilty of an unpardon-
able crime, in putting to death her dear sister and kins-
woman, contrary to her fixed purpose w , of which they
were sufficiently apprized and acquainted.

No sooner was her sorrow so much abated as to leave
room for reflection, than she wrote a letter of apology
to the King of Scots, and sent it by Sir Robert Cary,
son of Lord Hunsdon. She there told him, that she
wished he knew, but not felt, the unutterable grief which
she experienced on account of that lamentable accident
which, without her knowledge, much less concurrence,
had happened in England : that as her pen trembled
when she attempted to write it, she found herself obliged
to commit the relation of it to the messenger, her kins-
man ; who would likewise inform his majesty of every
circumstance attending this dismal and unlooked-for
misfortune : that she appealed to the supreme Judge of
heaven and earth for her innocence ; and w r as also so
happy, amidst her own afflictions, as to find that many
persons in her court could bear witness to her veracity
in this protestation : that she abhorred dissimulation ;
deemed nothing more worthy of a prince than a sincere
and open conduct ; and could never surely be esteemed
so base and poor-spirited as that, if she had really given
orders for this fatal execution, she could on any consi-

w Camden, p. 536. Strype, vol. iii. Appendix, p. 145. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 608.

ELIZABETH. 77

deration be induced to deny them : that, though sensible CHAP.
of the justice of the sentence pronounced against the XLIT
unhappy prisoner, she determined, from clemency, never 1587
to carry it into execution ; and could not but resent the
temerity of those, who, on this occasion, had disappointed
her intention : and that as no one loved him more dearly
than herself, or bore a more anxious concern for his wel-
fare, she hoped that he would consider every one as his
enemy, who endeavoured, on account of the present in-
cident, to excite any animosity between them*.

In order the better to appease James, she committed
Davison to prison, and ordered him to be tried in the
star-chamber for his misdemeanour. The secretary was
confounded: and, being sensible of the danger which
must attend his entering into a contest with the queen,
he expressed penitence for his error, and submitted very
patiently to be railed at by those very counsellors whose
persuasion had induced him to incur the guilt, and who
had promised to countenance and protect him. He was
condemned to imprisonment during the queen's pleasure,
and to pay a fine of ten thousand pounds. He remained
a long time in custody, and the fine, though it reduced
him to beggary, was rigorously levied upon him. All
the favour which he could obtain from the queen was
sending him small supplies from time to time to keep
him from perishing in necessity 7 . He privately wrote
an apology to his friend Walsingham, which contains
many curious particulars. The French and Scotch am-
bassadors, he said, had been remonstrating with the
queen in Mary's behalf; and immediately after their de-
parture, she commanded him, of her own accord, to de-
liver her the warrant for the execution of that princess.
She signed it readily, and ordered it to be sealed with
the great seal of England. She appeared in such good
humour on the occasion, that she said to him in a jocular
manner, " Go, tell all this to Walsingham, who is now
sick, though I fear he will die of sorrow when he hears of
it." She added, that though she had so long delayed the
execution, lest she should seem to be actuated by malice
or cruelty, she was all along sensible of the necessity of
it. In the same conversation she blamed Drury and
Paulet that they had not before eased her of this trouble ;

x Camden, p. 536. Spotswood, p. 358. y Camden. p. 538.

s HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, and she expressed her desire that Walsingham would
XLII. bring them to compliance in that particular. She was
so bent on this purpose, that, some time after, she asked
Davison, whether any letter had came from Paulet, with
regard to the service expected of him ? Davison showed
her Paulet's letter, in which that gentleman positively
refused to act any thing inconsistent with the principles
of honour and justice. The queen fell into a passion,
and accused Paulet as well as Drury of perjury ; because,
having taken the oath of association, in which they had
bound themselves to avenge her wrongs, they had yet re-
fused to lend their hand on this occasion. " But others,"
she said, " will be found less scrupulous." Davison
adds, that nothing but the consent and exhortations of
the whole council could have engaged him to send off
the warrant : he was well aware of his danger ; and re-
membered that the queen, after having ordered the exe-
cution of the Duke of Norfolk, had endeavoured, in a
like manner, to throw the whole blame and odium of
that action upon Lord Burleigh 55 .

Elizabeth's dissimulation was so gross that it could
deceive nobody who was not previously resolved to be
blinded but as James's concern for his mother was cer-
tainly more sincere and cordial, he discovered the highest
resentment, and refused to admit Gary into his presence.
He -recalled his ambassadors from England ; and seemed
to breathe nothing but war and vengeance. The states
of Scotland, being assembled, took part in his anger ;
and professed that they were ready to spend their lives
and fortunes in revenge of his mother's death, and in de-
fence of his title to the crown of England. Many of the
nobility instigated him to take arms: Lord Sinclair,
when the courtiers appeared in deep mourning, pre-
sented himself to the king arrayed in complete armour,
and said that this was the proper mourning for the
queen. The Catholics took the opportunity of exhorting
James to make an alliance with the King of Spain, to
lay immediate claim to the crown of England, and to
prevent the ruin which, from his mother's example, he
might conclude, would certainly, if Elizabeth's power
prevailed, overwhelm his person and his kingdom. The

* Camdcn, p. 538. Strype, vol. iii. p. 375, 376. MS. in the Advocates' Library
A. 3. 28. p. 17. From the Cott, Lib. Calig. c. 9. Biogr. Brit. p. 1625. 1627.

ELIZABETH. 79

queen was sensible of the danger attending these coun- CHAP.
sels ; and, after allowing James some decent interval to .J G " IL ^
vent his grief and anger, she employed her emissaries to 1587
pacify him, and to set before him every motive of hope
or fear which might induce him to live in amity with her.

Walsingham wrote to Lord Thirlstone, James's secre- 4tllMarch -
tary, a judicious letter to the same purpose. He said,
that he was much surprised to hear of the violent resolu-
tions taken in Scotland, and of the passion discovered
by a prince of so much judgment and temper as James :
that a war, founded merely on the principle of revenge,
and that too on account of an act of justice which neces-
sity had extorted, would for ever be exposed to censure,
and could not be excused by any principles of equity or
reason : that if these views were deemed less momentous
among princes, policy and interest ought certainly to be
attended to ; and these motives did still more evidently
oppose all thoughts of a rupture with Elizabeth, and all
revival of exploded claims to the English throne : that
the inequality between the two kingdoms deprived James
of any hopes of success, if he trusted merely to the force
of his own state, and had :no recourse to foreign powers
for assistance: that the objections attending the intro-
duction of succours from a more potent monarch ap-
peared so evident from all the transactions of history,
that they could not escape a person of the king's ex-
tensive knowledge; but there were, in the present case,
several peculiar circumstances, which ought for ever to
deter him from having recourse to so dangerous an ex-
pedient : that the French monarch, the ancient ally of
Scotland, might willingly use the assistance of that king-
dom against England; but would be displeased to see
the union of these two kingdoms in the person of James ;
a union which would ever after exclude him from prac-
tising that policy, formerly so useful to the French, and
so pernicious to the Scottish nation : that Henry besides,
infested with faction and domestic war, was not in a con-
dition of supporting distant allies ; much less would he
expose himself to any hazard or expense, in order to
aggrandize a near kinsman of the house of Guise, the
most determined enemies of his repose and authority :
that the extensive power and exorbitant ambition of the
Spanish monarch rendered him a still more dangerous

O HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, ally to Scotland ; and as lie evidently aspired to an uni-
XLII. versa i monarchy in the west, and had in particular ad-
""^7 vanced some claims to England, as if he were descended
from the house of Lancaster ; he was at the same time
the common enemy of all princes who wished to maintain
their independence, and the immediate rival and com-
petitor of the King of Scots : that the queen, by her
own naval power and her alliance with the Hollanders,
would probably intercept all succours which might be
sent to James from abroad, and be enabled to decide the
controversy in this island, with the superior forces of her
own kingdom, opposed to those of Scotland : that if the
king revived his mother's pretensions to the crown of
England, he must also embrace her religion, by which
alone they could be justified ; and must thereby undergo
the infamy of abandoning those principles in which he
had been strictly educated, and to which he had hitherto
religiously adhered : that as he would, by such an apos-
tasy, totally alienate all the Protestants in Scotland and
England, he could never gain the confidence of the Ca-
tholics, who would still entertain reasonable doubts of
his sincerity : that by advancing a present claim to the
crown, he forfeited the certain prospect of his succession,
and revived that national animosity which the late peace
and alliance between the kingdoms had happily extin-
guished : that the whole gentry and nobility of England
had openly declared themselves for the execution of the
Queen of Scots; and if James showed such violent re-
sentment against that act of justice, they would be
obliged, for their own security, to prevent for ever so
implacable a prince from ruling over them: and that,
however some persons might represent his honour as en-
gaged to seek vengeance for the present affront and
injury, the true honour of a prince consisted in wisdom
and moderation and justice, not in following the dictates
of blind passion, or in pursuing revenge at the expense
of every motive and every interest a . These considerations,
joined to the peaceable, unambitious temper of the young
prince, prevailed over his resentment ; and he fell gra-
dually into a good correspondence with the court of
England. It is probable that the queen's chief object in
her dissimulation with regard to the execution of Mary

a Strype, vol. iii. p. 377. Spotswood.

ELIZABETH. 81

was, that she might thereby afford James a decent pre- CHAP.
tence for renewing his amity with her, on which their .J^ 11 ^
mutual interests so much depended. 1587

While Elizabeth ensured tranquillity from the attempts
of her nearest neighbour, she was not negligent of more
distant dangers. Hearing that Philip, though he seemed
to dissemble the daily insults and injuries which he re-
ceived from the English, was secretly preparing a great
navy to attack her, she sent Sir Francis Drake with a
fleet to intercept his supplies, to pillage his coast, and to
destroy his shipping. Drake carried out four capital
ships of the queen's, and twenty-six great and small,
with which the London merchants, in hopes of sharing
in the plunder, had supplied him. Having learned
two Dutch ships, which he met with in his passage, that fleet at
a Spanish fleet, richly laden, was lying at Cadiz, ready to Cadlz -
set sail for Lisbon, the rendezvous of the intended Armada,
he bent his course to the former harbour, and boldly, as
well as fortunately, made an attack on the enemy. He
obliged six galleys, which made head against him, to
take shelter under the forts ; he burned about a hundred
vessels laden with ammunition and naval stores ; and he
destroyed a great ship of the Marquis of Santa Croce.
Thence he set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and took by
assault the castle situated on that promontory, with three
other fortresses. He next insulted Lisbon ; and finding that
the merchants, who had engaged entirely in expectation
of profit, were discontented at these military enterprises,
he set sail for the Terceras, with an intention of lying in
wait for a rich carrack which was expected in those parts.
He was so fortunate as to meet with his prize ; and by
this short expedition, in which the public bore so small
a share, the adventurers were encouraged to attempt
farther enterprises, the English seamen learned to despise
the great unwieldy ships of the enemy, the naval prepara-
tions of Spain were destroyed, the intended expedition
against England was retarded a twelvemonth, and the
queen thereby had leisure to take more secure measures
against that formidable invasion b .

This year, Thomas Cavendish, a gentleman of Devon-

b Camden, p. 540. Sir William Monson's Naval Tracts, in Churchill's Voyages,
vol. iii. p. 156.

32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, shire, who had dissipated a good estate by living at court,
XLIL being resolved to repair his fortune at the expense of the
Spaniards, fitted out three ships at Plymouth, one of a
hundred and twenty tons, another of sixty, and a third
of forty ; and with these small vessels he ventured into
the South Sea, and committed great depredations on the
Spaniards. He took nineteen vessels, some of which
were richly laden ; and, returning by the Cape of Good
Hope, he came to London, and entered the river in a
kind of triumph. His mariners and soldiers were clothed
in silk, his sails were of damask, his top-sail cloth of gold ;
and his prizes were esteemed the richest that ever had
been brought into England c .

The land enterprises of the English were not, during
this campaign, so advantageous or honourable to the
nation. The important place of Deventer was intrusted
by Leicester to William Stanley, with a garrison of
twelve hundred English ; and this gentleman, being a
Catholic, was alarmed at the discovery of Babington's con-
spiracy, and became apprehensive lest every one of his
religion should thenceforth be treated with distrust in
England. He entered into a correspondence with the
Spaniards, betrayed the city to them for a sum of money,
and engaged the whole garrison to desert with him to the
Spanish service. Roland York, who commanded a fort
near Zutphen, imitated his example ; and the Hollanders,
formerly disgusted with Leicester, and suspicious of the
English, broke out into loud complaints against the im-
providence, if not the treachery, of his administration.
Soon after, he himself arrived in the Low Countries 5
but his conduct was nowise calculated to give them satis-
faction, or to remove the suspicions which they had en-
tertained against him. The Prince of Parma having be-
sieged Sluys, Leicester attempted to relieve the place,
first by sea, then by land ; but failed in both enterprises ;
and as he ascribed his bad success to the ill-behaviour of
the Hollanders, they were equally free in reflections upon
his conduct. The breach between them became wider
every day : they slighted his authority, opposed his
measures, and neglected his counsels ; while he endea-
voured, by an imperious behaviour and by violence, to

c Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 57.

ELIZABETH. 83

recover that influence which he had lost by his imprudent CHAP.
and ill-concerted measures. He was even suspected by^ [_,
the Dutch of a design to usurp upon their liberties ; 1587
and the jealousy entertained against him began to extend
towards the queen herself. That princess had made some
advances towards a peace with Spain. A congress had
been opened at Bourbourg, a village near Graveline ; and
though the two courts, especially that of Spain, had no
other intention than to amuse each of them its enemy
by negotiation, and mutually relax the preparations for
defence or attack, the Dutch, who were determined on
no terms to return under the Spanish yoke, became appre-
hensive lest their liberty should be sacrificed to the poli-
tical interests of England d . But the queen, who knew
the importance of her alliance with the states during the
present conjuncture, was resolved to give them entire
satisfaction by recalling Leicester, and commanding him
to resign his government. Maurice, son of the late
Prince of Orange, a youth of twenty years of age, was
elected by the states governor in his place ; and Pere-
grine Lord Willoughby was appointed by the queen
commander of the English forces. The measures of these
two generals were much embarrassed by the malignity of
Leicester, who had left a faction behind him, and who
still attempted, by means of his emissaries, to disturb all
the operations of the states. As soon as Elizabeth received
intelligence of these disorders, she took care to redress
them ; and she obliged all the partisans of England to
fall into unanimity with Prince Maurice e . But though
her good sense so far prevailed over her partiality to
Leicester, she never could be made fully sensible of his
vices and incapacity : the submissions which he made her
restored him to her wonted favour ; and Lord Buckhurst,
who had accused him of misconduct in Holland, lost her
confidence for some time, and was even committed to
custody.

Sir Christopher Hatton was another favourite who at
this time received some marks of her partiality. Though
he had never followed the profession of the law, he was
made chancellor in the place of Bromley, deceased ; but,

d Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4. Strype, vol. iv. No. 246.
Kymer, torn. xv. p. 66.

34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, notwithstanding all the expectations,, and perhaps wishes,
of the lawyers, he behaved in a manner not unworthy of

^1587 'that high station; his good natural capacity supplied the
place of experience and study, and his decisions were not
found deficient either in point of equity or judgment.
His enemies had contributed to this promotion, in hopes
that his absence from court while he attended the busi-
ness of chancery would gradually estrange the queen
from him, and give them an opportunity of undermining
him in her favour.

lass. These little intrigues and cabals of the court were
silenced by the account, which came from all quarters,
of the vast preparations made by the Spaniards for the
invasion of England, and for the entire conquest of that
om. Philip, though he had not yet declared war,
on account of the hostilities which Elizabeth everywhere

England, committed upon him, had long harboured a secret and
violent desire of revenge against her. His ambition,
also, and the hopes of extending his empire, were much
encouraged by the present prosperous state of his affairs ;
by the conquest of Portugal, the acquisition of the East
Indian commerce and settlements, and the yearly impor-
tation of vast treasures from America. The point on
which he rested his highest glory, the perpetual object of
his policy, was to support orthodoxy, and exterminate
heresy ; and as the power and credit of Elizabeth were
the chief bulwark of the Protestants, he hoped, if he
could subdue that princess, to acquire the eternal renown
of reuniting the whole Christian world in the catholic
communion. Above all, his indignation against his re-
volted subjects in the Netherlands instigated him to
attack the English, who had encouraged that insurrec-
tion, and who, by their vicinity, were so well enabled to
support the Hollanders, that he could never hope to re-
duce these rebels while the power of that kingdom re-
mained entire and unbroken. To subdue England seemed
a necessary preparative to the re-establishment of his
authority in the Netherlands; and notwithstanding ap-
pearances, the former was in itself, as a more important,
so a more easy undertaking than the latter. That king-
dom lay nearer Spain than the Low Countries, and was
more exposed to invasions from that quarter ; after an

ELIZABETH. 85

enemy had once obtained entrance, the difficulty seemed CHAP.
to be over, as it was neither fortified by art nor nature ;
a long peace had deprived it of all military discipline
and experience ; and the Catholics, in which it still
abounded, would be ready, it was hoped, to join any in-
vader who should free them from those persecutions
under which they laboured, and should revenge the death
of the Queen of Scots, on whom they had fixed all their
affections. The fate of England must be decided in one
battle at sea, and another at land ; and what comparison
between the English and Spaniards, either in point of
naval force, or in the numbers, reputation, and veteran
bravery of their armies ? Besides the acquisition of so
great a kingdom, success against England ensured the
immediate subjection of the Hollanders, who, attacked
on every hand, and deprived of all support, must yield
their stubborn necks to that yoke which they had so
long resisted. Happily this conquest, as it was of the
utmost importance to the grandeur of Spain, would not
at present be opposed by the jealousy of other powers,
naturally so much interested to prevent the success of
the enterprise. A truce was lately concluded with the
Turks ; the empire was in the hands of a friend and near
ally j and France, the perpetual rival of Spain, was so
torn with intestine commotions that she had no leisure
to pay attention to her foreign interests. This favour-
able opportunity, therefore, which might never again
present itself, must be seized, and one bold effort
made for acquiring that ascendant in Europe to which
the present greatness and prosperity of the Spaniards
seemed so fully to entitle them f .

These hopes and motives engaged Philip, notwith-
standing his cautious temper, to undertake this hazard-
ous enterprise ; and though the prince, now created, by
the pope, Duke of Parma, when consulted, opposed the
attempt, at least represented the necessity of previously
getting possession of some seaport town in the Nether-
lands, which might afford a retreat to the Spanish navy g ,
it was determined by the catholic monarch to proceed
immediately to the execution of this ambitious project.
During some time he had been secretly making prepara-

* Camden. Strype, vol. iii. p. 512. e Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4.

VOL. IV. 8

56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, tions; but as soon as the resolution was fully taken,
XLII. evei y part of his vast empire resounded with the noise
of armaments, and all his ministers, generals, and admi-
rals, were employed in forwarding the design. The
Marquis of Santa Croce, a sea officer of great reputa-
tion and experience, was destined to command the
fleet; and by his counsels were the naval equipments
The in- conducted. In all the ports of Sicily, Naples, Spain,
an ^ Portugal, artisans were employed in building vessels
of uncommon size and force ; naval stores were bought
at a great expense ; provisions amassed ; armies levied
and quartered in the maritime towns of Spain; and
plans laid for fitting out such a fleet and embarkation as
had never before had its equal in Europe. The military
preparations in Flanders were no less formidable. Troops
from all quarters were every moment assembling to re-
inforce the Duke of Parma. Capizuchi and Spinelli
conducted forces from Italy : the Marquis of Borgaut,
a prince of the house of Austria, levied troops in Ger-
many : the Walloon and Burgundian regiments were
completed or augmented : the Spanish infantry was sup-
plied with recruits ; and an army of thirty-four thousand
men was assembled in the Netherlands, and kept in
readiness to be transported into England. The Duke
of Parma employed all the carpenters whom he could
procure either in Flanders or in Lower Germany, and
the coasts of the Baltic ; and he built at Dunkirk and
Newport, but especially at Antwerp, a great number of
boats and flat-bottomed vessels, for the transporting of
his infantry and cavalry. The most renowned nobility
and princes of Italy and Spain were ambitious of sharing
in the honor of this great enterprise. Don Amadseus
of Savoy, Don John of Medicis, Vespasian Gonzaga,
Duke of Sabionetta, and the Duke of Pastrana, hastened
to join the army under the Duke of Parma. About two
thousand volunteers in Spain, many of them men of
family, had enlisted in the service. No doubts were
entertained but such vast preparations, conducted by
officers of such consummate skill, must finally be suc-
cessful. And the Spaniards, ostentatious of their power,
and elated with vain hopes, had already denominated
their navy the Invincible Armada.

ELIZABETH. 87

News of these extraordinary preparations soon readied CHAP.
the court of London ; and, notwithstanding the secrecy
of the Spanish council, and their pretending to employ 1588
this force in the Indies, it was easily concluded, that Prepara-
they meant to make some effort against England. The England.
queen had foreseen the invasion, and finding that she
must now contend for her crown with the whole force of
Spain, she made preparations for resistance ; nor was she
dismayed with that power, by which all Europe appre-
hended she must of necessity be overwhelmed. Her
force indeed seemed very unequal to resist s-o potent an
enemy. All the sailors in England amounted at that
time to about fourteen thousand men h . The size of the
English shipping was in general so small, that, except a
few of the queen's ships of war, there were not four ves-
sels belonging to the merchants which exceeded four
hundred tons 1 . The royal navy consisted only of twenty-
eight sail k , many of which were of small size ; none of
them exceeded the bulk of our largest frigates, and
most of them deserved rather the name of pinnaces than
of ships. The only advantage of the English fleet con-
sisted in the dexterity and courage of the seamen, who,
being accustomed to sail in tempestuous seas, and expose
themselves to all dangers, as much exceeded in this par-
ticular the Spanish mariners, as their vessels were in-
ferior in size and force to those of that nation 1 . All
the commercial towns of England were required to fur-
nish ships for reinforcing this small navy ; and they
discovered on the present occasion great alacrity in
defending their liberty and religion against those immi-
nent perils with which they were menaced. The citi-
zens of London, in order to show their zeal in the com-
mon cause, instead of fifteen vessels which they were
commanded to equip, voluntarily fitted out double the
number m . The gentry and nobility hired, and armed,
and manned, forty-three ships at their own charge ;
and all the loans of money which the queen demanded
were frankly granted by the persons applied to. Lord
Howard of Effingham, a man of 'courage and capacity,

h Monson, p. 256. i Ibid. p. 268.

k Ibid. p. 157. 1 Ibid. p. 321.

m Ibid. p. 267. Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 451.

}g HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, was admiral, and took on him the command of the navy ;
Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, the most renowned
seamen in Europe, served under him. The principal
fleet was stationed at Plymouth. A smaller squadron,
consisting of forty vessels, English and Flemish, was
commanded by Lord Seymour, second son of Protector
Somerset ; and lay off Dunkirk, in order to intercept the
Duke of Parma.

The land forces of England, compared to those of
Spain, possessed contrary qualities to its naval power :
they were more numerous than the enemy, but much
inferior in discipline, reputation, and experience. An
army of twenty thousand men was disposed in different
bodies along the south coast, and orders were given
them, if they could not prevent the landing of the
Spaniards, to retire backwards, to waste the country
around, and to wait for reinforcement from the neigh-
bouring counties, before they approached the enemy.
A body of twenty-two thousand foot, and a thousand
horse, under the command of the Earl of Leicester, was
stationed at Tilbury, in order to defend the capital.
The principal army consisted of thirty-four thousand
foot and two thousand horse, and was commanded by
Lord Hunsdon. These forces were reserved for guard-
ing the queen's person, and were appointed to march
whithersoever the enemy should appear. The fate of
England, if all the Spanish armies should be able to
land, seemed to depend on the issue of a single battle ;
and men of reflection entertained the most dismal ap-
prehensions when they considered the force of fifty
thousand veteran Spaniards, commanded by experienced
officers, under the Duke of Parma, the most consum-
mate general of the age ; and compared this formidable
armament with the military power which England, not
enervated by peace, but long disused to war, could
muster against it.

The chief support of the kingdom seemed to consist
in the vigour and prudence of the queen's conduct ;
who, undismayed by the present dangers, issued all her
orders with tranquillity, animated her people to a steady
resistance, and employed every resource which either
her domestic situation or her foreign alliances could

ELIZABETH. 89

afford her. She sent Sir Robert Sidney into Scotland, CHAP.
and exhorted the king to remain attached to her, and^__ '_,
to consider the danger which at present menaced his 1588
sovereignty no less than her own, from the ambition of
the Spanish tyrant . The ambassador found James well
disposed to cultivate a union with England; and that
prince even kept himself prepared to march with the
force of his whole kingdom to the assistance of Elizabeth.
Her authority with the King of Denmark, and the tie of
their common religion, engaged this monarch, upon her
application, to seize a squadron of ships, which Philip
had bought or hired, in the Danish harbours 5 . The
Hanse towns, though not at that time on good terms
with Elizabeth, were induced by the same motives to
retard so long the equipment of some vessels in their
ports, that they became useless to the purpose of invad-
ing England. All the Protestants throughout Europe
regarded this enterprise as the critical event which was
to decide for ever the fate of their religion ; and though
unable, by reason of their distance, to join their force to
that of Elizabeth, they kept their eyes fixed on her con-
duct and fortune, and beheld with anxiety, mixed with
admiration, the intrepid countenance with which she en-
countered that dreadful tempest which was every moment
advancing towards her.

The queen also was sensible that, next to the general
popularity which she enjoyed, and the confidence which
her subjects reposed in her prudent government, the
firmest support of her throne consisted in the general
zeal of the people for the Protestant religion, and the
strong prejudices which they had imbibed against popery.
She took care, on the present occasion, to revive in the
nation this attachment to their own sect, and this abhor-
rence of the opposite. The English were reminded of
their former danger from the tyranny of Spain ; all the
barbarities exercised by Mary against the Protestants
were ascribed to the counsels of that bigoted and impe-
rious nation; the bloody massacres in the Indies, the
unrelenting executions in the Low Countries, the horrid

She made him some promises which she never fulfilled, to give him a dukedom,
in England with suitable lands and revenue, to settle 5,000^. a year on him, and
pay him a guard, for the safety of his person. From a MS. of Lord Royston's.

P Strype, vol. iii. p. 524.

90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, cruelties and iniquities of the inquisition, were set before
; men's eyes; a list and description was published, and
pi<5tarefl dispersed, of the several instruments of torture
with which it was pretended the Spanish Armada was
loaded; and every artifice, as well as reason, was em-
ployed to animate the people to a vigorous defence of
their religion, their laws, and their liberties.

But while the queen, in this critical emergence, roused
the animosity of the nation against popery, she treated
the partisans of that sect with moderation, and gave not
way to an undistinguishing fury against them. Though
she knew that Sixtus Quintus, the present pope, famous
for his capacity and his tyranny, had fulminated a new
bull of excommunication against her, had deposed her,
had absolved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance,
had published a crusade against England, and had granted
plenary indulgences to every one engaged in the present
invasion, she would not believe that all her catholic sub-
jects could be so blinded as to sacrifice to bigotry their
duty to their sovereign, and the liberty and independ-
ence of their native country. She rejected all violent
counsels, by which she was urged to seek pretences for
despatching the leaders of that party: she would not
even confine any considerable number of them ; and the
Catholics, sensible of this good usage, generally expressed
great zeal for the public service. Some gentlemen of
that sect, conscious that they could not justly expect
any trust or authority, entered themselves as volunteers
in the fleet or army q ; some equipped ships at their
own charge, and gave the command of them to Protes-
tants : others were active in animating their tenants and
vassals and neighbours to the defence of their country ;
and every rank of men, burying for the present all
party distinctions, seemed to prepare themselves with
order as well as vigour to resist the violence of these
invaders.

The more to excite the martial spirit of the nation,
the queen appeared on horseback in the camp at Tilbury ;
and riding through the lines, discovered a cheerful and
animated countenance, exhorted the soldiers to re-
member their duty to their country and their religion,

4 Stowe, p. 747.

ELIZABETH. 91

and professed her intention, though a woman, to lead CHAP.
them herself into the field against the enemy, and rather^
to perish in battle than survive the ruin and slavery of 1588
her people 1 . By this spirited behaviour she revived the
tenderness and admiration of the soldiery: an attach-
ment to her person became a kind of enthusiasm among
them ; and they asked one another whether it were pos-
sible that Englishmen could abandon this glorious cause,
could display less fortitude than appeared in the female
sex, or could ever by any dangers be induced to relin-
quish the defence of their heroic princess.

The Spanish Armada was ready in the beginning of
May; but, the moment it was preparing to sail, the
Marquis of Santa Croce, the admiral, was seized with
a fever, of which he soon after died. The vice-admiral,
the Duke of Paliano, by a strange concurrence of acci-
dents, at the very same time suffered the same fate ; and
the king appointed for admiral the Duke of Medina
Sidonia, a nobleman of great family, but inexperienced
in action, and entirely unacquainted with sea-affairs.
Alcarede was appointed vice-admiral. This misfortune,
besides the loss of so great an officer as Santa Croce,
retarded the sailing of the Armada, and gave the Eng-
lish more time for their preparations to oppose them.
At last, the Spanish fleet, full of hopes and alacrity,
set sail from Lisbon; but next day met with a violent 29th May.
tempest, which scattered the ships, sunk some of the
smallest, and forced the rest to take shelter in the Groine,
where they waited till they could be refitted. When
news of this event was carried to England, the queen
concluded that the design of an invasion was disap-
pointed for this summer ; and, being always ready to lay
hold on every pretence for saving money, she made Wal-
singham write to the admiral, directing him to lay up
some of the larger ships, and to discharge the seamen.
But Lord Effingham, who was not so sanguine in his
hopes, used the freedom to disobey these orders ; and
he begged leave to retain all the ships in service, though
it should be at his own expense 8 . He took advantage
of a north wind, and sailed towards the coast of Spain,
with an intention of attacking the enemy in their har-

r See note [K], at the end of the volume. s Camden, p. 545.

92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, bours; but the wind changing to the south, he became
XLIL apprehensive lest they might have set sail, and, by pass-
ing him at sea, invade England, now exposed by the
absence of the fleet. He returned, therefore, with the
utmost expedition to Plymouth, and lay at anchor in
that harbour.

Meanwhile, all the damages of the Armada were
repaired; and the Spaniards with fresh hopes set out
again to sea in prosecution of their enterprise. The fleet
consisted of a hundred and thirty vessels, of which near
a hundred were galleons, and were of greater size than
any ever before used in Europe. It carried on board
nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety-five soldiers,
eight thousand four hundred and fifty-six mariners, two
thousand and eighty-eight galley slaves, and two thou-
sand six hundred and thirty great pieces of brass ord-
nance. It was victualled for six months; and was at-
tended by twenty lesser ships called caravals, and ten
salves with six oars apiece*.

The plan formed by the King of Spain was, that the
Armada should sail to the coast opposite to Dunkirk
and Newport ; and having chased away all English or
Flemish vessels which might obstruct the passage, (for
it never was supposed they could make opposition,)
should join themselves with the Duke of Parma, should
thence make sail to the Thames, and having landed the
whole Spanish army, thus complete at one blow the
entire conquest of England. In prosecution of this
scheme, Philip gave orders to the Duke of Medina, that,
in passing along the channel, he should sail as near the
coast of France as he could with safety ; that he should
by this policy avoid meeting with the English fleet ; and,
keeping in view the main enterprise, should neglect all
smaller successes, which might prove an obstacle, or even
interpose a delay to the acquisition of a kingdom". After
the Armada was under sail, they took a fisherman, who
informed them that the English admiral had been lately
at sea, had heard of the tempest which scattered the
Armada, had retired back into Plymouth, and, no longer
expecting an invasion this season, had laid up his ships,
and discharged most of the seamen. From this false

* Stiype, vol. iii. Appendix, p. 221. u Monson, p. 157.

ELIZABETH. 93

intelligence the Duke of Medina conceived the great CHAP.
facility of attacking and destroying the English ships in ^ ' IL _,
harbour; and he was tempted by the prospect of so cle- 15P8
cisive an advantage to break his orders, and make sail
directly for Plymouth ; a resolution which proved the
safety of England. The Lizard was the first land made ^ h j^i
by the Armada, about sunset ; and as the Spaniards da arrives
took it for the Ram-head, near Plymouth, they bore out
to sea with an intention of returning next day and at-
tacking the English navy. They were descried by
Fleming, a Scottish pirate, who was roving in those seas,
and who immediately set sail, to inform the English
admiral of their approach w ; another fortunate event,
which contributed extremely to the safety of the fleet.
Effingham had just time to get out of port, when he
saw the Spanish Armada coming full sail towards him,
disposed in the form of a crescent, and stretching the
distance of seven miles from the extremity of one divi-
sion to that of the other.

The writers of that age raise their style by a pompous
description of this spectacle ; the most magnificent that
had ever appeared upon the ocean, infusing equal terror
and admiration into the minds of all beholders. The
lofty masts, the swelling sails, and the towering prows
of the Spanish galleons, seem impossible to be justly
painted but by assuming the colours of poetry ; and an
eloquent historian of Italy, in imitation of Camden, has
asserted that the Armada, though the ships bore every
sail, yet advanced with a slow motion ; as if the ocean
groaned with supporting, and the winds were tired with
impelling so enormous a weight x . The truth however
is, that the largest of the Spanish vessels would scarcely
pass for third-rates in the present navy of England ; yet
were they so ill-framed, or so ill-governed, that they
were quite unwieldy v and could not sail upon a wind,
nor tack on occasion, nor be managed in stormy weather
by the seamen. Neither the mechanics of shipbuilding
nor the experience of mariners had attained so great per-
fection as could serve for the security and government
of such bulky vessels ; and the English, who had already

w Monson, p. 158. * Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4.

94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, had experienced how unserviceable they commonly were,
XLIL beheld without dismay their tremendous appearance.
~~' Effingharn gave orders not to come to close fight with
the Spaniards, where the size of the ships, he suspected,
and the numbers of the soldiers, would be a disadvantage
to the English ; but to cannonade them at a distance,
and to wait the opportunity which winds, currents, or
various accidents, must afford him of intercepting some
scattered vessels of the enemy. Nor was it long before
the event answered expectation. A great ship of Biscay,
on board of which was a considerable part of the Spanish
money, took fire by accident ; and while all hands were
employed in extinguishing the flames, she fell behind
the rest of the Armada. The great galleon of Andalusia
was detained by the springing of her mast ; and both
these vessels were taken, after some resistance, by Sir
Francis Drake. As the Armada advanced up the chan-
nel, the English hung upon its rear, and still infested it
with skirmishes. Each trial abated the confidence of the
Spaniards, and added courage to the English ; and the
latter soon found, that even in close fight the size of
the Spanish ships was no advantage to them. Their
bulk exposed them the more to the fire of the enemy ;
while their cannon, placed too high, shot over the heads
of the English. The alarm having now reached the
coast of England, the nobility and gentry hastened out
with their vessels from every harbour, and reinforced the
admiral. The Earls of Oxford, Northumberland, and
Cumberland, Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir
Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Vavasor, Sir Thomas Ger-
rard, Sir Charles Blount, with many others, distinguished
themselves by this generous and disinterested service of
their country. The English fleet, after the conjunction
of those ships, amounted to a hundred and forty sail.

The Armada had now reached Calais, and cast anchor
before that place, in expectation that the Duke of Parma,
who had gotten intelligence of their approach, would put
to sea, and join his forces to them. The English admiral
practised here a successful stratagem upon the Spaniards.
He took eight of his smaller ships, and filling them with
combustible materials, sent them one after another into
the midst of the enemy. The Spaniards fancied that

ELIZABETH. 95

they were firesliips of the same contrivance with a famous CHAP.
vessel which had lately done so much execution in the^J ^_,
Schelde, near Antwerp ; and they immediately cut their 1588
cables, and took to flight with the greatest disorder and
precipitation. The English fell upon them next morning
while in confusion ; and besides doing great damage to
other ships, they took or destroyed about twelve of the
enemy.

By this time it was become apparent, that the intention
for which these preparations were made by the Spaniards
was entirely frustrated. The vessels provided by the
Duke of Parma were made for transporting soldiers, not
for fighting ; and that general, when urged to leave the
harbour, positively refused to expose his flourishing army
to such apparent hazard ; while the English not only
were able to keep the sea, but seemed even to triumph
over their enemy. The Spanish admiral found, in many
rencounters, that while he lost so considerable a part of
his own navy, he had destroyed only one small vessel of
the English ; and he foresaw, that, by continuing so
unequal a combat, he must draw inevitable destruction
on all the remainder. He prepared therefore to return
homewards ; but as -the wind was contrary to his passage
through the channel, he resolved to sail northwards, and,
making the tour of the island, reached the Spanish har-
bours by the ocean. The English fleet followed him during
some time : and had not their ammunition fallen short,
by the negligence of the officers in supplying them, they
had obliged the whole Armada to surrender at discretion.
The Duke of Medina had once taken that resolution,
but was diverted from it by the advice of his confessor.
This conclusion of the enterprise would have been more
glorious to the English ; but the event proved almost
equally fatal to the Spaniards. A violent tempest over- Defeated,
took the Armada after it passed the Orkneys : the ships
had already lost their anchors, and were obliged to keep
to sea : the mariners, unaccustomed to such hardships,
and not able to govern such unwieldy vessels, yielded to
the fury of the storm, and allowed their ships to drive
either on the western isles of Scotland, or on the coast
of Ireland, where they were miserably wrecked. Not a
half of the navy returned to Spain ; and the seamen as

96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, well as soldiers who remained were so overcome with
hardships and fatigue, and so dispirited by their discom-
, that they filled all Spain with accounts of the
desperate valour of the English, and of the tempestuous
violence of that ocean which surrounds them.

Such was the miserable and dishonourable conclusion
of an enterprise which had been preparing for three
years, which had exhausted the revenue and force of
Spain, and which had long filled all Europe with anxiety
or expectation. Philip, who was a slave to his ambition,
but had an entire command over his countenance, no
sooner heard of the mortifying event which blasted all
his hopes, than he fell on his knees, and rendering thanks
for the gracious dispensation of Providence, expressed his
joy that the calamity was not greater. The Spanish
priests, who had so often blessed this holy crusade, and
foretold its infallible success, were somewhat at a loss to
account for the victory gained over the catholic monarch
by excommunicated heretics and an execrable usurper :
but they at last discovered, that all the calamities of the
Spaniards had proceeded from their allowing the infidel
Moors to live among them 7 .

4thFeb. Soon after the defeat and dispersion of the Spanish
A Pariia- Armada, the queen summoned a new Parliament ; and
received from them a supply of two subsidies and four
fifteenths, payable in four years. This is the first instance
that subsidies were doubled in one supply ; and so un-
usual a concession was probably obtained from the joy of
the present success, and from the general sense of the
queen's necessities. Some members objected to this
heavy charge, on account of the great burden of loans
which had lately been imposed upon the nation z .

Elizabeth foresaw, that this House of Commons, like
all the foregoing, would be governed by the puritans ;
and therefore, to obviate their enterprises, she renewed
at the beginning of the session her usual injunction, that
the Parliament should not on any account presume to
treat of matters ecclesiastical. Notwithstanding this strict
inhibition, the zeal of one Damport moved him to present
a bill to the Commons for remedying spiritual grievances,

ment.

See note [Ml, at the end of the volume,

ELIZABETH. 97

and for restraining the tyranny of the ecclesiastical com- CHAP.
mission, which were certainly great : but when Mr. Se-
cretary Woley reminded the House of her majesty's 1589
commands, no one durst second the motion ; the bill was
not so much as read ; and the Speaker returned it to
Damport without taking the least notice of it a . Some
members of the House, notwithstanding the general sub-
mission, were even committed to custody on account of
this attempt b .

The imperious conduct of Elizabeth appeared still
more clearly in another parliamentary transaction. The
right of purveyance was an ancient prerogative, by which
the officers of the crown could at pleasure take provisions
for the household from all the neighbouring counties,
and could make use of the carts and carriages of the
farmers ; and the price of these commodities and services
was fixed and stated. The payment of the money was
often distant and uncertain ; and the rates, being fixed
before the discovery of the West Indies, were much in-
ferior to the present market price ; so that purveyance,
besides the slavery of it, was always regarded as a great
burden, and, being arbitrary and casual, was liable to
great abuses. We may fairly presume, that the hungry
courtiers of Elizabeth, supported by her unlimited power,
would be sure to render this prerogative very oppressive
to the people j and the Commons had, last session, found
it necessary to pass a bill for regulating these exactions :
but the bill was lost in the House of Peers . The con-
tinuance of the abuses begat a new attempt for redress ;
and the same bill was now revived, and again sent up to
the House of Peers, together with a bill for some new
regulations in the court of exchequer. Soon after, the
Commons received a message from the Upper House,
desiring them to appoint a committee for a conference.
At this conference, the Peers informed them, that the
queen, by a message delivered by Lord Burleigh, had ex-
pressed her displeasure, that the Commons should presume
to touch on her prerogative. If there were any abuses,
she said, either in imposing purveyance, or in the practice
of the court of exchequer, her majesty was both able

a D'Ewes, p. 438.

t> Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 280. NeaJ, vol. i. 500.

c D'Ewes, p. 434.

VOL. IV. 9

98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, and willing to provide due reformation ; but would not
XLII. p erm ^ the Parliament to intermeddle in these matters' 1 .
The Commons, alarmed at this intelligence, appointed
another committee to attend the queen, and endeavoured
to satisfy her of their humble and dutiful intentions.
Elizabeth gave a gracious reception to the committee :
she expressed her great inestimable loving care towards her
loving subjects ; which, she said, was greater than of her
own self, or even than any of them could have of them-
selves. She told them, that she had already given orders
for an inquiry into the abuses attending purveyance,
but the dangers of the Spanish invasion had retarded
the progress of the design ; that she had as much
skill, will, and power to rule her household as any sub-
jects whatsoever to govern theirs, and needed as little the
assistance of her neighbours; that the exchequer was
her chamber, consequently more near to her than even
her household, and therefore the less proper for them to
intermeddle with ; and that she would of herself, with
advice of her council and the judges, redress every grie-
vance in these matters, but would not permit the Com-
mons, by laws moved without her privity, to bereave her
of the honour attending these regulations 6 . The issue of
this matter was the same that attended all contests be-
tween Elizabeth and her Parliaments f . She seems even
to have been more imperious in this particular than her
predecessors, at least her more remote ones; for they
often permitted the abuses of purveyance g to be redressed
by law h . Edward III., a very arbitrary prince, allowed
ten several statutes to be enacted for that purpose.

In so great awe did the Commons stand of every
courtier, as well as of the crown, that they durst use no
freedom of speech which they thought would give the
least offence to any of them. Sir Edward Hobby showed
in the House his extreme grief, that by some great per-
sonage, not a member of the House, he had been sharply
rebuked for speeches delivered in Parliament : he craved
the favour of the House, and desired that some of the
members might inform that great personage of his true

a D'Ewes, p. 440. e Ibid. p. 444.

f Si rixa est, ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum. Juv.

g See note [N], at the end of the volume.

h See the Statutes under the head of Purveyance.

ELIZABETH. 99

meaning and intention in these speeches 1 . The Coin- CHAP.

mons, to obviate these inconveniences, passed a vote that

no one should reveal the secrets of the House k . ^3

The discomfiture of the Armada had begotten in the
nation a kind of enthusiastic passion for enterprises
against Spain ; and nothing seemed now impossible to
be achieved by the valour and fortune of the English.
Don Antonio, prior of Crato, a natural son of the royal
family of Portugal, trusting to the aversion of his coun-
trymen against the Castilians, had advanced a claim to
the crown ; and flying first to France, thence to Eng-
land, had been encouraged both by Henry and Elizabeth
in his pretensions. A design was formed by the people, Expedition
not the court of England, to conquer the kingdom for Portugal.
Don Antonio : Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris
were the leaders in this romantic enterprise : near
twenty thousand volunteers 1 enlisted themselves in the
service ; and ships were hired, as well as arms provided,
at the charge of the adventurers. The queen's frugality
kept her from contributing more than sixty thousand
pounds to the expense ; and she only allowed six of her
ships of war to attend the expedition 111 . There was more
spirit and bravery, than foresight or prudence, in the
conduct of this enterprise. The small stock of the ad-
venturers did not enable them to buy either provisions
or ammunition sufficient for sucfr an undertaking : they
even wanted vessels to stow the numerous volunteers
who crowded to them : and they were obliged to seize
by force some ships of the Hanse towns, which they
met with at sea ; an expedient which set them some-
what more at ease in point of room for their men, but
remedied not the deficiency of their provisions". Had
they sailed directly to Portugal, it is believed that the
good-will of the people, joined to the defenceless state
of the country, might have ensured them of success :

1 D'Ewes, p. 432, 433.

k An act was passed this session, enforcing the former statute, which imposed
twenty pounds a month on every one absent from public worship : but the penalty
was restricted to two-thirds of the income of the recusant. 29 Eliz. cap. 6.

1 Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 61. Monson, p. 267, says,
that there were only fourteen thousand soldiers and four thousand seamen in the
whole of this expedition : but the account contained in Dr. Birch is given by one of
the most considerable of the adventurers.

m Monson, p. 267. n ibid. p. 159.

100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, but hearing that great preparations were making at the
XLII. Q rome f or the invasion of England, they were induced
to go thither, and destroy this new armament of Spain.
They broke into the harbour, burned some ships of war,
particularly one commanded by Recalde, vice-admiral of
Spain ; they defeated an army of four or five thousand
men, which was assembled to oppose them ; they as-
saulted the Groine, and took the lower town, which
they pillaged ; and they would have taken the higher,
though well fortified, had they not found their ammuni-
tion and provisions beginning to fail them. The young
Earl of Essex, a nobleman of promising hopes, who, fired
with the thirst of military honour, had secretly, unknown
to the queen, stolen from England, here joined the ad-
venturers ; and it was then agreed by common consent
to make sail for Portugal, the main object of their
enterprise.

The English landed at Paniche, a sea-port town, twelve
leagues from Lisbon ; and Norris led the army to that
capital, while Drake undertook to sail up the river and
attack the city with united forces. By this time the
court of Spain had gotten leisure to prepare against the
invasion. Forces were thrown into Lisbon : the Portu-
guese were disarmed : all suspected persons were taken
into custody : and thus, though the inhabitants bore great
affection to Don Anton'fe, none of them durst declare in
favour of the invaders. The English army, however,
made themselves masters of the suburbs, which abounded
with riches of all kinds ; but as they desired to conciliate
the affections of the Portuguese, and were more intent
on honour than profit, they observed a strict discipline,
and abstained from all plunder. Meanwhile they found
their ammunition and provisions much exhausted ; they
had not a single cannon to make a breach in the walls ;
the admiral had not been able to pass some fortresses
which guarded the river ; there was no appearance of an
insurrection in their favour ; sickness, from fatigue,
hunger, and intemperance in wine and fruits had seized
the army ; so that it was found necessary to make all
possible haste to re-embark. They were not pursued
by the enemy ; and, finding at the mouth of the river
sixty ships laden with naval stores, they seized them as

ELIZABETH. 101

lawful prize, though they belonged to the Hanse towns, CHAP.
a neutral power. They sailed thence to Vigo, which they^J^ 11 ^
took and burned ; and, having ravaged the country around, 1589
they set sail and arrived in England. About half of these
gallant adventurers perished by sickness, famine, fatigue,
and the sword ; and England reaped more honour than
profit from this extraordinary enterprise. It is computed
that eleven hundred gentlemen embarked on board the
fleet, and that only three hundred and fifty survived those
multiplied disasters 5 .

When these ships were on their voyage homewards,
they met with the Earl of Cumberland, who was outward
bound, with a fleet of seven sail, all equipped at his own
charge, except one ship of war which the queen had lent
him. That nobleman supplied Sir Francis Drake with
some provisions ; a generosity which saved the lives of
many of Drake's men, but for which the others after-
wards suffered severely. Cumberland sailed towards the
Terceras, and took several prizes from the enemy ; but
the richest, valued at a hundred thousand pounds, perished
in her return, with all her cargo, near St. Michael's Mount,
in Cornwall. Many of these adventurers were killed in a
rash attempt at the Terceras ; a great mortality seized
the rest; and it was with difficulty that the few hands
which remained were able to steer the ships back into
harbour q .

Though the signal advantages gained over the Spa- Affairs of
niards, and the spirit thence infused into the English, gave S(
Elizabeth great security during the rest of her reign, she
could not forbear keeping an anxious eye on Scotland,
whose situation rendered its revolutions always of im-
portance to her. It might have been expected, that this
high-spirited princess, who knew so well to brave danger,
would not have retained that malignant jealousy to-
wards her heir, with which, during the life-time of Mary,
she had been so much agitated. James had indeed suc-
ceeded to all the claims of his mother ; but he had not
succeeded to the favour of the Catholics, which could
alone render these claims dangerous 1 ". And as the queen
was now well advanced in years, and enjoyed an uncon-

Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 61. P Ibid. vol. i. p. 61.

<i Monson, p. 161. r Winwood, vol. i. p. 41.

102 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, trolled authority over her subjects, it was not likely that
XLIL the King of Scots, who was of an indolent unambitious
temper, would ever give her any disturbance in her posses-
sion of the throne. Yet all these circumstances could not
remove her timorous suspicions ; and so far from satisfying
the nation by a settlement of the succession, or a declara-
tion of James's title, she was as anxious to prevent every
incident which might anywise raise his credit, or procure
him, the regard of the English, as if he had been her
immediate rival and competitor. Most of his ministers
and favourites were her pensioners ; and as she was
desirous to hinder him from marrying and having chil-
dren, she obliged them to throw obstacles in the way of
every alliance, even the most reasonable, which could be
offered him ; and during some years she succeeded in this
malignant policy s . He had fixed on the elder daughter
of the King of Denmark, who, being a remote prince and
not powerful, could give her no umbrage ; yet did she so
artfully cross this negotiation, that the Danish monarch,
impatient of delay, married his daughter to the Duke of
Brunswick. James then renewed his suit to the younger
princess ; and still found obstacles from the intrigues of
Elizabeth, who, merely with a view of interposing delay,
proposed to him the sister of the King of Navarre, a
princess much older than himself, and entirely destitute
of fortune. The young king, besides the desire of
securing himself, by the prospect of issue, from those
traitorous attempts too frequent among his subjects, had
been so watched by the rigid austerity of the ecclesiastics,
that he had another inducement to marry, which is not
so usual with monarchs. His impatience therefore broke
through all the politics of Elizabeth : the articles of
marriage were settled : the ceremony was performed by
proxy, and the princess embarked for Scotland, but was
driven by a storm into a port of Norway. This tempest,
.and some others which happened near the same time,
were universally believed in Scotland and Denmark to
have proceeded from a combination of the Scottish and
Danish witches ; and the dying confession of the criminals
w^as supposed to put the accusation beyond all contro-
versy*. James, however, though a great believer in

Melvil, p. 166. 177. t ibid. p. 180.

ELIZABETH. 103

sorcery, was not deterred by this incident from taking a CHAP.
voyage in order to conduct his bride home : he arrived yj " 11 ^
in Norway; carried the queen thence to Copenhagen; 1589
and, having passed the winter in that city, he brought
her next spring to Scotland, where they were joyfully re-
ceived by the people. The clergy alone, who never neg-
lected an opportunity of vexing their prince, made opposi-
tion to the queen's coronation, on account of the ceremony
of anointing her, which they alleged was either a Jewish
or a popish rite, and therefore utterly antichristian and
unlawful. But James was as much bent on the ceremony
as they were averse to it ; and after much controversy
and many intrigues, his authority, which had not often
happened, at last prevailed over their opposition".

u Spotswood, p. 381.

104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTEE XLIII.

FRENCH AFFAIRS. MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. MURDER OF HENRY
III. PROGRESS OF HENRY IV. NAVAL ENTERPRISES AGAINST SPAIN.
A PARLIAMENT. HENRY IV. EMBRACES THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.
SCOTCH AFFAIRS. NAVAL ENTERPRISES. A PARLIAMENT. PEACE OF
VERVINS. THE EARL OF ESSEX.

CHAP. AFTER a state of great anxiety and many difficulties,
1 ^ Elizabeth had at length reached a situation where,
1590< though her affairs still required attention, and found
employment for her active spirit, she was removed from
all danger of any immediate revolution, and might re-
gard the efforts of her enemies with some degree of con-
fidence and security. Her successful and prudent ad-
ministration had gained her, together with the admira-
tion of foreigners, the affections of her own subjects;
and, after the death of the Queen of Scots, even the
Catholics, however discontented, pretended not to dis-
pute her title, or adhere to any other person as her
competitor. James, curbed by his factious nobility and
ecclesiastics, possessed at home very little authority;
and was solicitous to remain on good terms with Eliza-
beth and the English nation, in hopes that time, aided
by his patient tranquillity, would secure him that rich
succession to which his birth entitled him. The Hol-
landers, though overmatched in their contest' with Spain,
still made an obstinate resistance; and such was their
unconquerable antipathy to their old masters, and such
the prudent conduct of young Maurice, their governor,
that the subduing of that small territory, if at all pos-
sible, must be the work of years, and the result of many
and great successes. Philip, who, in his powerful effort
against England, had been transported by resentment
and ambition beyond his usual cautious maxims, was
now disabled, and still more discouraged, from adven-
turing again on such hazardous enterprises. The situa-
tion also of affairs in France began chiefly to employ
his attention; but notwithstanding all his artifice, and
force, and expense, the events in that kingdom proved

ELIZABETH. 105

every day more contrary to his expectations, and more
favourable to the friends and confederates of England.

The violence of the league having constrained Henry 1590>
to declare war against the Hugonots, these religionists ^ench
seemed exposed to the utmost danger; and Elizabeth,
sensible of the intimate connexion between her own
interests and those of that party, had supported the
King of Navarre by her negotiations in Germany, and
by large sums of money, which she remitted for levying
forces in that country. This great prince, not dis-
couraged by the superiority of his enemies, took the
field ; and in the year 1587 gained, at Coutras, a com-
plete victory over the army of the French King ; but as
his allies, the Germans, were at the same time discomfited
by the army of the league, under the Duke of Guise,
his situation, notwithstanding his victory, seemed still
as desperate as ever. The chief advantage which he
reaped by this diversity of success arose from the dis-
sensions which by that means took place among his
enemies. The inhabitants of Paris, intoxicated with
admiration of Guise, and strongly prejudiced against
their king, whose intentions had become suspicious to
them, took to arms, and obliged Henry to fly for his
safety. That prince, dissembling his resentment, en-
tered into a negotiation with the league, and having
conferred many high offices on Guise and his partisans,
summoned an assembly of the states at Blois, on pre-
tence of finding expedients to support the intended war
against the Hugonots. The various scenes of perfidy and
cruelty which had been exhibited in France had justly
begotten a mutual diffidence among all parties; yet
Guise, trusting more to the timidity than honour of the
king, rashly put himself into the hands of that monarch,
and expected, by the ascendant of his own genius, to
make him submit to all his exorbitant pretensions.
Henry, though of an easy disposition, not steady to his Murder of

-, "Y. <, . . -, J . ,-, the Duke

resolutions, nor even to his promises, wanted neither O f Guise.
courage nor capacity ; and finding all his subtleties eluded
by the vigour of Guise, and even his throne exposed to
the most imminent danger, he embraced more violent
counsels than were natural to him, and ordered that

106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, prince and his brother, the Cardinal of Guise, to be as-
g ass i na ted in his palace.

This cruel execution, which the necessity of it alone
could excuse, had nearly proved fatal to the author,
and seemed at first to plunge him into greater dangers
than those which he sought to avoid by taking venge-
ance on his enemy. The partisans of the league were
inflamed with the utmost rage against him : the populace
everywhere, particularly at Paris, renounced allegiance
to him: the ecclesiastics and the preachers filled all
places with execrations against his name and the most
powerful cities and most opulent provinces appeared to
combine in a resolution, either of renouncing monarchy,
or of changing their monarch. Henry, finding slender
resources among his catholic subjects, was constrained
to enter into a confederacy with the Hugonots and the
King of Navarre : he enlisted large bodies of Swiss
infantry and German cavalry ; and, being still supported
by his chief nobility, he assembled, by all these means,
an army of near forty thousand men, and advanced to
the gates of Paris, ready to crush the league, and subdue
all his enemies. The desperate resolution of one man
diverted the course of these great events. Jacques
Clement, a Dominican friar, inflamed by that bloody
spirit of bigotry which distinguishes this century, and
a great part of the following, beyond all ages of the
world, embraced the resolution of sacrificing his own
life in order to save the church from the persecutions
Murder of o f an heretical tyrant ; and, being admitted under some

Henry the ,, /. , ?

Third. pretext to the king s presence, he gave that prince a
mortal wound, and was immediately put to death by
the courtiers, who hastily revenged the murder of their
sovereign. This memorable incident happened on the
first of August, 1589.

The King of Navarre, next heir to the crown, as-
sumed the government by the title of Henry IV., but
succeeded to much greater difficulties than those which
surrounded his predecessor. The prejudices entertained
against his religion made a great part of the nobility
immediately desert him ; and it was only by his promise
of hearkening to conferences and instruction, that he

ELIZABETH. 107

could engage any of the Catholics to adhere to his un- CHAP.
doubted title. The league, governed by the Duke of^_,
Mayence, brother to Guise, gathered new force, and the 1590
King of Spain entertained views, either of dismembering
the French monarchy, or of annexing the whole to his
own dominions. In these distressful circumstances, Henry
addressed himself to Elizabeth, and found her well dis-
posed to contribute to his assistance, and to oppose the
progress of the catholic league and of Philip, her in-
veterate and dangerous enemies. To prevent the de-
sertion of his Swiss and German auxiliaries, she made
him a present of twenty-two thousand pounds, a greater
sum than, as he declared, he had ever seen before ; and
she sent him a reinforcement of four thousand men
under Lord Willoughby, an officer of reputation, who
joined the French at Dieppe. Strengthened by these
supplies, Henry marched directly to Paris ; and, having
taken the suburbs sword in hand, he abandoned them
to be pillaged by his soldiers. He employed this body
of English in many other enterprises, and still found
reason to praise their courage and fidelity. The time
of their service being elapsed, he dismissed them with
many high commendations. Sir William Drury, Sir
Thomas Baskerville, and Sir John Boroughs, acquired
reputation in this campaign, and revived in France the
ancient fame of English valour.

The army which Henry, next campaign, led into the Progress
field, was much inferior to that of the league; but as?
it was composed of the chief nobility of France, he
feared not to encounter his enemies in a pitched battle
at Yvree, and he gained a complete victory over them.
This success enabled him to blockade Paris, and he
reduced that capital to the last extremity of famine ;
when the Duke of Parma, in consequence of orders
from Philip, marched to the relief of the league, and
obliged Henry to raise the blockade. Having performed
this important service, he retreated to the Low Coun-
tries ; and, by his consummate skill in the art of war,
performed these long marches in the face of the enemy,
without affording the French monarch that opportunity
which he sought, of giving him battle, or so much as
once putting his army in disorder. The only loss which

108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, he sustained was in the Low Countries; where Prince
XLIII. j\f aur i ce took advantage of his absence, and recovered

"^^some places which the Duke of Parma had formerly

conquered from the states.*

i59i. The situation of Henry's affairs, though promising,
was not so well advanced or established as to make the
queen discontinue her succours ; and she was still more
confirmed in the resolution of supporting him by some
advantages gained by the King of Spain. The Duke of
Mercoeur, governor of Britany, a prince of the house of
Lorraine, had declared for the league ; and finding him-
self hard pressed by Henry's forces, he had been obliged,
in order to secure himself, to introduce some Spanish
troops into the seaport towns of that province. Eliza-
beth was alarmed at the danger ; and foresaw that the
Spaniards, besides infesting the English commerce by
privateers, might employ these harbours as the seat of
their naval preparations, and might more easily from
that vicinity, than from Spain or Portugal, project an
invasion of England. She concluded therefore a new
treaty with Henry, in which she engaged to send over
three thousand men, to be employed in the reduction of
Britany ; and she stipulated that her charges should, in
a twelvemonth, or as soon as the enemy was expelled,
be refunded her b . These forces were commanded by
Sir John Norris, and under him by his brother Henry,
and by Anthony Shirley. Sir Koger Williams w r as at
the head of a small body which garrisoned Dieppe ; and
a squadron of ships, under the command of Sir Henry
Palmer, lay upon the coast of France, and intercepted
all the vessels belonging to the Spaniards or the leaguers.
The operations of war can very little be regulated
beforehand by any treaty or agreement ; and Henry, who
found it necessary to lay aside the projected enterprise
against Britany, persuaded the English commanders to
join his army, and to take a share in the hostilities which
he carried into Picardy c . Notwithstanding the disgust
which Elizabeth received from this disappointment, he
laid before her a plan for expelling the leaguers from
Normandy, and persuaded her to send over a new body

See note [O], at the end of the volume.

t> Camden, p. 561. c Rymer, torn. xiv. p. 116.

ELIZABETH. 109

of four thousand men to assist him in that enterprise. CHAP.
The Earl of Essex was appointed general of these forces ; ^ ^
a young nobleman, who, by many exterior accomplish- 1591
ments, and still more, real merit, was daily advancing in
favour with Elizabeth, and seemed to occupy that place
in her affections, which Leicester, now deceased, had so
long enjoyed. Essex, impatient for military fame, was
extremely uneasy to lie some time at Dieppe unem-
ployed ; and Jiad not the orders which he received from
his mistress been so positive, he would gladly have ac-
cepted of Henry's invitation, and have marched to join
the French army now in Champagne. This plan of ope-
rations was also proposed to Elizabeth by the French
ambassador, but she rejected it with great displeasure ;
and she threatened immediately to recall her troops, if
Henry should persevere any longer in his present prac-
tice of breaking all concert with her, and attending to
nothing but his own interests' 1 . Urged by these motives,
the French king at last led his army into Normandy,
and laid siege to Koiien, which he reduced to great diffi-
culties. But the league, unable of themselves to take
the field against him, had again recourse to the Duke of
Parma, who received orders to march to their relief. He
executed this enterprise with his usual abilities and suc-
cess, and for the present frustrated all the projects of
Henry and Elizabeth. This princess, who kept still in
view the interests of her own kingdom in all her foreign
transactions, was impatient under these disappointments,
blamed Henry for his negligence in the execution of
treaties, and complained that the English forces were
thrust foremost in every hazardous enterprise 6 . It is
probable, however, that their own ardent courage, and
their desire of distinguishing themselves in so celebrated
a theatre of war, were the causes why they so often en-
joyed this perilous honour.

Notwithstanding the indifferent success of former en-
terprises, the queen was sensible how necessary it was
to support Henry against the league and the Spaniards ;
and she formed a new treaty with him, in which they
agreed never to make peace with Philip but by common

d Birch's Negotiations, p. 5. Ryraer, torn. xiv. p. 123. 140.
e Camden, p. 562.

VOL. IV. 10

HO HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, consent ; she promised to send him a new supply of four
XLIIL thousand men ; and he stipulated to repay her charges in
a twelvemonth, to employ these forces, joined to a body
of French troops, in an expedition against Britany, and
to consign into her hands a seaport town of that province,
for a retreat to the English f . Henry knew the impos-
sibility of executing some of these articles, and the im-
prudence of fulfilling others ; but finding them rigidly
insisted on by Elizabeth, he accepted of .her succours,
and trusted that he might easily, on some pretence, be
able to excuse his failure in executing his part of the
treaty. This campaign was the least successful of all
those which he had yet carried on against the league.
Naval en- During these military operations in France, Elizabeth
against 3 employed her naval power against Philip, and endea-
Spain. voured to intercept his West-Indian treasures, the source
of that greatness which rendered him so formidable to
all his neighbours. She sent a squadron of seven ships,
under the command of Lord Thomas Howard, for this
service ; but the King of Spain, informed of her purpose,
fitted out a great force of fifty-five sail, and despatched
them to escort the Indian fleet. They fell in with the
English squadron ; and by the courageous obstinacy of
Sir Richard Grenville, the vice-admiral, who refused to
make his escape by flight, they took one vessel, the first
English ship of war that had yet fallen into the hands
of the Spaniards g . The rest of the squadron returned
safely into England, frustrated of their expectations, but
pleasing themselves with the idea that their attempt had
not been altogether fruitless in hurting the enemy. The
Indian fleet had been so long detained in the Havanna
from the fear of the English, that they were obliged at
last to set sail in an improper season, and most of them
perished by shipwreck ere they reached the Spanish har-
bours 11 . The Earl of Cumberland made a like unsuc-
cessful enterprise against the Spanish trade. He carried
out one ship of the queen's, and seven others equipped
at his own expense ; but the prizes which he made did
not compensate the charges 1 .

f Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 151. 168. 171. 173.

e See note [P], at the end of the volume. t Monson, p. 163.

i Ibid. p. 169.

ELIZABETH. HI

The spirit of these expensive and hazardous adven- CHAP.
tures was very prevalent in England. Sir Walter ^J^ 1 ^,
Raleigh, who had enjoyed great favour with the queen, 1591
finding his interest to decline, determined to recover her
good graces by some important undertaking ; and as his
reputation was high among his countrymen, he persuaded
great numbers to engage with him as volunteers in an
attempt on the West Indies. The fleet was detained so
long in the channel by contrary winds, that the season
was lost : Raleigh was recalled by the queen : Sir Martin
Frobisher succeeded to the command, and made a pri-
vateering voyage against the Spaniards. He took one
rich carrack near the island of Flo res, and destroyed 1592 -
another k . About the same time, Thomas White, a
Londoner, took two Spanish ships, which, besides four-
teen hundred chests of quicksilver, contained about two
millions of bulls for indulgences; a commodity useless
to the English, but which had cost the King of Spain
three hundred thousand florins, and would have been
sold by him in the Indies for five millions.

This war did great damage to Spain ; but it was at-
tended with considerable expense to England; and
Elizabeth's ministers computed that, since the com-
mencement of it, she had spent in Flanders and France,
and on her naval expeditions, above one million two
hundred thousand pounds 1 ; a charge which, notwith-
standing her extreme frugality, was too burdensome for
her narrow revenues to support. She summoned there- jg^ 5 ^
fore a Parliament, in order to obtain a supply : but she A Pariia-
either thought her authority so established that she ment
needed to make them no concessions in return, or she
rated her power and prerogative above money ; for
there never was any Parliament whom she treated in a
more haughty manner, whom she made more sensible
of their own weakness, or whose privileges she more
openly violated. When the speaker, Sir Edward Coke,
made the three usual requests, of freedom from arrests,
of access to her person, and of liberty of speech, she
replied to him, by the mouth of Puckering, lord keeper,
that liberty of speech was granted to the Commons, but
they must know what liberty they w^ere entitled to ;

k Monson, p. 165. Camden, p. 569. ! Strype, vol. iii.

H2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, not a liberty for every one to speak what lie listeth, or
XLIIL w } ia t cometli in his brain to utter; their privilege ex-
tended no farther than a liberty of Ay or No : that she
enjoined the speaker, if he perceived any idle heads so
negligent of their own safety as to attempt reforming
the church or innovating in the commonwealth, that he
should refuse the bills exhibited for that purpose, till
they were examined by such as were fitted to consider
of these things, and could better judge of them : that
she would not impeach the freedom of their persons;
but they must beware, lest, under colour of this privilege,
they imagined that any neglect of their duty could be
covered or protected : and that she would not refuse
them access to her person, provided it were upon urgent
and weighty causes, and at times convenient, and when
she might have leisure from other important affairs of the
realm m .

Notwithstanding the menacing and contemptuous air
of this speech, the intrepid and indefatigable Peter
Wentworth, not discouraged by his former ill success,
ventured to transgress the imperial orders of Elizabeth.
He presented to the lord keeper a petition, in which he
desired the Upper House to join with the lower in a
supplication to her majesty for entailing the succession
of the crown ; and he declared that he had a bill ready
prepared for that purpose. This method of proceeding
was sufficiently respectful and cautious; but the subject
was always extremely disagreeable to the queen, and
what she had expressly prohibited any one from meddling
with. She sent Wentworth immediately to the Tower,
committed Sir Thomas Bromley, who had seconded him,
to the Fleet prison, together with Stevens and Welsh,
two members, to whom Sir Thomas had communicated
his intention 11 . About a fortnight after, a motion was
made in the House to petition the queen for the release
of these members ; but it was answered by all the privy-
counsellors there present, that her majesty had com-
mitted them for causes best known to herself, and that
to press her on that head would only tend to the pre-
judice of the gentlemen whom they meant to serve :

m D'Ewes, p. 460. 469. Townscnd, p. 37.
n D'Ewes, p. 470. Townsend, p. 54.

ELIZABETH. 113

slie would release them whenever she thought proper, CHAP.
and would be better pleased to do it of her own proper^ J ^j
motion, than from their suggestion . The House will- 1593
ingly acquiesced in this reasoning.

So arbitrary an act, at the commencement of the ses-
sion, might well repress all farther attempts for freedom.
But the religious zeal of the puritans was not so easily
restrained, and it inspired a courage which no human
motive was able to surmount. Morrice, chancellor of
the duchy and attorney of the court of wards, made a
motion for redressing the abuses in the bishops' courts,
but, above all, in the high commission ; where subscrip-
tions, he said, were exacted to articles at the pleasure of
the prelates ; where oaths Were imposed, obliging per-
sons to answer to all questions without distinction, even <
though they should tend to their own condemnation
and where every one who refused entire satisfaction to
the commissioners was imprisoned, without relief or re-
medy p . This motion was seconded by some members ;
but the ministers and privy-counsellors opposed it, and
foretold the consequences which ensued. The queen
sent for the speaker, and after requiring him to deliver to
her Morrice's bill, she told him that it was in her power
to call Parliaments ; in her power to dissolve them ; in
her power to give assent or dissent to any determina-
tion which they should form : that her purpose in sum-
moning this Parliament was twofold ; to have laws
enacted for the further enforcement of uniformity in
religion, and to provide for the defence of the nation
against the exorbitant power of Spain : that these two
points ought, therefore, to be the object of their delibe-
rations : she had enjoined them already, by the mouth
of the lord keeper, to meddle neither with matters of
state nor of religion ; and she wondered how any one
could be so assuming as to attempt a subject so ex-
pressly contrary to her prohibition: that she was highly
offended with this presumption ; and took the present
opportunity to reiterate the commands given by the
keeper, and to require that no bill regarding either state
affairs or reformation in causes ecclesiastical be exhibited
in the House ; and that, in particular, she charged the

D'Ewes, p. 497. P Ibid. p. 474. Townsend, p. 60.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, speaker, upon his allegiance, if any such bills were offered,
XLIIL absolutely to refuse them a reading, and not so much as
permit them to be debated by the members q . This com-
mand from the queen was submitted to without farther
question. Morrice was seized in the House itself by a
Serjeant at arms, discharged from his office of chancellor
of the duchy, incapacitated from any practice in his pro-
fession as a common lawyer, and kept some years pri-
soner in Tilbury castle 1 .

The queen having thus expressly pointed out both
what the House should and should not do, the Com-
mons were as obsequious to the one as to the other of
her injunctions. They passed a law against recusants;
such a law as was suited to the severe character of
Elizabeth, and to the persecuting spirit of the age. It
was entitled, An Act to retain her Majesty's subjects in
their due obedience; and was meant, as the preamble
declares, to obviate such inconveniences and perils as
might grow from the wicked practices of seditious sec-
taries and disloyal persons : for these two species of
criminals were always, at that time, confounded together,
as equally dangerous to the peace of society. It was
enacted, that any person above sixteen years of age,
who obstinately refused, during the space of a month,
to attend public worship, should be committed to
prison ; that if, after being condemned for this offence,
he persist three months in his refusal, he must abjure
the realm ; and that, if he either refuse this condition,
or return after banishment, he should suffer capitally as
a felon, without benefit of clergy 8 . This law bore
equally hard upon the puritans and upon the Catholics ;
and, had it not been imposed by the queen's authority,
was certainly, in that respect, much contrary to the pri-
vate sentiments and inclinations of the majority in the
House of Commons. Very little opposition, however,
appears there to have been openly made to it*.

The expenses of the war with Spain having reduced

<i D'Ewes, p. 474. 478. TWnsend, p. 68.

1 Heylin's History of the Presbyterians, p. 320. * 35 Eliz. c. 1.

* After enacting this statute, the clergy, in order to remove the odium from
themselves, often took care that recusants should be tried by the civil judges at
the assizes, rather than by the ecclesiastical commissioners. Strype's Annals,
vol. iv. p. 264.

ELIZABETH. 115

the queen to great difficulties, the grant of subsidies CHAP.
seems to have been the most important business of this^ L ^,
Parliament : and it was a signal proof of the high spirit 1593t
of Elizabeth, that, while conscious of a present depend-
ence on the Commons, she opened the session with the
most haughty treatment of them, and covered her weak-
ness under such a lofty appearance of superiority. The
Commons readily voted two subsidies and four fifteenths ;
but this sum not appearing sufficient to the court, an
unusual expedient was fallen upon to induce them to
make an enlargement in their concessions. The Peers
informed the Commons in a conference, that they could
not give their consent to the supply voted, thinking it
too small for the queen's occasions : they therefore pro-
posed a grant of three subsidies and six fifteenths ; and
desired a farther conference, in order to persuade the
Commons to agree to this measure. The Commons,
who had acquired the privilege of beginning bills of
subsidy, took offence at this procedure of the Lords, and
at first absolutely rejected the proposal ; but being afraid,
on reflection, that they had by this refusal given offence
to their superiors, they both agreed to the conference,
and afterwards voted the additional subsidy 11 .

The queen, notwithstanding this unusual concession
of the Commons, ended the session with a speech con-
taining some reprimands to them, and full of the same
high pretensions which she had assumed at the opening
of the Parliament. She took notice, by the mouth of
the keeper, that certain members spent more time than
was necessary, by indulging themselves in harangues
and reasonings : and she expressed her displeasure on
account of their not paying due reverence to privy-
counsellors, " who," she told them, " were not to be
accounted as common knights and burgesses of the
House, who are counsellors but during the Parliament ;
whereas the others are standing counsellors, and for
their wisdom and great service are called to the council
of the state w ." The queen, also, in her own person,
made the Parliament a spirited harangue, in which she
spoke of the justice and moderation of her government,

D'Ewes, p. 483. 487, 488. Townsend, p. 66.
w D'Ewes, p. 466. Townsend, p. 47.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, expressed the small ambition she had ever entertained
of making conquests, displayed the just grounds of her
quarrel with the King of Spain, and discovered how
little she apprehended the power of that monarch, even
though he should make a greater effort against her than
that of his Invincible Armada. " But I am informed,"
added she, " that when he attempted this last invasion,
some upon the sea-coast forsook their towns, fled up
higher into the country, and left all naked and exposed
to his entrance : but I swear unto you by God, if I knew
those persons, or may know of any that shall do so here-
after, I will make them feel what it is to be fearful in
so urgent a cause x ." By this menace, she probably
gave the people to understand, that she would execute
martial law upon such cowards ; for there was no statute
by .which a man could be punished for changing his place
of abode.

The King of France, though he had hitherto made
war on the league with great bravery and reputation,
though he had this campaign gained considerable ad-
vantages over them, and though he was assisted by a
considerable body of English, under Norris, who carried
hostilities into the heart of Britany, was become sensible
that he never could by force of arms alone render him-
self master of his kingdom. The nearer he seemed by
his military successes to approach to a full possession of
the throne, the more discontent and jealousy arose
among those Komanists who adhered to him ; and a
party was formed in his own court to elect some Catholic
monarch of the royal blood, if Henry should any longer
refuse to satisfy them by declaring his conversion. This
excellent prince was far from being a bigot to his sect ;
and as he deemed these theological disputes entirely
subordinate to the public good, he had secretly deter-
mined, from the beginning, to come some time or other
to the resolution required of him. He had found, on
the death of his predecessor, that the Hugonots, who
formed the bravest and most faithful part of his army,
were such determined zealots, that if he had at that
time abjured their faith, they would instantly have
abandoned him to the pretensions and usurpations of

* D'Ewes, p. 466. Townsencl, p. 48.

ELIZABETH. 117

the Catholics. The more bigoted Catholics, he knew, CHAP.
particularly those of the league, had entertained such i^* 11 ^
an insurmountable prejudice against his person, and 1593
diffidence of his sincerity, that even his abjuration would
not reconcile them to his title ; and he must either ex-
pect to be entirely excluded from the throne, or be
admitted to it on such terms as would leave him little
more than the mere shadow of royalty. In this delicate
situation he had resolved to temporize ; to retain the
Hugonots by continuing in the profession of their reli-
gion; to gain the moderate Catholics by giving them
hopes of his conversion ; to attach both to his person by
conduct and success : and he hoped either that the ani-
mosity arising from war against the league would make
them drop gradually the question of religion, or that
he might in time, after some victories over his enemies,
and some conferences with divines, make finally, with
more decency and dignity, that abjuration which must
have appeared at first mean as well as suspicious to both
parties.

When the people are attached to any theological Henr y iv.

in T . embraces

tenets, merely irom a general persuasion or preposses- the Catho-
sion, they are easily induced, by any motive or authority, K ^ eli -
to change their faith in these mysterious subjects; as
appears from the example of the English, who, during
some reigns, usually embraced without scruple the still
varying religion of their sovereigns. But the French
nation, where principles had so long been displayed as
the badges of faction, and where each party had forfeited
its belief by an animosity against the other, were not
found so pliable or inconstant ; and Henry was at last
convinced, that the Catholics of his party would entirely
abandon him, if he gave them not immediate satisfaction
in this particular. The Hugonots also, taught by experi-
ence, clearly saw that his desertion of them was become
absolutely necessary for the public settlement ; and so
general was this persuasion among them, that, as the
Duke of Sully pretends, even the divines of that party
purposely allowed themselves to be worsted in the dis-
putes and conferences, that the king might more readily
be convinced of the weakness of their cause, and might

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, more cordially and sincerely, at least more decently,
XLIII. em k race the religion which it was so much his interest
to believe. If this self-denial in so tender a point should
appear incredible and supernatural in theologians, it will
at least be thought very natural, that a prince so little
instructed in these matters as Henry, and desirous to
preserve his sincerity, should insensibly bend his opinion
to the necessity of his affairs, and should believe that
party to have the best arguments, who could alone put
him in possession of a kingdom. All circumstances,
therefore, being prepared for this great event, that
monarch renounced the Protestant religion, and was
solemnly received by the French prelates of his party
into the bosom of the church.

Elizabeth, who was herself attached to the Protestants,
chiefly by her interest, and the circumstances of her
birth, and who seems to have entertained some propen-
sity during her whole life to the Catholic superstition, at
least to the ancient ceremonies, yet pretended to be ex-
tremely displeased with this abjuration of Henry ; and
she wrote him an angry letter, reproaching him with this
interested change of his religion. Sensible, however^ that
the league and the King of Spain were still their com-
mon enemies, she hearkened to his apologies; continued
her succours both of men and money ; and formed a new
treaty, in which they mutually stipulated never to make
peace but by common agreement.

Scotch The intrigues of Spain were not limited to France
and England : by means of the never-failing pretence of
religion, joined to the influence of money, Philip excited
new disorders in Scotland, and gave fresh alarms to Eli-
zabeth. George Kerr, brother to Lord Newbottle, had
been taken while he was passing secretly into Spain;
and papers were found about him, by which a dangerous
conspiracy of some Catholic noblemen with Philip was
discovered. The Earls of Angus, Errol, and Huntley,
the heads of three potent families, had. entered into a
confederacy with the Spanish monarch and had stipu-
lated to raise all their forces ; to join them to a body of
Spanish troops, which Philip promised to send into Scot-
land ; and after re-establishing the Catholic religion in

ELIZABETH. 119

that kingdom, to march with their united power, in order CHAP.
to effect the same purpose in England y . Graham of .J^* 1 ^
Fintry, who had also entered into this conspiracy, was 1593
taken, and arraigned, and executed. Elizabeth sent
Lord Borough ambassador into Scotland, and exhorted
the king to exercise the same severity on the three earls,
to confiscate their estates, and, by annexing them to the
crown, both increase his own demesnes, and set an ex-
ample to all his subjects of the dangers attending treason
and rebellion. The advice was certainly rational, but
not easy to be executed by the small revenue and limited
authority of James. He desired, therefore, some supply
from her of men and money ; but though she had reason
to deem the prosecution of the three popish earls a com-
mon cause, she never could be prevailed on to grant him
the least assistance. The tenth part of the expense
which she bestowed in supporting the French king and
the states would have sufficed to execute this purpose,
more immediately essential to her security 2 : but she
seems ever to have borne some degree of malignity to
James, whom she hated both as her heir, and as the son
of Mary, her hated rival and competitor.

So far from giving James assistance to prosecute the
Catholic conspirators, the queen rather contributed to
increase his inquietude, by countenancing the turbulent
disposition of the Earl of Bothwell a , a nobleman de-
scended from a natural son of James V. Bothwell more
than once attempted to render himself master of the
king's person ; and being expelled the kingdom for these
traitorous enterprises, he took shelter in England, was
secretly protected by the queen, and lurked near the
borders where his power lay, with a view of still com-
mitting some new violence. He succeeded at last in an
attempt on the king, and, by the mediation of the
English ambassador, imposed dishonourable terms upon
that prince : but James, by the authority of the conven-
tion of states, annulled this agreement, as extorted by
violence ; again expelled Bothwell, and obliged him to
take shelter in England. Elizabeth, pretending ignorance
of the place of his retreat, never executed the treaties

y Spotswood, p. 391. Rymer, torn. xvi. p. 190.

z Spotswood, p. 393. Eymer, torn. xvi. p. 235. a Spotswood, p. 257, 258.

120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, by which she was bound to deliver up all rebels and
XLIII. fugitives to the King of Scotland. During these dis-
orders, increased by the refractory disposition of the
ecclesiastics, the prosecution of the Catholic earls re-
mained in suspense : but at last the Parliament passed
an act of attainder against them, and the king prepared
himself to execute it by force of arms. The noblemen,
though they obtained a victory over the Earl of Argyle,
who acted by the king's commission, found themselves
hard pressed by James himself, and agreed, on certain
terms, to leave the kingdom. Bothwell, being detected
in a confederacy with them, forfeited the favour of Eli-
zabeth ; and was obliged to take shelter, first in France,
then in Italy, where he died some years after in great
poverty.

The established authority of the queen secured her
from all such attempts as James was exposed to from the
mutinous disposition of his subjects; and her enemies
found no other means of giving her domestic disturbance,
than by such traitorous and perfidious machinations, as
ended in their own disgrace, and in the ruin of their
criminal instruments. Roderigo Lopez, a Jew, domestic
physician to the queen, being imprisoned on suspicion,
confessed that he had received a bribe to poison her from
Fuentes and Ibarra, who had succeeded Parma, lately
deceased, in the government of the Netherlands ; but he
maintained, that he had no other intention than to cheat
Philip of his money, and never meant to fulfil his engage-
ment. He was, however, executed for the conspiracy ;
and the queen complained to Philip of these dishonour-
able attempts of his ministers, but could obtain no satis-
faction 1 ". York and Williams, two English traitors, were
afterwards executed for a conspiracy with Ibarra, equally
atrocious 6 .

Instead of avenging herself, by retaliating in a like
manner, Elizabeth sought a more honourable vengeance,
by supporting the King of France, and assisting him in
finally breaking the force of the league, which, after the
conversion of that monarch, went daily to decay, and was
threatened with speedy ruin and dissolution. Norris

b Camden, p. 577. Birch's Negot. p. 15. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 381.
c Camden, p. 582.

ELIZABETH. 121

commanded the English forces in Britany, and assisted CHAP.
at the taking of Morlaix, Quimpercorentin, and Brest,
towns garrisoned by Spanish forces. In every action,
the English, though they had so long enjoyed domestic
peace, discovered a strong military disposition ; and the
queen, though herself a heroine, found more frequent
occasion to reprove her generals for encouraging their
temerity, than for countenancing their fear or caution d :
Sir Martin Frobisher, her brave admiral, perished with
many others before Brest. Morlaix had been promised
to the English for a place of retreat; but the Duke
d'Aumont, the French general, eluded this promise, by
making it be inserted in the capitulation, that none but
Catholics should be admitted into that city.

Next campaign, the French king, wh^> had long carried 1595 -
on hostilities with Philip, was at last provoked, by the
taking of Chatelet and Doulens, and the attack of Cam-
bray, to declare war against that monarch. Elizabeth
being threatened with a new invasion in England, and
with an insurrection in Ireland, recalled most of her
forces, and sent Norris to command in this latter king-
dom. Finding, also, that the French league was almost
entirely dissolved, and that the most considerable leaders
had made an accommodation with their prince, she
thought that he could well support himself by his own
force and valour ; and she began to be more sparing in
his cause of the blood and treasure of her subjects.

Some disgusts which she had received from the states,
joined to the remonstrances of her frugal minister Bur-
leigh, made her also inclined to diminish her charges on
that side ; and she even demanded, by her ambassador, i59e.
Sir Thomas Bodley, to be reimbursed all the money which
she had expended in supporting them. The states, be-
sides alleging the conditions of the treaty, by which they
were not bound to repay her till the conclusion of a peace,
pleaded their present poverty and distress, the great
superiority of the Spaniards, and the difficulty in support-
ing the war, much more in saving money to discharge
their encumbrances. After much negotiation, a new
treaty was formed ; by which the states engaged to free
the. queen immediately from the charge of the English

d Camden, p. 578.
VOL. IV. 11

122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, auxiliaries, computed at forty thousand pounds a year ; to
XLIII. p av ker annually twenty thousand pounds for some years ;
to assist her with a certain number of ships ; and to con-
clude no peace or treaty without her consent. They also
bound themselves, on finishing a peace with Spain, to
pay her annually the sum of a hundred thousand pounds
for four years ; but on this condition, that the payment
should be in lieu of all demands, and that they should
be supplied, though at their own charge, with a body of
four thousand auxiliaries from England e .

The queen still retained in her hands the cautionary
towns, which were a great check on the rising power of
the states; and she committed the important trust of
Flushing to Sir Francis Vere, a brave officer, who had
distinguished himself by his valour in the Low Countries.
She gave him the preference to Essex, who expected so
honourable a command ; and though this nobleman was
daily rising both in reputation with the people, and favour
with herself, the queen, who was commonly reserved in
the advancement of her courtiers, thought proper, on this
occasion, to give him a refusal. Sir Thomas Baskerville
was sent over to France, at the head of two thousand
English, with which Elizabeth, by a new treaty concluded
with Henry, engaged to supply that prince. Some
stipulations for mutual assistance were formed by the
treaty ; and all former engagements were renewed.
1597. This body of English were maintained at the expense
of the French king : yet did Henry esteem the supply of
considerable advantage on account of the great reputation
acquired by the English in so many fortunate enterprises
undertaken against the common enemy. In the great
battle of Tournholt, gained this campaign by Prince
Maurice, the English auxiliaries, under Sir Francis Vere
and Sir Kobert Sydney, had acquired honour ; and the
success of that day was universally ascribed to their dis-
cipline and valour.

Naval en- Though Elizabeth, at a considerable expense of blood
and treasure, made war against Philip in France and the
Low Countries, the most severe blows which she gave
him were by those naval enterprises, which either she or
her subjects scarcely ever intermitted during one season.

e Camdeu, p. 586.

ELIZABETH. 123

In 1594, Richard Hawkins, son of Sir John, the famous CHAP.
navigator, procured the queen's commission, and sailed
with three ships to the South Sea, by the Straits of 1597
Magellan : but his voyage proved unfortunate, and he
himself was taken prisoner on the coast of Chili. James
Lancaster was supplied the same year with three ships
and a pinnace by the merchants of London, and was
more fortunate in his adventure. He took thirty-nine
ships of the enemy ; and, not content with this success,
he made an attack on Fernambouc in Brazil, where he
knew great treasures were at that time lodged. As he
approached the shore he saw it lined with great numbers
of the enemy ; but, nowise daunted at this appearance,
he placed the stoutest of his men in boats, and ordered
them to row with such violence on the landing-place as
to split them in pieces. By this bold action he both
deprived his men of all resource but in victory, and
terrified the enemy, who fled after a short resistance.
He returned home with the treasure which he had so
bravely acquired. In 1595, Sir Walter Ealeigh, who had
anew forfeited the queen's friendship by an intrigue with
a maid of honour, and who had been thrown into prison
for this misdemeanour, no sooner recovered his liberty,
than he was pushed by his active and enterprising genius
to attempt some great action. The success of the first
Spanish adventurers against Mexico and Peru had be-
gotten an extreme avidity in Europe ; and a preposses-
sion universally took place, that in the inland parts of
South America, called Guiana, a country as yet undis-
covered, there were mines and treasures far exceeding
any which Cortez or Pizarro had met with. Raleigh,
whose turn of mind was somewhat romantic and extra-
vagant, undertook, at his own charge, the discovery of
this wonderful country. Having taken the small town
of St. Joseph, in the isle of Trinidado, where he found
no riches, he left his ship and sailed up the river
Oroonoko in pinnaces, but without meeting any thing
to answer his expectations. On his return, he published
an account of the country, full of the grossest and most
palpable lies that were ever attempted to be imposed on
the credulity of mankind f .

' Cainden, p. 584.

124 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. The same year. Sir Francis Drake and Sir John
^ ^Hawkins undertook a more important expedition against
1597 the Spanish settlements in America; and they carried
with them six ships of the queen's and twenty more,
which either were fitted out at their own charge, or were
furnished them by private adventurers. Sir Thomas
Baskerville was appointed commander of the land-forces,
which they carried on board. Their first design was to
attempt Porto Eico, where, they knew, a rich carrack
was at that time stationed ; but as they had not preserved
the requisite secrecy, a pinnace, having strayed from
the fleet, was taken by the Spaniards, and betrayed the
intentions of the English. Preparations were made in
that island for their reception; and the English fleet,
notwithstanding the brave assault which they made on
the enemy, was repulsed with loss. Hawkins soon after
died ; and Drake pursued his voyage to Nombre di Dios,
on the isthmus of Darien, where, having landed his men,
he attempted to pass forward to Panama, with a view of
plundering that place, or, if he found such a scheme
practicable, of keeping and fortifying it. But he met
not with the same facility which had attended his first
enterprises in those parts. The Spaniards, taught by ex-
perience, had everywhere fortified the passes, and had
stationed troops in the woods, who so infested the English
by continual alarms and skirmishes, that they were
obliged to return, without being able to effect any thing.
Drake himself, from the intemperance of the climate, the
fatigues of his journey, and the vexation of his disap-
pointment, was seized with a distemper, of which he soon
after died. Sir Thomas Baskerville took the command
of the fleet, which was in a weak condition ; and after
having fought a battle, near Cuba, with a Spanish fleet,
of which the event was not decisive, he returned to
England. The Spaniards suffered some loss from this
enterprise, but the English reaped no profit g .

The bad success of this enterprise in the Indies made
the English rather attempt the Spanish dominions in
Europe, where, they heard, Philip was making great pre-
parations for a new invasion of England. A powerful
fleet was equipped at Plymouth, consisting of a hundred

g Monson, p. 167.

ELIZABETH. 125

and seventy vessels, seventeen of which were capital CHAP.
ships of war, the rest tenders and small vessels : twenty, XLIIL
ships were added by the Hollanders. In this fleet there 159 >
were computed to be embarked six thousand three hun-
dred and sixty soldiers, a thousand volunteers, and six
thousand seven hundred and seventy-two seamen, beside
the Dutch. The land-forces were commanded by the
Earl of Essex ; the navy by Lord Effingham, high-
admiral. Both these commanders had expended great
sums of their own in the armament, for such was the
spirit of Elizabeth's reign. Lord Thomas Howard, Sir
Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Vere, Sir George Carew,
and Sir Corners Clifford, had commands in this expe-
dition, and were appointed council to the general and
admiral h .

The fleet set sail on the first of June, 1596 ; and
meeting with a fair wind, bent its course to Cadiz, at
which place, by sealed orders delivered to all the captains,
the general rendezvous was appointed. They sent before
them some armed tenders, which intercepted every ship
that could carry intelligence to the enemy ; and they
themselves were so fortunate, when they came near Cadiz,
as to take an Irish vessel, by which they learned, that
that port was full of merchant ships of great value, and
that the Spaniards lived in perfect security, without any
apprehensions of an enemy. This intelligence much en-
couraged the English fleet, and gave them the prospect
of a fortunate issue to the enterprise.

After a fruitless attempt to land at St. Sebastian's, on
the western side of the island of Cadiz, it was, upon de-
liberation, resolved by the council of war to attack the
ships and galleys in the bay. This attempt was deemed
rash ; and the admiral himself, who was cautious in his
temper, had entertained great scruples with regard to it.
But Essex strenuously recommended the enterprise;
and when he found the resolution at last taken, he threw
his hat into the sea, and gave symptoms of the most ex-
travagant joy. He felt, however, a great mortification,
when Effingham informed him, that the queen, anxious
for his safety, and dreading the effects of his youthful
ardour, had secretly given orders that he should not be

h Caraden, p. 591.

11*

126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, permitted to command the van in the attack 1 . That duty
v J 11 ^ was performed by Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Thomas
1597 Howard ; but Essex no sooner came within reach of the
enemy than he forgot the promise which the admiral had
exacted from him, to keep in the midst of the fleet ; he
broke through, and pressed forward into the thickest of
the fire. Emulation for glory, avidity of plunder, ani-
mosity against the Spaniards, proved incentives to every
one ; and the enemy was soon obliged to slip anchor,
and retreat farther into the bay, where they ran many of
their ships aground. Essex then landed his men at the
fort of Puntal ; and immediately inarched to the attack
of Cadiz, which the impetuous valour of the English soon
carried sword in hand. The generosity of Essex, not in-
ferior to his valour, made him stop the slaughter, and
treat his prisoners with the greatest humanity, and even
affability and kindness. The English made rich plunder
in the city; but missed of a much richer, by the reso-
lution which the Duke of Medina, the Spanish admiral,
took, of setting fire to the ships, in order to prevent their
falling into the hands of the enemy. It was computed
that the loss which the Spaniards sustained in this enter-
prise amounted to twenty millions of ducats k ; besides
the indignity which that proud and ambitious people suf-
fered from the sacking of one of their chief cities, and de-
stroying in their harbour a fleet of such force and value.
Essex, all on fire for glory, regarded this great success
only as a step to future achievements : he insisted on
keeping possession of Cadiz ; and he undertook, with four
hundred men and three months' provisions, to defend
the place till succours should arrive from England : but
all the other seamen and soldiers were satisfied with the
honour which they had acquired ; and were impatient to
return home, in order to secure their plunder. Every
other proposal of Essex to annoy the enemy met with a
like reception ; his scheme for intercepting the carracks
at the Azores, for assaulting the Groine, for taking St. An-
dero, and St. Sebastian : and the English, finding it so dif-
ficult to drag this impatient warrior from the enemy, at
last left him on the Spanish coast, attended by a very few
ships. He complained much to the queen of their want

i Monson, p. 196. k Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 97.

ELIZABETH. 127

of spirit in this enterprise ; nor was she pleased that tney CHAP.
had returned without attempting to intercept the Indian V J^^
fleet 1 ; but the great success, in the enterprise of Cadiz, 1597
had covered all their miscarriages: and that princess,
though she admired the lofty genius of Essex, could not
forbear expressing an esteem for the other officers 111 . The
admiral was created Earl of Nottingham ; and his pro-
motion gave great disgust to Essex n . In the preamble
of the patent it was said, that the new dignity was con-
ferred on him on account of his good services, in taking
Cadiz, and destroying the Spanish ships : a merit which
Essex pretended to belong solely to himself; and he
offered to maintain this plea by single combat against the
Earl of Nottingham, or his sons, or any of his kindred.

The achievements in the subsequent year proved not
so fortunate ; but as the Indian fleet very narrowly es-
caped the English, Philip had still reason to see the great
hazard and disadvantage of that war in which he was
engaged, and the superiority which the English, by their
naval power, and their situation, had acquired over him.
The queen having received intelligence that the Span-
iards, though ijieir fleets were so much shattered and
destroyed by the expedition to Cadiz, were preparing a
squadron at Ferrol and the Groine, and were inarching
troops thither, with a view of making a descent in Ire-
land, was resolved to prevent their enterprise, and to
destroy the shipping in these harbours. She prepared a
large fleet, of a hundred and twenty sail, of which seven-
teen were her own ships, forty-three were smaller vessels,
and the rest tenders and victuallers : she embarked on
board this fleet five thousand new-levied soldiers, and
added a thousand veteran troops, whom Sir Francis Yere
brought from the Netherlands. The Earl of Essex, com-
mander in chief both of the land and sea forces, was at
the head of one squadron : Lord Thomas Howard was
appointed vice-admiral of another ; Sir Walter Raleigh
of the third : Lord Mountjoy commanded the land forces
under Essex : Vere was appointed marshal : Sir George
Carew lieutenant of the ordnance, and Sir Christopher
Blount first colonel. The Earls of Rutland and South-

1 Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 121. m Camden, p. 593.

n Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 77.

128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, ampton, the Lords Grey, Cromwell, and Rich, with seve-
^ ther P er sons of distinction, embarked as volunteers.
Essex declared his resolution either to destroy the new
Armada which threatened England, or to perish in the
attempt.

9th July. This powerful fleet set sail from Plymouth ; but were
no sooner out of harbour than they met with a furious
storm, which shattered and dispersed them ; and, before
they could be refitted, Essex found that their provisions
were so far spent, that it would not be safe to carry so
numerous an army along with him. He dismissed, there-
fore, all the soldiers, except the thousand veterans under
Yere ; and laying aside all thoughts of attacking Ferrol
and the Groin e, he confined the object of his expedition
to the intercepting of the Indian fleet ; which had at first
been considered only as the second enterprise which he
was to attempt.

The Indian fleet in that age, by reason of the imper-
fection of navigation, had a stated course as well as
season, both in their going out and in their return ; and
there were certain islands at which, as at fixed stages,
they always touched, and where they took in water and
provisions. The Azores being one of these places, where
about this time the fleet was expected, Essex bent his
course thither ; and he informed Raleigh, that he, on his
arrival, intended to attack Fayal, one of these islands.
By some accident the squadrons were separated ; and
Raleigh arriving first before Fayal, thought it more pru-
dent, after waiting some time for the general, to begin
the attack alone, lest the inhabitants should, by farther
delay, have leisure to make preparations for their de-
fence. He succeeded in the enterprise ; but Essex, jea-
lous of Raleigh, expressed great displeasure at his conduct,
and construed it as an intention of robbing the general
of the glory which attended that action : he cashiered,
therefore, Sydney, Bret, Berry, and others, who had con-
curred in the attempt; and would have proceeded to
inflict the same punishment on Raleigh himself, had not
Lord Thomas Howard interposed with his good offices,
and persuaded Raleigh, though high-spirited, to make
submissions to the general. Essex, who was placable,
as well as hasty and passionate, was soon appeased, and

ELIZABETH. 129

both received Raleigh into favour, and restored the other CHAP.
officers to their commands . This incident, however, ^^^^
though the quarrel was seemingly accommodated, laid 1597
the first foundation of that violent animosity which after-
wards took place between these two gallant commanders.

Essex made next a disposition proper for intercepting
the Indian galleons; and Sir William Monson, whose
station w r as the most remote of the fleet, having fallen
in with them, made the signals which had been agreed
on. That able officer, in his Memoirs, ascribes Essex's
failure, when he was so near attaining so mighty an ad-
vantage, to his want of experience in seamanship ; and
the account which he gives of the errors committed by
that nobleman appears very reasonable as well as candid p .
The Spanish fleet, finding that the enemy was upon
them, made all sail possible to the Terceras, and got into
the safe and well fortified harbour of Angra, before the
English fleet could overtake them. Essex intercepted
only three ships ; which, however, were so rich as to re-
pay all the charges of the expedition.

The causes of the miscarriage in this enterprise were
much canvassed in England upon the return of the fleet ;
and though the courtiers took part differently, as they
affected either Essex or Ealeigh, the people in general,
who bore an extreme regard to the gallantry, spirit, and
generosity of the former, were inclined to justify every
circumstance of his conduct. The queen, who loved the
one as much as she esteemed the other, maintained a
kind of neutrality, and endeavoured to share her favours
with an impartial hand between the parties. Sir Robert
Cecil, second son of Lord Burleigh, was a courtier of
promising hopes, much connected with Raleigh ; and
she made him secretary of state, preferably to Sir Thomas
Bodley, whom Essex recommended for that office. But
not to disgust Essex, she promoted him to the dignity of
earl marshal of England ; an office which had been vacant
since the death of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Essex might
perceive from, this conduct, that she never intended to
give him the entire ascendant over his rivals, and might
thence learn the necessity of moderation and caution.
But his temper was too high for submission; his beha-

o Monson, p. 173. P Ibid. p. 174.

130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, viour too open and candid to practise the arts pf a court ;
XLIII. anc | ki s f ree sa iiies, while they rendered him but more
"^ amiable in the eyes of good judges, gave his enemies

many advantages against him.

24th Oct. The war with Spain, though successful, having ex-
hausted the queen's exchequer, she was obliged to as-
semble a Parliament ; where Yelverton, a lawyer, was
chosen Speaker of the House of Commons q . Elizabeth
took care, by the mouth of Sir Thomas Egerton, lord
keeper, to inform this assembly of the necessity of a
supply. She said that the wars formerly waged in
Europe had commonly been conducted by the parties,
without farther view than to gain a few towns, or at
most a province, from each other; but the object of the
present hostilities on the part of Spain was no other
than utterly to bereave England of her religion, her
liberty, and her independence : that these blessings,
however, she herself had hitherto been able to preserve,
in spite of the devil, the pope, and the Spanish tyrant,
and all the mischievous designs of all her enemies : that
in this contest she had disbursed a sum triple to all the
parliamentary supplies granted her, and, besides expend-
ing her ordinary revenues, had been obliged to sell many
of the crown lands : and that she could not doubt but
her subjects, in a cause where their own honour and
interest were so deeply concerned, would willingly con-
tribute to such moderate taxations as should be found
necessary for the common defence r . The Parliament
granted her three subsidies and six fifteenths ; the same
supply which had been given four years before, but
which had then appeared so unusual, that they had voted
it should never afterwards be regarded as a precedent.

The Commons, this session, ventured to engage in two
controversies about forms with the House of Peers : a
prelude to those encroachments which, as they assumed
more courage, they afterwards made upon the prero-
gatives of the crown. They complained that the Lords
failed in civility to them, by receiving their messages
sitting, with their hats on ; and that the keeper returned
an answer in the same negligent posture : but the Upper

<i See note [Q], at the end of the volume.
* D'Ewes, p. 525. 527. Townsend, p. 79.

ELIZABETH. 131

House proved to their full satisfaction, that they were not CHAP.
entitled by custom, and the usage of Parliament, to any^ ^
more respect 8 . Some amendments had been made by 1597
the Lords, to a bill sent up by the Commons ; and these
amendments were written on parchment, and returned
with the bill to the Commons. The Lower House took
umbrage at the novelty : they pretended that these
amendments ought to have been written on paper, not
on parchment ; and they complained of this innovation
to the Peers. The Peers replied, that they expected
not such a frivolous objection from the gravity of the
House ; and that it was not material whether the amend-
ments were written on parchment or on paper, nor
whether the paper were white, black, or brown. The
Commons were offended at this reply, which seemed to
contain a mockery of them ; and they complained of it ;
though without obtaining any satisfaction*.

An application was made, by way of petition, to the
queen, from the Lower House, against monopolies, an
abuse which had arisen to an enormous height ; and
they received a gracious, though a general answer, for
which they returned their thankful acknowledgments u .
But not to give them too much encouragement in such
applications, she told them, in the speech which she de-
livered at their dissolution, " That with regard to these
patents, she hoped that her dutiful and loving subjects
would not take away her prerogative, which is the chief
flower in her garden, and the principal and head pearl
in her crown and diadem ; but that they would rather
leave these matters to her disposal w ." The Commons
also took notice, this session, of some transactions in the
court of high commission ; but not till they had pre-
viously obtained permission from her majesty to that
purpose x .

Elizabeth had reason to foresee that parliamentary 1598<
supplies would now become more necessary to her than
ever ; and that the chief burden of the war with Spain
would thenceforth lie upon England. Henry had re-
ceived an overture for peace with Philip ; but before he

D'Ewes, p. 539, 540. 580. 585. Townsend, p. 93, 94, 95.

* D'Ewes, p. 576, 577. u Ibid. p. 570. 573.

w Ibid. p. 547. x ibid. p. 557. 558.

132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, would proceed to a negotiation, he gave intelligence of
XLIIL it to his allies, the queen and the states ; that, if pos-
sible, a general pacification might be made, by common
agreement. These two powers sent ambassadors to
France, in order to remonstrate against peace ; the
queen, Sir Robert Cecil and Henry Herbert ; the states,
Justin Nassau and John Barnevelt. Henry said to these
ministers, that his early education had been amidst war
and danger, and he had passed the whole course of his
life either in arms or in military preparations : that,
after the proofs which he had given of his alacrity in
the field, no one could doubt but he would willingly, for
his part, have continued in a course of life to which he
w^as now habituated, till the common enemy were reduced
to such a condition as no longer to give umbrage either
to him or to his allies : that no private interests of his own,
not even those of his people, nothing but the most in-
vincible necessity, could ever induce him to think of a
separate peace with Philip, or make him embrace mea-
sures not entirely conformable to the wishes of all his
confederates ; that his kingdom, torn with the convul-
sions and civil wars of near half a century, required
some interval of repose, ere it could reach a condition
in which it might sustain itself, much more support its
allies : that, after the minds of his subjects were com-
posed to tranquillity, and accustomed to obedience,
after his finances were brought into order, and after
agriculture and the arts were restored, France, instead^
of being a burden, as at present, to her confederates,
would be able to lend them effectual succour, and amply
to repay them all the assistance which she had received
during her calamities : and that, if the ambition of Spain
would not, at present, grant them upon terms as they
should think reasonable, he hoped that in a little time
he should attain such a situation as would enable him
to mediate more effectually, and with more decisive
authority, in their behalf.

The ambassadors were sensible that these reasons
w r ere not feigned ; and they therefore remonstrated with
the less vehemence against the measures which they
saw Henry was determined to pursue. The states knew
that that monarch was interested never to permit their

ELIZABETH. 133

final ruin ; and having received private assurances that CHAP.
he would still, notwithstanding the peace, give them^J^^
assistance, both of men and money, they were well 1598
pleased to remain on terms of amity with him. His
greatest concern was, to give satisfaction to Elizabeth
for this breach of treaty. He had a cordial esteem for
that princess, a sympathy of manners, and a gratitude
for the extraordinary favours which he had received
from her during his greatest difficulties; and he used
every expedient to apologize and atone for that measure
which necessity extorted from him. But as Spain re-
fused to treat with the Dutch as a free state, and Eli-
zabeth would not negotiate without her ally, Henry
found himself obliged to conclude at Yervins a separate Peace of
peace, by which he recovered possession of all the places
seized by Spain during the course of the civil wars, and
procured to himself leisure to pursue the domestic set-
tlement of his kingdom. His capacity for the arts of
peace was not inferior to his military talents ; and in a
little time, by his frugality, order, and wise government,
he raised France from the desolation and misery in
which she was involved, to a more flourishing condition
than she had ever before enjoyed.

The queen knew that she could also, whenever she
pleased, finish the war on equitable terms; and that
Philip, having no claims upon her, would be glad to free
himself from an enemy who had foiled him in every
contest, and who still had it so much in her power to
make him feel the weight of her arms. Some of her
wisest counsellors, particularly the treasurer, advised her
to embrace pacific measures; and set before her the
advantages of tranquillity, security, and frugality, as
more considerable than any success which could attend
the greatest victories. But this high-spirited princess,
though at first averse to war, seemed now to have at-
tained such an ascendant over the enemy, that she was
unwilling to stop the course of her prosperous fortune.
She considered that her situation and her past victories
had given her entire security against any dangerous in-
vasion ; and the war must thenceforth be conducted by
sudden enterprises and naval expeditions, in which she
possessed an undoubted superiority : that the weak con-

VOL. iv. 12

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, dition of Philip in the Indies opened to her the view
XLIII. of t j ie most durable advantages ; and the yearly return
of his treasure by sea afforded a continued prospect of
important, though more temporary successes : that, after
his peace with France, if she also should consent to an
accommodation, he would be able to turn his whole
force against the revolted provinces of the Netherlands,
which, though they had surprisingly increased their
power by commerce and good government, were still
unable, if not supported by their confederates, to main-
tain war against so potent a monarch ; and that, as her
defence of that commonwealth was the original ground
of the quarrel, it was unsafe, as well as dishonourable,
to abandon its cause till she had placed it in a state of
greater security.

The Earl These reasons were frequently inculcated on her by
' the Earl of Essex, whose passion for glory, as well as
his military talents, made him earnestly desire the con-
tinuance of war, from which he expected to reap so
much advantage and distinction. The rivalship between
this nobleman and Lord Burleigh made each of them
insist the more strenuously on his own counsel ; but as
Essex's person was agreeable to the queen, as well as
his advice conformable to her inclinations, the favourite
seemed daily to acquire an ascendant over the minister.
Had he been endowed with caution and self-command
equal to his shining qualities, he would have so riveted
himself in the queen's confidence that none of his ene-
mies had ever been able to impeach his credit. But his
lofty spirit could ill submit to that implicit deference
which her temper required, and which she had ever
been accustomed to receive from all her subjects. Being
once engaged in a dispute with her about the choice of
a governor for Ireland, he was so heated in the argu-
ment that he entirely forgot the rules both of duty and
civility, and turned his back upon her in a contemp-
tuous manner. Her anger, naturally prompt and violent,
rose at this provocation, and she instantly gave him a
box on the ear, adding a passionate expression suited to
his impertinence. Instead of recollecting himself, and
making the submissions due to her sex and station, he
clapped his hand to his sword, and swore that he would not

ELIZABETH. 135

bear such usage, were it from Henry VIII. himself; and CHAP.

he immediately withdrew from court. Egerton, the
chancellor, who loved Essex, exhorted him to repair his 1598
indiscretion by proper acknowledgments ; and entreated
him not to give that triumph to his enemies, that afflic-
tion to his friends, which must ensue from his support-
ing a contest with his sovereign, and deserting the
service of his country. But Essex was deeply stung
with the dishonour which he had received ; and seemed
to think that an insult, which might be pardoned in a
woman, was become a mortal affront when it came from
his sovereign. " If the vilest of all indignities," said he,
a is done me, does religion enforce me to sue for pardon ?
Doth God require it ? Is it impiety not to do it ? Why,
cannot princes err? Cannot subjects receive wrong?
Is an earthly power infinite ? Pardon me, my lord, I
can never subscribe to these principles. Let Solomon's
fool laugh when he is stricken ; let those that mean to
make their profit of princes show no sense of princes'
injuries; let them acknowledge an infinite absoluteness
on earth that do not believe an absolute infiniteness in
heaven:" alluding probably to the character and con-
duct of Sir Walter Raleigh, who lay under the reproach
of impiety. " As for me," continued he, " I have re-
ceived wrong, I feel it; my cause is good, I know it;
and whatsoever happens, all the powers on earth can
never exert more strength and constancy in oppressing,
than I can show in suffering every thing that can or
shall be imposed upon me. Your lordship, in the be-
ginning of your letter, makes me a player, and yourself
a looker-on ; and me a player of my own game, so you
may see more than I ; but give me leave to tell you,
that since you do but see, and I do suffer, I must of
necessity feel more than you y ."

This spirited letter was shown by Essex to his friends,
and they were so imprudent as to disperse copies of it :
yet, notwithstanding this additional provocation, the
queen's partiality was so prevalent, that she reinstated
him in his former favour : and her kindness to him ap-
peared rather to have acquired new force from this
short interval of anger and resentment. The death of 4th Aug.

y See note [RJ, at the end of the volume.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. Burleigh, his antagonist, which happened about the same
XLIII. j rne? seemed to ensure him constant possession of the
"""^J^ queen's confidence; and nothing, indeed, but his own
indiscretion could thenceforth have shaken his well es-
tablished credit. Lord Burleigh died in an advanced
age ; and, by a rare fortune, was equally regretted by
his sovereign and the people. He had risen gradually,
from small beginnings, by the mere force of merit ; and
though his authority was never entirely absolute or un-
controlled with the queen, he was still, during the course
of near forty years, regarded as her principal minister.
None of her other inclinations or affections could ever
overcome her confidence in so useful a counsellor ; and
as he had had the generosity or good sense to pay assi-
duous court to her during her sister's reign, when it was
dangeroCs to appear her friend, she thought herself
bound in gratitude, when she mounted the throne, to
persevere in her attachments to him. He seems not to
have possessed any shining talents of address, eloquence,
or imagination; and was chiefly distinguished by soli-
dity of understanding, probity of manners, and indefati-
gable application in business ; virtues which, if they do
not always enable a man to attain high stations, do cer-
tainly qualify him best for filling them. Of all the
queen's ministers, he alone left a considerable fortune to
his posterity ; a fortune not acquired by rapine or op-
pression, but gained by the regular profits of his offices,
and preserved by frugality.

sth Aug. The last act of this able minister was the concluding
of a new treaty with the Dutch, who, after being in some
measure deserted by the King of France, were glad to
preserve the queen's alliance, by submitting to any terms
which she pleased to require of them. The debt which
they owed her was now settled at eight hundred thousand
pounds. Of this sum they agreed to pay, during the
war, thirty thousand pounds a year ; and these payments
were to continue till four hundred thousand pounds of
the debt should be extinguished. They engaged also,
during the time that England should continue the war
with Spain, to pay the garrisons of the cautionary towns.
They stipulated, that if Spain should invade England, or
the Isle of Wight, or Jersey, or Scilly, they should assist

ELIZABETH. 137

her with a body of five thousand foot and five hundred CHAP.
horse : and that, in case she undertook any naval arma- v ^ LIIL
ment against Spain, they should join an equal number 1598
of ships to hers 2 . By this treaty the queen was eased
of an annual charge of a hundred and twenty thousand
pounds.

Soon after the death of Burleigh, the queen, who re-
gretted extremely the loss of so wise and faithful a
minister, was informed of the death of her capital enemy,
Philip II., who, after languishing under many infirmities,
expired, in an advanced age, at Madrid. This haughty
prince, desirous of an accommodation with his revolted
subjects in the Netherlands, but disdaining to make in
his own name the concessions necessary for that purpose,
had transferred to his daughter, married to Archduke
Albert, the title to the Low Country provinces ; but as
it was not expected that this princess could have any
posterity, and as the reversion on failure of her issue was
still reserved to the crown of Spain, the states considered
this deed only as the change of a name, and they per-
sisted with equal obstinacy in their resistance to the
Spanish arms. The other powers also of Europe made
no distinction between the courts of Brussels and Madrid ;
and the secret opposition of France, as well as the avowed
efforts of England, continued to operate against the pro-
gress of Albert, as it had done against that of Philip.

z Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 340.

12*

J38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XLIY.

STATE OF IRELAND. TYRONE'S REBELLION. ESSEX SENT OVER TO IRELAND.
His ILL SUCCESS. KETURNS TO ENGLAND. Is DISGRACED. His IN-
TRIGUES. His INSURRECTION. His TRIAL AND EXECUTION. FRENCH
AFFAIRS. MOUNTJOY'S SUCCESS IN IRELAND. DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS
AND IRISH. A PARLIAMENT. TYRONE'S SUBMISSION. QUEEN'S SICK-
NESS AND DEATH AND CHARACTER.

THOUGH the dominion of the English over Ireland had
_ _ been seemingly established above four centuries, it may
1599. safely be affirmed, that their authority had hitherto
irdancf ^ een little more than nominal. The Irish princes and
nobles, divided among themselves, readily paid the ex-
terior marks of obeisance to a power which they were
not able to resist ; but as no durable force was ever
kept on foot to retain them in their duty, they relapsed
still into their former state of independence. Too weak
to introduce order and obedience among the rude in-
habitants, the English authority was yet sufficient to
check the growth of any enterprising genius among the
natives ; and though it could bestow no true form of
civil government, it was able to prevent the rise of any
such form from the internal combination or policy of the
Irish a .

Most of the English institutions, likewise, by which
that island was governed, were to the last degree absurd,
and such as no state before had ever thought of, for pre-
serving dominion over its conquered provinces.

The English nation, all on fire for the project of
subduing France, a project whose success was the most
improbable, and would to them have proved the most
pernicious, neglected all other enterprises to which their
situation so strongly invited them, and which in time
would have brought them an accession of riches, gran-
deur, and security. The small army which they main-
tained in Ireland they never supplied regularly with
pay ; and as no money could be levied on the island,
which possessed none, they gave their soldiers the pri-

a Sir J. Davies, p. 5, 6, 7, c.

ELIZABETH. 139

vilege of free quarter upon the natives. Rapine and CHAP.
insolence inflamed the hatred which prevailed between ^ L *^
the conquerors and the conquered : want of security 1599
among the Irish introducing despair, nourished still
more the sloth natural to that uncultivated people.

But the English carried farther their ill-judged tyranny.
Instead of inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized
customs of their conquerors, they even refused, though
earnestly solicited, to communicate to them the privilege
of their laws, and everywhere marked them out as aliens
and as enemies. Thrown out of the protection of justice,
the natives could find no security but in force ; and, fly-
ing the neighbourhood of cities, which they could not
approach with safety, they sheltered themselves in their
marshes and forests from the insolence of their inhuman
masters. Being treated like wild beasts, they became
such ; and joining the ardour of revenge to their yet
untamed barbarity, they grew every day more intractable
and more dangerous b .

As the English princes deemed the conquest of the
dispersed Irish to be more the object of time and pa-
tience than the source of military glory, they willingly
delegated that office to private adventurers, who, enlist-
ing soldiers at their own charge, reduced provinces of
that island, which they converted to their own profit.
Separate jurisdictions and principalities were established
by these lordly conquerors : the power of peace and war
was assumed ; military law was exercised over the Irish,
whom they subdued, and, by degrees, over the English,
by whose assistance they conquered ; and, after their
authority had once taken root, deeming the English
institutions less favourable to barbarous dominion, they
degenerated into mere Irish, and abandoned the garb,
language, manners, and laws of their mother-country .

By all this imprudent conduct of England, the natives
of its dependent state remained still in that abject con-
dition, into which the northern and western parts of
Europe were sunk before they received civility and
slavery from the refined policy and irresistible bravery
of Rome. Even at the end of the sixteenth century,
when every Christian nation was cultivating with ardour

b Sir J. Davies, p. 102, 103, &c. c Ibid. p. 133, 134, &c.

140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, every civil art of life, that island, lying in a temperate
XLIV. c ii ma t. e , enjoying a fertile soil, accessible in its situation,
possessed of innumerable harbours, was still, notwith-
standing these advantages, inhabited by a people whose
customs and manners approached nearer those of savages
than of barbarians' 1 .

As the rudeness and ignorance of the Irish were ex-
treme, they were sunk below the reach of that curiosity
and love of novelty by which every other people in
Europe had been seized at the beginning of that cen-
tury, and which had engaged them in innovations and
religious disputes with which they were still so violently
agitated. The ancient superstition, the practices and
observances of their fathers, mingled and polluted with
many wild opinions, still maintained an unshaken empire
over them ; and the example of the English alone was
sufficient to render the reformation odious to the pre-
judiced and discontented Irish. The old opposition of
manners, laws, and interest, was now inflamed by reli-
gious antipathy ; and the subduing and civilizing of that
country seemed to become every day more difficult and
more impracticable.

The animosity against the English was carried so far
by the Irish, that, in an insurrection raised by two sons
of the Earl of Clanricarde, they put to the sword all
the inhabitants of the town of Athenry, though Irish,
because they began to conform themselves to English
customs, and had embraced a more civilized form of life
than had been practised by their ancestors 6 .

The usual revenue of Ireland amounted only to six
thousand pounds a year f : the queen, though with much
repining g , commonly added twenty thousand more, which
she remitted from England : and with this small revenue
a body of a thousand men was supported, which on ex-
traordinary emergencies was augmented to two thou-
sand h . No wonder that a force so disproportioned to
the object, instead of subduing a mutinous kingdom,
served rather to provoke the natives, and to excite those
frequent insurrections, which still farther inflamed the

d See Spencer's Account of Ireland, throughout. e Camden, p. 457.

f Memoirs of the Sidneys, vol. i. p. 86.

Cox, p. 342. Sidney, vol. i. p. 85. 200.

h Cainden, p. 542. Sidney, vol. i. p. 65, 109. 183, 184.

ELIZABETH. 141

animosity between the two nations, and increased the CHAP.
disorders to which the Irish were naturally subject, vJ^Zl^

In 1560, Shan O'Neale, or the Great O'Neale, as ^the 1599>
Irish called him, because head of that potent clan, raised
a rebellion in Ulster ; but after some skirmishes he was
received into favour, upon his submission, and his promise
of a more dutiful behaviour for the future 1 . This im-
punity tempted him to undertake a new insurrection in
1567; but, being pushed by Sir Henry Sidney, lord
deputy, he retreated into Clandeboy, and rather than
submit to the English, he put himself into the hands
of some Scottish islanders, who commonly infested those
parts by their incursions. The Scots, who retained a
quarrel against him on account of former injuries, vio-
lated the laws of hospitality, and murdered him at a
festival to which they had invited him. He was a man
equally noted for his pride, his violence, his debaucheries,
and his hatred to the English nation. He is said to have
put some of his followers to death because they endea-
voured to introduce the use of bread after the English
fashion k . Though so violent an enemy to luxury, he
was extremely addicted to riot; and was accustomed,
after his intemperance had thrown him into a fever, to
plunge his body into mire, that he might allay the flame
which he had raised by his former excesses 1 . Such was
the life led by this haughty barbarian, who scorned the
title of the Earl of Tyrone, which Elizabeth intended to
have restored to him, and who assumed the rank and
appellation of King of Ulster. He used also to say,
that though the queen was his sovereign lady, he never
made peace with her but at her seeking m .

Sir Henry Sidney was one of the wisest and most
active governors that Ireland had enjoyed for several
reigns n ; and he possessed his authority eleven years,
during which he struggled with many difficulties, and
made some progress in repressing those disorders which
had become inveterate among the people. The Earl of
Desmond, in 1569, gave him disturbance, from the here-
ditary animosity which prevailed between that nobleman
and the Earl of Ormond, descended from the only family

1 Camden, p. 385. 391. k Ibid. p. 409. l Ibid. Cox, p. 324.

m Ibid. p. 321. n Cox, p. 350.

142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, established in Ireland that had steadily maintained its
XLIV - loyalty to the English crown . The Earl of Thomond,
in 1570, attempted a rebellion in Connaught, but was
obliged to fly into France before his designs were ripe
for execution. Stukely, another fugitive, found such
credit with the pope, Gregory the Thirteenth, that he
flattered that pontiff with the prospect of making his
nephew, Buon Compagno, King of Ireland ; and, as if
this project had already taken effect, he accepted the
title of Marquis of Leinster from the new sovereign 11 .
He passed next into Spain, and after having received
much encouragement and great rewards from Philip,
who intended to employ him as an instrument in disturb-
ing Elizabeth, he was found to possess too little interest
for executing those high promises which he had made to
that monarch. He retired into Portugal ; and, following
the fortunes of Don Sebastian, he perished with that gal-
lant prince, in his bold but unfortunate expedition against
the Moors.

Lord Gray, after some interval, succeeded to the
government of Ireland; and, in 1579, suppressed a new
rebellion of the Earl of Desmond, though supported by
a body of Spaniards and Italians. The rebellion of the
Bourks followed a few years after; occasioned by the
strict and equitable administration of Sir Kichard Bing-
ham, governor of Connaught, who endeavoured to sup-
press the tyranny of the chieftains over their vassals q . The
queen, finding Ireland so burdensome to her, tried several
expedients for reducing it to a state of greater order and
submission. She encouraged the Earl of Essex, father
to that nobleman who was afterwards her favourite, to
attempt the subduing and planting of Clandeboy, Ferny,
and other territories, part of some late forfeitures; but
that enterprise proved unfortunate, and Essex died of a
distemper occasioned, as is supposed, by the vexation
which he had conceived from his disappointments. An
university was founded in Dublin, with a view of intro-
ducing arts and learning into that kingdom, and civilizing
the uncultivated manners of the inhabitants r . But the
most unhappy expedient employed in the government of

Camden, p. 424. p Ibid. p. 430. Cox, p. 354.

1 Stowe, p. 720. r Camden, p. 566,

ELIZABETH. 143

Ireland was that made use of in 1585, by Sir John CHAP.
Perrot, at that time lord deputy : he put arms into the ,j^ L ; [V ^
hands of the Irish inhabitants of Ulster, in order to 1599
enable them, without the assistance of the government,
to repress the incursions of the Scottish islanders, by
which these parts were much infested 8 . At the same
time, the invitation of Philip, joined to their zeal for the
Catholic religion, engaged many of the gentry to serve in
the Low Country wars ; and thus Ireland, being provided
with officers and soldiers, with discipline and arms, be-
came formidable to the English, and was thenceforth
able to maintain a more regular war against her ancient
masters.

Hugh O'Neale, nephew to Shan O'Neale, had been ^0^
raised by the queen to the dignity of Earl of Tyrone ;
but, having murdered his cousin, son of that rebel, and
being acknowledged head of his clan, he preferred the
pride of barbarous licence and dominion to the pleasures
of opulence and tranquillity, and he fomented all those
disorders by which he hoped to weaken or overturn the
English government. He was noted for the vices of per-
fidy and cruelty, so common among uncultivated nations,
and was also eminent for courage, a virtue which their dis-
orderly course of life requires, and which, notwithstanding,
being less supported by the principle of honour, is com-
monly more precarious among them than among a
civilized people. Tyrone, actuated by this spirit, secretly
fomented the discontents of the Maguires, O'Donnels,
O'Rourks, Macmahons, and other rebels ; yet, trusting
to the influence of his deceitful oaths and professions, he
put himself into the hands of Sir William Russel, who,
in the year 1594, was sent over deputy to Ireland. Con-
trary to the advice and protestation of Sir Henry
Bagnal, marshal of the army, he was dismissed ; and re-
turning to his own country, he embraced the resolution of
raising an open rebellion, and of relying no longer on the
lenity or inexperience of the English government. He
entered into a correspondence with Spain : he procured
thence a supply of arms and ammunition ; and, having
united all the Irish chieftains in a dependence upon him-
self, he began to be regarded as a formidable enemy.

8 Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia, p. 203.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. The native Irish were so poor that their country
XLIV - afforded few other commodities than cattle and oatmeal,
which were easily concealed or driven away on the ap-
proach of the enemy ; and as Elizabeth was averse to the
expense requisite for supporting her armies, the English
found much difficulty in pushing their advantages, and in
pursuing the rebels into the bogs, woods, and other fast-
nesses, to which they retreated. These motives rendered
Sir John Norris, who commanded the English army, the
more willing to hearken to any proposals of truce or ac-
commodation made him by Tyrone ; and, after the war
was spun out by these artifices for some years, that gallant
Englishman, finding that he had been deceived by trea-
cherous promises, and that he had performed nothing
worthy of his ancient reputation, was seized with a lan-
guishing distemper, and died of vexation and discontent.
Sir Henry Bagnal, who succeeded him in the command,
was still more unfortunate. As he advanced to relieve
the fort of Blackwater, besieged by the rebels, he was
surrounded in disadvantageous ground ; his soldiers, dis-
couraged by part of their powder accidentally taking fire,
were put to flight ; and though the pursuit was stopped
by Montacute, who commanded the English horse, fifteen
hundred men, together with the general himself, were
left dead upon the spot. This victory, so unusual to
the Irish, roused their courage, supplied them with arms
and ammunition, and raised the reputation of Tyrone,
who assumed the character of the deliverer of his country,
and patron of Irish liberty *.

The English council were now sensible that the re-
bellion of Ireland was come to a dangerous head, and
that the former temporizing arts of granting truces and
pacifications to the rebels, and of allowing them to pur-
chase pardons by resigning part of the plunder acquired
during their insurrection, served only to encourage the
spirit of mutiny and disorder among them. It was there-
fore resolved to push the war by more vigorous measures ;
and the queen cast her eye on Charles Blount, Lord
Mountjoy, as a man who, though hitherto less accus-
tomed to arms than to books and literature, was en-
dowed, she thought, with talents equal to the under-

* Cox, p. 415.

ELIZABETH. 145

taking. But the young Earl of Essex, ambitious of fame, CHAP.
and desirous of obtaining this government for himself,, J '_,
opposed the choice of Mountjoy; and represented the 1599
necessity of appointing for that important employment
some person more experienced in war than this noble-
man, more practised in business, and of higher quality
and reputation. By this description, he was understood
to mean himself u ; and no sooner was his desire known,
than his enemies, even more zealously than his friends,
conspired to gratify his wishes. Many of his friends
thought that he never ought to consent, except for a
short time, to accept of any employment which must
remove him from court, and prevent him from culti-
vating that personal inclination which the queen so visi-
bly bore him w . His enemies hoped that, if by his
absence she had once leisure to forget the charms of his
person and conversation, his impatient and lofty de-
meanour would soon disgust a princess who usually ex-
acted such profound submission and implicit obedience
from all her servants. But Essex was incapable of en-
tering into such cautious views ; and even Elizabeth, who
was extremely desirous of subduing the Irish rebels, and
who was much prepossessed in favour of Essex's genius,
readily agreed to appoint him governor of Ireland, by the
title of Lord Lieutenant. The more to encourage him ^sex^sent
in his undertaking, she granted him by his patent more Ireland.
extensive authority than had ever before been conferred
on any lieutenant ; the power of carrying on or finishing
the war as he pleased, of pardoning the rebels, and of
filling all the most considerable employments of the
kingdom x . And to ensure him of success, she levied a
numerous army of sixteen thousand foot and thirteen
hundred horse, which she afterwards augmented to twenty
thousand foot and two thousand horse ; a force which it
was apprehended would be able in one campaign to over-
whelm the rebels, and make an entire conquest of Ireland.
Nor did Essex's enemies, the Earl of Nottingham, Sir
Robert Cecil, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Lord Cobham,
throw any obstacles in the way of these preparations;
but hoped that, the higher the queen's expectations of

u Bacon, vol. iv. p. 512. w Cabala, p. 79.

x Kymer, torn. xvi. p. 366.
VOL. IV. 13

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, success were raised, the more difficult it would be for
XLIV - the event to correspond to them. In a like view, they
/ rather seconded than opposed those exalted encomiums.,
which Essex's numerous and sanguine friends dispersed
of his high genius, of his elegant endowments, his heroic
courage, his unbounded generosity, and his noble birth ;
n.or were they displeased to observe that passionate fond-
ness which the people everywhere expressed for this
nobleman. These artful politicians had studied his cha-
racter; and finding that his open and undaimted spirit,
if taught temper and reserve from opposition, must be-
come invincible, they resolved rather to give full breath
to those sails which were already too much expanded,
and to push him upon dangers of which he seemed to
make such small account 7 . And, the better to make
advantage of his indiscretions, spies were set upon all his
actions and even expressions ; and his vehement spirit,
which, while he was in the midst of the court, and envi-
roned by his rivals, was unacquainted with disguise, could
not fail, after he thought himself surrounded by none but
friends, to give a pretence for malignant suspicions and
constructions.

Essex left London in the month of March, attended
with the acclamations of the populace ; and, what did him
more honour, accompanied by a numerous train of no-
bility and gentry, who, from affection to his person, had
attached themselves to his fortunes, and sought fame arid
military experience under so renowned a commander.
The first act of authority which he exercised after his
arrival in Ireland was an indiscretion, but of the generous
kind ; and in both these respects suitable to his character.
He appointed his intimate friend, the Earl of Southamp-
ton, general of the horse ; a nobleman who had incurred
the queen's displeasure, by secretly marrying without her
consent, and whom she had therefore enjoined Essex not
to employ in any command under him. She no sooner
heard of this instance of disobedience, than she repri-
manded him, and ordered him to recall his commission
to Southampton. But Essex, who had imagined that
some reasons which he opposed to her first injunctions
had satisfied her, had the imprudence to remonstrate

y Camden. Osbome, p. 371.

ELIZABETH. 147

against these second orders z ; and it was not till she CHAP.
reiterated her commands, that he could be prevailed on.j^ 1 '_,
to displace his friend. 1599.

Essex, on his landing at Dublin, deliberated with the His in
Irish council concerning the proper methods of carrying su
on the war against the rebels ; and here he was guilty of
a capital error, which was the ruin of his enterprise. He
had always, while in England, blamed the conduct of
former commanders, who artfully protracted the war,
who harassed their troops in small enterprises, and who,
by agreeing to truces and temporary pacifications with
the rebels, had given them leisure to recruit their broken
forces. a In conformity to these views, he had ever in-
sisted upon leading his forces immediately into Ulster
against Tyrone, the chief enemy ; and his instructions
had been drawn agreeably to these his declared resolu-
tions. But the Irish counsellors persuaded him that the
season was too early for the enterprise, and that, as the
morasses, in which the northern Irish usually sheltered
themselves, would not as yet be passable to the English
forces, it would be better to employ the present time in
an expedition into Munster. Their secret reason for
this advice was, that many of them possessed estates in
that province, and were desirous to have the enemy dis-
lodged from their neighbourhood b : but the same selfish
spirit which had induced them to give this counsel, made
them soon after disown it, when they found the bad con-
sequences with which it was attended .

Essex obliged all the rebels of Munster either to
submit or to fly into the neighbouring provinces : but
as the Irish, from the greatness of the queen's prepara-
tions, had concluded that she intended to reduce them
to total subjection, or even utterly to exterminate them,
they considered their defence as a common cause ; and
the English forces were no sooner withdrawn than the
inhabitants of Munster relapsed into rebellion, and re-
newed their confederacy with their other countrymen.
The army, meanwhile, by the fatigue of long and tedious
marches, and by the influence of the climate, was become

z Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 421. 451.
a Ibid. p. 431. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 512.
b Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 448. c Winwood, vol. i. p. 140.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, sickly ; and on its return to Dublin, about the middle of
XLIV - July, was surprisingly diminished in number. The courage
of the soldiers was even much abated ; for, though they
had prevailed in some lesser enterprises against Lord
Cahir and others, yet had they sometimes met with more
stout resistance than they expected from the Irish, whom
they were wont to despise : and as they were raw troops
and inexperienced, a considerable body of them had been
put to flight at the Grins, by an inferior number of the
enemy. Essex was so enraged at this misbehaviour, that
he cashiered all the officers, and decimated the private
inen d . But this act of severity, though necessary, had
intimidated the soldiers, and increased their aversion to
the service.

The queen was extremely disgusted when she heard
that so considerable a part of the season was consumed
in these frivolous enterprises; and was still more sur-
prised that Essex persevered in the same practice which
he had so much condemned in others, and which he knew
to be so much contrary to her purpose and intention.
That nobleman, in order to give his troops leisure to re-
cruit from their sickness and fatigue, left the main army
in quarters, and marched with a small body of fifteen
hundred men into the county of Ophelie against the
O'Connors and O'Mores, whom he forced to a submis-
sion : but, on his return to Dublin, he found the army
so much diminished, that he wrote to the English council
an account of its condition, and informed them that, if
he did not immediately receive a reinforcement of two
thousand men, it would be impossible for him this season
to attempt any thing against Tyrone. That there might
be no pretence for farther inactivity, the queen immedi-
ately sent over the number demanded 6 ; and Essex
began at last to assemble his forces for the expedition
into Ulster. The army was so averse to this enterprise,
and so terrified with the reputation of Tyrone, that many
of them counterfeited sickness, many of them deserted f ;
and Essex found that, after leaving the necessary garri-
sons, he could scarcely lead four thousand men against
the rebels. He marched, however, with this small army :

d Cox, p. 421. e Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 430. Cox, p. 421.

f Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 112, 113.

ELIZABETH. 149

but was soon sensible that, in so advanced a season, it CHAP.
would be impossible for him to effect any thing against ^^^
an enemy who, though superior in number, was deter- 1599
mined to avoid every decisive action. He hearkened,
therefore, to a message sent him by Tyrone, who desired
a conference ; and a place near the two camps was
appointed for that purpose. The generals met without
any of their attendants, and a river ran between them,
into which Tyrone entered to the depth of his saddle ;
but Essex stood on the opposite bank. After half an
hour's conference, where Tyrone behaved with great sub-
mission to the lord lieutenant, a cessation of arms was
concluded to the first of May, renewable from six weeks
to six weeks ; but which might be broken off by either
party upon a fortnight's warning g . Essex also received
from Tyrone proposals for a peace, in which that rebel
had inserted many unreasonable and exorbitant con-
ditions ; and there appeared afterwards some reason to
suspect that he had here commenced a very unjustifiable
correspondence with the enemy h .

So unexpected an issue of an enterprise, the greatest
and most expensive that Elizabeth had ever undertaken,
provoked her extremely against Essex ; and this disgust
was much augmented by other circumstances of that
nobleman's conduct. He wrote many letters to the
queen and council, full of peevish and impatient expres-
sions ; complaining of his enemies, lamenting that their
calumnies should be believed against him, and discovering
symptoms of a mind equally haughty and discontented.
She took care to inform him of her dissatisfaction ; but
commanded him to remain in Ireland till farther orders.

Essex heard at once of Elizabeth's anger, and of the
promotion of his enemy, Sir Robert Cecil, to the office
of master of the wards, an office to which he himself
aspired ; and dreading that, if he remained any longer
absent, the queen would be totally alienated from him,
he hastily embraced a resolution which he knew had
once succeeded with the Earl of Leicester, the former
favourite of Elizabeth. Leicester being informed, while
in the Low Countries, that his mistress was extremely

e Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 125.

h Wimvood, vol. i. p. 307. State Trials. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 514. 535. 537.

13*

150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, displeased with his conduct, disobeyed her orders by
XLIV. cornm g O ver to England ; and having pacified her by his
\^g presence, by his apologies, and by his flattery and insinua-
tion, disappointed all the expectations of his enemies *.

gjf 1 }^ Essex, therefore, weighing more the similarity of circum-
stances, than the difference of character between himself
and Leicester, immediately set out for England ; and,
making speedy journeys, he arrived at court before any
one was in the least apprized of his intentions 1 ". Though
besmeared with dirt and sweat, he hastened up stairs to
the presence-chamber ; thence to the privy-chamber ; nor
stopped till he was in the queen's bed-chamber, who was
newly risen, and was sitting with her hair about her face.
He threw himself on his knees, kissed her hand, and had
some private conference with her ; where he was so
graciously received, that on his departure he was heard
to express great satisfaction, and to thank God that,
though he had suffered much trouble and many storms
abroad, he found a sweet calm at home 1 .

But this placability of Elizabeth was merely the result
of her surprise, and of the momentary satisfaction which
she felt on the sudden and unexpected appearance of
her favourite ; after she had leisure for recollection, all
his faults recurred to her ; and she thought it necessary,
by some severe discipline, to subdue that haughty, im-
perious spirit, who, presuming on her partiality, had
pretended to domineer in her councils, to engross all
her favour, and to act, in the most important affairs,

I ra d cd without regard to her orders and instructions. When
Essex waited on her in the afternoon, he found her
extremely altered in her carriage towards him. She
ordered him to be confined to his chamber ; to be twice
examined by the council ; and though his answers were
calm and submissive, she committed him to the custody
of lord-keeper Egerton, and held him sequestered from
all company, even from that of his countess ; nor was so
much as the intercourse of letters permitted between
them. Essex dropped many expressions of humiliation
and sorrow, none of resentment ; he professed an entire
submission to the queen's will ; declared his intention of

i Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 453. * Winwood, vol. i. p. 118.

i Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 127.

ELIZABETH. 151

retiring into the country, and of leading thenceforth a CHAP.
private life, remote from courts and business : but though ^ ^
he affected to be so entirely cured of his aspiring ambi- 1599>
tion, the vexation of this disappointment, and of the
triumph gained by his enemies, preyed upon his haughty
spirit, and he fell into a distemper which seemed to put
his life in danger.

The queen had always declared to all the world, and
even to the earl himself, that the purpose of her severity
was to correct, not to ruin him m ; and when she heard
of his sickness, she was not a little alarmed with his
situation. She ordered eight physicians of the best
reputation and experience to consult of his case ; and
being informed that the issue was much to be appre-
hended, she sent Dr. James to him with some broth,
and desired that physician to deliver him a message,
which she probably deemed of still greater virtue, that
if she thought -such a step consistent with her honour,
she would herself pay him a visit. The bystanders, who
carefully observed her countenance, remarked that, ill
pronouncing these words, her eyes were suffused with
tears n .

When the symptoms of the queen's returning affection
towards Essex were known, they gave a sensible alarm
to the faction which had declared their opposition to
him. Sir Walter Raleigh, in particular, the most vio-
lent as well as the most ambitious of his enemies, was
so affected with the appearance of this sudden revolution,
that he was seized with sickness in his turn ; and the
queen was obliged to apply the same salve to his wound,
and to send him a favourable message, expressing her
desire of his recovery .

The medicine which the queen administered to these 1600 -
aspiring rivals was successful with both; and Essex,
being now allowed the company of his countess, and
having entertained more promising hopes of his future
fortunes, was so much restored in his health as to be
thought past danger. A belief was instilled into Eliza-
beth, that his distemper had been entirely counterfeit,
in order to move her compassion p ; and she relapsed

m Birch's Memoirs, p. 444, 445. Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 196.

n Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 151. Ibid. p. 139. P Ibid. p. 153.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, into her former rigour against him. He wrote her a
XLIV. i e tter, and sent her a rich present on New- Year's day,
as was usual with the courtiers at that time: she read
the letter, but rejected the present* 1 . After some in-
terval, however, of severity, she allowed him to retire to
his own house ; and though he remained still under
custody, and was sequestered from all company, he was
so grateful for this mark of lenity, that he sent her a
letter of thanks on the occasion. " This farther degree
of goodness," said he, u doth sound in my ears as if your
majesty spake these words : Die not, Essex ; for though
I punish thine offence, and humble thee for thy good, yet
witt I one day be served again ly thee. My prostrate
soul makes this answer : I hope for that blessed day.
And in expectation of it, all my afflictions of body and
mind are humbly, patiently, and cheerfully, borne by
me r ." The Countess of Essex, daughter of Sir Francis
Walsingham, possessed, as well as her husband, a refined
taste in literature ; and the chief consolation which Essex
enjoyed during this period of anxiety and expectation,
consisted in her company, and in reading with her those
instructive and entertaining authors, which, even during
the time of his greatest prosperity, he had never entirely
neglected.

There were several incidents which kept alive the
queen's anger against Essex. Every account which she
received from Ireland convinced her more and more
of his misconduct in that government, and of the in-
significant purposes to which he had employed so much
force and treasure. Tyrone, so far from being quelled,
had thought proper, in less than three months, to break
the truce ; and, joining with O'Donnel and other rebels,
had overrun almost the whole kingdom. He boasted
that he was certain of receiving a supply of men, money,
and arms, from Spain : he pretended to be champion of
the Catholic religion : and he openly exulted ,in the
present of a phoenix plume, which the pope, Clement
VIII., in order to encourage him in the prosecution of
so good a cause, had consecrated, and had conferred
upon him 8 . The queen, that she might check his pro-

i Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 155, 156. r Birch's Memoirs, p. 444.

8 Camden, p. 617.

ELIZABETH. 153

gress, returned to her former intention of appointing CHAP.
Mountjoy lord deputy; and though that nobleman, who v J^Zl^
was an intimate friend of Essex, and desired his return 1600
to the government of Ireland, did at first very earnestly
excuse himself, on account of his bad state of health,
she obliged him to accept of the employment. Mount-
joy found the island almost in a desperate condition ; but
being a man of capacity and vigour, he was so little dis-
couraged, that he immediately advanced against Tyrone
in Ulster. He penetrated into the heart of that county,
the chief seat of the rebels: he fortified Deny and
Mount-Norris, in order to bridle the Irish: he chased
them from the field, and obliged them to take shelter in
the woods and morasses : he employed, with equal success,
Sir George Carew in Munster : and by these promising
.enterprises, he gave new life to the queen's authority in
that island.

As the comparison of Mount] oy's administration with
that of Essex contributed to alienate Elizabeth from her
favourite, she received additional disgust from the parti-
ality of the people, who, prepossessed with an extravagant
idea of Essex's merit, complained of the injustice done
him by his removal from court, and by his confinement.
Libels were secretly dispersed against Cecil and Raleigh,
and all his enemies ; and his popularity, which was always
great, seemed rather to be increased than diminished by
his misfortunes. Elizabeth, in order to justify to the
public her conduct with regard to him, had often ex-
pressed her intentions of having him tried in the star-
chamber for his oifences: but her tenderness for him
prevailed at last over her severity ; and she was contented
to have him only examined by the privy council. The at-
torney-general, Coke, opened the cause against him, and
treated him with the cruelty and insolence which that
great lawyer usually exercised against the unfortunate.
He displayed, in the strongest colours, all the faults
committed by Essex in his administration of Ireland :
his making Southampton general of the horse, contrary
to the queen's injunctions; his deserting the enterprise
against Tyrone, and marching to Leinster and Munster ;
his conferring knighthood on too many persons; his
secret conference with Tyrone; and his sudden return

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP, from Ireland, in contempt of her majesty's commands.

XLIV< He also exaggerated the indignity of the conditions
which Tyrone had been allowed to propose; odious and
abominable conditions, said he ; a public toleration of an
idolatrous religion, pardon for himself and every traitor
in Ireland, and fall restitution of lands and possessions
to all of them*. The solicitor-general, Fleming, insisted
upon the wretched situation in which the earl had left
that kingdom ; and Francis, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon,
who had been lord-keeper in the beginning of the pre-
sent reign, closed the charge, with displaying the uii-
dutiful expressions contained in some letters written by
the earl.

Essex, when he came to plead in his own defence, re-
nounced, with great submission and humility, all preten-
sions to an apology u ; and declared his resolution never,
on this or any other occasion, to have any contest with
his sovereign. He said, that, having severed himself
from the world, and abjured all sentiments of ambition,
he had no scruple to confess every failing or error into
which his youth, folly, or manifold infirmities might
have betrayed him; that his inward sorrow for his
offences against her majesty was so profound, that it ex-
ceeded all his outward crosses and afflictions, nor had
he any scruple of submitting to a public confession of
whatever she had been pleased to impute to him ; that
in his acknowledgments he retained only one reserve,
which he never would relinquish but with his life, the
assertion of a loyal and unpolluted heart, of an unfeigned
affection, of an earnest desire ever to perform to her
majesty the best service which his poor abilities would
permit ; and that, if this sentiment were allowed by the
council, he willingly acquiesced in any condemnation or
sentence which they could pronounce against him. This
submission was uttered with so much eloquence, and in
so pathetic a manner, that it drew tears from many of
the audience w . All the privy-counsellors, in giving their
judgment, made no scruple of doing the earl justice with
regard to the loyalty of his intentions. Even Cecil, whom
he believed his capital enemy, treated him with regard

* Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 449.

u Sidney Letters, vol. ii. p. 200. w Ibid. p. 200, 201.

XLIV.

~ r
1600.

ELIZABETH. 155

and humanity. And the sentence pronounced by the CHAR
lord-keeper (to which the council assented) was in these
words : " If this cause," said he, " had been heard in the
star-chamber, my sentence must have been for as great a
fine as ever was set upon any man's head in that court,
together with perpetual confinement in that prison which
belongeth to a man of his quality, the Tower. But since
we are now in another place, and in a course of favour,
my censure is, that the Earl of Essex is not to execute
the office of a counsellor, nor that of earl marshal of
England, nor of master of the ordnance ; and to return
to his own house, there to continue a prisoner till it
shall please her majesty to release this and all the rest
of his sentence 2 "." The Earl of Cumberland made a
slight opposition to this sentence ; and said that, if he
thought it would stand, he would have required a little
more time to deliberate; that he deemed it somewhat
severe ; and that any commander in chief might easily
incur a like penalty. But, however, added he, in confi-
dence of her majesty's mercy, I agree with the rest. The
Earl of Worcester delivered his opinion in a couple of
Latin verses ; importing that, where the gods are offended,
even misfortunes ought to be imputed as crimes, and
that accident is no excuse for transgressions against the
divinity.

Bacon, so much distinguished afterwards by his high
offices, and still more by his profound genius for the
sciences, was nearly allied to the Cecil family, being
nephew to Lord Burleigh, and cousin-german to the
secretary : but notwithstanding his extraordinary talents,
he had met with so little protection from his powerful
relations, that he had not yet obtained any preferment
in the law, which was his profession. But Essex, who
could distinguish merit, and who passionately loved it,
had entered into an intimate friendship with Bacon, had
zealously attempted, though without success, to procure
him the office of solicitor-general ; and, in order to com-
fort his friend under the disappointment, had conferred
on him a present of land, to the value of eighteen hun-
dred pounds 7 . The public could ill excuse Bacon's
appearance before the council, against so munificent a

x Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 454. Camden, p. 626, 627. y Cabala, p. 78.

5Q HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CILVP. benefactor; though he acted in obedience to the queen's
ALIV - commands: but she was so well pleased with his beha-
viour, that she imposed on him a new task, of drawing
a narrative of that day's proceedings, in order to satisfy
the public of the justice and lenity of her conduct.
Bacon, who wanted firmness of character more than hu-
manity, gave to the whole transaction the most favoura-
ble turn for Essex; and, in particular, pointed out, in
elaborate expression, the dutiful submission which that
nobleman discovered in the defence that he made for his
conduct. When he read the paper to her, she smiled at
that passage, and observed to Bacon, that old love, she
saw, could not easily be forgotten. He replied, that he
hoped she meant that of herself 2 .

All the world indeed expected that Essex would soon
be reinstated in his former credit*, perhaps, as is usual
in reconcilements founded on inclination, would acquire
an additional ascendant over the queen, and after all his
disgraces would again appear more a favourite than ever.
They were confirmed in this hope when they saw that,
though he was still prohibited from appearing at court b ,
he was continued in his office of master of horse, and
was restored to his liberty, and that all his friends had
access to him. Essex himself seemed determined to
persevere in that conduct which had hitherto been so
successful, and which the queen, by all this discipline,
had endeavoured to render habitual to him : he wrote
to her, that he kissed her majesty's hands, and the rod
with which she had corrected him ; but that he could
never recover his wonted cheerfulness till she deigned
to admit him to that presence which had ever been the
chief source of his happiness and enjoyment; and that
he had now resolved to make amends for his past errors,
to retire into a country solitude, and say with Nebuchad-
nezzar, " Let my dwelling be with the beasts of the field,
let me eat grass as an ox, and be wet with the dew of
heaven, till it shall please the queen to restore me to my
understanding." The queen was much pleased with
these sentiments, and replied, that she heartily wished
his actions might correspond with his expressions ; that

* Cabala, p. 83. a Winwood, vol. i. p. 254.

b Birch's Memoirs, rol. ii. p. 462.

ELIZABETH. 157

he had tried her patience a long time, and it was but CHAP.
fitting she should now make some experiment of his^ ^
submission ; that her father would never have pardoned 1600
so much obstinacy ; but that, if the furnace of affliction
produced such good effects, she should ever after have
the better opinion of her chemistry 6 .

The Earl of Essex possessed a monopoly of sweet
wines ; and as his patent was near expiring, he patiently
expected that the queen would renew it, and he con-
sidered this event as the critical circumstance of his life,
which would determine whether he could ever hope to
be reinstated in credit and authority d . But Elizabeth,
though gracious in her deportment, was of a temper
somewhat haughty and severe ; and being continually
surrounded with Essex's enemies, means were found to
persuade her that his lofty spirit was not yet sufficiently
subdued, and that he must undergo this farther trial
before he could again be safely received into favour.
She therefore denied his request ; and even added, in a
contemptuous style, that an ungovernable beast must be
stinted in his provender 6 .

This rigour, pushed one step too far, proved the final n . is in -
ruin of this young nobleman, and was the source of his prds of it which th offitllie of sorro