|
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE INVASION OF JULIUS CAESAR
TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND,
BY DAVID HUME, ESQ.
1688
London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy Lane
New York: 26 John Street
1860
And
Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
March 17, 1901
In Three Volumes:
VOLUME ONE: The History Of England From The Invasion Of Julius Caesar To
The End Of The Reign Of James The Second............ By David Hume, Esq.
VOLUME TWO: Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of
George II........................................... by Tobias Smollett.
VOLUME THREE: From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year
of the Reign of Queen Victoria............... by E. Farr and E.H. Nolan.
VOLUME ONE
Part D.
From Elizabeth to James I.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
[Illustration: 1-442-elizabeth.jpg ELIZABETH]
ELIZABETH.
CONTEMPORARY MONARCHS.
EMP. OP GERM. K. OF SCOTLAND. K. OF FRANCE. K. OF SPAIN.
Ferdinand..1564 Mary abdicates.1567 Henry II....1559 Philip II.1598
Maximilian.1576 James VI. Francis II..1560 Philip III.
Rodolph II. Charles IX..1574
Henry III.. 1589
Henry IV.
POPES.
Paul IV.... 1558
Pius IV.... 1565
Pius V..... 1572
Gregory XIII.1585
Sixtus V... 1590
Urban VII.. 1590
Gregory XIV. 1591
Innocent IX. 1591
Clement VII.
{1558.} In a nation so divided as the English, it could scarcely be
expected that the death of one sovereign, and the accession of another,
who was generally believed to have embraced opposite principles to those
which prevailed, could be the object of universal satisfaction: yet so
much were men displeased with the present conduct of affairs, and such
apprehensions were entertained of futurity, that the people, overlooking
their theological disputes, expressed a general and unfeigned joy that
the sceptre had passed into the hand of Elizabeth. That princess had
discovered great prudence in her conduct during the reign of her sister;
and as men were sensible of the imminent danger to which she was every
moment exposed, compassion towards her situation, and concern for her
safety, had rendered her, to an uncommon degree, the favorite of the
nation. A parliament had been assembled a few days before Mary's death;
and when Heathe, archbishop of York, then chancellor, notified to them
that event, scarcely an interval of regret appeared; and the two houses
immediately resounded with the joyful acclamations of "God save Queen
Elizabeth: long and happily may she reign." The people, less actuated
by faction, and less influenced by private views, expressed a joy
still more general and hearty on her proclamation; and the auspicious
commencement of this reign prognosticated that felicity and glory which,
during its whole course, so uniformly attended it.[*]
Elizabeth was at Hatfield when she heard of her sister's death; and
after a few days she went thence to London, through crowds of people,
who strove with each other in giving her the strongest testimony of
their affection. On her entrance into the Tower, she could not forbear
reflecting on the great difference between her present fortune and that
which a few years before had attended her, when she was conducted to
that place as a prisoner, and lay there exposed to all the bigoted
malignity of her enemies. She fell on her knees, and expressed her
thanks to Heaven for the deliverance which the Almighty had granted her
from her bloody persecutors; a deliverance, she said, no less miraculous
than that which Daniel had received from the den of lions. This act of
pious gratitude seems to have been the last circumstance in which
she remembered any past hardships and injuries. With a prudence and
magnanimity truly laudable, she buried all offences in oblivion, and
received with affability even those who had acted with the greatest
malevolence against her. Sir Henry Benningfield himself, to whose
custody she had been committed, and who had treated her with severity,
never felt, during the whole course of her reign, any effects of her
resentment.[**] Yet was not the gracious reception which she gave,
prostitute and undistinguishing. When the bishops came in a body to
make their obeisance to her, she expressed to all of them sentiments
of regard; except to Bonner, from whom she turned aside, as from a man
polluted with blood, who was a just object of horror to every heart
susceptible of humanity.[***]
* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 373.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 374.
*** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 374. Heylin, p. 102.
After employing a few days in ordering her domestic affairs, Elizabeth
notified to foreign courts her sister's death, and her own accession.
She sent Lord Cobham to the Low Countries, where Philip then resided;
and she took care to express to that monarch her gratitude for the
protection which he had afforded her, and her desire of persevering in
that friendship which had so happily commenced between them. Philip,
who had long foreseen this event, and who still hoped, by means of
Elizabeth, to obtain that dominion over England, of which he had failed
in espousing Mary, immediately despatched orders to the duke of Feria,
his ambassador at London, to make proposals of marriage to the queen;
and he offered to procure from Rome a dispensation for that purpose. But
Elizabeth soon came to the resolution of declining the proposal. She
saw that the nation had entertained an extreme aversion to the Spanish
alliance during her sister's reign; and that one great cause of the
popularity which she herself enjoyed, was the prospect of being freed by
her means from the danger of foreign subjection. She was sensible that
her affinity with Philip was exactly similar to that of her father with
Catharine of Arragon; and that her marrying that monarch was, in effect,
declaring herself illegitimate, and incapable of succeeding to the
throne. And though the power of the Spanish monarchy might still be
sufficient, in opposition to all pretenders, to support her title, her
masculine spirit disdained such precarious dominion, which, as it would
depend solely on the power of another, must be exercised according
to his inclinations.[*] But while these views prevented her from
entertaining any thoughts of a marriage with Philip, she gave him an
obliging, though evasive answer; and he still retained such hopes of
success, that he sent a messenger to Rome, with orders to solicit the
dispensation.
* Camden in Kennet, p. 370. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 375.
The queen too, on her sister's death, had written to Sir Edward Carne,
the English ambassador at Rome, to notify her accession to the pope; but
the precipitate nature of Paul broke through all the cautious measures
concerted by this young princess. He told Carne, that England was a fief
of the holy see; and it was great temerity in Elizabeth to have assumed,
without his participation, the title and authority of queen: that being
illegitimate, she could not possibly inherit that kingdom; nor could
he annul the sentence, pronounced by Clement VII. and Paul III., with
regard to Henry's marriage: that were he to proceed with rigor, he
should punish this criminal invasion of his rights, by rejecting all her
applications but being willing to treat her with paternal indulgence,
he would still keep the door of grace open to her, and that if she would
renounce all pretensions to the crown, and submit entirely to his will,
she should experience the utmost lenity compatible with the dignity of
the apostolic see.[*] When this answer was reported to Elizabeth,
she was astonished at the character of that aged pontiff; and having
recalled her ambassador, she continued with more determined resolution
to pursue those measures which already she had secretly embraced.
The queen, not to alarm the partisans of the Catholic religion, had
retained eleven of her sister's counsellors; but in order to balance
their authority, she added eight more, who were known to be inclined
to the Protestant communion: the marquis of Northampton, the earl of
Bedford, Sir Thomas Parry, Sir Edward Rogers, Sir Ambrose Cave, Sir
Francis Knolles, Sir Nicholas Bacon, whom she created lord keeper, and
Sir William Cecil, secretary of state.[**]
* Father Paul, lib. v.
** Strype's Ann. vol. i. p. 5.
With these counsellors, particularly Cecil, she frequently deliberated
concerning the expediency of restoring the Protestant religion, and
the means of executing that great enterprise. Cecil told her, that the
greater part of the nation had, ever since her father's reign, inclined
to the reformation, and though her sister had constrained them to
profess the ancient faith, the cruelties exercised by her ministers
had still more alienated their affections from it: that happily the
interests of the sovereign here concurred with the inclinations of the
people; nor was her title to the crown compatible with the authority of
the Roman pontiff: that a sentence, so solemnly pronounced by two popes
against her mother's marriage, could not possibly be recalled without
inflicting a mortal wound on the credit of the see of Rome; and even if
she were allowed to retain the crown, it would only be on an uncertain
and dependent footing: that this circumstance alone counterbalanced all
dangers whatsoever; and these dangers themselves, if narrowly examined,
would be found very little formidable: that the curses and execrations
of the Romish church, when not seconded by military force, were, in the
present age, more an object of ridicule than of terror, and had now as
little influence in this world as in the next: that though the bigotry
or ambition of Henry or Philip might incline them to execute a sentence
of excommunication against her, their interests were so incompatible,
that they never could concur in any plan of operations; and the enmity
of the one would always insure to her the friendship of the other:
that if they encouraged the discontents of her Catholic subjects,
their dominions also abounded with Protestants, and it would be easy to
retaliate upon them: that even such of the English as seemed at present
zealously attached to the Catholic faith, would, most of them, embrace
the religion of their new sovereign; and the nation had of late been
so much accustomed to these revolutions, that men had lost all idea of
truth and falsehood in such subjects: that the authority of Henry VIII.,
so highly raised by many concurring circumstances, first inured the
people to this submissive deference; and it was the less difficult for
succeeding princes to continue the nation in a track to which it had so
long been accustomed; and that it would be easy for her, by bestowing on
Protestants all preferment in civil offices and the militia, the church
and the universities, both to insure her own authority, and to render
her religion entirely predominant.[*]
The education of Elizabeth, as well as her interest, led her to favor
the reformation; and she remained not long in suspense with regard to
the party which she should embrace. But though determined in her own
mind, she resolved to proceed by gradual and secure steps, and not to
imitate the example of Mary in encouraging the bigots of her party to
make immediately a violent invasion on the established religion.[**]
She thought it requisite, however, to discover such symptoms of her
intentions as might give encouragement to the Protestants so much
depressed by the late violent persecutions. She immediately recalled
all the exiles, and gave liberty to the prisoners who were confined on
account of religion. We are told of a pleasantry of one Rainsford on
this occasion, who said to the queen, that he had a petition to present
her in behalf of other prisoners called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:
she readily replied, that it behoved her first to consult the prisoners
themselves, and to learn of them whether they desired that liberty which
he demanded for them.[***]
* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 377. Camden, p. 370.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 378. Camden, p. 371.
*** Heylin, p. 103.
Elizabeth also proceeded to exert in favor of the reformers some acts
of power which were authorized by the extent of royal prerogative
during that age. Finding that the Protestant teachers, irritated by
persecution, broke out in a furious attack on the ancient superstition,
and that the Romanists replied with no less zeal and acrimony, she
published a proclamation, by which she inhibited all preaching without a
special license;[*] and though she dispensed with these orders in favor
of some preachers of her own sect, she took care that they should be the
most calm and moderate of the party. She also suspended the laws so far
as to order a great part of the service; the litany, the Lord's prayer,
the creed, and the gospels; to be read in English. And having first
published injunctions, that all the churches should conform themselves
to the practice of her own chapel, she forbade the host to be any more
elevated in her presence; an innovation which, however frivolous it may
appear, implied the most material consequences.[**]
These declarations of her intention, concurring with preceding
suspicions, made the bishops foresee with certainty a revolution in
religion. They therefore refused to officiate at her coronation; and
it was with some difficulty that the bishop of Carlisle was at last
prevailed on to perform the ceremony. When she was conducted through
London, amidst the joyful acclamations of her subjects, a boy, who
personated truth, was let down from one of the triumphal arches, and
presented to her a copy of the Bible. She received the book with the
most gracious deportment; placed it next her bosom; and declared that,
amidst all the costly testimonies which the city had that day given her
of their attachment, this present was by far the most precious and
most acceptable.[*] Such were the innocent artifices by which Elizabeth
insinuated herself into the affections of her subjects. Open in her
address, gracious and affable in all public appearances, she rejoiced
in the concourse of her subjects, entered into all their pleasures and
amusements; and without departing from her dignity, which she knew
well how to preserve, she acquired a popularity beyond what any of her
predecessors or successors ever could attain. Her own sex exulted to see
a woman hold the reins of empire with such prudence and fortitude: and
while a young princess of twenty-five years, (for that was her age at
her accession,) who possessed all the graces and insinuation, though not
all the beauty of her sex, courted the affections of individuals by
her civilities, of the public by her services; her authority though
corroborated by the strictest bands of law and religion, appeared to be
derived entirely from the choice and inclination of the people.
* Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p. 41.
** Camden, p. 371. Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p 54.
Stowe, p. 635.
*** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 380. Strype, vol. i. p. 29.
A sovereign of this disposition was not likely to offend her subjects
by any useless or violent exertions of power; and Elizabeth, though she
threw out such hints as encouraged the Protestants delayed the entire
change of religion till the meeting of the parliament, which was
summoned to assemble. The elections had gone entirely against the
Catholics, who seem not indeed to have made any great struggle for the
superiority;[*] and the houses met in a disposition of gratifying the
queen in every particular which she could desire of them. They began
the session with a unanimous declaration, "that Queen Elizabeth was, and
ought to be, as well by the word of God, as the common and statute
laws of the realm, the lawful, undoubted, and true heir to the crown,
lawfully descended from the blood royal, according to the order of
succession settled in the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII."[**]
* Notwithstanding the bias of the nation towards the
Protestant sect, it appears that some violence, at least
according to our present ideas, was used in these elections:
five candidates were nominated by the court to each borough,
and three to each county; and by the sheriff's authority the
members were chosen from among these candidates. See state
papers collected by Edward, earl of Clarendon, p. 92.
* I Eliz. cap. 3.
This act of recognition was probably dictated by the queen herself and
her ministers; and she showed her magnanimity, as well as moderation, in
the terms which she employed on that occasion. She followed not Mary's
practice in declaring the validity of her mother's marriage, or in
expressly repealing the act formerly made against her own legitimacy:
she knew that this attempt must be attended with reflections on her
father's memory, and on the birth of her deceased sister; and as all the
world was sensible, that Henry's divorce from Anne Boleyn was merely the
effect of his usual violence and caprice, she scorned to found her title
on any act of an assembly which had too much prostituted its authority
by its former variable, servile, and iniquitous decisions. Satisfied,
therefore, in the general opinion entertained with regard to this fact,
which appeared the more undoubted, the less anxiety she discovered in
fortifying it by votes and inquiries; she took possession of the
throne both as her birthright, and as insured to her by former acts
of parliament; and she never appeared anxious to distinguish these
titles.[*]
The first bill brought into parliament with a view of trying their
disposition on the head of religion, was that for suppressing
the monasteries lately erected, and for restoring the tenths and
first-fruits to the queen. This point being gained without much
difficulty, a bill was next introduced, annexing the supremacy to the
crown; and though the queen was there denominated "governess," not
"head," of the church, it conveyed the same extensive power which under
the latter title had been exercised by her father and brother. All the
bishops who were present in the upper house strenuously opposed this
law; and as they possessed more learning than the temporal peers, they
triumphed in the debate; but the majority of voices in that house, as
well as among the commons, was against them. By this act, the crown,
without the concurrence either of the parliament, or even of the
convocation, was vested with the whole spiritual power; might repress
all heresies, might establish or repeal all canons, might alter every
point of discipline, and might ordain or abolish any religious rite or
ceremony,[**]
* Camden, p. 372. Heylin, p. 107, 108
** I Eliz. cap. 1. This last power was anew recognized in
the bill of uniformity I Eliz. cap 2.
In determining heresy, the sovereign was only limited (if that could be
called a limitation) to such doctrines as had been adjudged heresy by
the authority of the Scripture, by the first four general councils, or
by any general council which followed the Scripture as their rule, or
to such other doctrines as should hereafter be denominated heresy by
the parliament and convocation. In order to exercise this authority,
the queen, by a clause of the act, was empowered to name commissioners,
either laymen or clergymen, as she should think proper; and on this
clause was afterwards founded the court of ecclesiastical commission;
which assumed large discretionary, not to say arbitrary powers, totally
incompatible with any exact boundaries in the constitution. Their
proceedings, indeed, were only consistent with absolute monarchy; but
were entirely suitable to the genius of the act on which they were
established; an act that at once gave the crown alone all the power
which had formerly been claimed by the popes, but which even these
usurping prelates had never been able fully to exercise without some
concurrence of the national clergy.
Whoever refused to take an oath acknowledging the queen's supremacy, was
incapacitated from holding any office; whoever denied the supremacy, or
attempted to deprive the queen of that prerogative, forfeited, for the
first offence, all his goods and chattels; for the second, was subjected
to the penalty of a praemunire; but the third offence was declared
treason. These punishments, however severe, were less rigorous than
those which were formerly, during the reigns of her father and brother,
inflicted in like cases.
A law was passed confirming all the statutes enacted in King Edward's
time with regard to religion:[*] the nomination of bishops was given
to the crown, without any election of the chapters: the queen was
empowered, on the vacancy of any see, to seize all the temporalities,
and to bestow on the bishop elect an equivalent in the impropriations
belonging to the crown. This pretended equivalent was commonly much
inferior in value; and thus the queen, amidst all her concern for
religion, followed the example of the preceding reformers in committing
depredations on the ecclesiastical revenues.
The bishops and all incumbents were prohibited from alienating their
revenues, and from letting leases longer than twenty-one years or three
lives. This law seemed to be meant for securing the property of the
church; but as an exception was left in favor of the crown, great abuses
still prevailed. It was usual for the courtiers, during this reign,
to make an agreement with a bishop or incumbent; and to procure a
fictitious alienation to the queen, who afterwards transferred the lands
to the person agreed on.[**] This method of pillaging the church was not
remedied till the beginning of James I. The present depression of the
clergy exposed them to all injuries; and the laity never stopped till
they had reduced the church to such poverty, that her plunder was no
longer a compensation for the odium incurred by it.
A solemn and public disputation was held during this session in presence
of Lord Keeper Bacon, between the divines of the Protestant and those of
the Catholic communion. The champions appointed to defend the religion
of the sovereign were, as in all former instances, entirely triumphant;
and the Popish disputants, being pronounced refractory and obstinate,
were even punished by imprisonment.[***]
* I Eliz. cap. 2.
** Strype, vol. i. p. 79.
*** Strype, vol. i. p. 95.
Emboldened by this victory, the Protestants ventured on the last
and most important step, and brought into parliament a bill[*] for
abolishing the mass and reestablishing the liturgy of King Edward.
Penalties were enacted, as well against those who departed from this
mode of worship, as against those who absented themselves from the
church and the sacraments. And thus in one session, without any
violence, tumult, or clamor, was the whole system of religion altered,
on the very commencement of a reign, and by the will of a young woman,
whose title to the crown was by many thought liable to objections; an
event which, though it may appear surprising to men in the present
age, was every where expected on the first intelligence of Elizabeth's
accession.
The commons also made a sacrifice to the queen, more difficult to
obtain than that of any articles of faith: they voted a subsidy of four
shillings in the pound on land, and two shillings and eightpence on
movables, together with two fifteenths.[**] [1] The house in no instance
departed from the most respectful deference and complaisance towards the
queen. Even the importune address which they made her on the conclusion
of the session, to fix her choice of a husband, could not, they
supposed, be very disagreeable to one of her sex and age. The address
was couched in the most respectful expressions, yet met with a refusal
from the queen.
* 1 Eliz. cap. 2.
** See note A, at the end of the volume.
{1559.} She told the speaker, that, as the application from the house
was conceived in general terms, only recommending marriage, without
pretending to direct her choice of a husband, she could not take offence
at the address, or regard it otherwise than as a new instance of their
affectionate attachment to her: that any further interposition on their
part, would have ill become either them to make as subjects, or her
to bear as an independent princess: that even while she was a private
person, and exposed to much danger, she had always declined that
engagement, which she regarded as an encumbrance; much more, at present,
would she persevere in this sentiment, when the charge of a great
kingdom was committed to her, and her life ought to be entirely
devoted to promoting the interests of religion and the happiness of her
subjects: that as England was her husband, wedded to her by this pledge,
(and here she showed her finger with the same gold ring upon it
with which she had solemnly betrothed herself to the kingdom at her
inauguration,) so all Englishmen were her children, and while she was
employed in rearing or governing such a family, she could not deem
herself barren, or her life useless and unprofitable: that if she
ever entertained thoughts of changing her condition, the care of her
subjects' welfare would still be uppermost in her thoughts; but should
she live and die a virgin, she doubted not but divine Providence,
seconded by their counsels and her own measures, would be able to
prevent all dispute with regard to the succession, and secure them a
sovereign who, perhaps better than her own issue, would imitate her
example in loving and cherishing her people; and that for her part, she
desired that no higher character, or fairer remembrance of her should be
transmitted to posterity, than to have this inscription engraved on
her tombstone, when she should pay the last debt to nature: "Here lies
Elizabeth, who lived and died a maiden queen."[*]
After the prorogation of the parliament,[**] the laws enacted with
regard to religion were put in execution, and met with little opposition
from any quarter. The liturgy was again introduced in the vulgar tongue,
and the oath of supremacy was tendered to the clergy. The number of
bishops had been reduced to fourteen by a sickly season which preceded:
and all these, except the bishop of Landaff, having refused compliance,
were degraded from their sees: but of the inferior clergy throughout all
England, where there are near ten thousand parishes, only eighty
rectors and vicars, fifty prebendaries fifteen heads of colleges,
twelve archdeacons, and as many deans, sacrificed their livings to their
religious principles.[***]
* Camden, p. 375. Sir Simon d'Ewes.
** It is thought remarkable by Camden, that though this
session was the first of the reign, no person was attainted;
but on the contrary, some restored in blood by the
parliament; a good symptom of the lenity, at least of the
prudence, of the queen's government; and that it should
appear remarkable, is a proof of the rigor of preceding
reigns.
*** Camden, p. 376. Heylin, p. 115. Strype, vol. i. p. 73,
with some small variations.
Those in high ecclesiastic stations, being exposed to the eyes of
the public, seem chiefly to have placed a point of honor in their
perseverance; but on the whole, the Protestants, in the former
change introduced by Mary, appear to have been much more rigid and
conscientious. Though the Catholic religion, adapting itself to the
senses, and enjoining observances which enter into the common train of
life, does at present lay faster hold on the mind than the reformed,
which, being chiefly spiritual, resembles more a system of metaphysics,
yet was the proportion of zeal, as well as of knowledge, during the
first ages after the reformation, much greater on the side of the
Protestants. The Catholics continued, ignorantly and supinely, in their
ancient belief, or rather their ancient practices: but the reformers,
obliged to dispute on every occasion, and inflamed to a degree of
enthusiasm by novelty and persecution had strongly attached themselves
to their tenets; and were ready to sacrifice their fortunes, and even
their lives, in support of their speculative and abstract principles.
The forms and ceremonies still preserved in the English liturgy, as
they bore some resemblance to the ancient service, tended further to
reconcile the Catholics to the established religion; and as the queen
permitted no other mode of worship, and at the same time struck out
every thing that could be offensive to them in the new liturgy,[*]
even those who were addicted to the Romish communion made no scruple
of attending the established church. Had Elizabeth gratified her own
inclinations, the exterior appearance, which is the chief circumstance
with the people, would have been still more similar between the new and
the ancient form of worship. Her love of state and magnificence, which
she affected in every thing, inspired her with an inclination towards
the pomp of the Catholic religion; and it was merely in compliance with
the prejudices of her party, that she gave up either images, or the
addresses to saints, or prayers for the dead.[**] Some foreign princes
interposed to procure the Romanists the privilege of separate assemblies
in particular cities, but the queen would not comply with their request;
and she represented the manifest danger of disturbing the national peace
by a toleration of different religions.[***]
* Heylin, p. 111.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 376, 397. Camden, p. 371.
*** Camden, p. 378. Strype, vol. i. p. 150, 370.
While the queen and parliament were employed in settling the public
religion, the negotiations for a peace were still conducted, first at
Cercamp, then at Chateau-Cambresis, between the ministers of France,
Spain, and England; and Elizabeth, though equally prudent, was not
equally successful in this transaction. Philip employed his utmost
efforts to procure the restitution of Calais, both as bound in honor to
indemnify England which merely on his account had been drawn into the
war; and as engaged in interest to remove France to a distance from
his frontiers in the Low Countries. So long as he entertained hopes of
espousing the queen, he delayed concluding a peace with Henry; and even
after the change of religion in England deprived him of all such
views, his ministers hinted to her a proposal which may be regarded
as reasonable and honorable. Though all his own terms with France were
settled, he seemed willing to continue the war till she should obtain
satisfaction; provided she would stipulate to adhere to the Spanish
alliance, and continue hostilities against Henry during the course
of six years:[*]* but Elizabeth, after consulting with her ministers,
wisely rejected this proposal. She was sensible of the low state of her
finances; the great debts contracted by her father, brother, and sister;
the disorders introduced into every part of the administration; the
divisions by which her people were agitated; and she was convinced that
nothing but tranquillity during some years could bring the kingdom again
into a flourishing condition, or enable her to act with dignity and
vigor in her transactions with foreign nations. Well acquainted with
the value which Henry put upon Calais, and the impossibility, during the
present emergence, of recovering it by treaty, she was willing rather to
suffer that loss, than submit to such a dependence on Spain, as she
must expect to fall into, if she continued pertinaciously in her present
demand. She ordered, therefore, her ambassadors, Lord Effingham, the
bishop of Ely, and Dr. Wotton, to conclude the negotiation, and to
settle a peace with Henry on any reasonable terms. Henry offered to
stipulate a marriage between the eldest daughter of the dauphin, and the
eldest son of Elizabeth; and to engage for the restitution of Calais as
the dowry of that princess;[**] but as the queen was sensible that this
treaty would appear to the world a palpable evasion, she insisted upon
more equitable, at least more plausible conditions.
* Forbes's Full View, vol. i. p. 59.
** Forbes's Full View, vol. i. p. 54.
It was at last agreed, that Henry should restore Calais at
the expiration of eight years; that in case of failure, he
should pay five hundred thousand crowns, and the queen's
title to Calais still remain; that he should find the
security of seven or eight foreign merchants, not natives of
France, for the payment of this sum; that he should deliver
five hostages till that security were provided; that if
Elizabeth broke the peace with France or Scotland during the
interval, she should forfeit all title to Calais; but if
Henry made war on Elizabeth, he should be obliged
immediately to restore that fortress.[*] All men of
penetration easily saw that these stipulations were but a
colorable pretence for abandoning Calais; but they excused
the queen on account of the necessity of her affairs; and
they even extolled her prudence in submitting without
further struggle to that necessity. A peace with Scotland
was a necessary consequence of that with France.
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 68. Rymer, tom. xv. p 505.
Philip and Henry terminated hostilities by a mutual restitution of
all places taken during the course of the war; and Philip espoused the
princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of France, formerly betrothed to his
son Don Carlos. The duke of Savoy married Margaret, Henry's sister,
and obtained a restitution of all his dominions of Savoy and Piedmont,
except a few towns retained by France. And thus general tranquillity
seemed to be restored to Europe.
But though peace was concluded between France and England, there soon
appeared a ground of quarrel of the most serious nature, and which
was afterwards attended with the most important consequences. The two
marriages of Henry VIII., that with Catharine of Arragon, and that with
Anne Boleyn, were incompatible with each other; and it seemed impossible
that both of them could be regarded as valid and legal: but still the
birth of Elizabeth lay under some disadvantages to which that of her
sister Mary was not exposed. Henry's first marriage had obtained the
sanction of all the powers, both civil and ecclesiastical, which were
then acknowledged in England; and it was natural for Protestants as
well as Romanists to allow, on account of the sincere intention of the
parties, that their issue ought to be regarded as legitimate, But his
divorce and second marriage had been concluded in direct opposition to
the see of Rome; and though they had been ratified by the authority
both of the English parliament and convocation, those who were strongly
attached to the Catholic communion, and who reasoned with great
strictness were led to regard them as entirely invalid, and to deny
altogether the queen's right of succession. The next heir of blood was
the queen of Scots, now married to the dauphin; and the great power of
that princess, joined to her plausible title rendered her a formidable
rival to Elizabeth. The king of France had secretly been soliciting at
Rome a bull of excommunication against the queen; and she had here been
beholden to the good offices of Philip, who, from interest more than
either friendship or generosity, had negotiated in her favor, and had
successfully opposed the pretensions of Henry. But the court of France
was not discouraged with this repulse; the duke of Guise and his
brothers, thinking that it would much augment their credit if their
niece should bring an accession of England, as she had already done of
Scotland, to the crown of France, engaged the king not to neglect the
claim; and, by their persuasion, he ordered his son and daughter-in-law
to assume openly the arms as well as title of England, and to quarter
these arms on all their equipages, furniture, and liveries. When the
English ambassador complained of this injury he could obtain nothing
but an evasive answer; that as the queen of Scots was descended from
the blood royal of England, she was entitled, by the example of many
princes, to assume the arms of that kingdom. But besides that this
practice had never prevailed without permission being first obtained,
and without making a visible difference between the arms, Elizabeth
plainly saw that this pretension had not been advanced during the reign
of her sister Mary; and that, therefore, the king of France intended, on
the first opportunity, to dispute her legitimacy, and her title to
the crown. Alarmed at the danger, she thenceforth conceived a violent
jealousy against the queen of Scots; and was determined, as far as
possible, to incapacitate Henry from the execution of his project. The
sudden death of that monarch, who was killed in a tournament at Paris,
while celebrating the espousals of his sister with the duke of Savoy,
altered not her views. Being informed that his successor, Francis
II., still continued to assume, without reserve, the title of King of
England, she began to consider him and his queen as her mortal enemies;
and the present situation of affairs in Scotland afforded her a
favorable opportunity, both of revenging the injury, and providing for
her own safety.
The murder of the cardinal-primate at St. Andrew's had deprived the
Scottish Catholics of a head whose severity, courage, and capacity had
rendered him extremely formidable to the innovators in religion; and
the execution of the laws against heresy began thenceforth to be more
remiss. The queen regent governed the kingdom by prudent and moderate
counsels; and as she was not disposed to sacrifice the civil interests
of the state to the bigotry or interests of the clergy, she deemed
it more expedient to temporize, and to connive at the progress of a
doctrine which she had not power entirely to repress. When informed of
the death of Edward, and the accession of Mary to the crown of England,
she entertained hopes that the Scottish reformers, deprived of the
countenance which they received from that powerful kingdom, would lose
their ardor with their prospect of success, and would gradually return
to the faith of their ancestors. But the progress and revolutions of
religion are little governed by the usual maxims of civil policy; and
the event much disappointed the expectations of the regent. Many of the
English preachers, terrified with the severity of Mary's government,
took shelter in Scotland, where they found more protection, and a milder
administration; and while they propagated their theological tenets, they
filled the whole kingdom with a just horror against the cruelties of the
bigoted Catholics, and showed their disciples the fate which they
must expect, if ever their adversaries should attain an uncontrolled
authority over them.
A hierarchy, moderate in its acquisitions of power and riches, may
safely grant a toleration to sectaries; and the more it softens the zeal
of innovators by lenity and liberty, the more securely will it possess
those advantages which the legal establishments bestow upon it. But
where superstition has raised a church to such an exorbitant height as
that of Rome, persecution is less the result of bigotry in the priests,
than of a necessary policy; and the rigor of law is the only method of
repelling the attacks of men who, besides religious zeal, have so many
other motives, derived both from public and private interest, to engage
them on the side of innovation. But though such overgrown hierarchies
may long support themselves by these violent expedients, the time comes
when severities tend only to enrage the new sectaries, and make them
break through all bounds of reason and moderation. This crisis was
now visibly approaching in Scotland; and whoever considers merely the
transactions resulting from it, will be inclined to throw the blame
equally on both parties; whoever enlarges his view, and reflects on the
situations, will remark the necessary progress of human affairs, and the
operation of those principles which are inherent in human nature.
Some heads of the reformers in Scotland, such as the earl of Argyle, his
son Lord Lorne, the earls of Morton and Glencarne, Erskine of Dun, and
others, observing the danger to which they were exposed, and desirous
to propagate their principles, entered privately into a bond or
association; and called themselves the "congregation" of the Lord, in
contradistinction to the established church, which they denominated
the congregation of Satan. The tenor of the bond was as follows: "We,
perceiving how Satan, in his members, the Antichrist of our time, do
cruelly rage, seeking to overthrow and to destroy the gospel of Christ
and his congregation, ought, according to our bounden duty, to strive in
our master's cause, even unto the death, being certain of the victory
in him. We do therefore promise, before the majesty of God and
his congregation, that we, by his grace, shall with all diligence
continually apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives, to
maintain, set forward, and establish the most blessed word of God
and his congregation; and shall labor, by all possible means, to have
faithful ministers, truly and purely to minister Christ's gospel and
sacraments to his people: we shall maintain them, nourish them, and
defend them, the whole congregation of Christ, and every member thereof,
by our whole power, and at the hazard of our lives, against Satan, and
all wicked power who may intend tyranny and trouble against the
said congregation; unto which holy word and congregation we do join
ourselves; and we forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan, with
all the superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof; and moreover
shall declare ourselves manifestly enemies thereto, by this faithful
promise before God, testified to this congregation by our subscriptions.
At Edinburgh, the third of December, 1557."[*]
* Keith, p. 66. Knox, p. 101.
Had the subscribers of this zealous league been content only to demand
a toleration of the new opinions, however incompatible their pretensions
might have been with the policy of the church of Rome, they would
have had the praise of opposing tyrannical laws, enacted to support an
establishment prejudicial to civil society: but it is plain that
they carried their views much further; and their practice immediately
discovered the spirit by which they were actuated. Supported by the
authority which they thought belonged to them as the congregation of the
Lord, they ordained that prayers in the vulgar tongue[*] should be used
in all the parish churches of the kingdom; and that preaching and the
interpretation of the Scriptures should be practised in private houses,
til God should move the prince to grant public preaching by faithful
and true ministers.[**] Such bonds of association are always the
fore-runners of rebellion; and this violent invasion of the established
religion was the actual commencement of it.
Before this league was publicly known or avowed, the clergy, alarmed
with the progress of the reformation, attempted to recover their lost
authority by a violent exercise of power, which tended still further
to augment the zeal and number of their enemies. Hamilton, the primate,
seized Walter Mill, a priest of an irreproachable life, who had embraced
the new doctrines; and having tried him at St. Andrew's, condemned him
to the flames for heresy. Such general aversion was entertained against
this barbarity, that it was some time before the bishops could prevail
on any one to act the part of a civil judge, and pronounce sentence upon
Mill; and even after the time of his execution was fixed, all the shops
of St. Andrew's being shut, no one would sell a rope to tie him to the
stake and the primate himself was obliged to furnish this implement.
The man bore the torture with that courage which, though usual on these
occasions, always appears supernatural and astonishing to the multitude.
The people, to express their abhorrence against the cruelty of the
priests, raised a monument of stones on the place of his execution; and
as fast as the stones were removed by order of the clergy, they were
again supplied from the voluntary zeal of the populace.[***] It is in
vain for men to oppose the severest punishment to the united motives
of religion and public applause; and this was the last barbarity of the
kind which the Catholics had the power to exercise in Scotland.
* The reformers used at that time King Edward's liturgy in
Scotland. Forbes, p. 155.
* Keith, p. 66. Knox, p. 101.
* Knox, p. 122.
Some time after, the people discovered their sentiments in such a manner
as was sufficient to prognosticate to the priests the fate which was
awaiting them. It was usual on the festival of St. Giles, the tutelar
saint of Edinburgh, to carry in procession the image of that saint; but
the Protestants, in order to prevent the ceremony, found means, on the
eve of the festival, to purloin the statue from the church; and they
pleased themselves with imagining the surprise and disappointment of
his votaries. The clergy, however, framed hastily a new image, which in
derision was called by the people young St. Giles; and they carried it
through the streets, attended by all the ecclesiastics in the town and
neighborhood. The multitude abstained from violence so long as the queen
regent continued a spectator; but the moment she retired, they invaded
the idol, threw it in the mire, and broke it in pieces. The flight and
terror of the priests and friars, who, it was remarked, deserted, in
his greatest distress, the object of their worship, was the source of
universal mockery and laughter.
Encouraged by all these appearances, the congregation proceeded with
alacrity in openly soliciting subscriptions to their league; and
the death of Mary of England, with the accession of Elizabeth, which
happened about this time, contributed to increase their hopes of final
success in their undertaking. They ventured to present a petition to
the regent, craving a reformation of the church, and of the "wicked,
scandalous, and detestable" lives of the prelates and ecclesiastics.[*]
They framed a petition which they intended to present to parliament,
and in which, after premising that they could not communicate with the
damnable idolatry and intolerable abuses of the Papistical church, they
desired that the laws against heretics should be executed by the civil
magistrate alone, and that the Scripture should be the sole rule
in judging of heresy.[**] They even petitioned the convocation, and
insisted that prayers should be said in the vulgar tongue, and that
bishops should be chosen with the consent of the gentry of the diocese,
and priests with the consent of the parishioners.[***] The regent
prudently temporized between these parties; and as she aimed at
procuring a matrimonial crown for her son-in-law the dauphin, she was,
on that as well as other accounts, unwilling to come to extremities with
either of them.
* Knox, p. 121.
** Knox, p. 123.
*** Keith, p. 78, 81, 82.
But after this concession was obtained, she received orders from France,
probably dictated by the violent spirit of her brothers, to proceed with
rigor against the reformers, and to restore the royal authority by some
signal act of power.[*] She made the more eminent of the Protestant
teachers be cited to appear before the council at Stirling; but when
their followers were marching thither in great multitudes, in order
to protect and countenance them, she entertained apprehensions of an
insurrection, and, it is said, dissipated the people by a promise[**]
[2] that nothing should be done to the prejudice of the ministers.
Sentence, however, was passed, by which all the ministers were
pronounced rebels, on account of their not appearing; a measure which
enraged the people, and made them resolve to oppose the regent's
authority by force of arms, and to proceed to extremities against the
clergy of the established religion.
In this critical time, John Knox arrived from Geneva, where he had
passed some years in banishment, and where he had imbibed, from his
commerce with Calvin, the highest fanaticism of his sect, augmented by
the native ferocity of his own character. He had been invited back to
Scotland by the leaders of the reformation; and mounting the pulpit at
Perth, during the present ferment of men's minds, he declaimed with
his usual vehemence against the idolatry and other abominations of the
church of Rome, and incited his audience to exert their utmost zeal for
its subversion. A priest was so imprudent, after this sermon, as to open
his repository of images and relics, and prepare himself to say mass.
The audience, exalted to a disposition for any furious enterprise, were
as much enraged as if the spectacle had not been quite familiar to them:
they attacked the priest with fury, broke the images in pieces, tore the
pictures, overthrew the altars, scattered about the sacred vases; and
left no implement of idolatrous worship, as they termed it, entire or
undefaced. They thence proceeded, with additional numbers and augmented
rage, to the monasteries of the Gray and Black friars, which they
pillaged in an instant: the Carthusians underwent the same fate: and the
populace, not content with robbing and expelling the monks, vented
their fury on the buildings which had been the receptacles of such
abomination; and in a little time nothing but the walls of these
edifices were left standing. The inhabitants of Coupar, in Fife, soon
after imitated the example.[***]
* Melvil's Memoirs, p. 24. Jebb. vol. ii. p. 446.
** See note B, at the end of the volume.
*** Spotswood, p. 121. Knox, p. 127.
The queen regent, provoked at these violences, assembled an army, and
prepared to chastise the rebels. She had about two thousand French under
her command, with a few Scottish troops; and being assisted by such of
the nobility as were well affected to her, she pitched her camp within
ten miles of Perth. Even the earl of Argyle, and Lord James Stuart,
prior of St. Andrew's, the queen's natural brother, though deeply
engaged with the reformers, attended the regent in this enterprise,
either because they blamed the fury of the populace, or hoped by their
own influence and authority to mediate some agreement between the
parties. The congregation, on the other hand, made preparations for
defence; and being joined by the earl of Glencarne from the west, and
being countenanced by many of the nobility and gentry, they appeared
formidable from their numbers, as well as from the zeal by which they
were animated. They sent an address to the regent, where they plainly
insinuated, that if they were pursued to extremities by the "cruel
beasts" the churchmen, they would have recourse to foreign powers for
assistance; and they subscribed themselves her faithful subjects in all
things not repugnant to God, assuming, at the same time, the name of the
faithful congregation of Christ Jesus.[*] They applied to the nobility
attending her, and maintained, that their own past violences were
justified by the word of God, which commands the godly to destroy
idolatry, and all the monuments of it; and though all civil authority
was sacred, yet was there a great difference between the authority and
the persons who exercised it;[**] and that it ought to be considered,
whether or not those abominations, called by the pestilent Papists
religion, and which they defend by fire and sword, be the true religion
of Christ Jesus. They remonstrated with such of the queen's army as had
formerly embraced their party, and told them, "that as they were already
reputed traitors by God, they should likewise be excommunicated from
their society, and from the participation of the sacraments of the
church which God by his mighty power had erected among them; whose
ministers have the same authority which Christ granted to his apostles
in these words, 'Whose sins ye shall forgive shall be forgiven, and
whose sins ye shall retain shall be retained.'"[***]
* Knox, p. 129.
** Knox, p. 131.
*** Knox, p. 133.
We may here see, that these new saints were no less lofty in their
pretensions than the ancient hierarchy: no wonder they were enraged
against the latter as their rivals in dominion. They joined to all these
declarations an address to the established church; and they affixed this
title to it: "To the generation of Antichrist, the pestilent prelates
and their 'shavelings'[*] in Scotland, the congregation of Christ Jesus
within the same sayeth." The tenor of the manifesto was suitable to the
title. They told the ecclesiastics, "As ye by tyranny intend not only to
destroy our bodies, but also by the same to hold our souls in bondage
of the devil, subject to idolatry, so shall we, with all the force
and power which God shall grant unto us, execute just vengeance and
punishment upon you: yea, we shall begin that same war which God
commanded Israel to execute against the Canaanites; that is, contract of
peace shall never be made till you desist from your open idolatry,
and cruel persecution of God's children. And this, in the name of the
eternal God, and of his Son Christ Jesus, whose verity we profess, and
gospel we have preached, and holy sacraments rightly administered,
we signify unto you to be our intent, so far as God will assist us
to withstand your idolatry. Take this for warning, and be not
deceived."[**] With these outrageous symptoms commenced in Scotland that
cant, hypocrisy, and fanaticism which long infested that kingdom, and
which, though now mollified by the lenity of the civil power, is still
ready to break out on all occasions.
The queen regent, finding such obstinate zeal in the rebels, was content
to embrace the counsels of Argyle and the prior of St. Andrew's, and
to form an accommodation with them. She was received into Perth, which
submitted, on her promising an indemnity for past offences, and engaging
not to leave any French garrison in the place. Complaints, very
ill founded, immediately arose concerning the infraction of this
capitulation. Some of the inhabitants, it was pretended, were molested
on account of the late violences; and some companies of Scotch soldiers,
supposed to be in French pay, were quartered in the town; which step,
though taken on very plausible grounds, was loudly exclaimed against by
the congregation.[***]
* A contemptuous term for a priest.
* Keith, p. 85, 86, 87. Knox, p. 134.
* Knox, p. 139.
It is asserted that the regent, to justify these measures, declared,
that princes ought not to have their promises too strictly urged upon
them; nor was any faith to be kept with heretics: and that for her part,
could she find as good a color, she would willingly bereave all these
men of their lives and fortunes.[*] But it is nowise likely that such
expressions ever dropped from this prudent and virtuous princess. On the
contrary, it appears that all these violences were disagreeable to her;
that she was in this particular overruled by the authority of the
French counsellors placed about her; and that she often thought, if the
management of those affairs had been intrusted wholly to herself, she
could easily, without force, have accommodated all differences.[**] [3]
The congregation, inflamed with their own zeal, and enraged by these
disappointments, remained not long in tranquillity. Even before they
left Perth, and while as yet they had no color to complain of any
violation of treaty, they had signed a new covenant, in which, besides
their engagements to mutual defence, they vowed, in the name of God, to
employ their whole power in destroying every thing that dishonored his
holy name; and this covenant was subscribed, among others, by Argyle and
the prior of St. Andrew's.[***]
* Knox, p. 139. Spotswood, p. 123.
** See note C, at the end of the volume.
*** Keith, p 89. Knox, p. 138.
These two leaders now desired no better pretence for deserting the
regent and openly joining their associates, than the complaints, however
doubtful, or rather false, of her breach of promise. The congregation
also, encouraged by this accession of force, gave themselves up entirely
to the furious zeal of Knox, and renewed at Crail, Anstruther, and other
places in Fife, like depredations on the churches and monasteries with
those formerly committed at Perth and Coupar. The regent, who marched
against them with her army, finding their power so much increased,
was glad to conclude a truce for a few days, and to pass over with her
forces to the Lothians. The reformers besieged and took Perth; proceeded
thence to Stirling, where they exercised their usual fury; and finding
nothing able to resist them, they bent their march to Edinburgh, the
inhabitants of which, as they had already anticipated the zeal of the
congregation against the churches and monasteries, gladly opened their
gates to them. The regent, with the few forces which remained with her,
took shelter in Dunbar, where she fortified herself, in expectation of a
reenforcement from France.
Meanwhile, she employed her partisans in representing to the people the
dangerous consequences of this open rebellion; and she endeavored to
convince them, that the Lord James, under pretence of religion,
had formed the scheme of wresting the sceptre from the hands of the
sovereign. By these considerations many were engaged to desert the army
of the congregation; but much more by the want of pay, or any means
of subsistence; and the regent, observing the malecontents to be much
weakened, ventured to march to Edinburgh, with a design of suppressing
them. On the interposition of the duke of Chatelrault, who still adhered
to her, she agreed to a capitulation, in which she granted them a
toleration of their religion, and they engaged to commit no further
depredations on the churches. Soon after, they evacuated the city; and
before they left it, they proclaimed the articles of agreement; but they
took care to publish only the articles favorable to themselves, and they
were guilty of an imposture, in adding one to the number, namely, that
idolatry should not again be erected in any place where it was at that
time suppressed.[*] [4]
An agreement concluded while men were in this disposition, could not be
durable; and both sides endeavored to strengthen themselves as much as
possible against the ensuing rupture, which appeared inevitable. The
regent, having got a reenforcement of one thousand men from France,
began to fortify Leith; and the congregation seduced to their party the
duke of Chatelrault, who had long appeared inclined to join them, and
who was at last determined by the arrival of his son, the earl of Arran,
from France, where he had escaped many dangers from the jealousy, as
well as bigotry, of Henry and the duke of Guise. More French troops soon
after disembarked under the command of La Brosse, who was followed by
the bishop of Amiens, and three doctors of the Sorbonne. These last
were supplied with store of syllogisms, authorities, citations, and
scholastic arguments, which they intended to oppose to the Scottish
preachers, and which, they justly presumed, would acquire force,
and produce conviction, by the influence of the French arms and
artillery.[**]
* See note D, at the end of the volume.
** Spotswood, p. 134. Thuan. lib. xxiv. c. 10.
The constable Montmorency had always opposed the marriage of the dauphin
with the queen of Scots, and had foretold that, by forming such close
connections with Scotland, the ancient league would be dissolved; and
the natives of that kingdom, jealous of a foreign yoke, would soon
become, instead of allies, attached by interest and inclination, the
most inveterate enemies to the French government. But though the event
seemed now to have justified the prudence of that aged minister, it is
not improbable, considering the violent counsels by which France
was governed, that the insurrection was deemed a favorable event; as
affording a pretence for sending over armies, for entirely subduing the
country, for attainting the rebels,[*] and for preparing means thence to
invade England, and support Mary's title to the crown of that kingdom.
The leaders of the congregation, well acquainted with these views, were
not insensible of their danger, and saw that their only safety consisted
in the vigor and success of their measures. They were encouraged by
the intelligence received of the sudden death of Henry II.; and having
passed an act from their own authority, depriving the queen dowager of
the regency, and ordering all the French troops to evacuate the kingdom,
they collected forces to put their edict in execution against them. They
again became masters of Edinburgh; but found themselves unable to keep
long possession of that city. Their tumultuary armies, assembled in
haste, and supported by no pay, soon separated upon the least disaster,
or even any delay of success; and were incapable of resisting such
veteran troops as the French, who were also seconded by some of the
Scottish nobility, among whom the earl of Bothwell distinguished
himself., Hearing that the marquis of Elbeuf, brother to the regent,
was levying an army against them in Germany, they thought themselves
excusable for applying, in this extremity, to the assistance of England;
and as the sympathy of religion, as well as regard to national liberty,
had now counterbalanced the ancient animosity against that kingdom, this
measure was the result of inclination no less than of interest.[**]
[5] Maitland of Lidington, therefore, and Robert Melvil, were secretly
despatched by the congregation to solicit succors from Elizabeth.
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 139. Thuan. lib. xxiv. c. 13.
** See note E, at the end of the volume.
The wise council of Elizabeth did not long deliberate in agreeing to
this request, which concurred so well with the views and interests of
their mistress. Cecil in particular represented to the queen, that the
union of the crowns of Scotland and France, both of them the hereditary
enemies of England, was ever regarded as a pernicious event; and her
father, as well as Protector Somerset, had employed every expedient both
of war and negotiation to prevent it: that the claim which Mary advanced
to the crown rendered the present situation of England still more
dangerous, and demanded on the part of the queen the greatest vigilance
and precaution; that the capacity, ambition, and exorbitant views of the
family of Guise, who now governed the French counsels, were sufficiently
known; and they themselves made no secret of their design to place
their niece on the throne of England: that deeming themselves secure of
success, they had already, somewhat imprudently and prematurely, taken
off the mask; and Throgmorton, the English ambassador at Paris,
sent over, by every courier, incontestable proofs of their hostile
intentions:[*] that they only waited till Scotland should be entirely
subdued; and having thus deprived the English of the advantages
resulting from their situation and naval power, they prepared means for
subverting the queen's authority: that the zealous Catholics in England,
discontented with the present government, and satisfied in the legality
of Mary's title, would bring them considerable reenforcement, and would
disturb every measure of defence against that formidable power: that the
only expedient for preventing these designs, was to seize the present
opportunity, and take advantage of a like zeal in the Protestants of
Scotland; nor could any doubt be entertained with regard to the justice
of a measure founded on such evident necessity, and directed only to the
ends of self-preservation: that though a French war, attended with great
expense, seemed the necessary consequence of supporting the malecontents
in Scotland, that power, if removed to the continent, would be much less
formidable; and a small disbursement at present would, in the end,
be found the greatest frugality: and that the domestic dissensions of
France, which every day augmented, together with the alliance of Philip,
who, notwithstanding his bigotry and hypocrisy, would never permit the
entire conquest of England, were sufficient to secure the queen against
the dangerous ambition and resentment of the house of Guise.[**]
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 134, 136, 149, 150, 159, 165, 181, 194,
229, 231, 235--241, 253.
** Forbes, vol. i. p 387 Jebb, vol. i. p. 448. Keith,
Append. 24.
Elizabeth's propensity to caution and economy was, though with some
difficulty,[*] overcome by these powerful motives and she prepared
herself to support by arms and money the declining affairs of the
congregation in Scotland. She equipped a fleet, which consisted of
thirteen ships of war; and giving the command of it to Winter, she sent
it to the Frith of Forth: she appointed the young duke of Norfolk her
lieutenant in the northern counties; and she assembled, at Berwick, an
army of eight thousand men under the command of Lord Gray, warden of
the east and middle marches. Though the court of France, sensible of the
danger, offered her to make immediate restitution of Calais, provided
she would not interpose in the affairs of Scotland, she resolutely
replied, that she never would put an inconsiderable fishing-town
in competition with the safety of her dominions;[**] and she still
continued her preparations. She concluded a treaty of mutual defence
with the congregation, which was to last during the marriage of the
queen of Scots with Francis, and a year after; and she promised never to
desist till the French had entirely evacuated Scotland.[***] And having
thus taken all proper measures for success, and received from the Scots
six hostages for the performance of articles, she ordered her fleet and
army to begin their operations.
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 454, 460.
** Spotswood, p. 146.
*** Knox, p. 217. Haynes's State Papers, vol. i. p. 153.
Rymer, tom. xv. p. 569.
{1560.} The appearance of Elizabeth's fleet in the frith disconcerted
the French army, who were at that time ravaging the county of Fife;
and obliged them to make a circuit by Stirling, in order to reach Leith,
where they prepared themselves for defence. The English army, reenforced
by five thousand Scots,[*] sat down before the place; and after two
skirmishes, in the former of which the English had the advantage, in the
latter the French, they began to batter the town; and, though repulsed
with considerable loss in a rash and ill-conducted assault, they reduced
the garrison to great difficulties. Their distress was augmented by two
events; the dispersion by a storm of D'Elbeuf's fleet, which carried a
considerable army on board,[**] and the death of the queen, regent, who
expired about this time in the Castle of Edinburgh; a woman endowed with
all the capacity which shone forth in her family, but possessed of much
more virtue and moderation than appeared in the conduct of the other
branches of it. The French, who found it impossible to subsist for want
of provisions, and who saw that the English were continually reenforced
by fresh numbers, were obliged to capitulate; and the bishop of Valence
and Count Randan, plenipotentiaries from France, signed a treaty at
Edinburgh with Cecil and Dr. Wotton, whom Elizabeth had sent thither for
that purpose. It was there stipulated, that the French should instantly
evacuate Scotland; that the king and queen of France and Scotland should
thenceforth abstain from bearing the arms of England, or assuming the
title of that kingdom; that further satisfaction for the injury
already done in that particular should be granted Elizabeth; and that
commissioners should meet to settle this point, or, if they could not
agree, that the king of Spain should be umpire between the crowns.
Besides these stipulations, which regarded England, some concessions
were granted to the Scots; namely, that an amnesty should be published
for all past offences; that none but natives should enjoy any office in
Scotland; that the states should name twenty-four persons, of whom the
queen of Scots should choose seven, and the states five, and in the
hands of these twelve should the whole administration be placed during
their queen's absence; and that Mary should neither make peace nor war
without consent of the states.[***] In order to hasten the execution of
this important treaty, Elizabeth sent ships, by which the French forces
were transported into their own country.
* Haynes, vol i. p. 256, 259.
** Haynes. vol. i. p. 223.
*** Rymer, tom. xv. p. 593. Keith, p. 137. Spotswood, p.
147. Knox, p. 229.
Thus Europe saw, in the first transaction of this reign, the genius and
capacity of the queen and her ministers. She discerned at a distance
the danger which threatened her; and instantly took vigorous measures
to prevent it. Making all possible advantages of her situation, she
proceeded with celerity to a decision; and was not diverted by any
offers, negotiations, or remonstrances of the French court. She stopped
not till she had brought the matter to a final issue; and had converted
that very power, to which her enemies trusted for her destruction, into
her firmest support and security. By exacting no improper conditions
from the Scottish malecontents, even during their greatest distresses,
she established an entire confidence with them; and having cemented
the union by all the ties of gratitude, interest, and religion, she now
possessed an influence over them beyond what remained even with their
native sovereign. The regard which she acquired by this dexterous and
spirited conduct, gave her every where, abroad as well as at home, more
authority than had attended her sister, though supported by all the
power of the Spanish monarchy.[*]
The subsequent measures of the Scottish reformers tended still more
to cement their union with England. Being now entirely masters of the
kingdom, they made no further ceremony or scruple in fully effecting
their purpose. In the treaty of Edinburgh, it had been agreed, that a
parliament or convention should soon be assembled; and the leaders of
the congregation, not waiting till the queen of Scots should ratify
that treaty, thought themselves fully entitled, without the sovereign's
authority, immediately to summon a parliament. The reformers presented
a petition to this assembly, in which they were not contented with
desiring the establishment of their doctrine, they also applied for
the punishment of the Catholics, whom they called vassals to the Roman
harlot; and they asserted, that among all the rabble of the clergy--such
is their expression--there was not one lawful minister; but that they
were all of them thieves and murderers; yea, rebels and traitors to
civil authority, and therefore unworthy to be suffered in any reformed
commonwealth.[**] The parliament seem to have been actuated by the same
spirit of rage and persecution. After ratifying a confession of faith
agreeable to the new doctrines, they passed a statute against the mass,
and not only abolished it in all the churches, but enacted, that whoever
any where either officiated in it, or was present at it, should be
chastised, for the first offence, with confiscation of goods and
corporal punishment, at the discretion of the magistrate; for the
second, with banishment; and for the third, with loss of life.[***]
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 354, 372. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 452.
** Knox, p. 237. 238.
*** Knox, p. 254.
A law was also voted for abolishing the papal jurisdiction in Scotland:
the Presbyterian form of discipline was settled, leaving only at first
some shadow of authority to certain ecclesiastics, whom they called
superintendents. The prelates of the ancient faith appeared, in order to
complain of great injustice committed on them by the invasion of their
property, but the parliament took no notice of them; till at last these
ecclesiastics, tired with fruitless attendance, departed the town. They
were then cited to appear; and as nobody presented himself, it was voted
by the parliament, that the ecclesiastics were entirely satisfied, and
found no reason of complaint.
Sir James Sandilands, prior of St. John, was sent over to France to
obtain the ratification of these acts; but was very ill received by
Mary, who denied the validity of a parliament summoned without the
royal consent; and she refused her sanction to those statutes. But the
Protestants gave themselves little concern about their queen's refusal.
They immediately put the statutes in execution; they abolished the
mass; they settled their ministers; they committed every where furious
devastations on the monasteries, and even on the churches, which they
thought profaned by idolatry; and deeming the property of the clergy
lawful prize, they took possession, without ceremony, of the far greater
part of the ecclesiastical revenues. Their new preachers, who had
authority sufficient to incite them to war and insurrection, could not
restrain their rapacity; and fanaticism concurring with avarice, an
incurable wound was given to the papal authority in that country. The
Protestant nobility and gentry, united by the consciousness of such
unpardonable guilt, alarmed for their new possessions, well acquainted
with the imperious character of the house of Guise, saw no safety for
themselves but in the protection of England; and they despatched Morton,
Glencarne, and Lidington, to express their sincere gratitude to the
queen for her past favors, and represent to her the necessity of
continuing them.
Elizabeth, on her part, had equal reason to maintain a union with
the Scottish Protestants; and soon found that the house of Guise,
notwithstanding their former disappointments, had not laid aside the
design of contesting her title, and subverting her authority. Francis
and Mary, whose counsels were wholly directed by them, refused to
ratify the treaty of Edinburgh and showed no disposition to give her
any satisfaction for that mortal affront which they had put upon her, by
their openly assuming the title and arms of England. She was sensible
of the danger attending such pretensions; and it was with pleasure she
heard of the violent factions which prevailed in the French government,
and of the opposition which had arisen against the measures of the duke
of Guise. That ambitious prince, supported by his four brothers, the
cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of Aumale, the marquis of Elbeuf, and the
grand prior, men no less ambitious than himself, had engrossed all the
authority of the crown; and as he was possessed of every quality which
could command the esteem or seduce the affections of men, there appeared
no end of his acquisitions and pretensions. The constable, Montmorency,
who had long balanced his credit, was deprived of all power: the princes
of the blood, the king of Navarre, and his brother, the prince of Conde,
were entirely excluded from offices and favor: the queen mother herself,
Catharine de Medicis, found her influence every day declining; and
as Francis, a young prince, infirm both in mind and body, was wholly
governed by his consort, who knew no law but the pleasure of her uncles,
men despaired of ever obtaining freedom from the dominion of that
aspiring family. It was the contests of religion which first inspired
the French with courage openly to oppose their unlimited authority.
The theological disputes, first started in the north of Germany, next
in Switzerland, countries at that time wholly illiterate, had long
ago penetrated into France; and as they were assisted by the general
discontent against the court and church of Rome, and by the zealous
spirit of the age, the proselytes to the new religion were secretly
increasing in every province. Henry II., in imitation of his father,
Francis, had opposed the progress of the reformers; and though a prince
addicted to pleasure and society, he was transported by a vehemence,
as well as bigotry, which had little place in the conduct of his
predecessor. Rigorous punishments had been inflicted on the most eminent
of the Protestant party; and a point of honor seemed to have arisen,
whether the one sect could exercise, or the other suffer, most
barbarity. The death of Henry put some stop to the persecutions; and the
people, who had admired the constancy of the new preachers, now heard
with favor their doctrines and arguments. But the cardinal of Lorraine,
as well as his brothers, who were possessed of the legal authority,
thought it their interest to support the established religion; and when
they revived the execution of the penal statutes, they necessarily drove
the malecontent princes and nobles to embrace the protection of the new
religion. The king of Navarre, a man of mild dispositions, but of a weak
character, and the prince of Conde, who possessed many great qualities,
having declared themselves in favor of the Protestants, that sect
acquired new force from their countenance; and the admiral, Coligny,
with his brother Andelot, no longer scrupled to make open profession of
their communion. The integrity of the admiral, who was believed sincere
in his attachment to the new doctrine, and his great reputation both
for valor and conduct, for the arts of peace as well as of war
brought credit to the reformers; and after a frustrated attempt of the
malecontents to seize the king's person at Amboise of which Elizabeth
had probably some intelligence,[*] every place was full of distraction,
and matters hastened to an open rupture between the parties. But the
house of Guise, though these factions had obliged them to remit their
efforts in Scotland, and had been one chief cause of Elizabeth's
success, were determined not to relinquish their authority in France,
or yield to the violence of their enemies. They found an opportunity
of seizing the king of Navarre and the prince of Conde; they threw
the former into prison; they obtained a sentence of death against the
latter; and they were proceeding to put the sentence in execution, when
the king's sudden death saved the noble prisoner, and interrupted the
prosperity of the duke of Guise. The queen mother was appointed regent
to her son Charles IX., now in his minority: the king of Navarre was
named lieutenant-general of the kingdom: the sentence against Conde was
annulled: the constable was recalled to court: and the family of
Guise, though they still enjoyed great offices and great power, found a
counterpoise to their authority.
* Forbes, vol. i. p. 214. Throgmorton, about this time,
unwilling to intrust to letters the great secrets committed
to him, obtained leave, under some pretext, to come over to
London.
{1561.} Elizabeth was determined to make advantage of these events
against the queen of Scots, whom she still regarded as a dangerous
rival. She saw herself freed from the perils attending a union of
Scotland with France, and from the pretensions of so powerful a prince
as Francis; but she considered, at the same time, that the English
Catholics, who were numerous, and who were generally prejudiced in favor
of Mary's title, would now adhere to that princess with more zealous
attachment, when they saw that her succession no longer endangered the
liberties of the kingdom, and was rather attended with the advantage of
effecting an entire union with Scotland. She gave orders, therefore, to
her ambassador, Throgmorton, a vigilant and able minister, to renew his
applications to the queen of Scots, and to require her ratification
of the treaty of Edinburgh. But though Mary had desisted, after her
husband's death, from bearing the arms and title of Queen of England,
she still declined gratifying Elizabeth in this momentous article; and
being swayed by the ambitious suggestions of her uncles, she refused to
make any formal renunciation of her pretensions.
Meanwhile the queen mother of France, who imputed to Mary all the
mortifications which she had met with during Francis's lifetime, took
care to retaliate on her by like injuries; and the queen of Scots,
finding her abode in France disagreeable, began to think of returning to
her native country. Lord James, who had been sent in deputation from the
states to invite her over, seconded these intentions; and she applied to
Elizabeth, by D'Oisel, for a safe-conduct, in case she should be obliged
to pass through England;[*] but she received for answer, that, till she
had given satisfaction, by ratifying the treaty of Edinburgh, she could
expect no favor from a person whom she had so much injured.
* Goodall, vol. i. p. 175.
This denial excited her indignation; and she made no scruple of
expressing her sentiments to Throgmorton, when he reiterated his
applications to gratify his mistress in a demand which he represented
as so reasonable. Having cleared the room of her attendants, she said to
him, "How weak I may prove, or how far a woman's frailty may transport
me, I cannot tell: however, I am resolved not to have so many witnesses
of my infirmity as your mistress had at her audience of my ambassador
D'Oisel. There is nothing disturbs me so much, as the having asked,
with so much impunity, a favor which it was of no consequence for me to
obtain. I can, with God's leave, return to my own country without
_her_ leave; as I came to France, in spite of all the opposition of her
brother, King Edward: neither do I want friends both able and willing to
conduct me home, as they have brought me hither; though I was desirous
rather to make an experiment of your mistress's friendship, than of the
assistance of any other person. I have often heard you say, that a good
correspondence between her and myself would conduce much to the security
and happiness of both our kingdoms: were she well convinced of this
truth, she would hardly have denied me so small a request. But perhaps
she bears a better inclination to my rebellious subjects than to me,
their sovereign, her equal in royal dignity, her near relation, and the
undoubted heir of her kingdoms. Besides her friendship, I ask nothing at
her hands: I neither trouble her, nor concern myself in the affairs of
her state: not that I am ignorant, that there are now in England a great
many malecontents, who are no friends to the present establishment. She
is pleased to upbraid me as a person little experienced in the world: I
freely own it; but age will cure that defect. However, I am already
old enough to acquit myself honestly and courteously to my friends and
relations, and to encourage no reports of your mistress which would
misbecome a queen and her kinswoman. I would also say, by her leave,
that I am a queen as well as she, and not altogether friendless: and,
perhaps, I have as great a soul too; so that methinks we should be upon
a level in our treatment of each other. As soon as I have consulted the
states of my kingdom, I shall be ready to give her a seasonable answer;
and I am the more intent on my journey, in order to make the quicker
despatch in this affair. But she, it seems, intends to stop my journey;
so that either she will not let me give her satisfaction, or is resolved
not to be satisfied; perhaps on purpose to keep up the disagreement
between us. She has often reproached me with my being young; and I must
be very young indeed, and as ill advised, to treat of matters of such
great concern and importance without the advice of my parliament. I have
not been wanting in all friendly offices to her; but she disbelieves or
overlooks them. I could heartily wish that I were as nearly allied to
her in affection as in blood; for that indeed would be a most valuable
alliance."[*]
* Caballa, p. 374. Spotswood, p. 177.
Such a spirited reply, notwithstanding the obliging terms interspersed
in it, was but ill fitted to conciliate friendship between these rival
princesses, or cure those mutual jealousies which had already taken
place. Elizabeth equipped a fleet on pretence of pursuing pirates, but
probably with an intention of intercepting the queen of Scots in her
return homewards. Mary embarked at Calais; and passing the English fleet
in a fog, arrived safely at Leith, attended by her three uncles, the
duke of Aumale, the grand prior, and the marquis of Elbeuf, together
with the marquis of Damville and other French courtiers. This change of
abode and situation was very little agreeable to that princess. Besides
her natural prepossessions in favor of a country in which she had been
educated from her earliest infancy, and where she had borne so high a
rank, she could not forbear both regretting the society of that
people, so celebrated for their humane disposition and their respectful
attachment to their sovereign, and reflecting on the disparity of the
scene which lay before her. It is said, that after she was embarked at
Calais, she kept her eyes fixed on the coast of France, and never turned
them from that beloved object till darkness fell, and intercepted it
from her view. She then ordered a couch to be spread for her in the open
air; and charged the pilot, that, if in the morning the land were still
in sight, he should awake her, and afford her one parting view of that
country in which all her affections were centred. The weather proved
calm, so that the ship made little way in the night-time; and Mary had
once more an opportunity of seeing the French coast. She sat up on her
couch, and still looking towards the land, often repeated these words:
"Farewell, France, farewell, I shall never see thee more."[*] The first
aspect, however, of things in Scotland was more favorable, if not to her
pleasure and happiness, at least to her repose and security, than she
had reason to apprehend. No sooner did the French galleys appear off
Leith, than people of all ranks, who had long expected their arrival,
flocked towards the shore with an earnest impatience to behold and
receive their young sovereign. Some were led by duty, some by interest,
some by curiosity; and all combined to express their attachment to her,
and to insinuate themselves into her confidence on the commencement of
her administration. She had now reached her nineteenth year; and
the bloom of her youth and amiable beauty of her person were further
recommended by the affability of her address, the politeness of her
manners, and the elegance of her genius. Well accomplished in all the
superficial but engaging graces of a court, she afforded, when better
known, still more promising indications of her character; and men
prognosticated both humanity from her soft and obliging deportment, and
penetration from her taste in all the refined arts of music, eloquence,
and poetry.[**] And as the Scots had long been deprived of the presence
of their sovereign, whom they once despaired ever more to behold among
them, her arrival seemed to give universal satisfaction; and nothing
appeared about the court but symptoms of affection, joy, and festivity.
* Keith, p. 179. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 483.
** Buchan. lib. xvii. c. 9. Spotswood, p. 178, 179. Keith,
p. 180. Thuan. lib xxix. c. 2.
The first measures which Mary embraced confirmed all the prepossessions
entertained in her favor. She followed the advice given her in France
by D'Oisel and the bishop of Amiens, as well as her uncles; and she
bestowed her confidence entirely on the leaders of the reformed party,
who had greatest influence over the people, and who, she found, were
alone able to support her government. Her brother, Lord James, whom she
soon after created earl of Murray, obtained the chief authority; and
after him Lidington, secretary of state, a man of great sagacity, had a
principal share in her confidence. By the vigor of these men's measures,
she endeavored to establish order and justice in a country divided by
public factions and private feuds; and that fierce, intractable people,
unacquainted with laws and obedience, seemed, for a time, to submit
peaceably to her gentle and prudent administration.
But there was one circumstance which blasted all these promising
appearances, and bereaved Mary of that general favor which her agreeable
manners and judicious deportment gave her just reason to expect. She
was still a Papist, and though she published, soon after her arrival, a
proclamation enjoining every one to submit to the established religion,
the preachers and their adherents could neither be reconciled to a
person polluted with so great an abomination, nor lay aside their
jealousies of her future conduct. It was with great difficulty she could
obtain permission for saying mass in her own chapel; and had not the
people apprehended, that if she had here met with a refusal, she would
instantly have returned to France, the zealots never would have granted
her even that small indulgence. The cry was, "Shall we suffer that idol
to be again erected within the realm?" It was asserted in the pulpit,
that one mass was more terrible than ten thousand armed men landed
to invade the kingdom:[*] Lord Lindesey, and the gentlemen of Fife,
exclaimed, "that the idolater should die the death;" such was their
expression. One that carried tapers for the ceremony of that worship was
attacked and insulted in the court of the palace. And if Lord James and
some popular leaders had not interposed, the most dangerous uproar was
justly apprehended from the ungoverned fury of the multitude.[**]
* Knox, p. 287.
** Knox, p. 284, 285, 287. Spotswood, p. 179.
The usual prayers in the churches were to this purpose: that God would
turn the queen's heart, which was obstinate against him and his truth;
or if his holy will be otherwise, that he would strengthen the hearts
and hands of the elect, stoutly to oppose the rage of all tyrants.[*]
Nay, it was openly called in question, whether that princess, being an
idolatress, was entitled to any authority, even in civil matters.[**]
The helpless queen was every moment exposed to contumely, which she bore
with benignity and patience. Soon after her arrival, she dined in the
Castle of Edinburgh; and it was there contrived, that a boy, six years
of age, should be let down from the roof, and should present her with
a Bible, a Psalter, and the keys of the castle. Lest she should be at a
loss to understand this insult on her as a Papist, all the decorations
expressed the burning of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and other
punishments inflicted by God upon idolatry.[***] The town council
of Edinburgh had the assurance, from their own authority, to issue a
proclamation banishing from their district "all the wicked rabble of
Antichrist the pope, such as priests, monks, friars, together with
adulterers and fornicators."[****] And because the privy council
suspended the magistrates for their insolence, the passionate
historians[v] of that age have inferred that the queen was engaged, by
a sympathy of manners, to take adulterers and fornicators under her
protection. It appears probable, that the magistrates were afterwards
reinstated in their office, and that their proclamation was
confirmed.[v*]
* Keith, p. 179.
** Keith, p. 202.
*** Keith, p. 189.
*** Keith, p. 192.
v Knox, p. 292. Buchan. lib. xvii. c. 20. Haynes, vol. i.
p. 372.
v* Keith, p. 202.
But all the insolence of the people was inconsiderable in comparison
of that which was exercised by the clergy and the preachers, who took
a pride in vilifying, even to her face, this amiable princess. The
assembly of the church framed an address, in which, after telling her
that her mass was a bastard service of God, the fountain of all impiety,
and the source of every evil which abounded in the realm, they expressed
their hopes, that she would ere this time have preferred truth to her
own preconceived opinion, and have renounced her religion, which, they
assured her, was nothing but abomination and vanity. They said, that the
present abuses of government were so enormous, that if a speedy remedy
were not provided, God would not fail in his anger to strike the head
and the tail, the disobedient prince and sinful people. They
required, that severe punishment should be inflicted on adulterers
and fornicators. And they concluded with demanding for themselves some
addition both of power and property.[*]
The ringleader in all these insults on majesty was John Knox; who
possessed an uncontrolled authority in the church and even in the civil
affairs of the nation, and who triumphed in the contumelious usage of
his sovereign. His usual appellation for the queen was Jezebel; and
though she endeavored by the most gracious condescension to win his
favor, all her insinuations could gain nothing on his obdurate heart.
She promised him access to her whenever he demanded it; and she even
desired him, if he found her blamable in any thing, to reprehend her
freely in private, rather than vilify her in the pulpit before the whole
people: but he plainly told her, that he had a public ministry intrusted
to him; that if she would come to church, she should there hear the
gospel of truth, and that it was not his business to apply to every
individual, nor had he leisure for that occupation.[**] The political
principles of the man, which he communicated to his brethren, were as
full of sedition, as his theological were of rage and bigotry. Though
he once condescended so far as to tell the queen that he would submit to
her, in the same manner as Paul did to Nero,[***] he remained not long
in this dutiful strain. He said to her, that "Samuel feared not to slay
Agag the fat and delicate king of Amalek, whom King Saul had saved;
neither spared Elias Jezebel's false prophets, and Baal's priests,
though King Ahab was present. Phineas," added he, "was no magistrate;
yet feared he not to strike Cosbi and Zimri in the very act of filthy
fornication. And so, madam, your grace may see that others than chief
magistrates may lawfully inflict punishment on such crimes as are
condemned by the law of God."[****] Knox had formerly, during the reign
of Mary of England, written a book against female succession to the
crown: the title of it is, "The first blast of the trumpet against
the monstrous regimen of women." He was too proud either to recant the
tenets of this book, or even to apologize for them; and his conduct
showed that he thought no more civility than loyalty due to any of the
female sex.
* Knox, p. 311, 312.
** Knox, p. 310.
*** Knox, p. 288.
**** Knox, p. 326.
The whole life of Mary was, from the demeanor of these men, filled with
bitterness and sorrow. This rustic apostle scruples not, in his history,
to inform us, that he once treated her with such severity, that she lost
all command of temper, and dissolved in tears before him: yet so far
from being moved with youth, and beauty, and royal dignity reduced to
that condition, he persevered in his insolent reproofs; and when he
relates this incident, he discovers a visible pride and satisfaction
in his own conduct.[*] The pulpits had become mere scenes of railing
against the vices of the court; among which were always noted as
the principal, feasting, finery, dancing, balls, and whoredom, their
necessary attendant.[**] Some ornaments, which the ladies at that time
wore upon their petticoats, excited mightily the indignation of the
preachers; and they affirmed, that such vanity would provoke God's
vengeance not only against these foolish women, but against the whole
realm.[***]
Mary, whose age, condition, and education, invited her to liberty and
cheerfulness, was curbed in all amusements by the absurd severity of
these reformers; and she found every moment reason to regret her leaving
that country, from whose manners she had in her early youth received
the first impressions.[****] Her two uncles, the duke of Aumale and the
grand prior, with the other French nobility, soon took leave of her: the
marquis of Elbeuf remained some time longer; but after his departure,
she was left to the society of her own subjects; men unacquainted
with the pleasures of conversation, ignorant of arts and civility, and
corrupted, beyond their usual rusticity, by a dismal fanaticism, which
rendered them incapable of all humanity or improvement. Though Mary
had made no attempt to restore the ancient religion, her Popery was a
sufficient crime: though her behavior was hitherto irreproachable, and
her manners sweet and engaging, her gayety and ease were interpreted as
signs of dissolute vanity. And to the harsh and preposterous usage which
this princess met with may, in part, be ascribed those errors of her
subsequent conduct which seemed so little of a piece with the general
tenor of her character.
* Knox, p. 332, 333.
** Knox, p. 322.
*** Knox, p. 330.
**** Knox, p. 294
There happened to the marquis of Elbeuf, before his departure, an
adventure which, though frivolous, might enable him to give Mary's
friends in France a melancholy idea of her situation. This nobleman,
with the earl of Bothwell and some other young courtiers, had been
engaged, after a debauch, to pay a visit to a woman called Alison Craig,
who was known to be liberal of her favors; and because they were denied
admittance, they broke the windows, thrust open the door, and committed
some disorders in searching for the damsel. It happened that the
assembly of the church was sitting at that time, and they immediately
took the matter under their cognizance. In conjunction with several
of the nobility, they presented an address to the queen, which was
introduced with this awful prelude: "To the queen's majesty, and to her
secret and great council, her grace's faithful and obedient subjects,
the professors of Christ Jesus's holy evangil, wish the spirit of
righteous judgment." The tenor of the petition was that the fear of
God, the duty which they owed her grace, and the terrible threatenings
denounced by God against every city or country where horrible crimes
were openly committed, compelled them to demand the severe punishment of
such as had done what in them lay to kindle the wrath of God against the
whole realm; that the iniquity of which they complained was so heinous
and so horrible that they should esteem themselves accomplices in it, if
they had been engaged by worldly fear, or servile complaisance, to pass
it over in silence, or bury it in oblivion: that as they owed her grace
obedience, in the administration of justice, so were they entitled to
require of her, in return, the sharp and condign punishment of this
enormity, which, they repeated it, might draw down the vengeance of God
on the whole kingdom: and that they maintained it to be her duty to lay
aside all private affections towards the actors in so heinous a crime,
and so enormous a villany, and without delay bring them to a trial,
and inflict the severest penalty upon them. The queen gave a gracious
reception to his peremptory address, but because she probably thought
that breaking the windows of a brothel merited not such severe
reprehension, she only replied, that her uncle was a stranger, and that
he was attended by a young company; but she would put such order to him
and to all others that her subjects should henceforth have no reason to
complain. Her passing over this incident so slightly was the source of
great discontent, and was regarded as a proof of the most profligate
manners.[*]
* Knox, p. 302, 303, 304. Keith, p. 509.
It is not to be omitted, that Alison Craig, the cause of all the uproar
was known to entertain a commerce with the earl of Arran, who, on
account of his great zeal for the reformation, was, without scruple,
indulged in that enormity.[*]
Some of the populace of Edinburgh broke into the queen's chapel
during her absence, and committed outrages; for which two of them were
indicted, and it was intended to bring them to a trial. Knox wrote
circular letters to the most considerable zealots of the party, and
charged them to appear in town and protect their brethren. The holy
sacraments, he there said, are abused by profane Papists; the mass has
been said; and in worshipping that idol, the priests have omitted no
ceremony, not even the conjuring of their accursed water, that had ever
been practised in the time of the greatest blindness. These violent
measures for opposing justice were little short of rebellion; and Knox
was summoned before the council to answer for his offence. The courage
of the man was equal to his insolence. He scrupled not to tell the queen
that the pestilent Papists who had inflamed her against these holy men
were the sons of the devil; and must therefore obey the directions of
their father, who had been a liar and a manslayer from the beginning.
The matter ended with the full acquittal of Knox.[**] Randolph, the
English ambassador in Scotland, had reason to write to Cecil, speaking
of the Scottish nation, "I think marvellously of the wisdom of God, that
gave this unruly, inconstant, and cumbersome people no more power nor
substance; for they would otherwise run wild."[***]
* Knox.
** Knox, p. 336, 342.
*** Keith, p. 202.
We have related these incidents at greater length than the necessity of
our subject may seem to require; but even trivial circumstances, which
show the manners of the age, are often more instructive, as well as
entertaining, than the great transactions of wars and negotiations,
which are nearly similar in all periods and in all countries of the
world.
The reformed clergy in Scotland had at that time a very natural reason
for their ill humor; namely, the poverty, or rather beggary, to which
they were reduced. The nobility and gentry had at first laid their hands
on all the property of the regular clergy, without making any provision
for the friars and nuns, whom they turned out of their possessions.
The secular clergy of the Catholic communion, though they lost all
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, still held some of the temporalities of
their benefices; and either became laymen themselves and converted them
into private property, or made conveyance of them at low prices to the
nobility, who thus enriched themselves by the plunder of the church. The
new teachers had hitherto subsisted chiefly by the voluntary oblations
of the faithful; and in a poor country, divided in religious sentiments,
this establishment was regarded as very scanty and very precarious.
Repeated applications were made for a legal settlement to the preachers;
and though almost every thing in the kingdom was governed by their
zeal and caprice, it was with difficulty that their request was at
last complied with. The fanatical spirit which they indulged, and
their industry in decrying the principles and practices of the Romish
communion, which placed such merit in enriching the clergy, proved now
a very sensible obstacle to their acquisitions. The convention, however,
passed a vote,[*] by which they divided all the ecclesiastical
benefices into twenty-one shares: they assigned fourteen to the ancient
possessors: of the remaining seven they granted three to the crown;
and if that were found to answer the public expenses, they bestowed the
overplus on the reformed ministers. The queen was empowered to levy all
the seven; and it was ordained that she should afterwards pay to the
clergy what should be judged to suffice for their maintenance. The
necessities of the crown, the rapacity of the courtiers, and the small
affection which Mary bore to the Protestant ecclesiastics, rendered
their revenues contemptible as well as uncertain; and the preachers,
finding that they could not rival the gentry, or even the middling rank
of men, in opulence and plenty, were necessitated to betake themselves
to other expedients for supporting their authority. They affected a
furious zeal for religion, morose manners, a vulgar and familiar, yet
mysterious cant; and though the liberality of subsequent princes put
them afterwards on a better footing with regard to revenue, and thereby
corrected in some degree those bad habits, it must be confessed that,
while many other advantages attend Presbyterian government, these
inconveniences are not easily separated from the genius of that
ecclesiastical polity.
* Knox, p. 296. Keith, p. 210.
The queen of Scots, destitute of all force, possessing a narrow revenue,
surrounded with a factious, turbulent nobility, a bigoted people,
and insolent ecclesiastics, soon found that her only expedient for
maintaining tranquillity was to preserve a good correspondence with
Elizabeth,[*] who, by former connections and services, had acquired such
authority over all these ranks of men.
* Jebb, vol. ii. p. 456.
Soon after her arrival in Scotland, Secretary Lidington was sent to
London, in order to pay her compliments to the queen, and express
her desire of friendship and a good correspondence; and he received
a commission from her, as well as from the nobility of Scotland, to
demand, as a means of cementing this friendship, that Mary should, by
act of parliament or by proclamation, (for the difference between these
securities was not then deemed very considerable,) be declared successor
to the crown. No request could be more unreasonable, or made at a more
improper juncture. The queen replied, that Mary had once discovered
her intention not to wait for the succession, but had openly, without
ceremony or reserve, assumed the title of Queen of England, and had
pretended a superior right to her throne and kingdom: that though her
ambassadors and those of her husband, the French king, had signed a
treaty, in which they renounced that claim, and promised satisfaction
for so great an indignity, she was so intoxicated with this imaginary
right, that she had rejected the most earnest solicitations, and
even, as some endeavored to persuade her, had incurred some danger, in
crossing the seas, rather than ratify that equitable treaty: that her
partisans every where had still the assurance to insist on her title,
and had presumed to talk of her own birth as illegitimate: that while
affairs were on this footing; while a claim thus openly made, so far
from being openly renounced, was only suspended till a more favorable
opportunity; it would in her be the most egregious imprudence to fortify
the hands of a pretender to her crown by declaring her the successor:
that no expedient could be worse imagined for cementing friendship than
such a declaration; and kings were often found to bear no good will to
their successors, even though their own children; much more when
the connection was less intimate, and when such cause of disgust and
jealousy had already been given, and indeed was still continued, on the
part of Mary: that though she was willing, from the amity which she
bore her kinswoman, to ascribe her former pretensions to the advice of
others, by whose direction she was then governed, her present refusal to
relinquish them could proceed only from her own prepossessions, and was
a proof that she still harbored some dangerous designs against her:
that it was the nature of all men to be disgusted with the present,
to entertain flattering views of futurity, to think their services ill
rewarded, to expect a better recompense from the successor; and she
should esteem herself scarcely half a sovereign over the English, if
they saw her declare her heir, and arm her rival with authority against
her own repose and safety: that she knew the inconstant nature of the
people; she was acquainted with the present divisions in religion;
she was not ignorant that the same party, which expected greater favor
during the reign of Mary, did also imagine that the title of that
princess was superior to her own: that for her part, whatever claims
were advanced, she was determined to live and die queen of England; and
after her death it was the business of others to examine who had the
best pretensions, either by the laws or by right of blood, to the
succession: that she hoped the claim of the queen of Scots would then be
found solid; and, considering the injury which she herself had received,
it was sufficient indulgence if she promised, in the mean time, to do
nothing which might in any respect weaken or invalidate it: and that
Mary, if her title were really preferable--a point which, for her own
part, she had never inquired into--possessed all advantages above her
rivals; who, destitute both of present power and of all support by
friends, would only expose themselves to inevitable ruin, by advancing
any weak, or even doubtful pretensions.[*]
These views of the queen were so prudent and judicious, that there was
no likelihood of her ever departing from them: but that she might put
the matter to a fuller proof, she offered to explain the words of the
treaty of Edinburgh, so as to leave no suspicion of their excluding
Mary's right of succession;[**] and in this form she again required her
to ratify that treaty. Matters at last came to this issue, that Mary
agreed to the proposal, and offered to renounce all present pretensions
to the crown of England, provided Elizabeth would agree to declare her
the successor.[***] But such was the jealous character of this latter
princess, that she never would consent to strengthen the interest and
authority of any claimant by fixing the succession; much less would
she make this concession in favor of a rival queen, who possessed
such plausible pretensions for the present, and who, though she might
verbally renounce them, could easily resume her claim on the first
opportunity.
* Buchanan, lib. xvii. c. 14-17. Camden, p. 385. Spotswood,
p. 180, 181.
** Spotswood, p. 181.
*** Haynes, vol. i. p. 377.
Mary's proposal, however, bore so specious an appearance of equity and
justice, that Elizabeth, sensible that reason would, by superficial
thinkers, be deemed to lie entirely on that side, made no more mention
of the matter; and though further concessions were never made by either
princess, they put on all the appearances of a cordial reconciliation
and friendship with each other.
The queen observed that, even without her interposition, Mary was
sufficiently depressed by the mutinous spirit of her own subjects;
and instead of giving Scotland for the present any inquietude or
disturbance, she employed herself, more usefully and laudably, in
regulating the affairs of her own kingdom, and promoting the happiness
of her people. She made some progress in paying those great debts which
lay upon the crown; she regulated the coin, which had been much debased
by her predecessors; she furnished her arsenals with great quantities of
arms from Germany and other places; engaged her nobility and gentry to
imitate her example in this particular; introduced into the kingdom the
art of making gunpowder and brass cannon; fortified her frontiers on
the side of Scotland; made frequent reviews of the militia; encouraged
agriculture, by allowing a free exportation of corn; promoted trade and
navigation; and so much increased the shipping of her kingdom, both by
building vessels of force herself, and suggesting like undertakings to
the merchants, that she was justly styled the restorer of naval glory,
and the queen of the northern seas.[*] The natural frugality of her
temper, so far from incapacitating her for these great enterprises, only
enabled her to execute them with greater certainty and success; and
all the world, saw in her conduct the happy effects of a vigorous
perseverance in judicious and well-concerted projects.
* Camden, p. 388. Strype, vol. i. p. 230, 336, 337.
It is easy to imagine that so great a princess, who enjoyed such
singular felicity and renown, would receive proposals of marriage from
every one that had any likelihood of succeeding; and though she had made
some public declarations in favor of a single life, few believed that
she would persevere forever in that resolution. The archduke Charles,
second son of the emperor,[*] as well as Casimir, son of the elector
palatine, made applications to her; and as this latter prince professed
the reformed religion, he thought himself, on that account, better
entitled to succeed in his addresses. Eric, king of Sweden, and Adolph,
duke of Holstein, were encouraged by the same views to become suitors:
and the earl of Arran, heir to the crown of Scotland, was, by the states
of that kingdom, recommended to her as a suitable marriage.
* Haynes, vol. i. p. 233.
Even some of her own subjects, though they did not openly declare their
pretensions, entertained hopes of success. The earl of Arundel, a person
declining in years, but descended from an ancient and noble family, as
well as possessed of great riches, flattered himself with this prospect;
as did also Sir William Pickering, a man much esteemed for his personal
merit. But the person most likely to succeed, was a younger son of the
late duke of Northumberland, Lord Robert Dudley, who, by means of his
exterior qualities, joined to address and flattery, had become in
a manner her declared favorite, and had great influence in all her
counsels. The less worthy he appeared of this distinction, the more was
his great favor ascribed to some violent affection, which could thus
seduce the judgment of this penetrating princess; and men long expected
that he would obtain the preference above so many princes and monarchs.
But the queen gave all these suitors a gentle refusal, which still
encouraged their pursuit; and thought that she should the better attach
them to her interest, if they were still allowed to entertain hopes of
succeeding in their pretensions. It is also probable that this policy
was not entirely free from a mixture of female coquetry; and that,
though she was determined in her own mind never to share her power with
any man, she was not displeased with the courtship, solicitation, and
professions of love, which the desire of acquiring so valuable a prize
procured her from all quarters.
What is most singular in the conduct and character of Elizabeth is, that
though she determined never to have any heir of her own body, she was
not only very averse to fix any successor to the crown, but seems, also,
to have resolved, as far as it lay in her power, that no one who had
pretensions to the succession should ever have any heirs or successors.
If the exclusion given by the will of Henry VIII. to the posterity of
Margaret, queen of Scotland, was allowed to be valid, the right to the
crown devolved on the house of Suffolk; and the lady Catharine Gray,
younger sister to the lady Jane, was now the heir of that family. This
lady had been married to Lord Herbert, son of the earl of Pembroke; but
having been divorced from that nobleman, she had made a private marriage
with the earl of Hertford, son of the protector; and her husband, soon
after consummation, travelled into France. In a little time she appeared
to be pregnant, which so enraged Elizabeth, that she threw her into
the Tower, and summoned Hertford to appear, in order to answer for his
misdemeanor. He made no scruple of acknowledging the marriage, which,
though concluded without the queen's consent, was entirely suitable to
both parties; and for this offence he was also committed to the Tower.
Elizabeth's severity stopped not here: she issued a commission to
inquire into the matter; and as Hertford could not, within the time
limited, prove the nuptials by witnesses, the commerce between him and
his consort was declared unlawful, and their posterity illegitimate.
They were still detained in custody, but by bribing their keepers, they
found means to have further intercourse; and another child appeared to
be the fruit of their commerce. This was a fresh source of vexation to
the queen; who made a fine of fifteen thousand pounds be set on Hertford
by the star chamber and ordered his confinement to be thenceforth more
rigid and severe. He lay in this condition for nine years, till the
death of his wife, by freeing Elizabeth from all fears, procured him his
liberty.[*] This extreme severity must be accounted for, either by the
unrelenting jealousy of the queen, who was afraid lest a pretender
to the succession should acquire credit by having issue; or by her
malignity, which, with all her great qualities, made one ingredient
in her character, and which led her to envy in others those natural
pleasures of love and posterity, of which her own ambition and desire of
dominion made her renounce all prospect for herself.
* Haynes, vol. i. p. 369, 378, 396. Camden, p. 389. Heylin,
p. 154.
There happened, about this time, some other events in the royal family
where the queen's conduct was more laudable. Arthur Pole and his
brother, nephews to the late cardinal, and descended from the duke of
Clarence, together with Anthony Fortescue, who had married a sister of
these gentlemen, and some other persons, were brought to their trial
for intending to withdraw into France, with a view of soliciting
succors from the duke of Guise, of returning thence into Wales, and of
proclaiming Mary queen of England, and Arthur Pole duke of Clarence.
They confessed the indictment, but asserted that they never meant to
execute these projects during the queen's lifetime: they had only deemed
such precautions requisite in case of her demise, which some pretenders
to judicial astrology had assured them they might with certainty look
for before the year expired. They were condemned by the jury; but
received a pardon from the queen's clemency.[*]
* Strype, vol. i. p. 333. Heylin, p. 154.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
ELIZABETH.
{1562.} After the commencement of the religious wars in France, which
rendered that flourishing kingdom, during the course of near forty
years, a scene of horror and devastation, the great rival powers in
Europe were Spain and England; and it was not long before an animosity,
first political, then personal, broke out between the sovereigns of
these countries.
Philip II. of Spain, though he reached not any enlarged views of policy,
was endowed with great industry and sagacity, a remarkable caution in
his enterprises, an unusual foresight in all his measures; and as he
was ever cool, and seemingly unmoved by passion, and possessed neither
talents nor inclination for war, both his subjects and his neighbors
had reason to expect justice, happiness, and tranquillity from his
administration. But prejudices had on him as pernicious effects as ever
passion had on any other monarch; and the spirit of bigotry and tyranny
by which he was actuated, with the fraudulent maxims which governed
his counsels, excited the most violent agitation among his own people,
engaged him in acts of the most enormous cruelty, and threw all Europe
into combustion.
After Philip had concluded peace at Chateau-Cambresis and had remained
some time in the Netherlands, in order to settle the affairs of that
country, he embarked for Spain; and as the gravity of that nation, with
their respectful obedience to their prince, had appeared more agreeable
to his humor than the homely, familiar manners and the pertinacious
liberty of the Flemings, it was expected that he would for the future
reside altogether at Madrid, and would govern all his extensive
dominions by Spanish ministers and Spanish counsels. Having met with a
violent tempest on his voyage, he no sooner arrived in harbor than he
fell on his knees; and after giving thanks for his deliverance, he vowed
that his life, which was thus providentially saved, should thenceforth
be entirely devoted to the extirpation of heresy.[*] His subsequent
conduct corresponded to these professions. Finding that the new
doctrines had penetrated into Spain, he let loose the rage of
persecution against all who professed them, or were suspected of
adhering to them; and by his violence he gave new edge even to the usual
cruelty of priests and inquisitors. He threw into prison Constantine
Ponce, who had been confessor to his father, the emperor Charles;
who had attended him during his retreat; and in whose arms that great
monarch had terminated his life: and after this ecclesiastic died in
confinement, he still ordered him to be tried and condemned for heresy,
and his statue to be committed to the flames. He even deliberated
whether he should not exercise like severity against the memory of his
father, who was suspected, during his later years, to have indulged a
propensity towards the Lutheran principles: in his unrelenting zeal for
orthodoxy, he spared neither age, sex, nor condition: he was present,
with an inflexible countenance, at the most barbarous executions: he
issued rigorous orders for the prosecution of heretics in Spain, Italy,
the Indies, and the Low Countries: and having founded his determined
tyranny on maxims of civil policy, as well as on principles of religion,
he made it apparent to all his subjects, that there was no method,
except the most entire compliance or most obstinate resistance, to
escape or elude the severity of his vengeance.
* Thuanns, lib. xxiii. cap. 14.
During that extreme animosity which prevailed between the adherents of
the opposite religions, the civil magistrate, who found it difficult,
if not impossible, for the same laws to govern such enraged adversaries,
was naturally led, by specious rules of prudence, in embracing one
party, to declare war against the other, and to exterminate by fire and
sword those bigots who, from abhorrence of his religion, had proceeded
to an opposition of his power and to a hatred of his person. If any
prince possessed such enlarged views as to foresee, that a mutual
toleration would in time abate the fury of religious prejudices, he yet
met with difficulties in reducing this principle to practice; and might
deem the malady too violent to await a remedy, which, though certain,
must necessarily be slow in its operation. But Philip, though a profound
hypocrite, and extremely governed by self-interest seems also to have
been himself actuated by an imperious bigotry; and as he employed
great reflection in all his conduct, he could easily palliate the
gratification of his natural temper under the color of wisdom, and
find in this system no less advantage to his foreign than his domestic
politics. By placing himself at the head of the Catholic party, he
converted the zealots of the ancient faith into partisans of Spanish
greatness; and by employing the powerful allurement of religion, he
seduced every where the subjects from that allegiance which they owed to
their native sovereign.
The course of events, guiding and concurring with choice, had placed
Elizabeth in a situation diametrically opposite; and had raised her to
be the glory, the bulwark, and the support of the numerous, though still
persecuted Protestants, throughout Europe. More moderate in her temper
than Philip, she found, with pleasure, that the principles of her sect
required not such extreme severity in her domestic government as was
exercised by that monarch; and having no object but self-preservation,
she united her interests in all foreign negotiations with those who were
every where struggling under oppression, and guarding themselves against
ruin and extermination. The more virtuous sovereign was thus happily
thrown into the more favorable cause; and fortune, in this instance,
concurred with policy and nature.
During the lifetime of Henry II. of France, and of his successor, the
force of these principles was somewhat restrained, though not altogether
overcome, by motives of a superior interest; and the dread of uniting
England with the French monarchy engaged Philip to maintain a good
correspondence with Elizabeth. Yet even during this period he rejected
the garter which she sent him; he refused to ratify the ancient league
between the house of Burgundy and England;[*] he furnished ships to
transport French forces into Scotland; he endeavored to intercept
the earl of Arran, who was hastening to join the malecontents in that
country; and the queen's wisest ministers still regarded his friendship
as hollow and precarious.[**]
* Digges's Complete Ambassador, p. 369. Haynes, p. 585.
Strype vol. iv. No. 246.
** Haynes, vol. i. p. 280, 281, 283, 284.
But no sooner did the death of Francis II. put an end to Philip's
apprehensions with regard to Mary's succession, than his animosity
against Elizabeth began more openly to appear; and the interests of
Spain and those of England were found opposite in every negotiation and
transaction.
The two great monarchies of the continent, France and Spain, being
possessed of nearly equal force, were naturally antagonists; and
England, from its power and situation, was entitled to support its own
dignity, as well as tranquillity, by holding the balance between them.
Whatever incident, therefore, tended too much to depress one of these
rival powers, as it left the other without control, might be deemed
contrary to the interests of England; yet so much were these great
maxims of policy overruled, during that age, by the disputes of
theology, that Philip found an advantage in supporting the established
government and religion of France, and Elizabeth in protecting faction
and innovation.
The queen regent of France, when reinstated in authority by the death
of her son Francis, had formed a plan of administration more subtle than
judicious; and balancing the Catholics with the Hugonots, the duke
of Guise with the prince of Conde, she endeavored to render herself
necessary to both, and to establish her own dominion on their
constrained obedience.[*] But the equal counterpoise of power, which,
among foreign nations, is the source of tranquillity, proves always the
ground of quarrel between domestic factions; and if the animosity of
religion concur with the frequent occasions which present themselves
of mutual injury, it is impossible during any time, to preserve a firm
concord in so delicate a situation. The constable Montmorency, moved
by zeal for the ancient faith, joined himself to the duke of Guise: the
king of Navarre, from his inconstant temper, and his jealousy of the
superior genius of his brother, embraced the same party: and Catharine,
finding herself depressed by this combination, had recourse to Conde
and the Hugonots, who gladly embraced the opportunity of fortifying
themselves by her countenance and protection.[**]
* Davila, lib. ii.
** Davila, lib. iii
An edict had been published, granting a toleration to the Protestants;
but the interested violence of the duke of Guise, covered with the
pretence of religious zeal, broke through this agreement; and the two
parties, after the fallacious tranquillity of a moment, renewed their
mutual insults and injuries. Conde, Coligny, Andelot assembled their
friends and flew to arms: Guise and Montmorency got possession of the
king's person, and constrained the queen regent to embrace their party:
fourteen armies were levied and put in motion in different parts of
France;[*] each province, each city, each family, was agitated with
intestine rage and animosity. The father was divided against the
son; brother against brother; and women themselves, sacrificing their
humanity as well as their timidity to the religious fury, distinguished
themselves by acts of ferocity and valor.[**] Wherever the Hugonots
prevailed, the images were broken, the altars pillaged, the churches
demolished, the monasteries consumed with fire: where success attended
the Catholics, they burned the Bibles, rebaptized the infants,
constrained married persons to pass anew through the nuptial ceremony:
and plunder, desolation, and bloodshed attended equally the triumph
of both parties. The parliament of Paris itself, the seat of law and
justice, instead of employing its authority to compose these fatal
quarrels, published an edict by which it put the sword into the hands
of the enraged multitude, and empowered the Catholics every where to
massacre the Hugonots:[***] and it was during this period, when men
began to be somewhat enlightened, and in this nation, renowned for
polished manners, that the theological rage, which had long been boiling
in men's veins, seems to have attained its last stage of virulence and
ferocity.
* Father Paul, lib. vii.
** Father Paul, lib. vii.
*** Father Paul, lib. vii. Haynes, p. 391.
Philip, jealous of the progress which the Hugonots made in France, and
dreading that the contagion would spread into the Low Country provinces,
had formed a secret alliance with the princes of Guise, and had entered
into a mutual concert for the protection of the ancient faith and the
suppression of heresy. He now sent six thousand men, with some supply of
money, to reenforce the Catholic party; and the prince of Conde, finding
himself unequal to so great a combination, countenanced by the royal
authority, was obliged to despatch the Vidame of Chartres and Briguemaut
to London, in order to crave the assistance and protection of Elizabeth.
Most of the province of Normandy was possessed by the Hugonots: and
Conde offered to put Havre de Grace into the hands of the English; on
condition that, together with three thousand man for the garrison of
that place, the queen should likewise send over three thousand to defend
Dieppe and Rouen, and should furnish the prince with a supply of a
hundred thousand crowns.[*]
Elizabeth, besides the general and essential interest of supporting the
Protestants, and opposing the rapid progress of her enemy the duke of
Guise, had other motives which engaged her to accept of this proposal.
When she concluded the peace at Chateau-Cambresis, she had good reason
to foresee that France never would voluntarily fulfil the article which
regarded the restitution of Calais; and many subsequent incidents had
tended to confirm this suspicion. Considerable sums of money had been
expended on the fortifications; long leases had been granted of the
lands; and many inhabitants had been encouraged to build and settle
there, by assurances that Calais should never be restored to the
English.[**] The queen therefore wisely concluded, that, could she get
possession of Havre, a place which commanded the mouth of the Seine, and
was of greater importance than Calais, she should easily constrain the
French to execute the treaty, and should have the glory of restoring to
the crown that ancient possession, so much the favorite of the nation.
No measure could be more generally odious in France than the conclusion
of this treaty with Elizabeth. Men were naturally led to compare the
conduct of Guise, who had finally expelled the English, and had debarred
these dangerous and destructive enemies from all access into France,
with the treasonable politics of Conde, who had again granted them an
entrance into the heart of the kingdom. The prince had the more reason
to repent of this measure, as he reaped not from it all the advantage
which he expected. Three thousand English immediately took possession
of Havre and Dieppe, under the command of Sir Edward Poinings; but
the latter place was found so little capable of defence, that it was
immediately abandoned.[***] The siege of Rouen was already formed by the
Catholics, under the command of the king of Navarre and Montmorency; and
it was with difficulty that Poinings could throw a small
reenforcement into the place. Though these English troops behaved with
gallantry,[****] and though the king of Navarre was mortally wounded
during the siege, the Catholics still continued the attack of the place,
and carrying it at last by assault, put the whole garrison to the sword.
* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 48.
** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 54, 257.
*** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 199.
**** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 161.
The earl of Warwick, eldest son of the late duke of Northumberland,
arrived soon after at Havre with another body of three thousand English,
and took on him the command of the place.
It was expected that the French Catholics, flushed with their success at
Rouen, would immediately have formed the siege of Havre, which was not
as yet in any condition of defence; but the intestine disorders of the
kingdom soon diverted their attention to another enterprise. Andelot,
seconded by the negotiations of Elizabeth, had levied a considerable
body of Protestants in Germany; and having arrived at Orleans, the seat
of the Hugonots' power, he enabled the prince of Conde and the admiral
to take the field, and oppose the progress of their enemies. After
threatening Paris during some time, they took their march towards
Normandy, with a view of engaging the English to act in conjunction with
them, and of fortifying themselves by the further assistance which
they expected from the zeal and vigor of Elizabeth.[*] The Catholics,
commanded by the constable, and under him by the duke of Guise, followed
on their rear; and overtaking them at Dreux, obliged them to give
battle. The field was fought with great obstinacy on both sides; and
the action was distinguished by this singular event, that Conde and
Montmorency, the commanders of the opposite armies, fell both of them
prisoners into the hands of their enemies. The appearances of victory
remained with Guise, but the admiral, whose fate it ever was to be
defeated, and still to rise more terrible after his misfortunes,
collected the remains of the army; and inspiring his own unconquerable
courage and constancy into every breast, kept them in a body, and
subdued some considerable places in Normandy. Elizabeth, the better to
support his cause, sent him a new supply of a hundred thousand crowns;
and offered, if he could find merchants to lend him the money, to give
her bond for another sum of equal amount.[**]
* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 320. Davila, lib. iii.
** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 322, 347.
{1563.} The expenses incurred by assisting the French Hugonots had
emptied the queen's exchequer; and in order to obtain supply, she found
herself under a necessity of summoning a parliament: an expedient to
which she never willingly had recourse. A little before the meeting of
this assembly, she had fallen into a dangerous illness, the small-pox;
and as her life, during some time, was despaired of, the people
became the more sensible of their perilous situation, derived from the
uncertainty, which, in case of her demise, attended the succession of
the crown. The partisans of the queen of Scots, and those of the house
of Suffolk, already divided the nation into factions; and every one
foresaw, that, though it might be possible at present to determine the
controversy by law, yet, if the throne were vacant, nothing but the
sword would be able to fix a successor. The commons, therefore, on the
opening of the session, voted an address to the queen; in which, after
enumerating the dangers attending a broken and doubtful succession,
and mentioning the evils which their fathers had experienced from the
contending titles of York and Lancaster, they entreated the queen to
put an end to their apprehensions, by choosing some husband, whom they
promised, whoever he were, gratefully to receive, and faithfully to
serve, honor, and obey: or if she had entertained any reluctance to the
married state, they desired that the lawful successor might be named,
at least appointed by act of parliament. They remarked, that, during
all the reigns which had passed since the conquest, the nation had never
before been so unhappy as not to know the person who, in case of the
sovereign's death, was legally entitled to fill the vacant throne. And
they observed, that the fixed order which took place in inheriting the
French monarchy, was one chief source of the usual tranquillity, as well
as of the happiness, of that kingdom.[*]
* Sir Simon d'Ewes's Journ. p. 81.
This subject, though extremely interesting to the nation, was very
little agreeable to the queen; and she was sensible that great
difficulties would attend every decision. A declaration in favor of the
queen of Scots would form a settlement perfectly legal; because that
princess was commonly allowed to possess the right of blood; and the
exclusion given by Henry's will, deriving its weight chiefly from an
act of parliament, would lose all authority whenever the queen and
parliament had made a new settlement, and restored the Scottish line to
its place in the succession. But she dreaded giving encouragement to
the Catholics, her secret enemies, by this declaration. She was sensible
that every heir was, in some degree, a rival; much more one who enjoyed
a claim for the present possession of the crown, and who had already
advanced, in a very open manner, these dangerous pretensions. The great
power of Mary, both from the favor of the Catholic princes, and her
connections with the house of Guise, not to mention the force and
situation of Scotland, was well known to her; and she saw no security,
that this princess, if fortified by a sure prospect of succession, would
not revive claims which she could never yet be prevailed on formally
to relinquish. On the other hand, the title of the house of Suffolk was
supported by the more zealous Protestants only; and it was very doubtful
whether even a parliamentary declaration in its favor would bestow on it
such validity as to give satisfaction to the people. The republican
part of the constitution had not yet acquired such an ascendant as
to control, in any degree, the ideas of hereditary right, and as the
legality of Henry's will was still disputed, though founded on the
utmost authority which a parliament could confer, who could be assured
that a more recent act would be acknowledged to have greater validity?
In the frequent revolutions which had of late taken place, the right of
blood had still prevailed over religious prejudices; and the nation had
ever shown itself disposed rather to change its faith than the order of
succession. Even many Protestants declared themselves in favor of
Mary's claim of inheritance;[*] and nothing would occasion more general
disgust, than to see the queen, openly and without reserve, take part
against it.
* Keith, p. 322.
The Scottish princess also, finding herself injured in so sensible a
point, would thenceforth act as a declared enemy; and uniting together
her foreign and domestic friends, the partisans of her present title
and of her eventual succession, would soon bring matters to extremities
against the present establishment. The queen, weighing all these
inconveniences, which were great and urgent, was determined to keep
both parties in awe, by maintaining still an ambiguous conduct; and she
rather chose that the people should run the hazard of contingent events,
than that she herself should visibly endanger her throne, by employing
expedients, which, at best, would not bestow entire security on the
nation. She gave, therefore, an evasive answer to the applications of
the commons; and when the house, at the end of the session, desired, by
the mouth of their speaker, further satisfaction on that head, she could
not be prevailed on to make her reply more explicit. She only told them,
contrary to her declarations in the beginning of her reign, that she had
fixed no absolute resolution against marriage; and she added, that the
difficulties attending the question of the succession were so great that
she would be contented, for the sake of her people, to remain some
time longer in this vale of misery; and never should depart life with
satisfaction, till she had laid some solid foundation for their future
security.[*]
The most remarkable law passed this session, was that which bore the
title of "Assurance of the queen's royal power over all states and
subjects within her dominions."[**] By this act, the asserting twice,
by writing, word, or deed, the pope's authority, was subjected to the
penalties of treason. All persons in holy orders were bound to take the
oath of supremacy; as also all who were advanced to any degree, either
in the universities or in common law; all schoolmasters, officers in
court, or members of parliament: and the penalty of their second
refusal was treason. The first offence, in both cases, was punished by
banishment and forfeiture. This rigorous statute was not extended to
any of the degree of a baron; because it was not supposed that the
queen could entertain any doubt with regard to the fidelity of persons
possessed of such high dignity. Lord Montacute made opposition to the
bill; and asserted, in favor of the Catholics, that they disputed not,
they preached not, they disobeyed not the queen, they caused no trouble,
no tumults among the people.[***] It is, however, probable, that
some suspicions of their secret conspiracies had made the queen and
parliament increase their rigor against them; though it is also more
than probable, that they were mistaken in the remedy.
There was likewise another point, in which the parliament, this session,
showed more the goodness of their intention than the soundness of their
judgment. They passed a law against fond and fantastical prophecies,
which had been observed to seduce the people into rebellion and
disorder:[****] but at the same time they enacted a statute, which
was most likely to increase these and such like superstitions: it was
levelled against conjurations, enchantments, and witchcraft.[v]
* Sir Simon D'Ewes's Journal, p. 75.
** 5 Eliz. c. 1.
*** Strype, vol. i. p 260.
**** 5 Eliz. c. I
v 5 Eliz. c. 16.
Witchcraft and heresy are two crimes which commonly increase by
punishment, and never are so effectually suppressed as by being totally
neglected. After the parliament had granted the queen a supply of one
subsidy and two fifteenths, the session was finished by a prorogation.
The convocation likewise voted the queen a subsidy of six shillings in
the pound, payable in three years.
While the English parties exerted these calm efforts against each other
in parliamentary votes and debates, the French factions, inflamed to
the highest degree of animosity, continued that cruel war which their
intemperate zeal, actuated by the ambition of their leaders, had kindled
in the kingdom. The admiral was successful in reducing the towns of
Normandy which held for the king; but he frequently complained that
the numerous garrison of Havre remained totally inactive, and was not
employed in any military operation against the common enemy. The queen,
in taking possession of that place, had published a manifesto,[*] in
which she pretended that her concern for the interests of the French
king had engaged her in that measure, and that her sole intention was
to oppose her enemies of the house of Guise, who held their prince in
captivity, and employed his power to the destruction of his best
and most faithful subjects. It was chiefly her desire to preserve
appearances, joined to the great frugality of her temper, which made her
at this critical juncture keep her soldiers in garrison, and restrain
them from committing further hostilities upon the enemy.[**]
* Forbes, vol. ii.
** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 276, 277.
The duke of Guise, meanwhile, was aiming a mortal blow at the power of
the Hugonots; and had commenced the siege of Orleans, of which Andelot
was governor, and where the constable was detained prisoner. He had the
prospect of speedy success in this undertaking; when he was assassinated
by Poltrot, a young gentleman whose zeal, instigated (as is pretended,
though without any certain foundation) by the admiral, and Beza, a
famous preacher, led him to attempt that criminal enterprise. The death
of this gallant prince was a sensible loss to the Catholic party;
and though the cardinal of Lorraine, his brother, still supported the
interests of the family, the danger of their progress appeared not so
imminent either to Elizabeth or to the French Protestants. The union,
therefore, between these allies, which had been cemented by their common
fears, began thenceforth to be less intimate; and the leaders of the
Hugonots were persuaded to hearken to terms of a separate accommodation.
Conde and Montmorency held conferences for settling the peace; and as
they were both of them impatient to relieve themselves from captivity,
they soon came to an agreement with regard to the conditions. The
character of the queen regent, whose ends were always violent, but who
endeavored by subtlety and policy, rather than force, to attain
them, led her to embrace any plausible terms; and in spite of the
protestations of the admiral, whose sagacity could easily discover the
treachery of the court, the articles of agreement were finally settled
between the parties. A toleration under some restrictions was anew
granted to the Protestants; a general amnesty was published; Conde was
reinstated in his offices and governments; and after money was advanced
for the payment of arrears due to the German troops, they were dismissed
the kingdom.
By the agreement between Elizabeth and the prince of Conde, it had been
stipulated,[*] that neither party should conclude peace without the
consent of the other; but this article was at present but little
regarded by the leaders of the French Protestants. They only
comprehended her so far in the treaty, as to obtain a promise that,
on her relinquishing Havre, her charges, and the money which she had
advanced them, should be repaid her by the king of France, and that
Calais, on the expiration of the term, should be restored to her. But
she disdained to accept of these conditions; and thinking the possession
of Havre a much better pledge for effecting her purpose, she sent
Warwick orders to prepare himself against an attack from the now united
power of the French monarchy.
The earl of Warwick, who commanded a garrison of six thousand men,
besides seven hundred pioneers, had no sooner got possession of Havre,
than he employed every means for putting it in a posture of defence;[**]
and after expelling the French from the town, he encouraged his soldiers
to make the most desperate defence against the enemy. The constable
commanded the French army; the queen regent herself and the king were
present in the camp; even the prince of Conde joined the king's forces,
and gave countenance to this enterprise; the admiral and Andelot
alone, anxious still to preserve the friendship of Elizabeth, kept at
a distance, and prudently refused to join their ancient enemies in an
attack upon their allies.
* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 79.
** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 158.
From the force, and dispositions, and situation of both sides it was
expected that the siege would be attended with some memorable event; yet
did France make a much easier acquisition of this important place
than was at first apprehended. The plague crept in among the English
soldiers; and being increased by their fatigue and bad diet, (for they
were but ill supplied with provisions,[*]) it made such ravages, that
sometimes a hundred men a day died of it; and there remained not, at
last, fifteen hundred in a condition to do duty.[**] The French, meeting
with such feeble resistance, carried on their attacks successfully; and
having made two breaches, each of them sixty feet wide, they prepared
for a general assault, which must have terminated in the slaughter of
the whole garrison.[***] Warwick, who had frequently warned the English
council of the danger, and who had loudly demanded a supply of men and
provisions, found himself obliged to capitulate, and to content himself
with the liberty of withdrawing his garrison. The articles were no
sooner signed, than Lord Clinton, the admiral, who had been detained by
contrary winds, appeared off the harbor with a reenforcement of three
thousand men; and found the place surrendered to the enemy. To increase
the misfortune, the infected army brought the plague with them into
England, where it swept off great multitudes, particularly in the
city of London. Above twenty thousand persons there died of it in one
year.[****] [6]
* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 377, 498.
** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 450, 458.
*** Forbes, vol. ii. p. 498.
**** See note F, at the end of the volume.
Elizabeth, whose usual vigor and foresight had not appeared in this
transaction, was now glad to compound matters; and as the queen
regent desired to obtain leisure, in order to prepare measures for the
extermination of the Hugonots, she readily hearkened to any reasonable
terms of accommodation with England.[*]
* Davila, lib. iii.
{1564.} It was agreed, that the hostages which the French had given for
the restitution of Calais, should be restored for two hundred and twenty
thousand crowns; and that both sides should retain all their claims and
pretensions.
The peace still continued with Scotland and even a cordial friendship
seemed to have been cemented between Elizabeth and Mary. These
princesses made profession of the most entire affection; wrote amicable
letters every week to each other; and had adopted, in all appearance,
the sentiments as well as style of sisters. Elizabeth punished one
Hales, who had published a book against Mary's title;[*] and as the lord
keeper Bacon was thought to have encouraged Hales in this undertaking,
he fell under her displeasure, and it was with some difficulty he was
able to give her satisfaction, and recover her favor.[**] The two queens
had agreed in the foregoing summer to an interview at York,[***] in
order to remove all difficulties with regard to Mary's ratification
of the treaty of Edinburgh, and to consider of the proper method for
settling the succession of England; but as Elizabeth carefully avoided
touching on this delicate subject, she employed a pretence of the wars
in France, which, she said, would detain her in London; and she delayed
till next year the intended interview. It is also probable, that being
well acquainted with the beauty, and address, and accomplishments of
Mary, she did not choose to stand the comparison with regard to those
exterior qualities, in which she was eclipsed by her rival; and was
unwilling that a princess, who had already made great progress in the
esteem and affections of the English, should have a further opportunity
of increasing the number of her partisans.
* Keith, p. 252.
** Keith, p. 253.
*** Haynes, p. 388.
Mary's close connections with the house of Guise, and her devoted
attachment to her uncles, by whom she had been early educated and
constantly protected, was the ground of just and insurmountable jealousy
to Elizabeth, who regarded them as her mortal and declared enemies,
and was well acquainted with their dangerous character and ambitious
projects. They had made offer of their niece to Don Carlos, Philip's
son; to the king of Sweden, the king of Navarre, the archduke Charles,
the duke of Ferrara, the cardinal of Bourbon, who had only taken
deacon's orders, from which he might easily be freed by a dispensation;
and they were ready to marry her to any one who could strengthen their
interests, or give inquietude and disturbance to Elizabeth.[*]
* Forbes, vol. ii. p. 287. Strype, vol. i. p. 400.
Elizabeth, on her part, was equally vigilant to prevent the execution
of their schemes, and was particularly anxious lest Mary should form
any powerful foreign alliance, which might tempt her to revive her
pretensions to the crown, and to invade the kingdom on the side where it
was weakest and lay most exposed.[*] As she believed that the marriage
with the archduke Charles was the one most likely to have place, she
used every expedient to prevent it; and besides remonstrating against
it to Mary herself, she endeavored to draw off the archduke from that
pursuit, by giving him some hopes of success in his pretensions to
herself, and by inviting him to a renewal of the former treaty of
marriage.[**] She always told the queen of Scots, that nothing would
satisfy her but her espousing some English nobleman, who would remove
all grounds of jealousy, and cement the union between the kingdoms; and
she offered on this condition to have her title examined, and to declare
her successor to the crown.[***] After keeping the matter in these
general terms during a twelvemonth, she at last named Lord Robert
Dudley, now created earl of Leicester, as the person on whom she desired
that Mary's choice should fall.
[Illustration: 1-453-mary_stuart.jpg MARY STUART]
The earl of Leicester, the great and powerful favorite of Elizabeth,
possessed all those exterior qualities which are naturally alluring
to the fair sex; a handsome person, a polite address, an insinuating
behavior; and by means of these accomplishments he had been able to
blind even the penetration of Elizabeth, and conceal from her the great
defects, or rather odious vices, which attended his character. He
was proud, insolent, interested, ambitious; without honor, without
generosity, without humanity; and atoned not for these bad qualities
by such abilities or courage as could fit him for that high trust and
confidence with which she always honored him. Her constant and declared
attachment to him had naturally emboldened him to aspire to her bed; and
in order to make way for these nuptials, he was universally believed
to have murdered, in a barbarous manner, his wife, the heiress of one
Robesart. The proposal of espousing Mary was by no means agreeable to
him; and he always ascribed it to the contrivance of Cecil, his
enemy; who, he thought, intended by that artifice to make him lose the
friendship of Mary from the temerity of his pretensions, and that of
Elizabeth from jealousy of his attachments to another woman.[****]
* Keith, p 247, 284.
** Melvil, p. 41.
*** Keith, p. 213, 249, 259. 265.
**** Camden, p. 396
The queen herself had not any serious intention of effecting this
marriage, but as she was desirous that the queen of Scots should never
have any husband, she named a man who, she believed, was not likely to
be accepted of; and she hoped by that means to gain time, and elude the
project of any other alliance. The earl of Leicester was too great a
favorite to be parted with; and when Mary, allured by the prospect of
being declared successor to the crown, seemed at last to hearken
to Elizabeth's proposal, this princess receded from her offers, and
withdrew the bait which she had thrown out to her rival.[*] This
duplicity of conduct, joined to some appearance of an imperious
superiority assumed by her, had drawn a peevish letter from Mary; and
the seemingly amicable correspondence between the two queens was, during
some time, interrupted. In order to make up the breach, the queen of
Scots despatched Sir James Melvil to London; who has given us in his
memoirs a particular account of his negotiation.
Melvil was an agreeable courtier, a man of address and conversation;
and it was recommended to him by his mistress, that, besides grave
reasonings concerning politics and state affairs, he should introduce
more entertaining topics of conversation, suitable to the sprightly
character of Elizabeth, and should endeavor by that means to insinuate
himself into her confidence. He succeeded so well, that he threw that
artful princess entirely off her guard,[**] and made her discover the
bottom of her heart, full of all those levities, and follies, and ideas
of rivalship which possess the youngest and most frivolous of her sex.
* Keith, p. 269, 270. Appendix, p, 158. Strype, vol. i. p.
414.
** Haynes, p. 447.
He talked to her of his travels, and forgot not to mention the different
dresses of the ladies in different countries, and the particular
advantages of each in setting off the beauties of the shape and person.
The queen said, that she had dresses of all countries; and she took care
thenceforth to meet the ambassador every day apparelled in a different
habit: sometimes she was dressed in the English garb, sometimes in the
French, sometimes in the Italian; and she asked him which of them
became her most. He answered, the Italian; a reply that he knew would
be agreeable to her, because that mode showed to advantage her flowing
locks, which, he remarked, though they were more red than yellow, she
fancied to be the finest in the world. She desired to know of him what
was reputed the best color of hair: she asked whether his queen or she
had the finest hair: she even inquired which of them he esteemed the
fairest person; a very delicate question, and which he prudently eluded,
by saying that her majesty was the fairest person in England and his
mistress in Scotland. She next demanded which of them was tallest:
he replied, his queen. "Then is she too tall," said Elizabeth; "for I
myself am of a just stature." Having learned from him that his mistress
sometimes recreated herself by playing on the harpsichord, an instrument
on which she herself excelled, she gave orders to Lord Hunsdon, that he
should lead the ambassador, as it were casually, into an apartment where
he might hear her perform; and when Melvil, as if ravished with
the harmony, broke into the queen's apartment, she pretended to be
displeased with his intrusion; but still took care to ask him whether he
thought Mary or her the best performer on that instrument.[*] From the
whole of her behavior, Melvil thought he might, on his return, assure
his mistress, that she had no reason ever to expect any cordial
friendship from Elizabeth, and that all her professions of amity were
full of falsehood and dissimulation.
* Melvil, p, 49, 50., Keith, p 264.
After two years had been spent in evasions and artifices, Mary's
subjects and counsellors, and probably herself, began to think it full
time that some marriage were concluded; and Lord Darnley, son of the
earl of Lenox, was the person in whom most men's opinions and wishes
centred. He was Mary's cousin-german, by the lady Margaret Douglas,
niece to Henry VIII., and daughter of the earl of Angus, by Margaret,
queen of Scotland. He had been born and educated in England, where the
earl of Lenox had constantly resided, since he had been banished by the
prevailing power of the house of Hamilton; and as Darnley was now in
his twentieth year, and was a very comely person, tall and delicately
shaped, it was hoped that he might soon render himself agreeable to the
queen of Scots. He was also by his father a branch of the same family
with herself; and would, in espousing her, preserve the royal dignity
in the house of Stuart: he was, after her, next heir to the crown of
England; and those who pretended to exclude her on account of her being
a foreigner, had endeavored to recommend his title, and give it the
preference. It seemed no inconsiderable advantage, that she could,
by marrying him, unite both their claims; and as he was by birth an
Englishman, and could not by his power or alliances give any ground of
suspicion to Elizabeth, it was hoped that the proposal of this marriage
would not be unacceptable to that jealous princess.
Elizabeth was well informed of these intentions;[*] and was secretly not
displeased with the projected marriage between Darnley and the queen of
Scots.[**] She would rather have wished that Mary had continued forever
in a single life; but finding little probability of rendering this
scheme effectual, she was satisfied with a choice which freed her at
once from the dread of a foreign alliance, and from the necessity
of parting with Leicester, her favorite. In order to pave the way to
Darnley's marriage, she secretly desired Mary to invite Lenox into
Scotland, to reverse his attainder, and to restore him to his honors and
fortune.[***] And when her request was complied with, she took care,
in order to preserve the friendship of the Hamiltons and her other
partisans in Scotland, to blame openly this conduct of Mary.[****]
* Keith, p. 261.
** Keith, p. 280, 282. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 46.
*** Keith, p. 255, 259, 272.
**** Melvil, p. 42.
{1565.} Hearing that the negotiation for Darnley's marriage advanced
apace, she gave that nobleman permission, on his first application, to
follow his father into Scotland: but no sooner did she learn that
the queen of Scots was taken with his figure and person, and that all
measures were fixed for espousing him, than she exclaimed against
the marriage; sent Throgmorton to order Darnley immediately, upon his
allegiance, to return to England; threw the countess of Lenox and her
second son into the Tower, where they suffered a rigorous confinement;
seized all Lenox's English estate; and, though it was impossible for her
to assign one single reason for her displeasure,[*] she menaced, and,
protested, and complained, as if she had suffered the most grievous
injury in the world.
* Keith, p. 274, 275.
The politics of Elizabeth, though judicious, were usually full of
duplicity and artifice; but never more so than in her transactions with
the queen of Scots, where there entered so many little passions and
narrow jealousies, that she durst not avow to the world the reasons of
her conduct, scarcely to her ministers, and scarcely even to herself.
But besides a womanish rivalship and envy against the marriage of this
princess, she had some motives of interest for feigning a displeasure
on the present occasion. It served her as a pretence for refusing to
acknowledge Mary's title to the succession of England; a point to which,
for good reasons, she was determined never to consent. And it was
useful to her for a purpose still more unfriendly and dangerous, for
encouraging the discontents and rebellion of the Scottish nobility and
ecclesiastics.[*]
Nothing can be more unhappy for a people than to be governed by a
sovereign attached to a religion different from the established; and
it is scarcely possible that mutual confidence can ever, in such a
situation, have place between the prince and his subjects. Mary's
conduct had been hitherto in every respect unexceptionable, and even
laudable; yet had she not made such progress in acquiring popularity,
as might have been expected from her gracious deportment and agreeable
accomplishments. Suspicions every moment prevailed on account of her
attachment to the Catholic faith, and especially to her uncles, the open
and avowed promoters of the scheme for exterminating the professors of
the reformed religion throughout all Europe. She still refused to ratify
the acts of parliament which had established the reformation; she made
attempts for restoring to the Catholic bishops some part of their civil
jurisdiction;[**] and she wrote a letter to the council of Trent, in
which, besides professing her attachment to the Catholic faith, she took
notice of her title to succeed to the crown of England, and expressed
her hopes of being able, in some period, to bring back all her dominions
to the bosom of the church.[***] The zealots among the Protestants were
not wanting, in their turn, to exercise their insolence against her,
which tended still more to alienate her from their faith. A law was
enacted, making it capital, on the very first offence, to say mass any
where, except in the queen's chapel;[****] and it was with difficulty
that even this small indulgence was granted her: the general assembly
importuned her anew to change her religion; to renounce the blasphemous
idolatry of the mass, with the tyranny of the Roman Antichrist; and to
embrace the true religion of Christ Jesus.[v]
* Keith, p. 290.
** Spotswood, p. 198.
*** Father Paul, lib. vii.
**** Keith, p. 268.
v Keith, p, 545. Knox. p. 374.
As she answered in temper, that she was not yet convinced of the falsity
of her religion or the impiety of the mass, and that her apostasy would
lose her the friendship of her allies on the continent, they replied
by assuring her, that their religion was undoubtedly the same which had
been revealed by Jesus Christ, which had been preached by the apostles,
and which had been embraced by the faithful in the primitive ages; that
neither the religion of Turks, Jews, nor Papists was built on so solid
a foundation as theirs; that they alone, of all the various species of
religionists spread over the face of the earth, were so happy as to be
possessed of the truth; that those who hear, or rather who gaze on the
mass, allow sacrilege, pronounce blasphemy, and commit most abominable
idolatry; and that the friendship of the King of kings was preferable to
all the alliances in the world.[*]
The marriage of the queen of Scots had kindled afresh the zeal of the
reformers, because the family of Lenox was believed to adhere to the
Catholic faith; and though Darnley, who now bore the name of King Henry,
went often to the established church, he could not, by this exterior
compliance, gain the confidence and regard of the ecclesiastics. They
rather laid hold of the opportunity to insult him to his face; and Knox
scrupled not to tell him from the pulpit, that God, for punishment of
the offences and ingratitude of the people, was wont to commit the rule
over them to boys and women.[**] The populace of Edinburgh, instigated
by such doctrines, began to meet and to associate themselves against
the government.[***] But what threatened more immediate danger to
Mary's authority, were the discontents which prevailed among some of the
principal nobility.
* Keith, p. 550, 551.
** Keith, p. 546. Knox, p. 381.
*** Knox, p. 377.
The duke of Chatelrault was displeased with the restoration, and still
more with the aggrandizement of the family of Lenox, his hereditary
enemies; and entertained fears lest his own eventual succession to the
crown of Scotland should be excluded by his rival, who had formerly
advanced some pretensions to it. The earl of Murray found his credit at
court much diminished by the interest of Lenox and his son; and began
to apprehend the revocation of some considerable grants which he
had obtained from Mary's bounty. The earls of Argyle, Rothes, and
Glencairne, the lords Boyde and Ochiltry, Kirkaldy of Grange, Pittarow,
were instigated by like motives; and as these were the persons who had
most zealously promoted the reformation, they were disgusted to find
that the queen's favor was entirely engrossed by a new cabal, the earls
of Bothwell, Athole, Sutherland, and Huntley; men who were esteemed
either lukewarm in religious controversy, or inclined to the Catholic
party. The same ground of discontent which in other courts is the source
of intrigue, faction, and opposition, commonly produced in Scotland
either projects of assassination or of rebellion; and besides mutual
accusations of the former kind, which it is difficult to clear up,[*]
[7] the malecontent lords, as soon as they saw the queen's marriage
entirely resolved on, entered into a confederacy for taking arms against
their sovereign. They met at Stirling; pretended an anxious concern for
the security of religion; framed engagements for mutual defence; and
made applications to Elizabeth for assistance and protection.[**] That
princess, after publishing the expressions of her displeasure against
the marriage, had secretly ordered her ambassadors, Randolf and
Throgmorton, to give in her name some promises of support to the
malecontents; and had even sent them a supply of ten thousand pounds, to
enable them to begin an insurrection.[***]
Mary was no sooner informed of the meeting at Stirling, and the
movements of the lords, than she summoned them to appear at court, in
order to answer for their conduct; and having levied some forces to
execute the laws, she obliged the rebels to leave the low countries,
and take shelter in Argyleshire. That she might more effectually cut off
their resources, she proceeded with the king to Glasgow, and forced them
from their retreat. They appeared at Paisley, in the neighborhood,
with about a thousand horse, and passing the queen's army, proceeded to
Hamilton, thence to Edinburgh, which they entered without resistance.
They expected great reenforcements in this place, from the efforts of
Knox and the seditious preachers; and they beat their drums, desiring
all men to enlist, and receive wages for the defence of God's
glory.[****]
* See note G, at the end of the volume.
** Keith, p. 293, 294, 300, 301.
*** Knox, p. 380. Keith, Append, p. 164. Anderson, vol. iii.
p. 194.
**** Knox, p. 381.
But the nation was in no disposition for rebellion: Mary was esteemed
and beloved: her marriage was not generally disagreeable to the people:
and the interested views of the malecontent lords were so well known,
that their pretence of zeal for religion had little influence even on
the ignorant populace.[*] The king and queen advanced to Edinburgh
at the head of their army: the rebels were obliged to retire into the
south; and being pursued by a force which now amounted to eighteen
thousand men,[**] they found themselves under a necessity of abandoning
their country, and of taking shelter in England.
Elizabeth, when she found the event so much to disappoint her
expectations, thought proper to disavow all connections with the
Scottish malecontents, and to declare every where, that she had
never given them any encouragement, nor any promise of countenance or
assistance. She even carried further her dissimulation and hypocrisy.
Murray had come to London, with the abbot of Kilwinning, agent for
Chatelrault; and she seduced them, by secret assurances of protection,
to declare before the ambassadors of France and Spain that she had
nowise contributed to their insurrection. No sooner had she extorted
this confession from them, than she chased them from her presence,
called them unworthy traitors, declared that their detestable rebellion
was of bad example to all princes; and assured them, that as she had
hitherto given them no encouragement, so should they never thenceforth
receive from her any assistance or protection.[***] Throgmorton alone,
whose honor was equal to his abilities, could not be prevailed on to
conceal the part which he had acted in the enterprise of the Scottish
rebels; and being well apprised of the usual character and conduct of
Elizabeth, he had had the precaution to obtain an order of council
to authorize the engagements which he had been obliged to make with
them.[****]
* Knox, p. 380, 385.
** Knox, p. 388.
*** Melvil, p. 57. Knox, p. 388. Keith, p. 319. Crawford, p,
62, 63.
**** Melvil, p. 60.
The banished lords, finding themselves so harshly treated by Elizabeth,
had recourse to the clemency of their own sovereign; and after some
solicitation and some professions of sincere repentance, the duke of
Chatelrault obtained his pardon, on condition that he should retire into
France. Mary was more implacable against the ungrateful earl of Murray
and the other confederates, on whom she threw the chief blame of the
enterprise; but as she was continually plied with applications from
their friends, and as some of her most judicious partisans in England
thought, that nothing would more promote her interests in that kingdom,
than the gentle treatment of men so celebrated for their zeal against
the Catholic religion, she agreed to give way to her natural temper,
which inclined not to severity, and she seemed determined to restore
them to favor.[*] In this interval, Rambouillet arrived as ambassador
from France, and brought her advice from her uncle, the cardinal of
Lorraine, to whose opinion she always paid an extreme deference, by
no means to pardon these Protestant leaders, who had been engaged in a
rebellion against her.[**]
The two religions, in France, as well as in other parts of Europe, were
rather irritated than tired with their acts of mutual violence; and
the peace granted to the Hugonots, as had been foreseen by Coligny, was
intended only to lull them asleep and prepare the way for their final
and absolute destruction. The queen regent made a pretence of travelling
through the kingdom, in order to visit the provinces, and correct all
the abuses arising from the late civil war; and after having held some
conferences on the frontiers with the duke of Lorraine and the duke of
Savoy, she came to Bayonne, where she was met by her daughter, the queen
of Spain, and the duke of Alva. Nothing appeared in the congress of
these two splendid courts, but gayety, festivity, love, and joy; but
amidst these smiling appearances were secretly fabricated schemes the
most bloody, and the most destructive to the repose of mankind, that
had ever been thought of in any age or nation. No less than a total
and universal extermination of the Protestants by fire and sword was
concerted by Philip and Catharine of Medicis; and Alva, agreeably to his
fierce and sanguinary disposition, advised the queen regent to commence
the execution of this project, by the immediate massacre of all the
leaders of the Hugonots.[***]
* Melvil, p. 59, 60, 61, 62, 63. Keith, p. 322.
** Keith p. 325. Melvil, p. 63.
*** Davila, lib iii.
But that princess, though equally hardened against every humane
sentiment, would not forego this opportunity of displaying her wit
and refined politics; and she purposed rather by treachery and
dissimulation, which she called address, to lead the Protestants into
the snare, and never to draw the sword till they were totally disabled
from resistance. The cardinal of Lorraine, whose character bore a
greater affinity to that of Alva, was a chief author of this barbarous
association against the reformers; and having connected his hopes of
success with the aggrandizement of his niece, the queen of Scots, he
took care that her measures should correspond to those violent counsels
which were embraced by the other Catholic princes. In consequence of
this scheme, he turned her from the road of clemency, which she intended
to have followed, and made her resolve on the total ruin of the banished
lords.[*]
{1565.} A parliament was summoned at Edinburgh for attainting them; and
as their guilt was palpable and avowed, no doubt was entertained but
sentence would be pronounced against them. It was by a sudden and
violent incident, which, in the issue, brought on the ruin of Mary
herself, that they were saved from the rigor of the law.
The marriage of the queen of Scots with Lord Darnley was so natural,
and so inviting in all its circumstances, that it had been precipitately
agreed to by that princess and her council; and while she was allured
by his youth, and beauty, and exterior accomplishments, she had at first
overlooked the qualities of his mind, which nowise corresponded to
the excellence of his outward figure. Violent, yet variable in his
resolutions; insolent, yet credulous and easily governed by flatterers;
he was destitute of all gratitude, because he thought no favors equal to
his merit; and being addicted to low pleasures, he was equally incapable
of all true sentiments of love and tenderness.[*] The queen of Scots,
in the first effusions of her fondness, had taken a pleasure in exalting
him beyond measure; she had granted him the title of king; she had
joined his name with her own in all public acts; she intended to have
procured him from the parliament a matrimonial crown; but having leisure
afterwards to remark his weakness and vices, she began to see the danger
of her profuse liberality, and was resolved thenceforth to proceed
with more reserve in the trust which she should confer upon him. His
resentment against this prudent conduct served but the more to increase
her disgust: and the young prince, enraged at her imagined neglects,
pointed his vengeance against every one whom he deemed the cause of this
change in her measures and behavior.
* Melvil, p. 63. Keith's Append. p. 176.
There was in the court one David Rizzio, who had of late obtained a very
extraordinary degree of confidence and favor with the queen of Scots. He
was a Piedmontese, of mean birth, son of a teacher of music, himself
a musician; and finding it difficult to subsist by his art in his own
country, he had followed into Scotland an ambassador, whom the duke of
Savoy sent thither to pay his compliments to Mary, some time after her
first arrival. He possessed a good ear, and a tolerable voice; and
as that princess found him useful to complete her band of music, she
retained him in her service after the departure of his master. Her
secretary for French despatches having some time after incurred her
displeasure, she promoted Rizzio to that office, which gave him frequent
opportunities of approaching her person, and insinuating himself into
her favor. He was shrewd and sensible, as well as aspiring, much beyond
his rank and education; and he made so good use of the access which
fortune had procured him, that he was soon regarded as the chief
confidant, and even minister of the queen. He was consulted on all
occasions; no favors could be obtained but by his intercession; all
suitors were obliged to gain him by presents and flattery; and the
man, insolent from his new exaltation, as well as rapacious in his
acquisitions, soon drew on himself the hatred of the nobility and of
the whole kingdom.[*] He had at first employed his credit to promote
Darnley's marriage; and a firm friendship seemed to be established
between them; but on the subsequent change of the queen's sentiments,
it was easy for Henry's friends to persuade him that Rizzio was the real
author of her indifference, and even to rouse in his mind jealousies of
a more dangerous nature. The favorite was of a disagreeable figure, but
was not past his youth;[**] [8] and though the opinion of his criminal
correspondence with Mary might seem of itself unreasonable, if not
absurd, a suspicious husband could find no other means of accounting for
that lavish and imprudent kindness with which she honored him.
* Keith, p. 282, 302, Crawford's Memoirs, p. 5. Spotswood,
p. 193.
** See note H, at the end of the volume.
The rigid austerity of the ecclesiastics, who could admit of no
freedoms, contributed to spread this opinion among the people; and as
Rizzio was universally believed to be a pensionary of the pope's, and to
be deeply engaged in all schemes against the Protestants, any story to
his and Mary's disadvantage received an easy credit among the zealots of
that communion. Rizzio, who had connected his interests with the
Roman Catholics, was the declared enemy of the banished lords; and by
promoting the violent prosecutions against them, he had exposed himself
to the animosity of their numerous friends and retainers. A scheme
was also thought to be formed for revoking some exorbitant grants made
during the queen's minority, and even the nobility, who had seized the
ecclesiastical benefices, began to think themselves less secure in the
possession of them.[*] The earl of Morton, chancellor, was affected by
all these considerations, and still more by a rumor spread abroad, that
Mary intended to appoint Rizzio chancellor in his place, and to bestow
that dignity on a mean and upstart foreigner, ignorant of the laws and
language of the country.[**] So indiscreet had this princess been in her
kindness to Rizzio, that even that strange report met with credit, and
proved a great means of accelerating the ruin of the favorite. Morton,
insinuating himself into Henry's confidence, employed all his art to
inflame the discontent and jealousy of that prince; and he persuaded
him, that the only means of freeing himself from the indignities under
which he labored, was to bring the base stranger to the fate which he
had so well merited, and which was so passionately desired by the
whole nation. George Douglas, natural brother to the countess of Lenox,
concurred in the same advice; and the Lords Ruthven and Lindesey, being
consulted, offered their assistance in the enterprise; nor was even
the earl of Lenox, the king's father, averse to the design.[***] But
as these conspirators were well acquainted with Henry's levity, they
engaged him to sign a paper, in which he avowed the undertaking, as
tending to the glory of God and advancement of religion, and promised
to protect them against every consequence which might ensue upon the
assassination of Rizzio.[****] All these measures being concerted, a
messenger was despatched to the banished lords, who were hovering near
the borders; and they were invited by the king to return to their native
country.
* Keith, p. 326. Melvil, p. 64.
** Buchanan, lib. xvii. c. 60. Crawford, p. 6. Spotswood, p.
194. Knox, p. 393. Jebb, vol. i. p. 456.
*** Crawford, p. 7.
**** Goodall, vol. i. p. 266. Crawford, p. 7.
This design, so atrocious in itself, was rendered still more so by the
circumstances which attended its execution. Mary, who was in the sixth
month of her pregnancy, was supping in private, and had at table the
countess of Argyle, her natural sister, with Rizzio, and others of her
servants. The king entered the room by a private passage, and stood
at the back of Mary's chair: Lord Ruthven, George Douglas, and other
conspirators, being all armed, rushed in after him; and the queen of
Scots, terrified with the appearance, demanded of them the reason of
this rude intrusion. They told her, that they intended no violence
against her person; but meant only to bring that villain, pointing to
Rizzio, to his deserved punishment. Rizzio, aware of the danger, ran
behind his mistress, and seizing her by the waist, called aloud to her
for protection; while she interposed in his behalf, with cries, and
menaces, and entreaties. The impatient assassins, regardless of her
efforts, rushed upon their prey, and by overturning every thing which
stood in their way, increased the horror and confusion of the scene.
Douglas, seizing Henry's dagger, stuck it in the body of Rizzio,
who, screaming with fear and agony, was torn from Mary by the other
conspirators, and pushed into the ante-chamber, where he was despatched
with fifty-six wounds.[*]
* Melvil, p. 64. Keith, p. 330, 331. Crawford, p. 9.
The unhappy princess, informed of his fate, immediately dried her tears,
and said, she would weep no more; she would now think of revenge. The
insult, indeed, upon her person; the stain attempted to be fixed on
her honor; the danger to which her life was exposed, on account of her
pregnancy; were injuries so atrocious and so complicated, that they
scarcely left room for pardon, even from the greatest lenity and mercy.
The assassins, apprehensive of Mary's resentment, detained her prisoner
in the palace; and the king dismissed all who seemed willing to attempt
her rescue, by telling them, that nothing was done without his orders,
and that he would be careful of the queen's safety. Murray and the
banished lords appeared two days after; and Mary, whose anger was now
engrossed by injuries more recent and violent, was willingly reconciled
to them; and she even received her brother with tenderness and
affection. They obtained an acquittal from parliament, and were
reinstated in their honors and fortunes. The accomplices also in
Rizzio's murder applied to her for a pardon; but she artfully delayed
compliance, and persuaded them, that so long as she was detained in
custody, and was surrounded by guards, any deed which she should sign
would have no validity. Meanwhile she had gained the confidence of her
husband by her persuasion and caresses and no sooner were the guards
withdrawn, than she engaged him to escape with her in the night-time,
and take shelter in Dunbar. Many of her subjects here offered her their
services; and Mary, having collected an army, which the conspirators had
no power to resist, advanced to Edinburgh, and obliged them to fly
into England, where they lived in great poverty and distress. They
made applications, however, to the earl of Bothwell, a new favorite of
Mary's; and that nobleman, desirous of strengthening his party by the
accession of their interest, was able to pacify her resentment; and he
soon after procured them liberty to return into their own country.[*]
The vengeance of the queen of Scots was implacable against her husband
alone, whose person was before disagreeable to her, and who, by his
violation of every tie of gratitude and duty, had now drawn on him her
highest resentment. She engaged him to disown all connections with the
assassins, to deny any concurrence in their crime, even to publish a
proclamation containing a falsehood so notorious to the whole world;[**]
and having thus made him expose himself to universal contempt, and
rendered it impracticable for him ever to acquire the confidence of any
party, she threw him off with disdain and indignation.[***]
* Melvil, p. 75, 76. Keith, p. 334. Knox, p, 398.
** Goodall, vol. i. p. 280. Keith, Append. p. 167.
*** Melvil, p. 66, 67.
As if she had been making an escape from him, she suddenly withdrew
to Allca, a seat of the earl of Marre's; and when Henry followed her
thither, she suddenly returned to Edinburgh and give him every where the
strongest proofs of displeasure, and even of antipathy. She encouraged
her courtiers in their neglect of him; and she was pleased that his mean
equipage and small train of attendants should draw on him the contempt
of the very populace. He was permitted, however, to have apartments
in the Castle of Edinburgh, which Mary had chosen for the place of her
delivery. She there brought forth a son; and as this was very important
news to England, as well as to Scotland, she immediately despatched
Sir James Melvil to carry intelligence of the happy event to Elizabeth.
Melvil tells us, that this princess, the evening of his arrival in
London, had given a ball to her court at Greenwich, and was displaying
all that spirit and alacrity which usually attended her on these
occasions: but when news arrived of the prince of Scotland's birth, all
her joy was damped: she sunk into melancholy; she reclined her head upon
her arm; and complained to some of her attendants, that the queen of
Scots was mother of a fair son, while she herself was but a barren
stock. Next day, however, at the reception of the ambassador, she
resumed her former dissimulation, put on a joyful countenance, gave
Melvil thanks for the haste he had made in conveying to her the
agreeable intelligence, and expressed the utmost cordiality and
friendship to her sister.[*] Some time after, she despatched the earl of
Bedford, with her kinsman George Gary, son of Lord Hunsdon, in order to
officiate at the baptism of the young prince; and she sent by them some
magnificent presents to the queen of Scots.
The birth of a son gave additional zeal to Mary's partisans in
England;[**] and even men of the most opposite parties began to cry
aloud for some settlement of the succession. These humors broke out
with great vehemence in a new session of parliament, held after six
prorogations. The house of peers, which had hitherto forborne to touch
on this delicate point, here took the lead; and the house of commons
soon after imitated the zeal of the lords. Molineux opened the matter in
the lower house, and proposed, that the question of the succession
and that of supply should go hand in hand; as if it were intended
to constrain the queen to a compliance with the request of her
parliament.[***] The courtiers endeavored to elude the debate: Sir Ralph
Sadler told the house, that he had heard the queen positively affirm,
that for the good of her people she was determined to marry. Secretary
Cecil and Sir Francis Knollys gave their testimony to the same purpose;
as did also Sir Ambrose Cave, chancellor of the duchy, and Sir Edward
Rogers, comptroller of the household.[****]
* Melvil, p. 69, 70.
** Camden, p. 397.
*** D'Ewes, p. 129.
**** D'Ewes, p. 124.
Elizabeth's ambitious and masculine character was so well known, that
few members gave any credit to this intelligence; and it was considered
merely as an artifice, by which she endeavored to retract that positive
declaration which she had made in the beginning of her reign, that she
meant to live and die a virgin. The ministers, therefore, gained nothing
further by this piece of policy, than only to engage the house, for the
sake of decency, to join the question of the queen's marriage with that
of a settlement of the crown; and the commons were proceeding with great
earnestness in the debate, and had even appointed a committee to confer
with the lords, when express orders were brought them from Elizabeth not
to proceed further in the matter. Cecil told them, that she pledged to
the house the word of a queen for her sincerity in her intentions to
marry; that the appointment of a successor would be attended with great
danger to her person; that she herself had had experience, during the
reign of her sister, how much court was usually paid to the next heir,
and what dangerous sacrifices men were commonly disposed to make of
their present duty to their future prospects; and that she was therefore
determined to delay, till a more proper opportunity, the decision of
that important question.[*] The house was not satisfied with these
reasons, and still less with the command prohibiting them all debate
on the subject. Paul Wentworth, a spirited member, went so far as to
question whether such a prohibition were not an infringement of the
liberties and privileges of the house.[**] Some even ventured to violate
that profound respect which had hitherto been preserved to the queen;
and they affirmed, that she was bound in duty, not only to provide
for the happiness of her subjects during her own life, but also to
pay regard to their future security, by fixing a successor; that by an
opposite conduct she showed herself the step-mother, not the natural
parent of her people, and would seem desirous that England should no
longer subsist than she should enjoy the glory and satisfaction
of governing it; that none but timorous princes, or tyrants, or
faint-hearted women, ever stood in fear of their successors; and that
the affections of the people were a firm and impregnable rampart to
every sovereign, who, laying aside all artifice or by-ends, had courage
and magnanimity to put his sole trust in that honorable and sure
defence.[***] The queen, hearing of these debates, sent for the speaker;
and after reiterating her former prohibition, she bade him inform the
house, that if any member remained still unsatisfied, he might appear
before the privy council, and there give his reasons.[****]
* D'Ewes, p. 127, 128.
** D'Ewes, p. 128.
*** Camden, p. 400.
**** D'Ewes, p. 128.
As the members showed a disposition, notwithstanding these peremptory
orders, still to proceed upon the question, Elizabeth thought proper, by
a message, to revoke them, and to allow the house liberty of debate.[*]
They were so mollified by this gracious condescension, that they
thenceforth conducted the matter with more calmness and temper, and they
even voted her a supply, to be levied at three payments, of a subsidy
and a fifteenth, without annexing any condition to it.
{1567.} The queen soon after dissolved the parliament, and told them,
with some sharpness in the conclusion, that their proceedings had
contained much dissimulation and artifice; that, under the plausible
pretences of marriage and succession, many of them covered very
malevolent intentions towards her; but that, however, she reaped this
advantage from the attempts of these men, that she could now distinguish
her friends from her enemies. "But do you think," added she, "that I am
unmindful of your future security, or will be negligent in settling the
succession? That is the chief object of my concern; as I know myself to
be liable to mortality. Or do you apprehend that I meant to encroach on
your liberties? No: it was never my meaning; I only intended to stop
you before you approached the precipice. All things have their time; and
though you maybe blessed with a sovereign more wise or more learned than
I, yet I assure you that no one will ever rule over you who shall be
more careful of your safety. And therefore, henceforward, whether I
live to see the like assembly or no, or whoever holds the reins of
government, let me warn you to beware of provoking your sovereign's
patience, so far as you have done mine. But I shall now conclude, that,
notwithstanding the disgusts I have received, (for I mean not to part
with you in anger), the greater part of you may assure themselves that
they go home in their prince's good graces."[**]
Elizabeth carried further her dignity on this occasion. She had received
the subsidy without any condition; but as it was believed that the
commons had given her that gratuity with a view of engaging her to yield
to their requests, she thought proper, on her refusal, voluntarily
to remit the third payment; and she said, that money in her subjects'
purses was as good to her as in her own exchequer.[***]
* D'Ewes, p. 130.
** D'Ewes, p. 116, 117.
*** J Camden, p. 400.
But though the queen was able to elude, for the present, the
applications of parliament, the friends of the queen of Scots multiplied
every day in England; and besides the Catholics, many of whom kept
a treasonable correspondence with her, and were ready to rise at
her command,[*] the court itself of Elizabeth was full of her avowed
partisans. The duke of Norfolk, the earls of Leicester, Pembroke,
Bedford, Northumberland, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and most of the
considerable men in England, except Cecil, seemed convinced of the
necessity of declaring her the successor. None but the more zealous
Protestants adhered either to the countess of Hertford, or to her aunt,
Eleanor, countess of Cumberland; and as the marriage of the former
seemed liable to some objections, and had been declared invalid, men
were alarmed, even on that side, with the prospect of new disputes
concerning the succession. Mary's behavior, also, so moderate towards
the Protestants, and so gracious towards all men, had procured her
universal respect;[**] and the public was willing to ascribe any
imprudences into which she had fallen to her youth and inexperience. But
all these flattering prospects were blasted by the subsequent incidents;
where her egregious indiscretions, shall I say, or atrocious crimes,
threw her from the height of her prosperity and involved her in infamy
and in ruin.
The earl of Bothwell was of a considerable family and power in Scotland;
and though not distinguished by any talents either of a civil or
military nature, he had made a figure in that party which opposed the
greatness of the earl of Murray and the more rigid reformers. He was
a man of profligate manners; had involved his opulent fortune in great
debts, and even reduced himself to beggary by his profuse expenses;[***]
and seemed to have no resource but in desperate counsels and
enterprises.
* Haynes, p. 446, 448.
** Melvil, p. 53, 61, 74.
*** Keith, p. 240.
He had been accused more than once of an attempt to assassinate Murray;
and though the frequency of these accusations on all sides diminish
somewhat the credit due to any particular imputation, they prove
sufficiently the prevalence of that detestable practice in Scotland, and
may in that view serve to render such rumors the more credible. This man
had of late acquired the favor and entire confidence of Mary; and all
her measures were directed by his advice and authority. Reports were
spread of more particular intimacies between them; and these reports
gained ground from the continuance, or rather increase, of her hatred
towards her husband.[*] That young prince was reduced to such a state
of desperation by the neglects which he underwent from his queen and
the courtiers, that he had once resolved to fly secretly into France or
Spain, and had even provided a vessel for that purpose.[**] Some of
the most considerable nobility, on the other hand, observing her rooted
aversion to him, had proposed some expedients for a divorce, and though
Mary is said to have spoken honorably on the occasion, and to have
embraced the proposal no further than it should be found consistent
with her own honor and her son's legitimacy,[***] men were inclined to
believe, that the difficulty of finding proper means for effecting that
purpose, was the real cause of laying aside all further thoughts of
it. So far were the suspicions against her carried, that when Henry,
discouraged with the continual proofs of her hatred, left the court and
retired to Glasgow, an illness of an extraordinary nature, with which
he was seized immediately on his arrival in that place, was universally
ascribed by her enemies to a dose of poison, which, it was pretended,
she had administered to him.
* Melvil, p. 66, 77.
** Keith, p. 345-348.
*** Camden, p. 404. Goodall's Queen Mary, vol. ii. p. 317.
While affairs were in this situation, all those who wished well to
her character, or to public tranquillity, were extremely pleased, and
somewhat surprised, to hear that a friendship was again conciliated
between them, that she had taken a journey to Glasgow on purpose to
visit him during his sickness, that she behaved towards him with great
tenderness, that she had brought him along with her, and that she
appeared thenceforth determined to live with him on a footing more
suitable to the connections between them. Henry, naturally uxorious, and
not distrusting this sudden reconciliation, put himself implicitly into
her hands, and attended her to Edinburgh. She lived in the palace of
Holyrood House; but as the situation of the palace was low, and the
concourse of people about the court was necessarily attended with noise,
which might disturb him in his present infirm state of health, these
reasons were assigned for fitting up an apartment for him in a solitary
house at some distance, called the Kirk of Field. Mary here gave him
marks of kindness and attachment; she conversed cordially with him; and
she lay some nights in a room below his; but on the ninth of February,
she told him that she would pass that night in the palace, because
the marriage of one of her servants was there to be celebrated in her
presence. About two o'clock in the morning, the whole town was much
alarmed at hearing a great noise; and was still more astonished, when
it was discovered that the noise came from the king's house, which was
blown up by gunpowder; that his dead body was found at some distance in
a neighboring field; and that no marks, either of fire, contusion, or
violence appeared upon it.[*]
No doubt could be entertained but Henry was murdered; and general
conjecture soon pointed towards the earl of Bothwell as the author of
the crime.[**] But as his favor with Mary was visible, and his power
great, no one ventured to declare openly his sentiments; and all men
remained in silence and mute astonishment. Voices, however, were heard
in the streets, during the darkness of the night, proclaiming Bothwell,
and even Mary herself, to be murderers of the king; bills were secretly
affixed on the walls to the same purpose; offers were made, that, upon
giving proper securities, his guilt should be openly proved; but after
one proclamation from the court, offering a reward and indemnity to any
one that would discover the author of that villany, greater vigilance
was employed in searching out the spreaders of the libels and reports
against Bothwell and the queen, than in tracing the contrivers of the
king's assassination, or detecting the regicides.[***]
The earl of Lenox, who lived at a distance from court in poverty and
contempt, was roused by the report of his son's murder, and wrote to
the queen, imploring speedy justice against the assassins; among whom he
named the earl of Bothwell, Sir James Balfour, and Gilbert Balfour his
brother, David Chalmers, and four others of the queen's household; all
of them persons who had been mentioned in the bills affixed to the walls
at Edinburgh.[****]
* It was imagined that Henry had been strangled before the
house was blown up. But this supposition is contradicted by
the confession of the criminals; and there is no necessity
to admit it in order to account for the condition of his
body. There are many instances that men's lives have been
saved who had been blown up in ships. Had Henry fallen on
water, he had not probably been killed.
** Melvil, p. 78. Cabbala, p. 136.
*** Anderson's Collections, vol. ii. p. 38; vol. iv. p. 167,
168. Spotswood, p. 200. Keith, p. 374.
**** Keith, p. 372. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 3.
[Illustration: 1-467-mary_stuart.jpg MARY STUART]
Mary took his demand of speedy justice in a very literal sense, and
allowing only fifteen days for the examination of this important affair,
she sent a citation to Lenox, requiring him to appear in court, and
prove his charge against Bothwell.[*] This nobleman, meanwhile, and
all the other persons accused by Lenox, enjoyed their full liberty;[**]
Bothwell himself was continually surrounded with armed men; [***] took
his place in council;[****] lived during some time in the house with
Mary;[v] and seemed to possess all his wonted confidence and familiarity
with her. Even the Castle of Edinburgh, a place of great consequence
in this critical time, was intrusted to him, and under him, to his
creature, Sir James Balfour, who had himself been publicly charged as
an accomplice in the king's murder.[v*] Lenox, who had come as far as
Stirling with a view of appearing at the trial, was informed of all
these circumstances; and reflecting on the small train which attended
him, he began to entertain very just apprehensions from the power,
insolence, and temerity of his enemy. He wrote to Mary, desiring that
the day of trial might be prorogued; and conjured her, by all the regard
which she bore to her own honor, to employ more leisure and deliberation
in determining a question of such extreme moment.[v**] No regard was
paid to his application: the jury was enclosed, of which the earl
of Caithness was chancellor; and though Lenox, foreseeing this
precipitation, had ordered Cunningham, one of his retinue, to appear in
court, and protest in his name against the acquittal of the criminal,
the jury proceeded to a verdict.[v***] The verdict was such as it
behoved them to give, where neither accuser nor witness appeared;
and Bothwell was absolved from the king's murder. The jury, however,
apprehensive that their verdict would give great scandal, and perhaps
expose them afterwards to some danger, entered a protest, in which they
represented the necessity of their proceedings.[v****]
* Keith, p. 373.
** Keith, p. 374, 375.
*** Keith, p. 405.
**** Anderson, vol. i. p. 38, 40, 50, 52.
v Anderson, vol. ii. p. 274.
v* Spotswood, p. 201.
v** Keith, p. 375. Anderson, vol. i. p. 52.
v*** Keith, p. 376. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 106. Spotswood, p.
201.
v**** Spotswood, p. 201. Anderson, vol. i p. 113.
It is remarkable, that the indictment was laid against Bothwell for
committing the crime on the ninth of February, not the tenth, the real
day on which Henry was assassinated.[*] The interpretation generally
put upon this error, too gross, it was thought, to have proceeded from
mistake, was, that the secret council by whom Mary was governed,
not trusting entirely to precipitation, violence, and authority,
had provided this plea, by which they insured, at all adventures, a
plausible pretence for acquitting Bothwell.
Two days after this extraordinary transaction, a parliament was held;
and though the verdict in favor of Bothwell was attended with such
circumstances as strongly confirmed, rather than diminished, the general
opinion of his guilt, he was the person chosen to carry the royal
sceptre on the first meeting of that national assembly.[**] In this
parliament a rigorous act was made against those who set up defamatory
bills; but no notice was taken of the king's murder.[***] The favor
which Mary openly bore to Bothwell kept every one in awe; and the
effects of this terror appeared more plainly in another transaction,
which ensued immediately upon the dissolution of the parliament. A bond
or association was framed; in which the subscribers, after relating the
acquittal of Bothwell by a legal trial, and mentioning a further offer
which he had made, to prove his innocence by single combat, oblige
themselves, in case any person should afterwards impute to him the
king's murder, to defend him with their whole power against such
calumniators. After this promise, which implied no great assurance in
Bothwell of his own innocence, the subscribers mentioned the necessity
of their queen's marriage, in order to support the government; and
they recommended Bothwell to her as a husband.[****] This paper was
subscribed by all the considerable nobility there present. In a
country divided by violent factions, such a concurrence in favor of one
nobleman, nowise distinguished above the rest, except by his flagitious
conduct, could never have been obtained, had not every one been certain,
at least firmly persuaded, that Mary was fully determined on this
measure.[v] [9] Nor would such a motive have sufficed to influence
men, commonly so stubborn and untractable, had they not been taken by
surprise, been ignorant of each other's sentiments, and overawed by the
present power of the court, and by the apprehensions of further violence
from persons so little governed by any principles of honor and humanity.
Even with all these circumstances, the subscription to this paper may
justly be regarded as a reproach to the nation.
* Keith, p. 375. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 93. Spotswood, p.
201.
** Keith, p. 78. Crawford, p. 14.
*** Keith, p. 389.
**** Keith, p. 381.
v See note I, at the end of the volume.
The subsequent measures of Bothwell were equally precipitate and
audacious. Mary having gone to Stirling to pay a visit to her son, he
assembled a body of eight hundred horse, on pretence of pursuing some
robbers on the borders; and having waylaid her on her return, he seized
her person near Edinburgh, and carried her to Dunbar, with an avowed
design of forcing her to yield to his purpose. Sir James Melvil, one of
her retinue, was carried along with her, and says not that he saw any
signs of reluctance or constraint; he was even informed, as he tells
us, by Bothwell's officers, that the whole transaction was managed in
concert with her.[*] A woman, indeed, of that spirit and resolution
which is acknowledged to belong to Mary, does not usually, on these
occasions, give such marks of opposition to real violence as can appear
any wise doubtful or ambiguous. Some of the nobility, however, in order
to put matters to further trial, sent her a private message, in which
they told her, that if in reality she lay under force, they would use
all their efforts to rescue her. Her answer was, that she had indeed
been carried to Dunbar by violence, but ever since her arrival had been
so well treated that she willingly remained with Bothwell.[**] No one
gave himself thenceforth any concern to relieve her from a captivity
which was believed to proceed entirely from her own approbation and
connivance.
This unusual conduct was at first ascribed to Mary's sense of the infamy
attending her purposed marriage, and her desire of finding some color
to gloss over the irregularity of her conduct. But a pardon, given
to Bothwell a few days after, made the public carry their conjectures
somewhat further. In this deed, Bothwell received a pardon for the
violence committed on the queen's person, and for "all other crimes;" a
clause by which the murder of the king was indirectly forgiven. The rape
was then conjectured to have been only a contrivance, in order to afford
a pretence for indirectly remitting a crime, of which it would have
appeared scandalous to make openly any mention.[***]
* Melvil, p. 80.
** Spotswood, p. 202.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 61.
These events passed with such rapidity, that men had no leisure to
admire sufficiently one incident, when they were surprised with a
new one equally rare and uncommon. There still, however, remained one
difficulty which it was not easy to foresee how the queen and Bothwell,
determined as they were to execute their shameful purpose, could find
expedients to overcome. The man who had procured the subscription of the
nobility, recommending him as a husband to the queen, and who had acted
this seeming violence on her person, in order to force her consent, had
been married two years before to another woman; to a woman of merit, of
a noble family, sister to the earl of Huntley. But persons blinded by
passion, and infatuated with crime, soon shake off all appearance of
decency. A suit was commenced for a divorce between Bothwell and his
wife; and this suit was opened at the same instant in two different, or
rather opposite courts; in the court of the archbishop of St. Andrew's,
which was Popish, and governed itself by the canon law; and in the
new consistorial or commissariot court, which was Protestant, and was
regulated by the principles of the reformed teachers. The plea advanced
in each court was so calculated as to suit the principles which there
prevailed; in the archbishop's court, the pretence of consanguinity was
employed, because Bothwell was related to his wife in the fourth degree;
in the commissariot court, the accusation of adultery was made use
of against him. The parties, too, who applied for the divorce, were
different in the different courts: Bothwell was the person who sued
in the former; his wife in the latter. And the suit in both courts was
opened, pleaded, examined, and decided, with the utmost precipitation;
and a sentence of divorce was pronounced in four days.[*]
* Anderson, vol. ii. p. 280.
The divorce being thus obtained, it was thought proper that Mary should
be conducted to Edinburgh, and should there appear before the courts of
judicature, and should acknowledge herself restored to entire freedom.
This was understood to be contrived in a view of obviating all doubts
with regard to the validity of her marriage. Orders were then given
to publish in the church the banns between the queen and the duke of
Orkney; for that was the title which he now bore; and Craig, a minister
of Edinburgh, was applied to for that purpose. This clergyman, not
content with having refused compliance, publicly in his sermons
condemned the marriage, and exhorted all who had access to the queen,
to give her their advice against so scandalous an alliance. Being called
before the council to answer for this liberty, he showed a courage which
might cover all the nobles with shame, on account of their tameness
and servility. He said that, by the rules of the church, the earl of
Bothwell, being convicted of adultery, could not be permitted to marry;
that the divorce between him and his former wife was plainly procured
by collusion, as appeared by the precipitation of the sentence, and
the sudden conclusion of his marriage with the queen; and that all the
suspicions which prevailed with regard to the king's murder, and the
queen's concurrence in the former rape, would thence receive undoubted
confirmation. He therefore exhorted Bothwell, who was present, no
longer to persevere in his present criminal enterprises; and turning his
discourse to the other counsellors, he charged them to employ all their
influence with the queen, in order to divert her from a measure which
would load her with eternal infamy and dishonor. Not satisfied even with
this admonition, he took the first opportunity of informing the public,
from the pulpit, of the whole transaction; and expressed to them his
fears that, notwithstanding all remonstrances, their sovereign was still
obstinately bent on her fatal purpose. "For himself," he said, "he had
already discharged his conscience; and yet again would take heaven
and earth to witness that he abhorred and detested that marriage as
scandalous and hateful in the sight of mankind; but since the great, as
he perceived, either by their flattery or silence, gave countenance to
the measure, he besought the faithful to pray fervently to the
Almighty that a resolution, taken contrary to all law, reason, and good
conscience, might, by the divine blessing, be turned to the comfort and
benefit of the church and kingdom." These speeches offended the court
extremely; and Craig was anew summoned before the council, to answer for
his temerity in thus passing the bounds of his commission. But he told
them, that the bounds of his commission were the word of God, good laws,
and natural reason; and were the Queen's marriage tried by any of these
standards, it would appear infamous and dishonorable, and would so be
esteemed by the whole world. The council were so overawed by this heroic
behavior in a private clergyman, that they dismissed him without further
censure or punishment.[*]
* Spotswood, p. 203. Anderson, vol. ii. p. 280.
But though this transaction might have recalled Bothwell and the queen
of Scots from their infatuation, and might have instructed them in the
dispositions of the people, as well as in their own inability to oppose
them, they were still resolute to rush forward to their own manifest
destruction. The marriage was solemnized by the bishop of Orkney, a
Protestant, who was afterwards deposed by the church for this scandalous
compliance. Few of the nobility appeared at the ceremony: they had most
of them, either from shame or fear, retired to their own houses. The
French ambassador, Le Croc, an aged gentleman of honor and character,
could not be prevailed on, though a dependent of the house of Guise, to
countenance the marriage by his presence.[*] Elizabeth remonstrated, by
friendly letters and messages, against the marriage.[**] The court of
France made like opposition; but Mary, though on all other occasions she
was extremely obsequious to the advice of her relations in that country,
was here determined to pay no regard to their opinion.
The news of these transactions, being carried to foreign countries,
filled Europe with amazement, and threw infamy, not only on the
principal actors in them, but also on the whole nation, who seemed, by
their submission and silence, and even by their declared approbation,
to give their sanction to these scandalous practices.[***] The Scots who
resided abroad met with such reproaches, that they durst nowhere appear
in public; and they earnestly exhorted their countrymen at home to
free them from the public odium, by bringing to condign punishment the
authors of such atrocious crimes. This intelligence, with a little more
leisure for reflection, roused men from their lethargy; and the rumors
which, from the very beginning,[****] had been spread against Mary, as
if she had concurred in the king's murder, seemed now, by the subsequent
transactions, to have received a strong confirmation and authority.
* Spotswood, p. 203. Melvil, p. 82.
** Keith, p. 392.
*** Digges, p. 14.
**** Melvil, p. 82. Keith, p. 402. Anderson, voL i. p. 128,
134, Crawford, p. 11. Keith, Pref. p. 9.
It was every where said, that even though no particular and direct
proofs had as yet been produced of the queen's guilt, the whole tenor
of her late conduct was sufficient, not only to beget suspicion, but
to produce entire conviction against her: that her sudden resolution
of being reconciled to her husband, whom before she had long and justly
hated; her bringing him to court, from which she had banished him by
neglects and rigors; her fitting up separate apartments for him; were
all of them circumstances which, though trivial in themselves, yet,
being compared with the subsequent events, bore a very unfavorable
aspect for her: that the least which, after the king's murder, might
have been expected in her situation, was a more than usual caution in
her measures, and an extreme anxiety to punish the real assassins, in
order to free herself from all reproach and suspicion: that no woman who
had any regard to her character, would allow a man, publicly accused of
her husband's murder, so much as to approach her presence, far less give
him a share in her councils, and endow him with favor and authority that
an acquittal, merely in the absence of accusers, was very ill fitted to
satisfy the public; especially if that absence proceeded from a designed
precipitation of the sentence, and from the terror which her known
friendship for the criminal had infused into every one: that the very
mention of her marriage to such a person, in such circumstances, was
horrible; and the contrivances of extorting a consent from the nobility,
and of concerting a rape, were gross artifices, more proper to discover
her guilt than prove her innocence: that where a woman thus shows a
consciousness of merited reproach, and instead of correcting, provides
only thin glosses to cover her exceptionable conduct, she betrays a
neglect of fame, which must either be the effect or the cause of the
most shameful enormities: that to espouse a man who had, a few days
before, been so scandalously divorced from his wife, who, to say
the least, was believed to have a few months before assassinated her
husband, was so contrary to the plainest rules of behavior, that no
pretence of indiscretion or imprudence could account for such a conduct:
that a woman who, so soon after her husband's death, though not attended
with any extraordinary circumstances, contracts a marriage which might
in itself be the most blameless, cannot escape severe censure; but one
who overlooks for her pleasure so many other weighty considerations, was
equally capable, in gratifying her appetites, to neglect every regard to
honor and humanity: that Mary was not ignorant of the prevailing opinion
of the public with regard to her own guilt, and of the inferences which
would every where be drawn from her conduct; and therefore, if she still
continued to pursue measures which gave such just offence, she ratified
by her actions, as much as she could by the most formal confession,
all the surmises and imputations of her enemies: that a prince was here
murdered in the face of the world; Bothwell alone was suspected and
accused; if he were innocent, nothing could absolve him, either in
Mary's eyes or those of the public, but the detection and conviction
of the real assassin: yet no inquiry was made to that purpose, though a
parliament had been assembled; the sovereign and wife was here plainly
silent from guilt, the people from terror: that the only circumstance
which opposed all these presumptions, or rather proofs, was the
benignity and goodness of her preceding behavior, which seemed to remove
her from all suspicions of such atrocious inhumanity; but that the
characters of men were extremely variable, and persons guilty of the
worst actions were not always naturally of the worst and most criminal
dispositions; that a woman who, in a critical and dangerous moment, had
sacrificed her honor to a man of abandoned principles, might thenceforth
be led blindfold by him to the commission of the most enormous crimes,
and was in reality no longer at her own disposal: and that, though
one supposition was still left to alleviate her blame; namely, that
Bothwell, presuming on her affection towards him, had of himself
committed the crime, and had never communicated it to her; yet such a
sudden and passionate love to a man whom she had long known, could not
easily be accounted for, without supposing some degree of preceding
guilt; and as it appeared that she was not afterwards restrained, either
by shame or prudence, from incurring the highest reproach and danger,
it was not likely that a sense of duty or humanity would have a more
powerful influence over her.
These were the sentiments which prevailed throughout Scotland: and as
the Protestant teachers, who had great authority, had long borne an
animosity to Mary, the opinion of her guilt was by that means the more
widely diffused, and made the deeper impression on the people. Some
attempts made by Bothwell, and, as is pretended, with her consent, to
get the young prince into his power, excited the most serious attention;
and the principal nobility, even many of those who had formerly been
constrained to sign the application in favor of Bothwells marriage, met
at Stirling, and formed an association for protecting the prince, and
punishing the king's murderers.[*]
* Keith, p. 394.
The earl of Athole himself, a known Catholic, was the first author of
this confederacy, the earls of Argyle, Morton, Marre, Glencairne, the
lords Boyd, Lindesey, Hume, Semple, Kirkaldy of Grange, Tulibardine,
and Secretary Lidington, entered zealously into it. The earl of Murray,
foreseeing such turbulent times, and being desirous to keep free of
these dangerous factions, had some time before desired and obtained
Mary's permission to retire into France.
Lord Hume was first in arms; and leading a body of eight hundred horse,
suddenly environed the queen of Scots and Bothwell, in the Castle of
Borthwick. They found means of making their escape to Dunbar; while the
confederate lords were assembling their troops at Edinburgh, and taking
measures to effect their purpose. Had Bothwell been so prudent as to
keep within the fortress of Dunbar, his enemies must have dispersed for
want of pay and subsistence; but hearing that the associated lords were
fallen into distress, he was so rash as to take the field, and advance
towards them. The armies met at Carberry Hill, about six miles from
Edinburgh; and Mary soon became sensible that her own troops disapproved
of her cause, and were averse to spill their blood in the quarrel.[*]
After some bravadoes of Bothwell, where he discovered very little
courage, she saw no resource but that of holding a conference with
Kirkaldy of Grange, and of putting herself, upon some general promises,
into the hands of the confederates. She was conducted to Edinburgh,
amidst the insults of the populace; who reproached her with her crimes,
and even held before her eyes, which way soever she turned, a banner,
on which were painted the murder of her husband and the distress of her
infant son.[**] Mary, overwhelmed with her calamities, had recourse to
tears and lamentations. Meanwhile Bothwell, during her conference with
Grange, fled unattended to Dunbar; and fitting out a few small ships,
set sail for the Orkneys, where he subsisted during some time by piracy.
He was pursued thither by Grange, and his ship was taken, with several
of his servants; who afterwards discovered all the circumstances of the
king's murder, and were punished for the crime.[***] Bothwell himself
escaped in a boat, and found means to get a passage to Denmark, where
he was thrown into prison, lost his senses, and died miserably about ten
years after; an end worthy of his flagitious conduct and behavior.
* Keith, p. 402. Spotswood, p. 207.
** Melvil, p. 83, 84.
*** Anderson, vol. ii. p. 165, 166, etc.
The queen of Scots, now in the hands of an enraged faction met with such
treatment as a sovereign may naturally expect from subjects, who have
their future security to provide for, as well as their present animosity
to gratify. It is pretended that she behaved with a spirit very
little suitable to her condition, avowed her inviolable attachment to
Bothwell,[*] and even wrote him a letter, which the lords intercepted,
wherein she declared, that she would endure any extremity, nay, resign
her dignity and crown itself, rather than relinquish his affections.[**]
The malecontents, finding the danger to which they were exposed in case
Mary should finally prevail, thought themselves obliged to proceed
with rigor against her; and they sent her next day under a guard to the
Castle of Lochlevin, situated in a lake of that name. The mistress of
the house was mother to the earl of Murray; and as she pretended to have
been lawfully married to the late king of Scots, she naturally bore
an animosity to Mary, and treated her with the utmost harshness and
severity.
* Keith, p. 419.
** Melvil, p. 84.
Elizabeth, who was fully informed of all those incidents, seemed touched
with compassion towards the unfortunate queen; and all her fears and
jealousies being now laid asleep, by the consideration of that ruin and
infamy in which Mary's conduct had involved her, she began to reflect
on the instability of human affairs, the precarious state of royal
grandeur, the danger of encouraging rebellious subjects; and she
resolved to employ her authority for alleviating the calamities of
her unhappy kinswoman. She sent Sir Nicholas Throgmorton ambassador
to Scotland, in order to remonstrate both with Mary and the associated
lords; and she gave him instructions, which, though mixed with some
lofty pretensions, were full of that good sense which was so natural to
her, and of that generosity which the present interesting conjuncture
had called forth. She empowered him to declare[*] in her name to Mary,
that the late conduct of that princess, so enormous, and in every
respect so unjustifiable, had given her the highest offence; and though
she felt the movements of pity towards her, she had once determined
never to interpose in her affairs, either by advice or assistance,
but to abandon her entirely, as a person whose condition was totally
desperate, and honor irretrievable.
* The reality of this letter appears somewhat disputable;
chiefly because Murray and his associates never mentioned it
in their accusation of her before Queen Elizabeth's
commissioners.
That she was well assured that other foreign princes, Mary's near
relations, had embraced the same resolution; but, for her part, the late
events had touched her heart with more tender sympathy, and had made
her adopt measures more favorable to the liberty and interests of the
unhappy queen: that she was determined not to see her oppressed by her
rebellious subjects, but would employ all her good offices, and even her
power, to redeem her from captivity, and place her in such a condition
as would at once be compatible with her dignity and the safety of her
subjects: that she conjured her to lay aside all thoughts of revenge,
except against the murderers of her husband; and as she herself was
his near relation, she was better entitled than the subjects of Mary to
interpose her authority on that head; and she therefore besought that
princess, if she had any regard to her own honor and safety, not to
oppose so just and reasonable a demand: that after those two points
were provided for, her own liberty and the punishment of her husband's
assassins, the safety of her infant son was next to be considered; and
there seemed no expedient more proper for that purpose, than sending him
to be educated in England: and that, besides the security which would
attend his removal from a scene of faction and convulsions, there were
many other beneficial consequences, which it was easy to foresee as the
result of his education in that country.[*]
* Keith, p. 411, 412, etc
The remonstrances which Throgmorton was instructed to make to the
associated lords, were entirely conformable to these sentiments which
Elizabeth entertained in Mary's favor. She empowered him to tell them,
that whatever blame she might throw on Mary's conduct, any opposition
to their sovereign was totally unjustifiable, and incompatible with all
order and good government: that it belonged not to them to reform, much
less to punish, the maleadministration of their prince; and the only
arms which subjects could in any case lawfully employ against the
supreme authority, were entreaties, counsels, and representations: that
if these expedients failed, they were next to appeal by their prayers to
Heaven, and to wait with patience till the Almighty, in whose hands are
the hearts of princes, should be pleased to turn them to justice and
to mercy. That she inculcated not this doctrine because she herself was
interested in its observance, but because it was universally received in
all well-governed states, and was essential to the preservation of civil
society: that she required them to restore their queen to liberty; and
promised, in that case, to concur with them in all proper expedients for
regulating the government, for punishing the king's murderers, and for
guarding the life and liberty of the infant prince: and that, if
the services which she had lately rendered the Scottish nation, in
protecting them from foreign usurpation, were duly considered by them,
they would repose confidence in her good offices, and would esteem
themselves blameworthy in having hitherto made no application to her.[*]
Elizabeth, besides these remonstrances, sent by Throgmorton some
articles of accommodation, which he was to propose to both parties,
as expedients for the settlement of public affairs; and though these
articles contained some important restraints on the sovereign power,
they were in the main calculated for Mary's advantage, and were
sufficiently indulgent to her.[**] The associated lords, who determined
to proceed with greater severity, were apprehensive of Elizabeth's
partiality; and being sensible that Mary would take courage from the
protection of that powerful princess,[***] they thought proper, after
several affected delays, to refuse the English ambassador all access
to her. There were four different schemes proposed in Scotland for the
treatment of the captive queen: one, that she should be restored to her
authority under very strict limitations: the second, that she should be
obliged to resign her crown to the prince, be banished the kingdom,
and be confined either to France or England; with assurances from the
sovereign in whose dominions she should reside, that she should make no
attempts to the disturbance of the established government: the third,
that she should be publicly tried for her crimes, of which her enemies
pretended to have undoubted proof, and be sentenced to perpetual
imprisonment: the fourth was still more severe, and required that, after
her trial and condemnation, capital punishment should be inflicted upon
her.[****] Throgmorton supported the mildest proposal; but though
he promised his mistress's guaranty for the performance of articles,
threatened the ruling party with immediate vengeance in case of
refusal,[v] and warned them not to draw on themselves, by their
violence, the public reproach which now lay upon their queen, he found
that, excepting Secretary Lidington, he had not the good fortune to
convince any of the leaders.
* Keith, p. 414, 415, 429.
** Keith, p. 416.
*** Keith, p. 427.
**** Keith, p. 420.
v Keith, p. 428.
All counsels seemed to tend towards the more severe expedients; and
the preachers, in particular, drawing their examples from the rigorous
maxims of the Old Testament, which can only be warranted by particular
revelations, inflamed the minds of the people against their unhappy
sovereign.[*]
There were several pretenders to the regency of the young prince
after the intended deposition of Mary. The earl of Lenox claimed that
authority as grandfather to the prince: the duke of Chatelrault, who
was absent in France, had pretensions as next heir to the crown: but the
greatest number of the associated lords inclined to the earl of
Murray, in whose capacity they had entire trust, and who possessed the
confidence of the preachers and more zealous reformers. All measures
being therefore concerted, three instruments were sent to Mary, by the
hands of Lord Lindesey and Sir Robert Melvil; by one of which she was
to resign the crown in favor of her son, by another to appoint Murray
regent, by the third to name a council, which should administer the
government till his arrival in Scotland. The queen of Scots, seeing no
prospect of relief, lying justly under apprehensions for her life, and
believing that no deed which she executed during her captivity could be
valid, was prevailed on, after a plentiful effusion of tears, to sign
these three instruments; and she took not the trouble of inspecting any
one of them.[**] In consequence of this forced resignation, the young
prince was proclaimed king, by the name of James VI. He was soon
after crowned at Stirling, and the earl of Morton took in his name
the coronation oath; in which a promise to extirpate heresy was not
forgotten. Some republican pretensions, in favor of the people's power,
were countenanced in this ceremony;[***] and a coin was soon after
struck, on which the famous saying of Trajan was inscribed, Pro me; si
merear, in me; "For me; if I deserve it, against me."[****] Throgmorton
had orders from his mistress not to assist at the coronation of the king
of Scots.[v]
* Keith, p. 422, 426.
** Melvil, p. 85. Spotswood, p. 211. Anderson, vol. iii. p.
19.
*** Keith, p. 439, 440.
**** Keith, p. 440. Append, p. 150.
v Keith, p. 430
The council of regency had not long occasion to exercise their
authority. The earl of Murray arrived from France, and took possession
of his high office. He paid a visit to the captive queen, and spoke to
her in a manner which better suited her past conduct than her present
condition. This harsh treatment quite extinguished in her breast any
remains of affection towards him.[*] Murray proceeded afterwards to
break, in a more public manner, all terms of decency with her. He
summoned a parliament; and that assembly, after voting that she was
undoubtedly an accomplice in her husband's murder, condemned her to
imprisonment, ratified her demission of the crown, and acknowledged her
son for king, and Murray for regent.[**] The regent, a man of vigor and
abilities, employed himself successfully in reducing the kingdom.
He bribed Sir James Balfour to surrender the Castle of Edinburgh:
he constrained the garrison of Dunbar to open their gates; and he
demolished that fortress.
But though every thing thus bore a favorable aspect to the new
government, and all men seemed to acquiesce in Murray's authority, a
violent revolution, however necessary, can never be effected without
great discontents; and it was not likely that, in a country where the
government, in its most settled state, possessed a very disjointed
authority, a new establishment should meet with no interruption or
disturbance. Few considerable men of the nation seemed willing to
support Mary, so long as Bothwell was present; but the removal of that
obnoxious nobleman had altered the sentiments of many. The duke of
Chatelrault, being disappointed of the regency, bore no good will
to Murray; and the same sentiments were embraced by all his numerous
retainers. Several of the nobility, finding that others had taken the
lead among the associators, formed a faction apart, and opposed the
prevailing power; and besides their being moved by some remains of duty
and affection towards Mary, the malecontent lords, observing every thing
carried to extremity against her, were naturally led to embrace her
cause, and shelter themselves under her authority. All who retained any
propensity to the Catholic religion were induced to join this party;
and even the people in general, though they had formerly either
detested Mary's crimes or blamed her imprudence, were now inclined
to compassionate her present situation, and lamented that a person
possessed of so many amiable accomplishments, joined to such high
dignity, should be treated with such extreme severity.[***]
* Melvil, p. 87. Keith, p. 445.
** Anderson, vol. ii. p. 206, et seq.
*** Buchanan, lib. xviii. c. 53.
Animated by all these motives, many of the principal nobility now
adherents to the queen of Scots, met at Hamilton, and concerted measures
for supporting the cause of that princess.
{1568.} While these humors were in fermentation, Mary was employed in
contrivances for effecting her escape; and she engaged, by her charms
and caresses, a young gentleman, George Douglas, brother to the laird of
Lochlevin, to assist her in that enterprise. She even went so far as to
give him hopes of espousing her, after her marriage with Bothwell should
be dissolved on the plea of force; and she proposed this expedient
to the regent, who rejected it. Douglas, however, persevered in his
endeavors to free her from captivity; and having all opportunities of
access to the house, he was at last successful in the undertaking.
He conveyed her in disguise into a small boat, and himself rowed her
ashore. She hastened to Hamilton; and the news of her arrival in that
place being immediately spread abroad, many of the nobility flocked to
her with their forces. A bond of association for her defence was signed
by the earls of Argyle, Huntley, Eglington, Crawford, Cassilis, Rothes,
Montrose, Sutherland, Erroi, nine bishops, and nine barons, besides many
of the most considerable gentry.[*] And in a few days, an army, to the
number of six thousand men, was assembled under her standard.
Elizabeth was no sooner informed of Mary's escape, than she discovered
her resolution of persevering in the same generous and friendly measures
which she had hitherto pursued. If she had not employed force against
the regent during the imprisonment of that princess, she had been
chiefly withheld by the fear of pushing him to greater extremities
against her;[**] but she had proposed to the court of France an
expedient, which, though less violent, would have been no less effectual
for her service: she desired that France and England should by concert
cut off all commerce with the Scots, till they should do justice to
their injured sovereign.[***]
* Keith, p. 475.
** Keith, p. 463. Cabala, p. 141.
*** Keith, p. 462.
She now despatched Leighton into Scotland to offer both her good
offices, and the assistance of her forces, to Mary; but as she
apprehended the entrance of French troops into the kingdom, she desired
that the controversy between the queen of Scots and her subjects might
by that princess be referred entirely to her arbitration, and that no
foreign succors should be introduced into Scotland.[*]
But Elizabeth had not leisure to exert fully her efforts in favor of
Mary. The regent made haste to assemble forces; and notwithstanding that
his army was inferior in number to that of the queen of Scots, he took
the field against her. A battle was fought at Langside, near Glasgow,
which was entirely decisive in favor of the regent; and though Murray,
after his victory, stopped the bloodshed, yet was the action followed
by a total dispersion of the queen's party. That unhappy princess fled
southwards from the field of battle with great precipitation, and came
with a few attendants to the borders of England. She here deliberated
concerning her next measures, which would probably prove so important to
her future happiness or misery. She found it impossible to remain in her
own kingdom: she had an aversion, in her present wretched condition,
to return into France, where she had formerly appeared with so much
splendor; and she was not, besides, provided with a vessel which could
safely convey her thither: the late generous behavior of Elizabeth made
her hope for protection, and even assistance, from that quarter;[**] and
as the present fears from her domestic enemies were the most urgent,
she overlooked all other considerations, and embraced the resolution
of taking shelter in England. She embarked on board a fishing-boat in
Galloway, and landed the same day at Workington, in Cumberland,
about thirty miles from Carlisle, whence she immediately despatched
a messenger to London, notifying her arrival, desiring leave to
visit Elizabeth, and craving her protection, in consequence of former
professions of friendship made her by that princess.
Elizabeth now found herself in a situation when it was become necessary
to take some decisive resolution with regard to her treatment of the
queen of Scots; and as she had hitherto, contrary to the opinion of
Cecil, attended more to the motives of generosity than of policy,[***]
she was engaged by that prudent minister to weigh anew all the
considerations which occurred in this critical conjuncture.
* Keith, p. 473, in the notes. Anderson, vol. iv. p, 26.
** Jebb's Collection, vol. i. p. 420.
*** Cabala, p. 140.
He represented, that the party which had dethroned Mary, and had at
present assumed the government of Scotland, were always attached to the
English alliance, and were engaged, by all the motives of religion
and of interest, to persevere in their connection with Elizabeth: that
though Murray and his friends might complain of some unkind usage during
their banishment in England, they would easily forget these grounds of
quarrel, when they reflected, that Elizabeth was the only ally on whom
they could safely rely, and that their own queen, by her attachment to
the Catholic faith, and by her other connections, excluded them entirely
from the friendship of France, and even from that of Spain: that Mary,
on the other hand, even before her violent breach with her Protestant
subjects, was in secret entirely governed by the counsels of the house
of Guise, much more would she implicitly comply with their views, when,
by her own ill conduct, the power of that family and of the zealous
Catholics was become her sole resource and security: that her
pretensions to the English crown would render her a dangerous instrument
in their hands; and, were she once able to suppress the Protestants in
her own kingdom, she would unite the Scottish and English Catholics,
with those of all foreign states, in a confederacy against the religion
and government of England; that it behoved Elizabeth, therefore, to
proceed with caution in the design of restoring her rival to the throne;
and to take care, both that this enterprise, if undertaken, should
be effected by English forces alone, and that full securities should
beforehand be provided for the reformers and the reformation in
Scotland: that, above all, it was necessary to guard carefully the
person of that princess; lest, finding this unexpected reserve in the
English friendship, she should suddenly take the resolution of flying
into France, and should attempt by foreign force to recover possession
of her authority: that her desperate fortunes and broken reputation
fitted her for any attempt; and her resentment, when she should find
herself thus deserted by the queen, would concur with her ambition and
her bigotry, and render her an unrelenting, as well as powerful enemy
to the English government: that if she were once abroad, in the hands
of enterprising Catholics, the attack on England would appear to her
as easy as that on Scotland; and the only method, she must imagine of
recovering her native kingdom, would be to acquire that crown to which
she would deem herself equally entitled: that a neutrality in such
interesting situations, though it might be pretended, could never,
without the most extreme danger, be upheld by the queen; and the
detention of Mary was equally requisite whether the power of England
were to be employed in her favor, or against her: that nothing, indeed,
was more becoming a great prince than generosity; yet the suggestions
of this noble principle could never, without imprudence, be consulted in
such delicate circumstances as those in which the queen was at present
placed; where her own safety and the interests of her people were
intimately concerned in every resolution which she embraced: that
though the example of successful rebellion, especially in a neighboring
country, could nowise be agreeable to any sovereign, yet Mary's
imprudence had been so great, perhaps her crimes so enormous, that the
insurrection of subjects, after such provocation, could no longer
be regarded as a precedent against other princes: that it was first
necessary for Elizabeth to ascertain, in a regular and satisfactory
manner, the extent of Mary's guilt, and thence to determine the degree
of protection which she ought to afford her against her discontented
subjects: that as no glory could surpass that of defending oppressed
innocence, it was equally infamous to patronize vice and murder on the
throne; and the contagion of such dishonor would extend itself to all
who countenanced or supported it: and that if the crimes of the Scottish
princess should, on inquiry, appear as great and certain as was affirmed
and believed, every measure against her, which policy should dictate,
would thence be justified; or if she should be found innocent, every
enterprise which friendship should inspire would be acknowledged
laudable and glorious.
Agreeably to these views, Elizabeth resolved to proceed in a seemingly
generous, but really cautious manner with the queen of Scots; and she
immediately sent orders to Lady Scrope, sister to the duke of Norfolk,
a lady who lived in the neighborhood, to attend on that princess. Soon
after, she despatched to her Lord Scrope himself, warden of the marches,
and Sir Francis Knolles, vice-chamberlain. They found Mary already
lodged in the Castle of Carlisle; and after expressing the queen's
sympathy with her in her late misfortunes, they told her, that her
request of being allowed to visit their sovereign, and of being admitted
to her presence, could not at present be complied with: till she had
cleared herself of her husband's murder, of which she was so strongly
accused, Elizabeth could not without dishonor show her any countenance,
or appear indifferent to the assassination of so near a kinsman.[*]
* Anderson, vol. iv. p. 54, 66, 82, 83, 86.
So unexpected a check threw Mary into tears: and the necessity of her
situation extorted from her a declaration, that she would willingly
justify herself to her sister from all imputations, and would submit
her cause to the arbitration of so good a friend.[*] Two days after, she
sent Lord Herreis to London with a letter to the same purpose.
This concession, which Mary could scarcely avoid without an
acknowledgment of guilt, was the point expected and desired by
Elizabeth: she immediately despatched Midlemore to the regent of
Scotland; requiring him both to desist from the further prosecution of
his queen's party, and to send some persons to London to justify his
conduct with regard to her. Murray might justly be startled at receiving
a message so violent and imperious; but as his domestic enemies were
numerous and powerful, and England was the sole ally which he could
expect among foreign nations, he was resolved rather to digest the
affront, than provoke Elizabeth by a refusal. He also considered, that
though that queen had hitherto appeared partial to Mary, many political
motives evidently engaged her to support the king's cause in Scotland;
and it was not to be doubted but so penetrating a princess would in the
end discover this interest, and would at least afford him a patient and
equitable hearing. He therefore replied, that he would himself take a
journey to England, attended by other commissioners, and would willingly
submit the determination of his cause to Elizabeth.[**]
Lord Herreis now perceived that his mistress had advanced too far in
her concessions: he endeavored to maintain, that Mary could not, without
diminution of her royal dignity, submit to a contest with her rebellious
subjects before a foreign prince: and he required either present aid
from England, or liberty for his queen to pass over into France. Being
pressed, however, with the former agreement before the English council,
he again renewed his consent; but in a few days he began anew to recoil;
and it was with some difficulty that he was brought to acquiesce in the
first determination.[***] These fluctuations, which were incessantly
renewed, showed his visible reluctance to the measures pursued by the
court of England.
* Anderson, vol. iv. p. 10, 55, 87.
** Anderson, vol. iv. p. 13-16.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. p. 16-20.
The queen of Scots discovered no less aversion to the trial proposed;
and it required all the artifice and prudence of Elizabeth to make her
persevere in the agreement to which she had at first consented. This
latter princess still said to her, that she desired not without Mary's
consent and approbation to enter into the question, and pretended only
as a friend to hear her justification: that she was confident there
would be found no difficulty in refuting all the calumnies of her
enemies; and even if her apology should fall short of full conviction,
Elizabeth was determined to support her cause, and procure her some
reasonable terms of accommodation; and that it was never meant, that she
should be cited to a trial on the accusation of her rebellious subjects;
but, on the contrary, that they should be summoned to appear, and to
justify themselves for their conduct towards her.[*] Allured by these
plausible professions, the queen of Scots agreed to vindicate herself by
her own commissioners, before commissioners appointed by Elizabeth.
During these transactions, Lord Scrope and Sir Francis Knolles, who
resided with Mary at Carlisle, had leisure to study her character, and
to make report of it to Elizabeth. Unbroken by her misfortunes, resolute
in her purpose, active in her enterprises, she aspired to nothing but
victory; and was determined to endure any extremity, to undergo any
difficulty, and to try every fortune, rather than abandon her cause, or
yield the superiority to her enemies. Eloquent, insinuating, affable,
she had already convinced all those who approached her, of the innocence
of her past conduct; and as she declared her fixed purpose to require
aid of her friends all over Europe, and even to have recourse to
infidels and barbarians, rather than fail of vengeance against her
persecutors, it was easy to foresee the danger to which her charms, her
spirit, her address, if allowed to operate with their full force, would
expose them.[**] The court of England, therefore, who, under pretence
of guarding her, had already in effect detained her prisoner, were
determined to watch her with still greater vigilance. As Carlisle,
by its situation on the borders, afforded her great opportunities
of contriving her escape, they removed her to Bolton, a seat of Lord
Scrope's in Yorkshire; and the issue of the controversy between her
and the Scottish nation was regarded as a subject more momentous
to Elizabeth's security and interests than it had hitherto been
apprehended.
* Anderson, vol. iv. p. 11, 12, 13, 109, 110.
** Anderson, vol. iv. p. 54, 71, 72, 74, 78, 92.
The Commissioners appointed by the English court for the examination of
this great cause, were the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Sussex, and Sir
Ralph Sadler; and York was named as the place of conference. Lesley,
bishop of Ross, the lords Herreis, Levingstone, and Boyde, with three
persons more, appeared as commissioners from the queen of Scots. The
earl of Murray, regent, the earl of Morton, the bishop of Orkney, Lord
Lindesey, and the abbot of Dunfermling were appointed commissioners from
the king and kingdom of Scotland. Secretary Lidington, George Buchanan,
the famous poet and historian, with some others, were named as their
assistants.
It was a great circumstance in Elizabeth's glory, that she was thus
chosen umpire between the factions of a neighboring kingdom, which
had during many centuries entertained the most violent jealousy and
animosity against England; and her felicity was equally rare, in having
the fortunes and fame of so dangerous a rival, who had long given
her the greatest inquietude, now entirely at her disposal. Some
circumstances of her late conduct had discovered a bias towards the side
of Mary: her prevailing interests led her to favor the enemies of that
princess: the professions of impartiality which she had made were open
and frequent; and she had so far succeeded, that each side accused her
commissioners of partiality towards their adversaries.[*] She herself
appears, by the instructions given them, to have fixed no plan for the
decision; but she knew that the advantages which she should reap must
be great, whatever issue the cause might take. If Mary's crimes could be
ascertained by undoubted proof, she could forever blast the reputation
of that princess, and might justifiably detain her forever a prisoner
in England: if the evidence fell short of conviction, it was intended
to restore her to the throne, but with such strict limitations, as would
leave Elizabeth perpetual arbiter of all differences between the
parties in Scotland, and render her in effect absolute mistress of the
kingdom.[**]
* Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 40.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 14, 15, etc. Goodall, vol.
ii p. 110.
Mary's commissioners, before they gave in their complaint, against her
enemies in Scotland, entered a protest, that their appearance in
the cause should nowise affect the independence of her crown, or
be construed as a mark of subordination to England: the English
commissioners received this protest, but with a reserve to the claim of
England. The complaint of that princess was next read, and contained a
detail of the injuries which she had suffered since her marriage with
Bothwell: that her subjects had taken arms against her, on pretence of
freeing her from captivity; that when she put herself into their hands,
they had committed her to close custody in Lochlevin; had placed her
son, an infant, on her throne; had again taken arms against her
after her deliverance from prison; had rejected all her proposals for
accommodation, had given battle to her troops; and had obliged her, for
the safety of her person, to take shelter in England.[*] The earl
of Murray, in answer to this complaint, gave a summary and imperfect
account of the late transactions: that the earl of Bothwell, the known
murderer of the late king, had, a little after committing that crime,
seized the person of the queen and led her to Dunbar; that he acquired
such influence over her as to gain her consent to marry him, and he had
accordingly procured a divorce from his former wife, and had pretended
to celebrate his nuptials with the queen; that the scandal of this
transaction, the dishonor which it brought on the nation, the danger to
which the infant prince was exposed from the attempts of that audacious
man, had obliged the nobility to take arms, and oppose his criminal
enterprises; that after Mary, in order to save him, had thrown herself
into their hands, she still discovered such a violent attachment to him,
that they found it necessary, for their own and the public safety,
to confine her person during a season, till Bothwell and the other
murderers of her husband could be tried and punished for their crimes;
and that during this confinement she had voluntarily, without compulsion
or violence, merely from disgust at the inquietude and vexations
attending power, resigned her crown to her only son, and had appointed
the earl of Murray regent during the minority.[**]
* Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 52. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
128. Haynes, p. 478.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 64, et seq. Goodall, vol.
ii. p. 144.
The queen's answer to this apology was obvious: that she did not know,
and never could suspect, that Bothwell, who had been acquitted by a
jury, and recommended to her by all the nobility for her husband,
was the murderer of the king; that she ever was, and still continues
desirous, that, if he be guilty, he may be brought to condign
punishment; that her resignation of the crown was extorted from her
by the well-grounded fears of her life, and even by direct menaces
of violence; and that Throgmorton, the English ambassador, as well as
others of her friends, had advised her to sign that paper, as the only
means of saving herself from the last extremity, and had assured her,
that a consent, given under these circumstances, could never have any
validity.[*]
So far the queen of Scots seemed plainly to have the advantage in the
contest; and the English commissioners might have been surprised that
Murray had made so weak a defence, and had suppressed all the material
imputations against that princess, on which his party had ever so
strenuously insisted, had not some private conferences previously
informed them of the secret. Mary's commissioners had boasted that
Elizabeth, from regard to her kinswoman, and from her desire of
maintaining the rights of sovereigns, was determined, how criminal
soever the conduct of that princess might appear, to restore her to the
throne;[**] and Murray, reflecting on some past measures of the English
court, began to apprehend that there were but too just grounds for these
expectations. He believed that Mary, if he would agree to conceal the
most violent part of the accusation against her, would submit to any
reasonable terms of accommodation; but if he once proceeded so far as to
charge her with the whole of her guilt, no composition could afterwards
take place; and should she ever be restored, either by the power of
Elizabeth or the assistance of her other friends, he and his party must
be exposed to her severe and implacable vengeance.[***] He resolved,
therefore, not to venture rashly on a measure which it would be
impossible for him ever to recall; and he privately paid a visit to
Norfolk and the other English commissioners, confessed his scruples,
laid before them the evidence of the queen's guilt, and desired to have
some security for Elizabeth's protection, in case that evidence should,
upon examination, appear entirely satisfactory. Norfolk was not secretly
displeased with these scruples of the regent.[****]
* Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 60, et seq. Goodall, vol.
ii. p. 162.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 45. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
127.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 47, 48. Goodall, vol. ii.
p. 159.
**** Crawford, p. 92. Melvil, p. 94, 95. Haynes, p. 574.
He had ever been a partisan of the queen of Scots. Secretary Lidington,
who began also to incline to that party, and was a man of singular
address and capacity, had engaged him to embrace further views in
her favor, and even to think of espousing her: and though that duke
confessed[*] that the proofs against Mary seemed to him unquestionable,
he encouraged Murray in his present resolution, not to produce them
publicly in the conferences before the English commissioners.[**]
Norfolk, however, was obliged to transmit to court the queries proposed
by the regent. These queries consisted of four particulars: Whether the
English commissioners had authority from their sovereign to pronounce
sentence against Mary, in case her guilt should be fully proved before
them? Whether they would promise to exercise that authority, and proceed
to an actual sentence? Whether the queen of Scots, if she were found
guilty, should be delivered into the hands of the regent, or, at least,
be so secured in England, that she never should be able to disturb the
tranquillity of Scotland? and, Whether Elizabeth would also, in that
case, promise to acknowledge the young king, and protect the regent in
his authority?[***]
Elizabeth, when these queries, with the other transactions, were laid
before her, began to think that they pointed towards a conclusion more
decisive and more advantageous than she had hitherto expected. She
determined therefore to bring the matter into full light; and, under
pretext that the distance from her person retarded the proceedings
of her commissioners, she ordered them to come to London, and there
continue the conferences. On their appearance, she immediately joined in
commission with them some of the most considerable of her council; Sir
Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper, the earls of Arundel and Leicester, Lord
Clinton, admiral, and Sir William Cecil, secretary.[****] The queen of
Scots, who knew nothing of these secret motives, and who expected that
fear or decency would still restrain Murray from proceeding to any
violent accusation against her, expressed an entire satisfaction in this
adjournment; and declared that the affair, being under the immediate
inspection of Elizabeth, was now in the hands where she most desired to
rest it.[v].
* Anderson, vol., iv. part ii. p. 77.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 57, 77. State Trials, vol.
i. p. 76
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 55. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
130.
**** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 99.
v Anderson, vol iv. part ii. p. 95. Goodall, vol. ii. p
177, 179.
The conferences were accordingly continued at Hampton Court; and Mary's
commissioners, as before, made no scruple to be present at them.
The queen, meanwhile, gave a satisfactory answer to all Murray's
demands; and declared that, though she wished and hoped from the present
inquiry to be entirely convinced of Mary's innocence, yet if the event
should prove contrary, and if that princess should appear guilty of
her husband's murder, she should, for her own part, deem her ever after
unworthy of a throne.[*] The regent, encouraged by this declaration,
opened more fully his charge against the queen of Scots; and after
expressing his reluctance to proceed to that extremity, and protesting
that nothing but the necessity of self-defence, which must not be
abandoned for any delicacy, could have engaged him in such a measure, he
proceeded to accuse her in plain terms of participation and consent in
the assassination of the king.[**] The earl of Lenox too appeared before
the English commissioners, and, imploring vengeance for the murder
of his son, accused Mary as an accomplice with Bothwell in that
enormity.[***]
When this charge was so unexpectedly given in, and copies of it
were transmitted to the bishop of Ross, Lord Herreis, and the other
commissioners of Mary, they absolutely refused to return an answer;
and they grounded their silence on very extraordinary reasons: they had
orders, they said, from their mistress, if any thing were advanced that
might touch her honor, not to make any defence, as she was a sovereign
princess, and could not be subject to any tribunal; and they required
that she should previously be admitted to Elizabeth's presence, to whom,
and to whom alone, she was determined to justify her innocence.[****]
* Goodall, vol. ii. p. 199.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 115, et seq. Goodall, vol.
ii. p. 206.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 122. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
208.
**** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 125, et seq. Goodall,
vol. ii. p. 184, 211, 217.
They forgot that the conferences were at first begun, and were still
continued, with no other view than to clear her from the accusations of
her enemies; that Elizabeth had ever pretended to enter into them only
as her friend, by her own consent and approbation, not as assuming any
jurisdiction over her; that this princess had from the beginning refused
to admit her to her presence, till she should vindicate herself from the
crimes imputed to her; that she had therefore discovered no new signs of
partiality by her perseverance in that resolution; and that though she
had granted an audience to the earl of Murray and his colleagues, she
had previously conferred the same honor on Mary's commissioners;[*] and
her conduct was so far entirely equal to both parties.[**] [11]
As the commissioners of the queen of Scots refused to give in any answer
to Murray's charge, the necessary consequence seemed to be, that there
could be no further proceedings in the conference. But though this
silence might be interpreted as a presumption against her, it did not
fully answer the purpose of those English ministers who were enemies to
that princess. They still desired to have in their hands the proofs of
her guilt; and in order to draw them with decency from the regent, a
judicious artifice was employed by Elizabeth. Murray was called before
the English commissioners, and reproved by them, in the queen's name,
for the atrocious imputations which he had the temerity to throw upon
his sovereign; but though the earl of Murray, they added, and the other
commissioners, had so far forgotten the duty of allegiance to their
prince, the queen never would overlook what she owed to her friend, her
neighbor, and her kinswoman; and she therefore desired to know what they
could say in their own justification.[***] Murray, thus urged, made no
difficulty in producing the proofs of his charge against the queen of
Scots; and among the rest, some love-letters and sonnets of hers to
Bothwell, written all in her own hand, and two other papers, one written
in her own hand, another subscribed by her, and written by the earl of
Huntley; each of which contained a promise of marriage with Bothwell,
made before the pretended trial and acquittal of that nobleman.
* Lesley's Negotiations in Anderson, vol. iii. p. 25.
Haynes, p. 487.
** See note K, at the end of the volume.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 147. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
233.
All these important papers had been kept by Bothwell in a silver box or
casket, which had been given him by Mary, and which had belonged to her
first husband, Francis; and though the princess had enjoined him to burn
the letters as soon as he had read them, he had thought proper carefully
to preserve them, as pledges of her fidelity, and had committed them
to the custody of Sir James Balfour, deputy governor of the Castle of
Edinburgh. When that fortress was besieged by the associated lords,
Bothwell sent a servant to receive the casket from the hands of the
deputy governor. Balfour delivered it to the messenger; but as he had
at that time received some disgust from Bothwell, and was secretly
negotiating an agreement with the ruling party, he took care, by
conveying private intelligence to the earl of Morton, to make the papers
be intercepted by him, They contained incontestable proofs of Mary's
criminal correspondence with Bothwell, of her consent to the king's
murder, and of her concurrence in the violence which Bothwell
pretended to commit upon her.[*] Murray fortified this evidence by some
testimonies of corresponding facts;[**] and he added, some time after,
the dying confession of one Hubert, or French Paris, as he was called, a
servant of Bothwell's, who had been executed for the king's murder, and
who directly charged the queen with her being accessory to that criminal
enterprise.[***]
Mary's commissioners had used every expedient to ward this blow, which
they saw coming upon them, and against which, it appears, they were not
provided with any proper defence. As soon as Murray opened his
charge, they endeavored to turn the conferences from an inquiry into
a negotiation; and though informed by the English commissioners, that
nothing could be more dishonorable for their mistress, than to enter
into a treaty with such undutiful subjects, before she had justified
herself from those enormous imputations which had been thrown upon her,
they still insisted that Elizabeth should settle terms of accommodation
between Mary and her enemies in Scotland.[****] They maintained, that
till their mistress had given in her answer to Murray's charge, his
proofs could neither be called for nor produced:[v] and finding that
the English commissioners were still determined to proceed in the method
which had been projected, they finally broke off the conferences, and
never would make any reply.
* Anderson, vol. ii. p. 115. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 1.
** Anderson, vol. ii. part ii. p. 165, etc. Goodall, vol.
ii.
*** Anderson, vol. ii. p. 192. Goodall, vol. ii. p. 76.
**** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 135, 139. Goodall, vol.
ii.
v Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 139, 145. Goodall, vol. ii.
These papers, at least translations of them, have since been published.
The objections made to their authenticity are in general of small force:
but were they ever so specious, they cannot now be hearkened to; since
Mary, at the time when the truth could have been fully cleared, did in
effect ratify the evidence against her, by recoiling from the inquiry
at the very critical moment, and refusing to give an answer to the
accusation of her enemies.[*] [12]
But Elizabeth, though she had seen enough for her own satisfaction, was
determined that the most eminent persons of her court should also be
acquainted with these transactions, and should be convinced of
the equity of her proceedings. She ordered her privy council to be
assembled; and, that she might render the matter more solemn and
authentic, she summoned along with them the earls of Northumberland,
Westmoreland, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Huntingdon, and Warwick. All
the proceedings of the English commissioners were read to them: the
evidences produced by Murray were perused: a great number of letters
written by Mary to Elizabeth were laid before them, and the handwriting
compared with that of the letters delivered in by the regent: the
refusal of the queen of Scots' commissioners to make any reply was
related: and on the whole, Elizabeth told them, that as she had from
the first thought it improper that Mary, after such horrid crimes were
imputed to her, should be admitted to her presence, before she had in
some measure justified herself from the charge, so now, when her guilt
was confirmed by so many evidences, and all answer refused, she must,
for her part, persevere more steadily in that resolution.[**] Elizabeth
next called in the queen of Scots' commissioners; and after observing,
that she deemed it much more decent for their mistress to continue
the conferences, than to require the liberty of justifying herself in
person, she told them, that Mary might either send her reply by a person
whom she trusted, or deliver it herself to some English nobleman, whom
Elizabeth should appoint to wait upon her: but as to her resolution of
making no reply at all, she must regard it as the strongest confession
of guilt, nor could they ever be deemed her friends who advised her to
that method of proceeding.[***] These topics she enforced still more
strongly in a letter which she wrote to Mary herself.[****]
* See note L, at the end of the volume.
** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 170, etc. Goodall, vol.
ii. p. 254.
*** Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. p. 179, etc. Goodall, vol.
ii p. 268.
**** Anderson, vol. iv part ii. p. 183. Goodall, vol. ii. p.
269.
The queen of Scots had no other subterfuge from these pressing
remonstrances, than still to demand a personal interview with Elizabeth:
a concession which, she was sensible, would never be granted;[*] because
Elizabeth knew that this expedient could decide nothing; because it
brought matters to extremity, which that princess desired to avoid;
and because it had been refused from the beginning, even before the
commencement of the conferences. In order to keep herself better in
countenance, Mary thought of another device. Though the conferences were
broken off, she ordered her commissioners to accuse the earl of
Murray and his associates as the murderers of the king:[**] but this
accusation, coming so late, being extorted merely by a complaint of
Murray's, and being unsupported by any proof, could only be regarded
as an angry recrimination upon her enemy.[***] [13] She also desired
to have copies of the papers given in by the regent; but as she
still persisted in her resolution to make no reply before the English
commissioners, this demand was finally refused her.[****] [14]
* Cabala, p. 157.
** Goodall, vol. ii. p. 280.
*** See note M, at the end of the volume.
**** Goodall, vol. ii. p. 253, 283, 289, 310, 311. Haynes,
vol. i. p. 492. See note N, at the end of the volume.
As Mary had thus put an end to the conferences, the regent expressed
great impatience to return into Scotland; and he complained, that his
enemies had taken advantage of his absence, and had thrown the whole
government into confusion. Elizabeth therefore dismissed him; and
granted him a loan of five thousand pounds, to bear the charges of his
journey.[*] During the conferences at York, the duke of Chatelrault
arrived at London, in passing from France; and as the queen knew that he
was engaged in Mary's party, and had very plausible pretensions to the
regency of the king of Scots, she thought proper to detain him till
after Murray's departure. But notwithstanding these marks of favor, and
some other assistance which she secretly gave this latter nobleman,[**]
she still declined acknowledging the young king, or treating with Murray
as regent of Scotland.
* Rymer, tom. xv. p. 677.
* MS. in the Advocates' library. A. 3, 29, p. 128, 129, 130,
from Cott. lab. Cal. c. 1.
Orders were given for removing the queen of Scots from Bolton, a place
surrounded with Catholics, to Tutbury, in the county of Stafford, where
she was put under the custody of the earl of Shrewsbury. Elizabeth
entertained hopes that this princess, discouraged by her misfortunes,
and confounded by the late transactions, would be glad to secure a safe
retreat from all the tempests with which she had been agitated; and she
promised to bury every thing in oblivion, provided Mary would agree,
either voluntary to resign her crown, or to associate her son with
her in the government; and the administration to remain, during his
minority, in the hands of the earl of Murray.[*] But that high-spirited
princess refused all treaty upon such terms, and declared that her
last words should be those of a queen of Scotland. Besides many other
reasons, she said, which fixed her in that resolution, she knew, that if
in the present emergence she made such concessions, her submission would
be universally deemed an acknowledgment of guilt, and would ratify all
the calumnies of her enemies.[**]
* Goodall, vol. ii. p. 295.
** Goodall. vol. ii. p. 301.
Mary still insisted upon this alternative; either that Elizabeth should
assist her in recovering her authority, or should give her liberty to
retire into France, and make trial of the friendship of other princes:
and as she asserted, that she had come voluntarily into England, invited
by many former professions of amity, she thought that one or other of
these requests could not, without the most extreme injustice, be refused
her. But Elizabeth, sensible of the danger which attended both these
proposals, was secretly resolved to detain her still a captive; and as
her retreat into England had been little voluntary, her claim upon the
queen's generosity appeared much less urgent than she was willing to
pretend. Necessity, it was thought, would to the prudent justify her
detention: her past misconduct would apologize for it to the equitable:
and though it was foreseen, that compassion for Mary's situation, joined
to her intrigues and insinuating behavior, would, while she remained in
England, excite the zeal of her friends, especially of the Catholics,
these inconveniences were deemed much inferior to those which attended
any other expedient. Elizabeth trusted also to her own address,
for eluding all these difficulties: she purposed to avoid breaking
absolutely with the queen of Scots, to keep her always in hopes of an
accommodation, to negotiate perpetually with her, and still to throw the
blame of not coming to any conclusion, either on unforeseen accidents,
or on the obstinacy and perverseness of others.
We come now to mention some English affairs which we left behind us,
that we might not interrupt our narrative of the events in Scotland,
which formed so material a part of the present reign. The term fixed by
the treaty of Chateau-Cambresis for the restitution of Calais, expired
in 1567; and Elizabeth, after making her demand at the gates of that
city, sent Sir Thomas Smith to Paris; and that minister, in conjunction
with Sir Henry Norris, her resident ambassador, enforced her
pretensions. Conferences were held on that head, without coming to any
conclusion satisfactory to the English. The chancellor, De L'Hospital,
told the English ambassadors, that though France by an article of the
treaty was obliged to restore Calais on the expiration of eight years,
there was another article of the same treaty, which now deprived
Elizabeth of any right that could accrue to her by that engagement;
that it was agreed, if the English should, during the interval, commit
hostilities upon France, they should instantly forfeit all claim to
Calais; and the taking possession of Havre and Dieppe, with whatever
pretences that measure might be covered, was a plain violation of the
peace between the nations: that though these places were not entered by
force, but put into Elizabeth's hands by the governors, these governors
were rebels; and a correspondence with such traitors was the most
flagrant injury that could be committed on any sovereign: that in the
treaty which ensued upon the expulsion of the English from Normandy, the
French ministers had absolutely refused to make any mention of Calais,
and had thereby declared their intention to take advantage of the title
which had accrued to the crown of France: and that though a general
clause had been inserted, implying a reservation of all claims, this
concession could not avail the English, who at that time possessed no
just claim to Calais, and had previously forfeited all right to
that fortress.[*] The queen was nowise surprised at hearing these
allegations; and as she knew that the French court intended not from
the first to make restitution, much less after they could justify their
refusal by such plausible reasons, she thought it better for the present
to acquiesce in the loss, than to pursue a doubtful title by a war both
dangerous and expensive, as well as unseasonable.[**]
* Haynes, p. 587.
** Camden, p. 406.
Elizabeth entered anew into negotiations for espousing the archduke
Charles; and she seems, at this time, to have had no great motive of
policy which might induce her to make this fallacious offer: but as she
was very rigorous in the terms insisted on, and would not agree that
the archduke, if he espoused her, should enjoy any power or title in
England, and even refused him the exercise of his religion, the
treaty came to nothing; and that prince, despairing of success in his
addresses, married the daughter of Albert, duke of Bavaria.[*]
* Camden, p. 407, 408.
CHAPTER XL
ELIZABETH.
{1568.} Of all the European churches which shook off the yoke of papal
authority, no one proceeded with so much reason and moderation as the
church of England; an advantage which had been derived partly from the
interposition of the civil magistrate in this innovation, partly from
the gradual and slow steps by which the reformation was conducted in
that kingdom. Rage and animosity against the Catholic religion was as
little indulged as could be supposed in such a revolution: the fabric
of the secular hierarchy was maintained entire: the ancient liturgy was
preserved, so far as was thought consistent with the new principles:
many ceremonies, become venerable from age and preceding use were
retained: the splendor of the Romish worship, though removed, had at
least given place to order and decency: the distinctive habits of
the clergy, according to their different ranks, were continued: no
innovation was admitted merely from spite and opposition to former
usage: and the new religion, by mitigating the genius of the ancient
superstition, and rendering it more compatible with the peace and
interests of society, had preserved itself in that happy medium which
wise men have always sought, and which the people have so seldom been
able to maintain.
But though such in general was the spirit of the reformation in
that country, many of the English reformers, being men of more warm
complexions and more obstinate tempers, endeavored to push matters to
extremities against the church of Rome, and indulged themselves in the
most violent contrariety and antipathy to all former practices. Among
these, Hooper, who afterwards suffered for his religion with such
extraordinary constancy, was chiefly distinguished. This man was
appointed, during the reign of Edward, to the see of Glocester, and
made no scruple of accepting the episcopal office; but he refused to
be consecrated in the episcopal habit, the cymar and rochet, which had
formerly, he said, been abused to superstition, and which were thereby
rendered unbecoming a true Christian. Cranmer and Ridley were surprised
at this objection, which opposed the received practice, and even the
established laws; and though young Edward, desirous of promoting a man
so celebrated for his eloquence, his zeal, and his morals, enjoined them
to dispense with this ceremony, they were still determined to retain it.
Hooper then embraced the resolution, rather to refuse the bishopric
than clothe himself in those hated garments; but it was deemed requisite
that, for the sake of the example, he should not escape so easily. He
was first confined to Cranmer's house, then thrown into prison, till he
should consent to be a bishop on the terms proposed: he was plied with
conferences, and reprimands, and arguments: Bucer and Peter Martyr, and
the most celebrated foreign reformers, were consulted on this important
question: and a compromise, with great difficulty, was at last made,
that Hooper should not be obliged to wear commonly the obnoxious robes,
but should agree to be consecrated in them, and to use them during
cathedral service;[*] a condescension not a little extraordinary in a
man of so inflexible a spirit as this reformer.
The same objection which had arisen with regard to the episcopal habit,
had been moved against the raiment of the inferior clergy; and the
surplice in particular, with the tippet and corner cap, was a great
object of abhorrence to many of the popular zealots.[**]
* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 152. Heylin, p. 90.
** Strype, vol. i. p. 416.
In vain was it urged, that particular habits, as well as postures and
ceremonies, having been constantly used by the clergy, and employed
in religious service, acquire a veneration in the eyes of the people,
appear sacred in their apprehensions, excite their devotion, and
contract a kind of mysterious virtue, which attaches the affections of
men to the national and established worship: that in order to produce
this effect, a uniformity in these particulars is requisite, and even a
perseverance, as far as possible, in the former practice: and that the
nation would be happy, if, by retaining these inoffensive observances,
the reformers could engage the people to renounce willingly what was
absurd or pernicious in the ancient superstition. These arguments, which
had influence with wise men, were the very reasons which engaged the
violent Protestants to reject the habits. They pushed matters to a total
opposition with the church of Rome; every compliance, they said, was a
symbolizing with Antichrist.[*] And this spirit was carried so far by
some reformers, that, in a national remonstrance, made afterwards by the
church of Scotland against these habits, it was asked, "What has
Christ Jesus to do with Belial? What has darkness to do with light? If
surplices, corner caps, and tippets have been badges cf idolaters in
the very act of their idolatry, why should the preacher of Christian
liberty, and the open rebuker of all superstition, partake with the
dregs of the Romish beast? Yea, who is there that ought not rather to be
afraid of taking in his hand, or on his forehead, the print and mark of
that odious beast?"[**] But this application was rejected by the English
church.
There was only one instance in which the spirit of contradiction to the
Romanists took place universally in England: the altar was removed from
the wall, was placed in the middle of the church, and was thenceforth
denominated the communion table. The reason why this innovation met with
such general reception was, that the nobility and gentry got thereby
a pretence for making spoil of the plate, vestures, and rich ornaments
which belonged to the altars.[***]
* Strype, vol. i. p. 416.
** Keith, p. 565. Knox, p. 402.
*** Heylin, Preface, p. 3. Hist. p. 106.
These disputes, which had been started during the reign of Edward, were
carried abroad by the Protestants who fled from the persecutions of
Mary; and as the zeal of these men had received an increase from the
furious cruelty of their enemies, they were generally inclined to carry
their opposition to the utmost extremity against the practices of the
church of Rome. Their communication with Calvin, and the other reformers
who followed the discipline and worship of Geneva, confirmed them in
this obstinate reluctance; and though some of the refugees, particularly
those who were established at Frankfort, still adhered to King Edward's
liturgy, the prevailing spirit carried these confessors to seek a still
further reformation. On the accession of Elizabeth, they returned to
their native country; and being regarded with general veneration, on
account of their zeal and past sufferings, they ventured to insist
on the establishment of their projected model; nor did they want
countenance from many considerable persona in the queen's council. But
the princess herself, so far from being willing to despoil religion
of the few ornaments and ceremonies which remained in it, was rather
inclined to bring the public worship still nearer to the Romish
ritual;[*] and she thought that the reformation had already gone too far
in shaking off those forms and observances, which, without distracting
men of more refined apprehensions, tend, in a very innocent manner, to
allure, and amuse, and engage the vulgar.
* "When Nowel, one of her chaplains, had spoken less
reverently, in a sermon preached before her, of the sign of
the cross, she called aloud to him from her closet window,
commanding him to retire from the ungodly digression, and
to return unto his text. And on the other side, when one of
her divines had preached a sermon in defence of the real
presence, she openly gave him thanks for his pains and
piety." Heylin, p. 124. She would have absolutely forbidden
the marriage of the clergy, if Cecil had not interposed.
Strype's Life of Parker, p. 107, 108, 109. She was an enemy
to sermons; and usually said, that she thought two or three
preachers were sufficient for a whole county. It was
probably for these reasons that one Doring told her to her
face from the pulpit, that she was like an untamed heifer,
that would not be ruled by God's people, but obstructed his
discipline See Life of Hooker, prefixed to his works.
She took care to have a law for uniformity strictly enacted: she was
empowered by the parliament to add any new ceremonies which she thought
proper: and though she was sparing in the exercise of this prerogative,
she continued rigid in exacting an observance of the established laws,
and in punishing all nonconformity. The zealots, therefore, who harbored
a secret antipathy to the Episcopal order, and to the whole liturgy,
were obliged, in a great measure, to conceal these sentiments, which
would have been regarded as highly audacious and criminal; and they
confined their avowed objections to the surplice, the confirmation
of children, the sign of the cross in baptism, the ring in marriage,
kneeling at the sacrament, and bowing at the name of Jesus. So fruitless
is it for sovereigns to watch with a rigid care over orthodoxy, and to
employ the sword in religious controversy, that the work, perpetually
renewed, is perpetually to begin; and a garb, a gesture, nay, a
metaphysical or grammatical distinction, when rendered important by the
disputes of theologians and the zeal of the magistrate, is sufficient
to destroy the unity of the church, and even the peace of society. These
controversies had already excited such ferment among the people, that in
some places, they refused to frequent the churches where the habits
and ceremonies were used; would not salute the conforming clergy; and
proceeded so far as to revile them in the streets, to spit in their
faces, and to use them with all manner of contumely.[*] And while the
sovereign authority checked these excesses, the flame was confined, not
extinguished; and burning fiercer from confinement, it burst out in the
succeeding reigns to the destruction of the church and monarchy.
* Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 460
All enthusiasts, indulging themselves in rapturous flights ecstasies,
visions, inspirations, have a natural aversion to episcopal authority,
to ceremonies, rites, and forms which they denominate superstition, or
beggarly elements, and which seem to restrain the liberal effusions of
their zeal and devotion: but there was another set of opinions adopted
by these innovators, which rendered them in a peculiar manner the
object of Elizabeth's aversion. The same bold and daring spirit which
accompanied them in their addresses to the Divinity, appeared in their
political speculations; and the principles of civil liberty, which
during some reigns had been little avowed in the nation, and which were
totally incompatible with the present exorbitant prerogative, had
been strongly adopted by this new sect. Scarcely any sovereign before
Elizabeth, and none after her, carried higher, both in speculation
and practice, the authority of the crown; and the Puritans (so these
sectaries were called, on account of their pretending to a superior
purity of worship and discipline) could not recommend themselves
worse to her favor, than by inculcating the doctrine of resisting or
restraining princes. From all these motives, the queen neglected no
opportunity of depressing those zealous innovators; and while they were
secretly countenanced by some of her most favored ministers, Cecil,
Leicester, Knolles, Bedford, Walsingham, she never was, to the end of
her life, reconciled to their principles and practices.
We have thought proper to insert in this place an account of the rise
and the genius of the Puritans; because Camden marks the present year as
the period when they began to make themselves considerable in England.
We now return to our narration.
{1569.} The duke of Norfolk was the only peer that enjoyed the highest
title of nobility; and as there were at present no princes of the blood,
the splendor of his family, the opulence of his fortune, and the extent
of his influence, had rendered him, without comparison, the first
subject in England. The qualities of his mind corresponded to his high
station:--beneficent, affable, generous, he had acquired the affections
of the people; prudent, moderate, obsequious, he possessed, without
giving her any jealousy, the good graces of his sovereign. His
grandfather and father had long been regarded as the leaders of the
Catholics; and this hereditary attachment, joined to the alliance of
blood, had procured him the friendship of the most considerable men
of that party; but as he had been educated among the reformers, was
sincerely devoted to their principles, and maintained that strict
decorum and regularity of life by which the Protestants were at that
time distinguished, he thereby enjoyed the rare felicity of being
popular even with the most opposite factions. The height of his
prosperity alone was the source of his misfortunes, and engaged him in
attempts from which his virtue and prudence would naturally have forever
kept him at a distance.
Norfolk was at this time a widower; and being of a suitable age, his
marriage with the queen of Scots had appeared so natural, that it
occurred to several of his friends and those of that princess: but the
first person who, after Secretary Lidington, opened the scheme to the
duke, is said to have been the earl of Murray, before his departure for
Scotland.[*] That nobleman set before Norfolk, both the advantage of
composing the dissensions in Scotland by an alliance which would be
so generally acceptable, and the prospect of reaping the succession of
England; and in order to bind Norfolk's interest the faster with Mary's,
he proposed that the duke's daughter should also espouse the young
king of Scotland. The previously obtaining of Elizabeth's consent was
regarded, both by Murray and Norfolk, as a circumstance essential to
the success of their project; and all terms being adjusted between them,
Murray took care, by means of Sir Robert Melvil, to have the design
communicated to the queen of Scots. This princess replied, that the
vexations which she had met with in her two last marriages, had made her
more inclined to lead a single life; but she was determined to sacrifice
her own inclinations to the public welfare: and therefore, as soon as
she should be legally divorced from Bothwell, she would be determined
by the opinion of her nobility and people in the choice of another
husband.[**]
* Lesley, p. 36, 87.
** Lesley, p. 40, 41.
It is probable that Murray was not sincere in this proposal. He had two
motives to engage him to dissimulation. Heknew the danger which he must
run in his return through the north of England, from the power of the
earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, Mary's partisans in that
country; and he dreaded an insurrection in Scotland from the duke of
Chatelrault and the earls of Argyle and Huntley, whom she had appointed
her lieutenants during her absence. By these feigned appearances
of friendship, he both engaged Norfolk to write in his favor to the
northern noblemen,[*] and he persuaded the queen of Scots to give her
lieutenants permission, and even advice, to conclude a cessation of
hostilities with the regent's party.[**]
The duke of Norfolk, though he had agreed that Elizabeth's consent
should be previously obtained before the completion of his marriage, had
reason to apprehend that he never should prevail with her voluntarily
to make that concession. He knew her perpetual and unrelenting jealousy
against her heir and rival; he was acquainted with her former reluctance
to all proposals of marriage with the queen of Scots; he foresaw that
this princess's espousing a person of his power, and character, and
interest, would give the greatest umbrage; and as it would then become
necessary to reinstate her in possession of her throne on some tolerable
terms, and even to endeavor the reestablishing of her character, he
dreaded lest Elizabeth, whose politics had now taken a different
turn, would never agree to such indulgent and generous conditions. He
therefore attempted previously to gain the consent and approbation of
several of the most considerable nobility; and he was successful with
the earls of Pembroke, Arundel, Derby, Bedford, Shrewsbury, Southampton,
Northumberland, Westmoreland, Sussex.[***] Lord Lumley and Sir Nicholas
Throgmorton cordially embraced the proposal: even the earl of Leicester,
Elizabeth's declared favorite, who had formerly entertained some views
of espousing Mary, willingly resigned all his pretensions, and seemed
to enter zealously into Norfolk's interests.[****] There were other
motives, besides affection to the duke, which produced this general
combination of the nobility.
* State Trials, p. 76, 78.
** Lesley, p. 41.
*** Lesley, p. 55. Camden, p. 419. Spotswood, p. 230.
**** Haynes, p. 535.
Sir William Cecil, secretary of state, was the most vigilant, active,
and prudent minister ever known in England; and as he was governed by
no views but the interests of his sovereign which he had inflexibly
pursued, his authority over her became every day more predominant. Ever
cool himself, and uninfluenced by prejudice or affection, he checked
those sallies of passion, and sometimes of caprice, to which she was
subject; and if he failed of persuading her in the first movement, his
perseverance, and remonstrances, and arguments were sure at last to
recommend themselves to her sound discernment. The more credit he gained
with his mistress, the more was he exposed to the envy of her other
counsellors; and as he had been supposed to adopt the interests of the
house of Suffolk, whose claim seemed to carry with it no danger to the
present establishment, his enemies, in opposition to him, were naturally
led to attach themselves to the queen of Scots. Elizabeth saw without
uneasiness this emulation among her courtiers, which served to augment
her own authority: and though she supported Cecil whenever matters
came to extremities, and dissipated every conspiracy against him,
particularly one laid about this time for having him thrown into the
Tower on some pretence or other,[*] she never gave him such unlimited
confidence as might enable him entirely to crush his adversaries.
Norfolk, sensible of the difficulty which he must meet with in
controlling Cecil's counsels, especially where they concurred with the
inclination as well as interest of the queen, durst not open to her his
intentions of marrying the queen of Scots, but proceeded still in the
same course of increasing his interest in the kingdom, and engaging more
of the nobility to take part in his measures. A letter was written to
Mary by Leicester, and signed by several of the first rank, recommending
Norfolk for her husband, and stipulating conditions for the advantage of
both kingdoms; particularly, that she should give sufficient surety
to Elizabeth, and the heirs of her body, for the free enjoyment of the
crown of England, that a perpetual league, offensive and defensive,
should be made between their realms and subjects; that the Protestant
religion should be established by law in Scotland; and that she should
grant an amnesty to her rebels in that kingdom.[**]
* Camden, p. 417.
** Lesley, p. 50. Camden, p. 420. Haynes, p. 535, 539
When Mary returned a favorable answer to this application, Norfolk
employed himself with new ardor in the execution of his project; and
besides securing the interests of many of the considerable gentry and
nobility who resided at court, he wrote letters to such as lived at
their country seats, and possessed the greatest authority in the several
counties.[*] The kings of France and Spain, who interested themselves
extremely in Mary's cause, were secretly consulted, and expressed their
approbation of these measures.[**] And though Elizabeth's consent
was always supposed as a previous condition to the finishing of this
alliance, it was apparently Norfolk's intention, when he proceeded such
lengths without consulting her, to render his party so strong, that it
should no longer be in her power to refuse it.[***]
It was impossible that so extensive a conspiracy could entirely escape
the queen's vigilance and that of Cecil. She dropped several intimations
to the duke, by which he might learn that she was acquainted with his
designs; and she frequently warned him to beware on what pillow he
reposed his head:[****] but he never had the prudence or the courage to
open to her his full intentions. Certain intelligence of this dangerous
combination was given her first by Leicester, then by Murray,[v] who, if
ever he was sincere in promoting Norfolk's marriage, which is much to be
doubted, had at least intended for his own safety and that of his party,
that Elizabeth should in reality, as well as in appearance, be entire
arbiter of the conditions, and should not have her consent extorted by
any confederacy of her own subjects. This information gave great alarm
to the court of England; and the more so, as those intrigues were
attended with other circumstances, of which, it is probable, Elizabeth
was not wholly ignorant.
* Lesley, p. 62.
** Lesley, p. 63.
*** State Trials, vol. i. p. 82.
**** Camden, p. 420. Spotswood, p. 231.
v Lesley, p. 71. It appears by Haynes, (p. 521, 525,) that
Elizabeth had heard rumors of Norfolk's dealing with Murray;
and charged the latter to inform her of the whole truth,
which he accordingly did. See also the earl of Murray's
letter produced on Norfolk's trial.
Among the nobility and gentry that seemed to enter into Norfolk's views,
there were many who were zealously attached to the Catholic religion,
who had no other design than that of restoring Mary to her liberty, and
who would gladly, by a combination with foreign powers, or even at the
expense of a civil war, have placed her on the throne or England. The
earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, who possessed great power
in the north, were leaders of this party; and the former nobleman made
offer to the queen of Scots, by Leonard Dacres, brother to Lord Dacres,
that he would free her from confinement, and convey her to Scotland,
or any other place to which she should think proper to retire.[*] Sir
Thomas and Sir Edward Stanley, sons of the earl of Derby, Sir Thomas
Gerrard, Rolstone, and other gentlemen whose interest lay in the
neighborhood of the place where Mary resided, concurred in the same
views; and required that, in order to facilitate the execution of the
scheme, a diversion should in the mean time be made from the side of
Flanders.[**] Norfolk discouraged, and even, in appearance, suppressed
these conspiracies; both because his duty to Elizabeth would not allow
him to think of effecting his purpose by rebellion, and because he
foresaw that, if the queen of Scots came into the possession of these
men, they would rather choose for her husband the king of Spain, or some
foreign prince, who had power, as well as inclination, to reestablish
the Catholic religion.[***]
* Lesley, p. 76.
** Lesley, p. 98.
*** Lesley, p. 77.
When men of honor and good principles, like the duke of Norfolk, engage
in dangerous enterprises, they are commonly so unfortunate as to be
criminal by halves; and while they balance between the execution of
their designs and their remorses, their fear of punishment and their
hope of pardon, they render themselves an easy prey to their enemies.
The duke, in order to repress the surmises spread against him, spoke
contemptuously to Elizabeth of the Scottish alliance; affirmed that his
estate in England was more valuable than the revenue of a kingdom wasted
by civil wars and factions; and declared, that when he amused himself
in his own tennis-court at Norwich amidst his friends and vassals, he
deemed himself at least a petty prince, and was fully satisfied with
his condition.[*] Finding that he did not convince her by these
asseverations, and that he was looked on with a jealous eye by the
ministers, he retired to his country seat without taking leave.[**] He
soon after repented of this measure, and set out on his return to court,
with a view of using every expedient to regain the queen's good graces;
but he was met at St. Albans by Fitz-Garret, lieutenant of the band of
pensioners by whom he was conveyed to Burnham, three miles from Windsor,
where the court then resided.[***]
* Camden, p. 420
** Haynes, p. 528.
*** Haynes, p. 339.
He was soon after committed to the Tower, under the custody of Sir Henry
Nevil. [*] Lesley, bishop of Ross, the queen of Scots' ambassador, was
examined, and confronted with Norfolk before the council.[**] The
earl of Pembroke was confined to his own house: Arundel, Lumley, and
Throgmorton were taken into custody. The queen of Scots herself was
removed to Coventry; all access to her was, during some time, more
strictly prohibited; and Viscount Hereford was joined to the earls of
Shrewsbury and Huntingdon in the office of guarding her.
A rumor had been diffused in the north of an intended rebellion; and
the earl of Sussex, president of York, alarmed with the danger, sent
for Northumberland and Westmoreland, in order to examine them: but not
finding any proof against them, he allowed them to depart. The report,
meanwhile, gained ground daily; and many appearances of its reality
being discovered, orders were despatched by Elizabeth to these two
noblemen, to appear at court, and answer for their conduct.[***] They
had already proceeded so far in their criminal designs, that they dared
not to trust themselves in her hands: they had prepared measures for
a rebellion; had communicated their design to Mary and her
ministers;[****] had entered into a correspondence with the duke of
Alva, governor of the Low Countries; had obtained his promise of a
reenforcement of troops, and of a supply of arms and ammunition; and
had prevailed on him to send over to London Chiapino Vitelii, one of his
most famous captains, on pretence of adjusting some differences with
the queen, but in reality with a view of putting him at the head of the
northern rebels.
* Camden, p. 421. Haynes, p. 540.
** Lesley, p. 80.
*** Haynes, p. 552.
**** Haynes, 595. Strype, vol. ii. Append, p. 30. MS. in the
Ad socates' Library from Cott. Lib. Cal. c. 9.
The summons sent to the two earls precipitated the rising before they
were fully prepared; and Northumberland remained in suspense between
opposite dangers, when he was informed that some of his enemies were on
the way with a commission to arrest him. He took horse instantly, and
hastened to his associate Westmoreland, whom he found surrounded with
his friends and vassals, and deliberating with regard to the measures
which he should follow in the present emergence. They determined to
begin the insurrection without delay; and the great credit of these two
noblemen, with that zeal for the catholic religion which still prevailed
in the neighborhood, soon drew together multitudes of the common people.
They published a manifesto, in which they declared that they intended
to attempt nothing against the queen, to whom they vowed unshaken
allegiance: and that their sole aim was to reestablish the religion of
their ancestors, to remove evil counsellors, and to restore the duke
of Norfolk and other faithful peers to their liberty and to the queen's
favor.[*] The number of the malecontents amounted to four thousand foot
and sixteen hundred horse; and they expected the concurrence of all the
Catholics in England.[**]
The queen was not negligent in her own defence, and she had beforehand,
from her prudent and wise conduct, acquired the general good will of
her people, the best security of a sovereign; insomuch that even the
Catholics in most counties expressed an affection for her service;[***]
and the duke of Norfolk himself, though he had lost her favor, and lay
in confinement, was not wanting, as far as his situation permitted, to
promote the levies among his friends and retainers. Sussex, attended
by the earls of Rutland, the lords Hunsdon, Evers, and Willoughby of
Parham, marched against the rebels at the head of seven thousand men,
and found them already advanced to the bishopric of Durham, of which
they had taken possession. They retired before him to Hexham; and
hearing that the earl of Warwick and Lord Clinton were advancing against
them with a greater body, they found no other resource than to disperse
themselves without striking a blow. The common people retired to
their houses: the leaders fled into Scotland. Northumberland was found
skulking in that country, and was confined by Murray in the Castle of
Lochlevin. Westmoreland received shelter from the chieftains of the Kers
and Scots, partisans of Mary; and persuaded them to make an inroad into
England, with a view of exciting a quarrel between the two kingdoms.
After they had committed great ravages, they retreated to their own
country. This sudden and precipitate rebellion was followed soon after
by another still more imprudent, raised by Leonard Uacres. Lord Hunsdon,
at the head of the garrison of Berwick, was able, without any other
assistance, to quell these rebels. Great severity was exercised against
such as had taken part in these rash enterprises. Sixty-six petty
constables were hanged;[****] and no less than eight hundred persons are
said, on the whole, to have suffered by the hands of the executioner.[v]
* Cabala, p. 169. Strype, vol. i. p. 547.
** Stowe, p. 663.
*** Cabala, p, 170. Digges, p. 4.
**** Camden, p, 423.
v Lesley, p. 82.
But the queen was so well pleased with Norfolk's behavior, that she
released him from the Tower; allowed him to live, though under some show
of confinement, in his own house; and only exacted a promise from
him not to proceed any further in his negotiations with the queen of
Scots.[*]
Elizabeth now found that the detention of Mary was attended with all
the ill consequences which she had foreseen when she first embraced that
measure. This latter princess recovering, by means of her misfortunes
and her own natural good sense, from that delirium into which she seems
to have been thrown during her attachment to Bothwell, had behaved
with such modesty and judgment, and even dignity, that every one who
approached her was charmed with her demeanor; and her friends were
enabled, on some plausible grounds, to deny the reality of all those
crimes which had been imputed to her.[**]
* Lesley, p. 98. Camden, p. 429. Haynes, p. 597.
** Lesley, p. 232. Haynes, p. 511, 548.
Compassion for her situation, and the necessity of procuring her
liberty, proved an incitement among all her partisans to be active
in promoting her cause; and as her deliverance from captivity, it was
thought, could nowise be effected but by attempts dangerous to
the established government, Elizabeth had reason to expect little
tranquillity so long as the Scottish queen remained a prisoner in her
hands. But as this inconvenience had been preferred to the danger of
allowing that princess to enjoy her liberty, and to seek relief in
all the Catholic courts of Europe, it behoved the queen to support the
measure which she had adopted, and to guard, by every prudent expedient,
against the mischiefs to which it was exposed. She still flattered Mary
with hopes of her protection, maintained an ambiguous conduct between
that queen and her enemies in Scotland, negotiated perpetually
concerning the terms of her restoration, made constant professions of
friendship to her; and by these artifices endeavored, both to prevent
her from making any desperate efforts for her deliverance, and to
satisfy the French and Spanish ambassadors, who never intermitted their
solicitations, sometimes accompanied with menaces, in her behalf.
This deceit was received with the same deceit by the queen of Scots:
professions of confidence were returned by professions equally
insincere: and while an appearance of friendship was maintained on both
sides, the animosity and jealousy, which had long prevailed between
them, became every day more inveterate and incurable. These two
princesses, in address, capacity, activity, and spirit, were nearly a
match for each other; but unhappily, Mary, besides her present forlorn
condition, was always inferior in personal conduct and discretion, as
well as in power, to her illustrious rival.
Elizabeth and Mary wrote at the same time letters to the regent.
The queen of Scots desired, that her marriage with Bothwell might be
examined, and a divorce be legally pronounced between them. The queen of
England gave Murray the choice of three conditions; that Mary should be
restored to her dignity on certain terms; that she should be associated
with her son, and the administration remain in the regent's hands, till
the young prince should come to years of discretion; or that she should
be allowed to live at liberty as a private person in Scotland, and
have an honorable settlement made in her favor.[*] Murray summoned a
convention of states, in order to deliberate on these proposals of the
two queens. No answer was made by them to Mary's letter, on pretence
that she had there employed the style of a sovereign, addressing herself
to her subjects; but in reality, because they saw that her request
was calculated to prepare the way for a marriage with Norfolk, or some
powerful prince, who could support her cause, and restore her to the
throne. They replied to Elizabeth that the two former conditions were so
derogatory to the royal authority of their prince, that they could not
so much as deliberate concerning them: the third alone could be
the subject of treaty. It was evident that Elizabeth, in proposing
conditions so unequal in their importance, invited the Scots to a
refusal of those which were most advantageous to Mary; and as it was
difficult, if not impossible, to adjust all the terms of the third, so
as to render it secure and eligible to all parties, it was concluded
that she was not sincere in any of them.[**]
* MSS. in the Advocates' Library. A. 329, p. 137, from Cott.
Lib. Catal. c. 1.
** Spotswood, p. 230, 231. Lesley, p. 71.
{1570.} It is pretended, that Murray had entered into a private
negotiation with the queen, to get Mary delivered into his hands;[*] and
as Elizabeth found the detention of her in England so dangerous, it
is probable that she would have been pleased, on any honorable or safe
terms, to rid herself of a prisoner who gave her so much inquietude.[**]
[15] But all these projects vanished by the sudden death of the regent,
who was assassinated in revenge of a private injury, by a gentleman of
the name of Hamilton. Murray was a person of considerable vigor,
abilities, and constancy; but though he was not unsuccessful, during his
regency, in composing the dissensions in Scotland, his talents shone out
more eminently in the beginning than in the end of his life. His manners
were rough and austere; and he possessed not that perfect integrity
which frequently accompanies, and can alone atone for, that unamiable
character.
By the death of the regent, Scotland relapsed into anarchy. Mary's
party assembled together, and made themselves masters of Edinburgh. The
castle, commanded by Kirkaldy of Grange, seemed to favor her cause; and
as many of the principal nobility had embraced that party, it became
probable, though the people were in general averse to her, that her
authority might again acquire the ascendant. To check its progress,
Elizabeth despatched Sussex with an army to the north, under color of
chastising the ravages committed by the borderers. He entered Scotland,
and laid waste the lands of the Kers and Scots, seized the Castle of
Hume, and committed hostilities on all Mary's partisans, who, he said,
had offended his mistress by harboring the English rebels. Sir William
Drury was afterwards sent with a body of troops, and he threw down
the houses of the Hamiltons, who were engaged in the same faction. The
English armies were afterwards recalled by agreement with the queen
of Scots, who promised, in return, that no French troops should
be introduced into Scotland, and that the English rebels should be
delivered up to the queen by her partisans.[***]
But though the queen, covering herself with the pretence of revenging
her own quarrel, so far contributed to support the party of the young
king of Scots, she was cautious not to declare openly against Mary;
and she even sent a request, which was equivalent to a command, to the
enemies of that princess, not to elect, during some time, a regent in
the place of Murray.[****] Lenox, the king's grandfather, was therefore
chosen temporary governor, under the title of lieutenant.
* Camden, p. 425. Lesley, p. 83.
** See note O, at the end of the volume.
*** Lesley, p. 91.
**** Spotswood, p. 240.
Hearing afterwards that Mary's partisans, instead of delivering up
Westmoreland and the other fugitives, as they had promised, had allowed
them to escape into Flanders, she permitted the king's party to give
Lenox the title of regent,[*] and she sent Randolph, as her resident, to
maintain a correspondence with him. But notwithstanding this step, taken
in favor of Mary's enemies, she never laid aside her ambiguous conduct,
nor quitted the appearance of amity to that princess. Being importuned
by the bishop of Ross and her other agents, as well as by foreign
ambassadors, she twice procured a suspension of arms between the
Scottish factions, and by that means stopped the hands of the regent,
who was likely to obtain advantages over the opposite party.[**] By
these seeming contrarieties she kept alive the factions in Scotland,
increased their mutual animosity, and rendered the whole country a scene
of devastation and of misery.[***] She had no intention to conquer the
kingdom, and consequently no interest or design to instigate the parties
against each other; but this consequence was an accidental effect of her
cautious politics, by which she was engaged, as far as possible, to
keep on good terms with the queen of Scots, and never to violate the
appearances of friendship with her, at least those of neutrality.[****]
[16]
* Spotswood, p. 241.
** Spotswood, p. 243.
*** Crawford, p. 136.
**** See note P, at the end of the volume.
The better to amuse Mary with the prospect of an accommodation, Cecil
and Sir Walter Mildmay were sent to her with proposals from Elizabeth.
The terms were somewhat rigorous, such as a captive queen might expect
from a jealous rival; and they thereby bore the greater appearance of
sincerity on the part of the English court. It was required that the
queen of Scots, besides renouncing all title to the crown of England
during the lifetime of Elizabeth, should make a perpetual league,
offensive and defensive, between the kingdoms; that she should marry no
Englishman without Elizabeth's consent, nor any other person without the
consent of the states of Scotland; that compensation should be made for
the late ravages committed in England; that justice should be executed
on the murderers of King Henry; that the young prince should be sent
into England, to be educated there; and that six hostages, all of them
noblemen, should be delivered to the queen of England, with the Castle
of Hume, and some other fortress, for the security of performance.[*]
Such were the conditions upon which Elizabeth promised to contribute her
endeavors towards the restoration of the deposed queen. The necessity of
Mary's affairs obliged her to consent to them; and the kings of France
and Spain, as well as the pope, when consulted by her, approved of her
conduct chiefly on account of the civil wars, by which all Europe was
at that time agitated, and which incapacitated the Catholic princes from
giving her any assistance.[**]
Elizabeth's commissioners proposed also to Mary a plan of accommodation
with her subjects in Scotland; and after some reasoning on that head,
it was agreed that the queen should require Lenox, the regent, to send
commissioners, in order to treat of conditions under her mediation. The
partisans of Mary boasted, that all terms were fully settled with the
court of England, and that the Scottish rebels would soon be constrained
to submit to the authority of their sovereign; but Elizabeth took care
that these rumors should meet with no credit, and that the king's party
should not be discouraged, nor sink too low in their demands. Cecil
wrote to inform the regent, that all the queen of England's proposals,
so far from being fixed and irrevocable, were to be discussed anew in
the conference; and desired him to send commissioners who should be
constant in the king's cause, and cautious not to make concessions which
might be prejudicial to their party.[***] Sussex, also, in his letters,
dropped hints to the same purpose; and Elizabeth herself said to the
abbot of Dunfermling, whom Lenox had sent to the court of England, that
she would not insist on Mary's restoration, provided the Scots could
make the justice of their cause appear to her satisfaction; and that,
even if their reasons should fall short of full conviction, she would
take effectual care to provide for their future security.[****]
* Spotswood, p. 245. Lesley p. 101.
** Lesley, p. 109, etc.
*** Spotswood, p, 246.
**** Spotswood, p. 247, 248.
{1571.} The parliament of Scotland appointed the earl of Morton and Sir
James Macgill, together with the abbot of Dunfermling, to manage the
treaty. These commissioners presented memorials, containing reasons for
the deposition of their queen; and they seconded their arguments with
examples drawn from the Scottish history, with the authority of laws,
and with the sentiments of many famous divines. The lofty ideas which
Elizabeth had entertained of the absolute, indefensible right of
sovereigns, made her be shocked with these republican topics; and she
told the Scottish commissioners, that she was no wise satisfied with
their reasons for justifying the conduct of their countrymen; and that
they might therefore, without attempting any apology, proceed to open
the conditions which they required for their security.[*] They replied
that their commission did not empower them to treat of any terms which
might infringe the title and sovereignty of their young king; but they
would gladly hear whatever proposals should be made them by her majesty.
The conditions recommended by the queen were not disadvantageous
to Mary; but as the commissioners still insisted that they were not
authorized to treat in any manner concerning the restoration of that
princess,[**] the conferences were necessarily at an end; and Elizabeth
dismissed the Scottish commissioners, with injunctions that they
should return, after having procured more ample powers from their
parliament.[***] The bishop of Ross openly complained to the English
council that they had abused his mistress by fair promises and
professions; and Mary herself was no longer at a loss to judge of
Elizabeth's insincerity. By reason of these disappointments, matters
came still nearer to extremities between the two princesses; and the
queen of Scots, finding all her hopes eluded, was more strongly incited
to make, at all hazards, every possible attempt for her liberty and
security.
An incident also happened about this time, which tended to widen the
breach between Mary and Elizabeth, and to increase the vigilance and
jealousy of the latter princess. Pope Pius V., who had succeeded Paul,
after having endeavored in vain to conciliate by gentle means the
friendship of Elizabeth, whom his predecessor's violence had irritated,
issued at last a bull of excommunication against her, deprived her of
all title to the crown, and absolved her subjects from their oaths of
allegiance.[****]
* Spotswood, p. 248, 249.
** Haynes, p. 623.
*** Spotswood. p. 249, 250, etc. Lesley, p. 133, 136.
Camden, p, 431, 432.
**** Camden, p. 427.
It seems probable that this attack on the queen's authority was made in
concert with Mary, who intended by that means to forward the northern
rebellion; a measure which was at that time in agitation.[*] John Felton
affixed this bull to the gates of the bishop of London's palace; and
scorning either to fly or to deny the fact, he was seized and condemned
and received the crown of martyrdom, for which he seems to have
entertained so violent an ambition.[**]
A new parliament, after five years' interval, was assembled at
Westminster; and as the queen, by the rage of the pope against her, was
become still more the head of the ruling party, it might be expected,
both from this incident and from her own prudent and vigorous
conduct, that her authority over the two houses would be absolutely
uncontrollable. It was so in fact; yet is it remarkable, that it
prevailed not without some small opposition; and that too arising
chiefly from the height of zeal for Protestantism; a disposition of the
English which, in general, contributed extremely to increase the queen's
popularity. We shall be somewhat particular in relating the transactions
of this session, because they show, as well the extent of the royal
power during that age, as the character of Elizabeth, and the genius of
her government. It will be curious also to observe the faint dawn of the
spirit of liberty among the English, the jealousy with which that
spirit was repressed by the sovereign, the imperious conduct which was
maintained in opposition to it, and the ease with which it was subdued
by this arbitrary princess.
The lord keeper Bacon, after the speaker of the commons was elected,
told the parliament, in the queen's name, that she enjoined them not to
meddle with any matters of state:[***] such was his expression; by
which he probably meant, the questions of the queen's marriage, and the
succession, about which they had before given her some uneasiness; for
as to the other great points of government, alliances, peace and war,
or foreign negotiations, no parliament in that age ever presumed to take
them under consideration, or question, in these particulars, the conduct
of their sovereign, or of his ministers.
In the former parliament, the Puritans had introduced seven bills for a
further reformation in religion; but they had not been able to prevail
in any one of them.[****] This house of commons had sitten a very few
days, when Stricland, a member, revived one of the bills--that for the
amendment of the liturgy.[v]
* Camden, p. 441, from Cajetanus's Life of Pius V.
** Camden, p. 428.
*** D'Ewes, p. 141.
**** D'Ewes, p. 185.
v D'Ewes p. 156, 157.
The chief objection which he mentioned, was the sign of the cross
in baptism. Another member added the kneeling at the sacrament; and
remarked, that if a posture of humiliation were requisite in that act of
devotion, it were better that the communicants should throw themselves
prostrate on the ground, in order to keep at the widest distance from
former superstition.[*]
Religion was a point of which Elizabeth was, if possible, still more
jealous than of matters of state. She pretended, that in quality of
supreme head or governor of the church, she was fully empowered, by her
prerogative alone, to decide all questions which might arise with regard
to doctrine, discipline, or worship; and she never would allow her
parliaments so much as to take these points into consideration.[**] The
courtiers did not forget to insist on this topic: the treasurer of
the household, though he allowed that any heresy might be repressed by
parliament, (a concession which seems to have been rash and unguarded,
since the act investing the crown with the supremacy, or rather
recognizing that prerogative, gave the sovereign full power to reform
all heresies,) yet he affirmed, that it belonged to the queen alone,
as head of the church, to regulate every question of ceremony in
worship.[***] The comptroller seconded this argument; insisted on the
extent of the queen's prerogative; and said that the house might, from
former examples, have taken warning not to meddle with such matters. One
Pistor opposed these remonstrances of the courtiers. He was scandalized,
he said, that affairs of such infinite consequence (namely, kneeling,
and making the sign of the cross) should be passed over so lightly.
These questions, he added, concern the salvation of souls, and interest
every one more deeply than the monarchy of the whole world. This cause
he showed to be the cause of God; the rest were all but terrene, yea,
trifles in comparison, call them ever so great: subsidies, crowns,
kingdoms, he knew not what weight they had, when laid in the balance
with subjects of such unspeakable importance.[****] Though the zeal of
this member seems to have been approved of, the house, overawed by
the prerogative, voted upon the question, that a petition should be
presented to her majesty for her license to proceed further in this
bill; and in the mean time that they should stop all debate or reasoning
concerning it.[v]
* D'Ewes, p. 167.
** D'Ewes, p. 158.
*** D'Ewes, p. 166.
**** D'Ewes, p. 166.
v D'Ewes, p. 167.
Matters would probably have rested here, had not the queen been so
highly offended with Stricland's presumption in moving the bill for
reformation of the liturgy, that she summoned him before the council,
and prohibited him thenceforth from appearing in the house of
commons.[*] This act of power was too violent even for the submissive
parliament to endure. Carleton took notice of the matter; complained
that the liberties of the house were invaded; observed that Stricland
was not a private man, but represented a multitude: and moved that he
might be sent for, and if he were guilty of any offence, might answer
for it at the bar of the house, which he insinuated to be the only
competent tribunal.[**] Yelverton enforced the principles of liberty
with still greater boldness. He said, that the precedent was dangerous;
and though, in this happy time of lenity, among so many good and
honorable personages as were at present invested with authority, nothing
of extremity or injury was to be apprehended, yet the times might alter;
what now is permitted, might hereafter be construed as duty, and might
be enforced even on the ground of the present permission. He added, that
all matters not treasonable, or which implied not "too much" derogation
of the imperial crown, might, without offence, be introduced into
parliament; where every question that concerned the community must be
considered, and where even the right of the crown itself must finally be
determined. He remarked, that men sat not in that house in their private
capacities, but as elected by their country; and though it was proper
that the prince should retain his prerogative, yet was that prerogative
limited by law: as the sovereign could not of himself make laws, neither
could he break them merely from his own authority.[***]
* D'Ewes, p. 175.
** D'Ewes, p. 175.
*** D'Ewes, p. 175, 176.
These principles were popular, and noble, and generous; but the open
assertion of them was, at this time, somewhat new in England; and the
courtiers were more warranted by present practice, when they advanced
a contrary doctrine. The treasurer warned the house to be cautious in
their proceedings; neither to venture further than their assured warrant
might extend, nor hazard their good opinion with her majesty in any
doubtful cause. The member, he said, whose attendance they required,
was not restrained on account of any liberty of speech, but for his
exhibiting a bill in the house against the prerogative of the queen; a
temerity which was not to be tolerated. And he concluded with observing,
that even speeches made in that house had been questioned and examined
by the sovereign.[*] Cleere, another member, remarked, that the
sovereign's prerogative is not so much as disputable, and that the
safety of the queen is the safety of the subject. He added, that in
questions of divinity, every man was for his instruction to repair to
his ordinary; and he seems to insinuate, that the bishops themselves,
for their instruction, must repair to the queen.[**] Fleetwood observed,
that in his memory, he knew a man who, in the fifth of the present
queen, had been called to account for a speech in the house. But lest
this example should be deemed too recent, he would inform them, from the
parliament rolls, that, in the reign of Henry V., a bishop was committed
to prison by the king's command, on account of his freedom of speech;
and the parliament presumed not to go further than to be humble suitors
for him: in the subsequent reign, the speaker himself was committed,
with another member; and the house found no other remedy than a like
submissive application. He advised the house to have recourse to the
same expedient, and not to presume either to send for their member, or
demand him as of right.[***] During this speech, those members of the
privy council who sat in the house whispered together; upon which
the speaker moved that the house should make stay of all further
proceedings: a motion which was immediately complied with. The queen,
finding that the experiment which she had made was likely to excite a
great ferment, saved her honor by this silence of the house; and lest
the question might be resumed, she sent next day to Stricland her
permission to give his attendance in parliament.[****]
* D'Ewes, p. 175.
** D'Ewes, p. 175.
*** D'Ewes, p. 176.
**** D'Ewes, p. 176.
Notwithstanding this rebuke from the throne, the zeal of the commons
still engaged them to continue the discussion of those other bills which
regarded religion; but they were interrupted by a still more arbitrary
proceeding of the queen, in which the lords condescended to be her
instruments. This house sent a message to the commons, desiring that
a committee might attend them. Some members were appointed for that
purpose; and the upper house informed them, that the queen's majesty,
being informed of the articles of reformation which they had canvassed,
approved of them, intended to publish them, and to make the bishops
execute them by virtue of her royal authority, as supreme head of the
church of England; but that she would not permit them to be treated
of in parliament.[*] The house, though they did not entirely stop
proceedings on account of this injunction, seem to have been nowise
offended at such haughty treatment; and in the issue, all the bills came
to nothing.
A motion made by Robert Bell, a Puritan, against an exclusive patent
granted to a company of merchants in Bristol,[**] gave also occasion to
several remarkable incidents. The queen, some days after the motion was
made, sent orders, by the mouth of the speaker, commanding the house
to spend little time in motions, and to avoid long speeches. All the
members understood that she had been offended, because a matter had been
moved which seemed to touch her prerogative.[***] Fleetwood accordingly
spoke of this delicate subject. He observed, that the queen had a
prerogative of granting patents; that to question the validity of any
patent was to invade the royal prerogative; that all foreign trade
was entirely subjected to the pleasure of the sovereign; that even the
statute which gave liberty of commerce, admitted of all prohibitions
from the crown; and that the prince, when he granted an exclusive
patent, only employed the power vested in him, and prohibited all others
from dealing in any particular branch of commerce. He quoted the clerk
of the parliament's book to prove, that no man might speak in parliament
of the statute of wills, unless the king first gave license; because the
royal prerogative in the wards was thereby touched. He showed, likewise,
the statutes of Edward I., Edward III., and Henry IV., with a saving of
the prerogative. And in Edward VI.'s time, the protector was applied to
for his allowance to mention matters of prerogative.[****]
* D'Ewes, p. 180, 185.
** D'Ewes, p. 185.
*** D'Ewes, p. 159.
**** D'Ewes, p. 160.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the gallant and renowned sea adventurer, carried
these topics still further. He endeavored to prove the motion made by
Bell to be a vain device, and perilous to be treated of; since it tended
to the derogation of the prerogative imperial, which whoever should
attempt so much as in fancy, could not, he said, be otherwise accounted
than an open enemy. For what difference is there between saying, that
the queen is not to use the privilege of the crown and saying, that she
is not queen? And though experience has shown so much clemency in her
majesty, as might, perhaps, make subjects forget their duty, it is not
good to sport or venture too much with princes. He reminded them of the
fable of the hare, who, upon the proclamation that all horned beasts
should depart the court, immediately fled, lest his ears should be
construed to be horns; and by this apologue he seems to insinuate, that
even those who heard or permitted such dangerous speeches, would not
themselves be entirely free from danger. He desired them to beware, lest
if they meddled further with these matters, the queen might look to
her own power; and finding herself able to suppress their challenged
liberty, and to exert an arbitrary authority, might imitate the example
of Lewis XI. of France, who, as he termed it, delivered the crown from
wardship.[*]
Though this speech gave some disgust, nobody, at the time, replied any
thing, but that Sir Humphrey mistook the meaning of the house, and of
the member who made the motion: they never had any other purpose, than
to represent their grievances, in due and seemly form, unto her majesty.
But in a subsequent debate, Peter Wentworth, a man of a superior free
spirit, called that speech an insult on the house; noted Sir Humphrey's
disposition to flatter and fawn on the prince; compared him to the
chameleon, which can change itself into all colors, except white; and
recommended to the house a due care of liberty of speech, and of the
privileges of parliament.[**]
* D'Ewes, p. 168.
** D'Ewes, p. 175.
It appears, on the whole, that the motion against the exclusive patent
had no effect. Bell, the member who first introduced it, was sent for by
the council, and was severely reprimanded for his temerity. He returned
to the house with such an amazed countenance, that all the members, well
informed of the reason, were struck with terror; and during some time no
one durst rise to speak of any matter of importance, for fear of giving
offence to the queen and council. Even after the fears of the commons
were somewhat abated, the members spoke with extreme precaution; and
by employing most of their discourse in preambles and apologies, they
showed their conscious terror of the rod which hung over them. Wherever
any delicate point was touched, though ever so gently; nay, seemed to
be approached, though at ever so great a distance; the whisper ran about
the house, "The queen will be offended; the council will be extremely
displeased:" and by these surmises men were warned of the danger to
which they exposed themselves. It is remarkable that the patent, which
the queen defended with such imperious violence, was contrived for the
profit of four courtiers, and was attended with the utter ruin of seven
or eight thousand of her industrious subjects.[*]
Thus every thing which passed the two houses was extremely respectful
and submissive; yet did the queen think it incumbent on her, at the
conclusion of the session, to check and that with great severity, those
feeble efforts of liberty which had appeared in the motions and speeches
of some members. The lord keeper told the commons, in her majesty's
name, that though the majority of the lower house had shown themselves
in their proceedings discreet and dutiful, yet a few of them had
discovered a contrary character, and had justly merited the reproach of
audacious, arrogant, and presumptuous: contrary to their duty, both as
subjects and parliament men; nay, contrary to the express injunctions
given them from the throne at the beginning of the session; injunctions
which it might well become them to have better attended to; they had
presumed to call in question her majesty's grants and prerogatives. But
her majesty warns them, that since they thus wilfully forget themselves,
they are otherwise to be admonished: some other species of correction
must be found for them; since neither the commands of her majesty,
nor the example of their wiser brethren, can reclaim their audacious,
arrogant, and presumptuous folly, by which they are thus led to meddle
with what nowise belongs to them, and what lies beyond the compass of
their understanding.[**]
* D'Ewes, p. 242.
** D'Ewes, p. 151
In all these transactions appears clearly the opinion which Elizabeth
had entertained of the duty and authority of parliaments. They were not
to canvass any matters of state; still less were they to meddle with the
church. Questions of either kind were far above their reach, and were
appropriated to the prince alone, or to those councils and ministers
with whom he was pleased to intrust them. What then was the office of
parliaments? They might give directions for the due tanning of leather,
or milling of cloth; for the preservation of pheasants and partridges;
for the reparation of bridges and highways; for the punishment of
vagabonds or common beggars. Regulations concerning the police of the
country came properly under their inspection; and the laws of this
kind which they prescribed, had, if not a greater, yet a more durable
authority, than those which were derived solely from the proclamations
of the sovereign. Precedents or reports could fix a rule for decisions
in private property, or the punishment of crimes; but no alteration or
innovation in the municipal law could proceed from any other source than
the parliament; nor would the courts of justice be induced to change
their established practice by an order of council. But the most
acceptable part of parliamentary proceedings was the granting of
subsidies; the attainting and punishing of the obnoxious nobility, or
any minister of state after his fall; the countenancing of such great
efforts of power, as might be deemed somewhat exceptionable, when they
proceeded entirely from the sovereign. The redress of grievances were
sometimes promised to the people; but seldom could have place, while it
was an established rule, that the prerogatives of the crown must not
be abridged, or so much as questioned and examined in parliament.
Even though monopolies and exclusive companies had already reached an
enormous height, and were every day increasing to the destruction of all
liberty, and extinction of all industry, it was criminal in a member
to propose, in the most dutiful and regular manner, a parliamentary
application against any of them.
These maxims of government were not kept secret by Elizabeth, nor
smoothed over by any fair appearances or plausible pretences. They
were openly avowed in her speeches and messages to parliament; and
were accompanied with all the haughtiness, nay, sometimes bitterness of
expression, which the meanest servant could look for from his offended
master. Yet, notwithstanding this conduct, Elizabeth continued to be the
most popular sovereign that ever swayed the sceptre of England; because
the maxims of her reign were conformable to the principles of the
times, and to the opinion generally entertained with regard to the
constitution. The continued encroachments of popular assemblies on
Elizabeth's successors have so changed our ideas in these matters, that
the passages above mentioned appear to us extremely curious, and even,
at first, surprising; but they were so little remarked, during the
time, that neither Camden, though a contemporary writer, nor any other
historian, has taken any notice of them. So absolute, indeed, was the
authority of the crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been
kindled, and was preserved, by the Puritans alone; and it was to this
sect, whose principles appear so frivolous, and habits so ridiculous,
that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution. Actuated
by that zeal which belongs to innovators, and by the courage which
enthusiasm inspires, they hazarded the utmost indignation of their
sovereign, and employing all their industry to be elected into
parliament,--a matter not difficult while a seat was rather regarded
as a burden than an advantage--they first acquired a majority in that
assembly, and then obtained an ascendent over the church and monarchy.
The following were the principal laws enacted this session. It was
declared treason, during the lifetime of the queen, to affirm that she
was not the lawful sovereign, or that any other possessed a preferable
title, or that she was a heretic, schismatic, or infidel, or that the
laws and statutes cannot limit and determine the right of the crown and
the successor thereof: to maintain, in writing or printing, that any
person, except the "natural issue" of her body, is, or ought to be, the
queen's heir or successor, subjected the person and all his abettors,
for the first offence, to imprisonment during a year, and to the
forfeiture of half their goods: the second offence subjected them to
the penalty of a praemunire.[*] This law was plainly levelled against the
queen of Scots and her partisans; and implied an avowal, that Elizabeth
never intended to declare her successor. It may be noted, that the usual
phrase of "lawful issue," which the parliament thought indecent towards
the queen, as if she could be supposed to have any other, was changed
into that of "natural issue." But this alteration was the source of
pleasantry during the time; and some suspected a deeper design, as
if Leicester intended, in case of the queen's demise, to produce some
bastard of his own, and affirm that he was her offspring.[**]
* 13 Eliz. c. I.
** Camden, p. 436.
It appeared this session, that a bribe of four pounds had
been given to a mayor for a seat in parliament. D'Ewes, p.
181. It is probable that the member had no other view than
the privilege of being free from arrests.
It was also enacted, that whosoever by bulls should publish absolutions
or other rescripts of the pope, or should, by means of them, reconcile
any man to the church of Rome, such offenders, as well as those who were
so reconciled, should be guilty of treason. The penalty of a praemunire
was imposed on every one who imported any Agnus Dei, crucifix, or such
other implement of superstition, consecrated by the pope.[*] The former
laws against usury were enforced by a new statute.[**] A supply of one
subsidy and two fifteenths was granted by parliament. The queen, as she
was determined to yield to them none of her power, was very cautious in
asking them for any supply. She endeavored, either by a rigid frugality
to make her ordinary revenues suffice for the necessities of the crown,
or she employed her prerogative, and procured money by the granting of
patents, monopolies, or by some such ruinous expedient.
* 13 Eliz. c. 2.
** 13 Eliz. c. 8.
Though Elizabeth possessed such uncontrolled authority over her
parliaments, and such extensive influence over her people; though,
during a course of thirteen years, she had maintained the public
tranquillity, which was only interrupted by the hasty and ill-concerted
insurrection in the north; she was still kept in great anxiety, and felt
her throne perpetually totter under her. The violent commotions excited
in France and the Low Countries, as well as in Scotland, seemed in one
view to secure her against any disturbance; but they served, on more
reflection, to instruct her in the danger of her situation, when
she remarked that England, no less than these neighboring countries,
contained the seeds of intestine discord; the differences of religious
opinion, and the furious intolerance and animosity of the opposite
sectaries.
The league, formed at Bayonne in 1566, for the extermination of the
Protestants, had not been concluded so secretly but intelligence of it
had reached Conde, Coligny, and the other leaders of the Hugonots; and
finding that the measures of the court agreed with their suspicions,
they determined to prevent the cruel perfidy of their enemies, and
to strike a blow before the Catholics were aware of the danger. The
Hugonots, though dispersed over the whole kingdom, formed a kind of
separate empire; and being closely united, as well by their religious
zeal as by the dangers to which they were perpetually exposed, they
obeyed with entire submission the orders of their leaders, and were
ready on every signal to fly to arms. The king and queen mother
were living in great security at Monceaux, in Brie, when they found
themselves surrounded by Protestant troops, which had secretly marched
thither from all quarters; and had not a body of Swiss come speedily to
their relief, and conducted them with great intrepidity to Paris,
they must have fallen, without resistance, into the hands of the
malecontents. A battle was afterwards fought in the plains of St.
Denis; where, though the old constable, Montmorency, the general of the
Catholics, was killed combating bravely at the head of his troops, the
Hugonots were finally defeated. Conde, collecting his broken forces and
receiving a strong reenforcement from the German Protestants, appeared
again in the field; and laying siege to Chartres, a place of great
importance, obliged the court to agree to a new accommodation.
So great was the mutual animosity of those religionists, that even had
the leaders on both sides been ever so sincere in their intentions for
peace, and reposed ever so much confidence in each other, it would have
been difficult to retain the people in tranquillity; much more where
such extreme jealousy prevailed, and where the court employed every
pacification as a snare for their enemies. A plan was laid for seizing
the person of the prince and admiral; who narrowly escaped to Rochelle,
and summoned their partisans to their assistance.[*]
* Davila, lib. iv.
The civil wars were renewed with greater fury than ever, and the parties
became still more exasperated against each other. The young duke of
Anjou, brother to the king, commanded the forces of the Catholics; and
fought in 1569, a great battle at Jarnac with the Hugonots, where the
prince of Conde was killed, and his army defeated. This discomfiture,
with the loss of so great a leader, reduced not the Hugonots to despair.
The admiral still supported the cause; and having placed at the head of
the Protestants the prince of Navarre, then sixteen years of age, and
the young prince of Conde, he encouraged the party rather to perish
bravely in the field, than ignominiously by the hands of the
executioner. He collected such numbers, so determined to endure every
extremity, that he was enabled to make head against the duke of Anjou;
and being strengthened by a new reenforcement of Germans, he obliged
that prince to retreat and to divide his forces.
Coligny then laid siege to Poietiers; and as the eyes of all France were
fixed on this enterprise, the duke of Guise, emulous of the renown which
his father had acquired by the defence of Metz, threw himself into the
place, and so animated the garrison by his valor and conduct, that the
admiral was obliged to raise the siege. Such was the commencement of
that unrivalled fame and grandeur afterwards attained by this duke of
Guise. The attachment which all the Catholics had borne to his father,
was immediately transferred to the son; and men pleased themselves in
comparing all the great and shining qualities which seemed, in a manner,
hereditary in that family. Equal in affability, in munificence, in
address, in eloquence, and in every quality which engages the affections
of men; equal also in valor, in conduct, in enterprise, in capacity;
there seemed only this difference between them, that the son, educated
in more turbulent times, and finding a greater dissolution of all law
and order, exceeded the father in ambition and temerity, and was engaged
in enterprises still more destructive to the authority of his sovereign,
and to the repose of his native country.
Elizabeth, who kept her attention fixed on the civil commotions of
France, was nowise pleased with this new rise of her enemies, the
Guises; and being anxious for the fate of the Protestants,
whose interests were connected with her own,[*] she was engaged,
notwithstanding her aversion from all rebellion, and from all opposition
to the will of the sovereign, to give them secretly some assistance.
Besides employing her authority with the German princes, she lent money
to the queen of Navarre, and received some jewels as pledges for the
loan. And she permitted Henry Champernon to levy, and transport over
into France, a regiment of a hundred gentlemen volunteers; among whom
Walter Raleigh, then a young man, began to distinguish himself, in that
great school of military valor.[**]
* Haynes, p. 471.
** Camden, p. 423.
The admiral, constrained by the impatience of his troops, and by the
difficulty of subsisting them, fought with the duke of Anjou the battle
of Moncontour in Poictou, where he was wounded and defeated. The court
of France, notwithstanding their frequent experience of the obstinacy of
the Hugonots, and the vigor of Coligny, vainly flattered themselves
that the force of the rebels was at last finally annihilated; and they
neglected further preparations against a foe, who, they thought, could
never more become dangerous. They were surprised to hear, that this
leader had appeared, without dismay, in another quarter of the kingdom;
had encouraged the young princes, whom he governed to like constancy;
had assembled an army; had taken the field; and was even strong enough
to threaten Paris. The public finances, diminished by the continued
disorders of the kingdom, and wasted by so many fruitless military
enterprises, could no longer bear the charge of a new armament, and the
king, notwithstanding his extreme animosity against the Hugonots, was
obliged, in 1570, to conclude an accommodation with them, to grant them
a pardon for all past offences, and to renew the edicts for liberty of
conscience.
Though a pacification was seemingly concluded, the mind of Charles was
nowise reconciled to his rebellious subjects, and this accommodation,
like all the foregoing, was nothing but a snare, by which the perfidious
court had projected to destroy at once, without danger, all its
formidable enemies. As the two young princes, the admiral, and the other
leaders of the Hugonots, instructed by past experience, discovered
an extreme distrust of the king's intentions, and kept themselves in
security at a distance, all possible artifices were employed to remove
their apprehensions, and to convince them of the sincerity of the
new counsels which seemed to be embraced. The terms of the peace were
religiously observed to them; the toleration was strictly maintained;
all attempts made by the zealous Catholics to infringe it were punished
with severity; offices, and favors, and honors were bestowed on the
principal nobility among the Protestants; and the king and council every
where declared that, tired of civil disorders, and convinced of the
impossibility of forcing men's consciences, they were thenceforth
determined to allow every one the free exercise of his religion.
Among the other artifices employed to lull the Protestants into a
fatal security, Charles affected to enter into close connections with
Elizabeth; and as it seemed not the interest of France to forward the
union of the two kingdoms of Great Britain, that princess the more
easily flattered herself that the French monarch would prefer her
friendship to that of the queen of Scots. The better to deceive her,
proposals of marriage were made her with the duke of Anjou; a prince
whose youth, beauty, and reputation for valor might naturally be
supposed to recommend him to a woman who had appeared not altogether
insensible to these endowments. The queen immediately founded on this
offer the project of deceiving the court of France; and being intent
on that artifice, she laid herself the more open to be deceived.
Negotiations were entered into with regard to the marriage; terms of the
contract were proposed; difficulties started and removed; and the
two courts, equally insincere, though not equally culpable, seemed
to approach every day nearer to each other in their demands and
concessions. The great obstacle seemed to lie in adjusting the
difference of religion; because Elizabeth, who recommended toleration to
Charles, was determined not to grant it in her own dominions, not even
to her husband; and the duke of Anjou seemed unwilling to submit, for
the sake of interest, to the dishonor of an apostasy.[*]
* Camden, p. 433. Davila, lib. v. Digger's Complete
Ambassador p. 84, 110, 111
The artificial politics of Elizabeth never triumphed so much in any
contrivances as in those which were conjoined with her coquetry; and
as her character in this particular was generally known, the court of
France thought that they might, without danger of forming any final
conclusion, venture the further in their concessions and offers to
her. The queen also had other motives for dissimulation. Besides
the advantage of discouraging Mary's partisans by the prospect of an
alliance between France and England, her situation with Philip
demanded her utmost vigilance and attention; and the violent authority
established in the Low Countries made her desirous of fortifying herself
even with the bare appearance of a new confederacy.
The theological controversies which had long agitated Europe, had from
the beginning penetrated into the Low Countries; and as these provinces
maintained an extensive commerce, they had early received, from
every kingdom with which they corresponded, a tincture of religious
innovation. An opinion at that time prevailed, which had been zealously
propagated by priests, and implicitly received by sovereigns, that
heresy was closely connected with rebellion, and that every great or
violent alteration in the church involved a like revolution in the civil
government. The forward zeal of the reformers would seldom allow them
to wait the consent of the magistrate to their innovations: they became
less dutiful when opposed and punished; and though their pretended
spirit of reasoning and inquiry was in reality nothing but a new species
of implicit faith, the prince took the alarm, as if so institutions
could be secure from the temerity of their researches. The emperor
Charles, who proposed to augment his authority under pretence of
defending the Catholic faith, easily adopted these political principles;
and notwithstanding the limited prerogative which he possessed in the
Netherlands, he published the most arbitrary, severe, and tyrannical
edicts against the Protestants; and he took care that the execution of
them should be no less violent and sanguinary. He was neither cruel nor
bigoted in his natural disposition; yet an historian, celebrated for
moderation and caution, has computed, that in the several persecutions
promoted by that monarch, no less than a hundred thousand persons
perished by the hands of the executioner.[*] But these severe remedies;
far from answering the purposes intended, had rather served to augment
the numbers as well as zeal of the reformers; and the magistrates of the
several towns, seeing no end of those barbarous executions, felt their
humanity rebel against their principles, and declined any further
persecution of the new doctrines.
* Grotii Annal. lib. i. Father Paul, another great
authority, computes, in a passage above cited, that fifty
thousand persons were put to death in the Low Countries
alone.
When Philip succeeded to his father's dominions, the Flemings were
justly alarmed with new apprehensions, lest their prince, observing the
lenity of the magistrates, should take the execution of the edicts
from such remiss hands, and should establish the inquisition in the Low
Countries, accompanied with all the iniquities and barbarities which
attended it in Spain. The severe and unrelenting character of the man,
his professed attachment to Spanish manners, the inflexible bigotry of
his principles; all these circumstances increased their terror; and when
he departed the Netherlands, with a known intention never to return, the
disgust of the inhabitants was extremely augmented, and their dread of
those tyrannical orders which their sovereign, surrounded with Spanish
ministers, would issue from his cabinet at Madrid. He left the duchess
of Parma governess of the Low Countries, and the plain good sense and
good temper of that princess, had she been intrusted with the sole
power, would have preserved the submission of those opulent provinces,
which were lost from that refinement of treacherous and barbarous
politics on which Philip so highly valued himself. The Flemings found,
that the name alone of regent remained with the duchess; that Cardinal
Granville entirely possessed the king's confidence; that attempts were
every day made on their liberties; that a resolution was taken never
more to assemble the states; that new bishoprics were arbitrarily
erected, in order to enforce the execution of the persecuting edicts;
and that, on the whole, they must expect to be reduced to the condition
of a province under the Spanish monarchy. The discontents of the
nobility gave countenance to the complaints of the gentry, which
encouraged the mutiny of the populace; and all orders of men showed
a strong disposition to revolt. Associations were formed, tumultuary
petitions presented, names of distinction assumed, badges of party
displayed; and the current of the people, impelled by religious zeal,
and irritated by feeble resistance, rose to such a height, that in
several towns, particularly in Antwerp, they made an open invasion on
the established worship, pillaged the churches and monasteries, broke
the images, and committed the most unwarrantable disorders.
The wiser part of the nobility, particularly the prince of Orange, and
the counts Egmont and Horn, were alarmed at these excesses, to which
their own discontents had at first given countenance; and seconding the
wisdom of the governess, they suppressed the dangerous insurrections,
punished the ringleaders, and reduced all the provinces to a state
of order and submission. But Philip was not contented with the
reestablishment of his ancient authority: he considered that provinces
so remote from the seat of government could not be ruled by a limited
prerogative; and that a prince who must entreat rather than command,
would necessarily, when he resided not among the people, feel every day
a diminution of his power and influence. He determined, therefore,
to lay hold of the late popular disorders as a pretence for entirely
abolishing the privileges of the Low Country provinces, and for ruling
them thenceforth with a military and arbitrary authority.
In the execution of this violent design, he employed a man who was a
proper instrument in the hands of such a tyrant. Ferdinand of Toledo,
duke of Alva, had been educated amidst arms; and having attained a
consummate knowledge in the military art, his habits led him to transfer
into all government the severe discipline of a camp, and to conceive
no measures between prince and subject but those of rigid command and
implicit obedience. This general, in 1568, conducted from Italy to
the Low Countries a powerful body of veteran Spaniards; and his avowed
animosity to the Flemings, with his known character, struck that whole
people with terror and consternation. It belongs not to our subject to
relate at length those violences which Alva's natural barbarity,
steeled by reflection and aggravated by insolence, exercised on those
flourishing provinces. It suffices to say, that all their privileges,
the gift of so many princes, and the inheritance of so many ages,
were openly and expressly abolished by edict; arbitrary and sanguinary
tribunals erected; the counts Egmont and Horn, in spite of their great
merits and past services, brought to the scaffold; multitudes of
all ranks thrown into confinement, and thence delivered over to the
executioner; and notwithstanding the peaceable submission of all men,
nothing was heard of but confiscation, imprisonment, exile, torture, and
death.
Elizabeth was equally displeased to see the progress of that scheme laid
for the extermination of the Protestants, and to observe the erection of
so great a military power in a state situated in so near a neighborhood.
She gave protection to all the Flemish exiles who took shelter in her
dominions; and as many of these were the most industrious inhabitants of
the Netherlands, and had rendered that country celebrated for its
arts, she reaped the advantage of introducing into England some useful
manufactures, which were formerly unknown in that kingdom. Foreseeing
that the violent government of Alva could not long subsist without
exciting some commotion, she ventured to commit an insult upon him,
which she would have been cautious not to hazard against a more
established authority. Some Genoese merchants had engaged, by contract
with Philip, to transport into Flanders the sum of four hundred thousand
crowns; and the vessels on which this money was embarked, had been
attacked in the Channel by some privateers equipped by the French
Hugonots, and had taken shelter in Plymouth and Southampton. The
commanders of the ships pretended that the money belonged to the king of
Spain; but the queen, finding upon inquiry that it was the property of
Genoese merchants, took possession of it as a loan; and by that means
deprived the duke of Alva of this resource in the time of his greatest
necessity. Alva, in revenge, seized all the English merchants in the Low
Countries, threw them into prison, and confiscated their effects.
The queen retaliated by a like violence on the Flemish and Spanish
merchants; and gave all the English liberty to make reprisals on the
subjects of Philip.
These differences were afterwards accommodated by treaty, and mutual
reparations were made to the merchants; but nothing could repair the
loss which so well-timed a blow inflicted on the Spanish government in
the Low Countries. Alva, in want of money, and dreading the immediate
mutiny of his troops, to whom great arrears were due, imposed, by
his arbitrary will, the most ruinous taxes on the people. He not only
required the hundredth penny, and the twentieth of all immovable goods;
he also demanded the tenth of all movable goods on every sale; an absurd
tyranny, which would not only have destroyed all arts and commerce, but
even have restrained the common intercourse of life. The people refused
compliance; the duke had recourse to his usual expedient of the gibbet;
and thus matters came still nearer the last, extremities between the
Flemings and the Spaniards.[*]
All the enemies of Elizabeth, in order to revenge themselves for her
insults, had naturally recourse to one policy, the supporting of the
cause and pretensions of the queen of Scots; and Alva, whose measures
were ever violent, soon opened a secret intercourse with that princess.
There was one Rodolphi, a Florentine merchant, who had resided about
fifteen years in London, and who, while he conducted his commerce in
England, had managed all the correspondence of the court of Rome with
the Catholic nobility and gentry.[**]
* Bentivoglio, part. i. lib. v. Camden, p. 416.
** Lesley, p. 123. State Trials, vol. i. p. 87.
He had been thrown into prison at the time when the duke of Norfolk's
intrigues with Mary had been discovered; but either no proof, was found
against him, or the part which he had acted was not very criminal; and
he soon after recovered his liberty. This man, zealous for the Catholic
faith, had formed a scheme, in concert with the Spanish ambassador,
for subverting the government, by a foreign invasion and a domestic
insurrection; and when he communicated his project by letter to Mary, he
found, that as she was now fully convinced of Elizabeth's artifices,
and despaired of ever recovering her authority, or even her liberty, by
pacific measures, she willingly gave her concurrence. The great number
of discontented Catholics were the chief source of their hopes on the
side of England and they also observed that the kingdom was at that
time full of indigent gentry, chiefly younger brothers, who, having at
present, by the late decay of the church, and the yet languishing state
of commerce, no prospect of a livelihood suitable to their birth, were
ready to throw themselves into any desperate enterprise.[*] But in
order to inspire life and courage into all these malecontents, it was
requisite that some great nobleman should put himself at their head; and
no one appeared to Rodolphi, and to the bishop of Ross, who entered into
all these intrigues, so proper, both on account of his power and his
popularity, as the duke of Norfolk.
This nobleman, when released from confinement in the Tower, had given
his promise, that he would drop all intercourse with the queen of
Scots;[**] but finding that he had lost, and, as he feared, beyond
recovery, the confidence and favor of Elizabeth, and being still in some
degree restrained from his liberty, he was tempted, by impatience and
despair, to violate his word, and to open anew his correspondence with
the captive princess.[***] A promise of marriage was renewed between
them; the duke engaged to enter into all her interests; and as his
remorses gradually diminished in the course of these transactions,
he was pushed to give his consent to enterprises still more criminal.
Rodolphi's plan was, that the duke of Alva should, on some other
pretence, assemble a great quantity of shipping in the Low Countries;
should transport a body of six thousand foot and four thousand horse
into England; should land them at Harwich, where the duke of Norfolk
was to join them with all his friends; should thence march directly
to London, and oblige the queen to submit to whatever terms the
conspirators should please to impose upon her.[****] Norfolk expressed
his assent to this plan; and three letters, in consequence of it, were
written in his name by Rodolphi; one to Alva, another to the pope, and
a third to the king of Spain; but the duke, apprehensive of the danger,
refused to sign them.[v]
* Lesley, p. 123.
** Haynes, p. 571.
*** State Trials, vol. i. p. 102.
**** Lesley, p. 155., State Trials, vol. i. p. 86, 87.
v Lesley, p. 159., 161. Camden, p. 432.
He only sent to the Spanish ambassador a servant and confidant, named
Barker, as well to notify his concurrence in the plan, as to vouch
for the authenticity of these letters; and Rodolphi, having obtained
a letter of credence from the ambassador, proceeded on his journey to
Brussels and to Rome. The duke of Alva and the pope embraced the scheme
with alacrity: Rodolphi informed Norfolk of their intentions;[*] and
every thing seemed to concur in forwarding the undertaking.
Norfolk, notwithstanding these criminal enterprises, had never entirely
forgotten his duty to his sovereign, his country, and his religion: and
though he had laid the plan both of an invasion and an insurrection,
he still flattered himself, that the innocence of his intentions would
justify the violence of his measures, and that, as he aimed at nothing
but the liberty of the queen of Scots, and the obtaining of Elizabeth's
consent to his marriage, he could not justly reproach himself as a rebel
and a traitor.[**] It is certain, however, that, considering the queen's
vigor and spirit, the scheme, if successful, must finally have ended in
dethroning her; and her authority was here exposed to the utmost danger.
The conspiracy hitherto had entirely escaped the vigilance of Elizabeth,
and that of Secretary Cecil, who now bore the title of Lord Burleigh. It
was from another attempt of Norfolk's that they first obtained a hint,
which, being diligently traced, led at last to a full discovery. Mary
had intended to send a sum of money to Lord Herreis and her partisans
in Scotland; and Norfolk undertook to have it delivered to Bannister,
a servant of his, at that time in the north, who was to find some
expedient for conveying it to Lord Herreis.[***] He intrusted the money
to a servant who was not in the secret, and told him, that the bag
contained a sum of money in silver, which he was to deliver to Bannister
with a letter: but the servant, conjecturing from the weight and size
of the bag that it was full of gold, carried the letter to Burleigh;
who immediately ordered Bannister, Barker, and Hicford, the duke's
secretary, to be put under arrest, and to undergo a severe examination.
Torture made them confess the whole truth; and as Hicford, though
ordered to burn all papers, had carefully kept them concealed under
the mats of the duke's chamber, and under the tiles of the house, full
evidence now appeared against his master.[****]
* State Trials, vol. i. p. 93.
** Lesley, p. 158.
*** Lesley, p. 169. State Trials, vol. i. p. 87. Camden, p.
434. Digges, p. 134, 137, 140. Strype, vol. ii. p. 82.
**** Lesley, p. 173.
Norfolk himself, who was entirely ignorant of the discoveries made by
his servants, was brought before the council; and though exhorted to
atone for his guilt by a full confession, he persisted in denying every
crime with which he was charged. The queen always declared, that if
he had given her this proof of his sincere repentance, she would have
pardoned all his former offences;[*] but finding him obstinate, she
committed him to the Tower, and ordered him to be brought to his trial.
The bishop of Ross had, on some suspicion, been committed to custody
before the discovery of Norfolk's guilt; and every expedient was
employed to make him reveal his share in the conspiracy. He at first
insisted on his privilege: but he was told, that as his mistress was no
longer a sovereign, he would not be regarded as an ambassador, and
that, even if that character were allowed, it did not warrant him in
conspiring against the sovereign at whose court he resided.[**] As
he still refused to answer interrogatories, he was informed of the
confession made by Norfolk's servants; after which he no longer scrupled
to make a full discovery; and his evidence put the guilt of that
nobleman beyond all question.
{1572.} A jury of twenty-five peers unanimously passed sentence upon
him. The trial was quite regular, even according to the strict rules
observed at present in these matters; except that the witnesses gave not
their evidence in court, and were not confronted with the prisoner; a
laudable practice, which was not at that time observed in trials for
high treason.
The queen still hesitated concerning Norfolk's execution; whether that
she was really moved by friendship and compassion towards a peer of that
rank and merit, or that, affecting the praise of clemency, she only put
on the appearance of these sentiments. Twice she signed a warrant for
his execution, and twice revoked the fatal sentence;[***] and though
her ministers and counsellors pushed her to rigor, she still appeared
irresolute and undetermined.
* Lesley, p. 175.
** Lesley, p. 189. Spotswood.
*** Carte, p. 527, from Fenelon's Despatches. Digges, p.
166. Strype, vol. ii. p. 83.
After four months' hesitation, a parliament was assembled; and the
commons addressed her in strong terms for the execution of the duke; a
sanction which, when added to the greatness and certainty of his guilt,
would, she thought, justify, in the eyes of all mankind, her severity
against that nobleman. Norfolk died with calmness and constancy; and
though he cleared himself of any disloyal intentions against the queen's
authority, he acknowledged the justice of the sentence by which he
suffered.[*] That we may relate together affairs of a similar nature,
we shall mention, that the earl of Northumberland, being delivered up
to the queen by the regent of Scotland, was also, a few months after,
brought to the scaffold for his rebellion.
The queen of Scots was either the occasion or the cause of all these
disturbances; but as she was a sovereign princess and might reasonably,
from the harsh treatment which she had met with, think herself entitled
to use any expedient for her relief, Elizabeth durst not, as yet, form
any resolution of proceeding to extremities against her. She only sent
Lord Delawar, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Thomas Bromley, and Dr. Wilson, to
expostulate with her, and to demand satisfaction for all those parts
of her conduct, which, from the beginning of her life, had given
displeasure to Elizabeth: her assuming the arms of England, refusing to
ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, intending to marry Norfolk without the
queen's consent, concurring in the northern rebellion,[**] practising
with Rodolphi to engage the king of Spain in an invasion of
England,[***] procuring the pope's bull of excommunication, and allowing
her friends abroad to give her the title of queen of England. Mary
justified herself from the several articles of the charge, either
by denying the facts imputed to her, or by throwing the blame on
others.[****] But the queen was little satisfied with her apology;
and the parliament was so enraged against her, that the commons made a
direct application for her immediate trial and execution. They employed
some topics derived from practice, and reason, and the laws of nations;
but the chief stress was laid on passages and examples from the Old
Testament,[v] which, if considered as a general rule of conduct,
(an intention which it is unreasonable to suppose,) would lead to
consequences destructive of all principles of humanity and morality.
Matters were here carried further than Elizabeth intended; and that
princess, satisfied with showing Mary the disposition of the nation,
sent to the house her express commands not to deal any further at
present with the affair of the Scottish queen.[v*]
* Camden, p. 440. Strype, vol. ii. App. p. 23.
** Digges, p. 16, 107. Strype, vol. ii. p. 51, 52.
*** Digges, p. 194, 208, 209. Strype, vol. ii. p. 40, 51.
**** Camden, p. 442.
v D'Ewes, p. 207, 208, etc.
v* D'Ewes, p. 219, 241.
Nothing could be a stronger proof that the puritanical interest
prevailed in the house, than the intemperate use of authorities derived
from Scripture, especially from the Old Testament; and the queen was
so little a lover of that sect, that she was not likely to make any
concession merely in deference to their solicitation. She showed, this
session, her disapprobation of their schemes in another remarkable
instance. The commons had passed two bills for regulating ecclesiastical
ceremonies; but she sent them a like imperious message with her former
ones; and by the terror of her prerogative, she stopped all further
proceeding in those matters[*]
But though Elizabeth would not carry matters to such extremities against
Mary as were recommended by the parliament, she was alarmed at the great
interest and the restless spirit of that princess, as well as her close
connections with Spain; and she thought it necessary both to increase
the rigor and strictness of her confinement, and to follow maxims
different from those which she had hitherto pursued in her management
of Scotland.[**] That kingdom remained still in a state of anarchy. The
Castle of Edinburgh, commanded by Kirkaldy of Grange, had declared for
Mary; and the lords of that party, encouraged by his countenance, had
taken possession of the capital, and carried on a vigorous war against
the regent. By a sudden and unexpected inroad, they seized that nobleman
at Stirling; but finding that his friends, sallying from the castle,
were likely to rescue him, they instantly put him to death. The earl of
Marre was chosen regent in his room, and found the same difficulties in
the government of that divided country. He was therefore glad to accept
of the mediation offered by the French and English ambassadors; and to
conclude, on equal terms, a truce with the queen's party.[***] He was a
man of free and generous spirit, and scorned to submit to any dependence
on England; and for this reason Elizabeth, who had then formed
intimate connections with France, yielded with less reluctance to
the solicitations of that court, still maintained the appearance of
neutrality between the parties, and allowed matters to remain on a
balance in Scotland.[****]
* D'Ewes, p. 213, 238.
** Digges, p. 152.
*** Spotswood, p. 263.
**** Digges, p. 156, 165, 169.
But affairs soon after took a new turn: Marre died of melancholy, with
which the distracted state of the country affected him: Morton was
chosen regent; and as this nobleman had secretly taken all his measures
with Elizabeth, who no longer relied on the friendship of the French
court, she resolved to exert herself more effectually for the support
of the party which she had always favored. She sent Sir Henry Killegrew
ambassador to Scotland, who found Mary's partisans so discouraged by the
discovery and punishment of Norfolk's conspiracy, that they were glad to
submit to the king's authority, and accept of an indemnity for all past
offences.[*] The duke of Chatelrault and the earl of Huntley, with
the most considerable of Mary's friends, laid down their arms on these
conditions. The garrison alone of the Castle of Edinburgh continued
refractory. Kirkaldy's fortunes were desperate; and he flattered himself
with the hopes of receiving assistance from the kings of France and
Spain, who encouraged his obstinacy, in the view of being able, from
that quarter, to give disturbance to England. Elizabeth was alarmed with
the danger; she no more apprehended making an entire breach with the
queen of Scots, who, she found, would not any longer be amused by her
artifices; she had an implicit reliance on Morton; and she saw, that
by the submission of all the considerable nobility, the pacification of
Scotland would be an easy, as well as a most important undertaking. She
ordered, therefore, Sir William Drury, governor of Berwick, to march
with some troops and artillery to Edinburgh, and to besiege the
castle.[**]
* Spotswood, p. 268.
** Camden, p, 443.
The garrison surrendered at discretion: Kirkaldy was delivered into the
hands of his countrymen, by whom he was tried, condemned, and executed;
Secretary Lidington, who had taken part with him, died, soon after, a
voluntary death, as is supposed; and Scotland submitting entirely to
the regent, gave not, during a long time, any further inquietude to
Elizabeth.
The events which happened in France were not so agreeable to the queen's
interests and inclinations. The fallacious pacifications, which had been
so often made with the Hugonots, gave them reason to suspect the present
intentions of the court; and after all the other leaders of that party
were deceived into a dangerous credulity, the sagacious admiral still
remained doubtful and uncertain. But his suspicions were at last
overcome, partly by the profound dissimulation of Charles, partly by his
own earnest desire to end the miseries of France, and return again
to the performance of his duty towards his prince and country. He
considered, besides, that as the former violent conduct of the court had
ever met with such fatal success, it was not unlikely that a prince, who
had newly come to years of discretion, and appeared not to be rivetted
in any dangerous animosities or prejudices, would be induced to govern
himself by more moderate maxims. And as Charles was young, was of a
passionate, hasty temper, and addicted to pleasure,[*] such deep
perfidy seemed either remote from his character, or difficult and
almost impossible to be so uniformly supported by him. Moved by these
considerations, the admiral, the queen of Navarre, and all the Hugonots,
began to repose themselves in full security, and gave credit to the
treacherous caresses and professions of the French court. Elizabeth
herself, notwithstanding her great experience and penetration,
entertained not the least distrust of Charles's sincerity; and being
pleased to find her enemies of the house of Guise removed from all
authority, and to observe an animosity every day growing between the
French and Spanish monarchs, she concluded a defensive league with the
former,[**] and regarded this alliance as an invincible barrier to her
throne. Walsingham, her ambassador, sent her over, by every courier, the
most satisfactory accounts of the honor, and plain dealing, and fidelity
of that perfidious prince.
* Digges, p. 8, 39.
** Camden, p. 443.
The better to blind the jealous Hugonots, and draw their leaders into
the snare prepared for them, Charles offered his sister, Margaret,
in marriage to the prince of Navarre; and the admiral, with all the
considerable nobility of the party, had come to Paris, in order to
assist at the celebration of these nuptials, which, it was hoped, would
finally, if not compose the differences, at least appease the bloody
animosity of the two religions. The queen of Navarre was poisoned
by orders from the court; the admiral was dangerously wounded by an
assassin: yet Charles, redoubling his dissimulation, was still able
to retain the Hugonots in their security; till, on the evening of St.
Bartholomew, a few days after the marriage, the signal was given for a
general massacre of those religionists, and the king himself in person
led the way to these assassinations. The hatred long entertained by
the Parisians against the Protestants, made them second, without any
preparation, the fury of the court; and persons of every condition, age,
and sex, suspected of any propensity to that religion, were involved in
an undistinguished ruin. The admiral, his son-in-law Teligni, Soubize,
Rochefoucault, Pardaillon, Piles, Lavardin, men who, during the late
wars, had signalized themselves by the most heroic actions, were
miserably butchered without resistance; the streets of Paris flowed with
blood; and the people, more enraged than satiated with their cruelty,
as if repining that death had saved their victims from further insult,
exercised on their dead bodies all the rage of the most licentious
brutality. About five hundred gentlemen and men of rank perished in this
massacre; and near ten thousand of inferior condition.[*] Orders were
instantly despatched to all the provinces for a like general execution
of the Protestants; and in Rouen, Lyons, and many other cities, the
people emulated the fury of the capital. Even the murder of the king of
Navarre, and prince of Conde, had been proposed by the duke of Guise;
but Charles, softened by the amiable manners of the king of Navarre,
and hoping that these young princes might easily be converted to the
Catholic faith, determined to spare their lives, though he obliged them
to purchase their safety by a seeming change of their religion.
Charles, in order to cover this barbarous perfidy, pretended that
a conspiracy of the Hugonots to seize his person had been suddenly
detected; and that he had been necessitated, for his own defence, to
proceed to this severity against them. He sent orders to Fenelon, his
ambassador in England, to ask an audience, and to give Elizabeth this
account of the late transaction. That minister, a man of probity,
abhorred the treachery and cruelty of his court, and even scrupled not
to declare that he was now ashamed to bear the name of Frenchman;[**]
yet he was obliged to obey his orders, and make use of the apology which
had been prescribed to him. He met with that reception from all the
courtiers which he knew the conduct of his master had so well merited.
Nothing could be more awful and affecting than the solemnity of his
audience. A melancholy sorrow sat on every face: silence, as in the dead
of night, reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment: the
courtiers and ladies, clad in deep mourning, were ranged on each side,
and allowed him to pass without affording him one salute or favorable
look, till he was admitted to the queen herself.[***]
* Davila, lib. v.
** Digges, p. 24[**?]
*** Carte, vol. iii. p. 522,
That princess received him with a more easy, if not a more gracious
countenance; and heard from Fenelon's Despatches, his apology, without
discovering any visible symptoms of indignation. She then told him, that
though, on the first rumor of this dreadful intelligence, she had been
astonished that so many brave men and loyal subjects, who rested secure
on the faith of their sovereign, should have been suddenly butchered
in so barbarous a manner, she had hitherto suspended her judgment, till
further and more certain information should be brought her: that
the account which he had given, even if founded on no mistake or bad
information, though it might alleviate, would by no means remove the
blame of the king's counsellors, or justify the strange irregularity of
their proceedings: that the same force which, without resistance, had
massacred so many defenceless men, could easily have secured their
persons, and have reserved them for a trial, and for punishment by a
legal sentence, which would have distinguished the innocent from the
guilty: that the admiral in particular, being dangerously wounded,
and environed by the guards of the king, on whose protection he seemed
entirely to rely, had no means of escape, and might surely, before his
death, have been convicted of the crimes imputed to him: that it was
more worthy of a sovereign to reserve in his own hands the sword of
justice, than to commit it to bloody murderers, who, being the declared
and mortal enemies of the persons accused, employed it without mercy and
without distinction: that if these sentiments were just, even supposing
the conspiracy of the Protestants to be real, how much more so if that
crime was a calumny of their enemies, invented for their destruction?
that if, upon inquiry, the innocence of these unhappy victims should
afterwards appear, it was the king's duty to turn his vengeance on their
defamers, who had thus cruelly abused his confidence, had murdered so
many of his brave subjects, and had done what in them lay to cover him
with everlasting dishonor: and that for her part, she should form her
judgment of his intentions by his subsequent conduct; and in the mean
time should act as desired by the ambassador and rather pity than blame
his master for the extremities to which he had been carried.[*]
* Digges, p. 247, 248.
Elizabeth was fully sensible of the dangerous situation in which she
now stood. In the massacre of Paris, she saw the result of that general
conspiracy formed for the extermination of the Protestants; and she knew
that she herself, as the head and protectress of the new religion, was
exposed to the fury and resentment of the Catholics. The violence and
cruelty of the Spaniards in the Low Countries was another branch of the
same conspiracy; and as Charles and Philip, two princes nearly allied in
perfidy and barbarity, as well as in bigotry, had now laid aside their
pretended quarrel, and had avowed the most entire friendship,[*] she had
reason, as soon as they had appeased their domestic commotions, to dread
the effects of their united counsels. The duke of Guise also, and his
family, whom Charles, in order to deceive the admiral, had hitherto
kept at a distance, had now acquired an open and entire ascendant in the
court of France; and she was sensible that these princes, from personal
as well as political reasons, were her declared and implacable enemies.
The queen of Scots, their near relation and close confederate, was the
pretender to her throne; and though detained in custody, was actuated by
a restless spirit, and, besides her foreign allies, possessed numerous
and zealous partisans in the heart of the kingdom. For these reasons
Elizabeth thought it more prudent not to reject all commerce with the
French monarch, but still to listen to the professions of friendship
which he made her. She allowed even the negotiations to be renewed for
her marriage with the duke of Alencon, Charles's third brother:[**]
those with the duke of Anjou had already been broken off. She sent
the earl of Worcester to assist in her name at the baptism of a young
princess, born to Charles; but before she agreed to give him this last
mark of condescension, she thought it becoming her dignity to renew her
expressions of blame, and even of detestation, against the cruelties
exercised on his Protestant subjects.[***] Meanwhile, she prepared
herself for that attack which seemed to threaten her from the combined
power and violence of the Romanists: she fortified Portsmouth, put her
fleet in order, exercised her militia, cultivated popularity with her
subjects, acted with vigor for the further reduction of Scotland under
obedience to the young king, and renewed her alliance with the German
princes, who were no less alarmed than herself at these treacherous and
sanguinary measures, so universally embraced by the Catholics.
* Digges, p. 268, 282.
** Digges, passim. Camden, p. 447.
*** Digges, p. 297, 298. Camden, p. 447.
But though Elizabeth cautiously avoided coming to extremities with
Charles, the greatest security that she possessed against his violence
was derived from the difficulties which the obstinate resistance of the
Hugonots still created to him.
{1573.} Such of that sect as lived near the frontiers, immediately,
on the first news of the massacres, fled into England, Germany, or
Switzerland; where they excited the compassion and indignation of
the Protestants, and prepared themselves, with increased forces and
redoubled zeal, to return into France, and avenge the treacherous
slaughter of their brethren. Those who lived in the middle of the
kingdom took shelter in the nearest garrisons occupied by the Hugonots;
and finding that they could repose no faith in capitulations, and expect
no clemency, were determined to defend themselves to the last extremity.
The sect which Charles had hoped at one blow to exterminate, had now an
army of eighteen thousand men on foot, and possessed, in different parts
of the kingdom, above a hundred cities, castles, or fortresses;[*] nor
could that prince deem himself secure from the invasion threatened
him by all the other Protestants in Europe. The nobility and gentry of
England were roused to such a pitch of resentment, that they offered
to levy an army of twenty-two thousand foot and four thousand horse, to
transport them into France, and to maintain them six months at their own
charge: but Elizabeth, who was cautious in her measures, and who feared
to inflame further the quarrel between the two religions by these
dangerous crusades, refused her consent, and moderated the zeal of her
subjects.[**] The German princes, less political, or more secure from
the resentment of France, forwarded the levies made by the Protestants;
and the young prince of Conde, having escaped from court, put himself at
the head of these troops, and prepared to invade the kingdom. The duke
of Alencon, the king of Navarre, the family of Montmorency, and many
considerable men even among the Catholics, displeased, either on a
private or public account, with the measures of the court, favored the
progress of the Hugonots; and every thing relapsed into confusion.
{1574.} The king, instead of repenting his violent counsels, which
had brought matters to such extremities, called aloud for new
violences;[***] nor could even the mortal distemper, under which he
labored, moderate the rage and animosity by which he was actuated. He
died without male issue, at the age of twenty-five years; a prince,
whose character, containing that unusual mixture of dissimulation and
ferocity, of quick resentment and unrelenting vengeance, executed the
greatest mischiefs, and threatened still worse, both to his native
country and to all Europe.
* Digges, p. 343.
** Digges, p. 335, 341.
*** Davila, lib.
Henry, duke of Anjou, who had some time before been elected king of
Poland, no sooner heard of his brother's death, than he hastened to
take possession of the throne of France; and found the kingdom not only
involved in the greatest present disorders, but exposed to infirmities
for which it was extremely difficult to provide any suitable remedy.
{1575.} The people were divided into two theological factions, furious
from their zeal, and mutually enraged from the injuries which they had
committed or suffered; and as all faith had been violated and moderation
banished, it seemed impracticable to find any terms of composition
between them. Each party had devoted itself to leaders whose commands
had more authority than the will of the sovereign; and even the
Catholics, to whom the king was attached, were entirely conducted by the
counsels of Guise and his family. The religious connections had, on both
sides, superseded the civil; or rather, (for men will always be guided
by present interest,) two empires being secretly formed in the kingdom,
every individual was engaged by new views of interest to follow those
leaders to whom, during the course of past convulsions, he had been
indebted for his honors and preferment.
Henry, observing the low condition of the crown, had laid a scheme for
restoring his own authority, by acting as umpire between the parties, by
moderating their differences, and by reducing both to a dependence upon
himself. He possessed all the talents of dissimulation requisite for
the execution of this delicate plan; but being deficient in vigor,
application, and sound judgment, instead of acquiring a superiority over
both factions, he lost the confidence of both, and taught the partisans
of each to adhere still more closely to their particular leaders, whom
they found more cordial and sincere in the cause which they espoused.
{1576.} The Hugonots were strengthened by the accession of a German
army under the prince of Conde and Prince Casimir; but much more by the
credit and personal virtues of the king of Navarre, who, having fled
from court, had placed himself at the head of that formidable party.
Henry, in prosecution of his plan, entered into a composition with them;
and being desirous of preserving a balance between the sects, he granted
them peace on the most advantageous conditions. This was the fifth
general peace made with the Hugonots, but though it was no more sincere
on the part of the court than any of the former, it gave the highest
disgust to the Catholics; and afforded the duke of Guise the desired
pretence of declaiming against the measures, and maxims, and conduct of
the king.
That artful and bold leader took thence an occasion of reducing his
party into a more formed and regular body; and he laid the first
foundations of the famous "league," which, without paying any regard to
the royal authority, aimed at the entire suppression of the Hugonots.
Such was the unhappy condition of France, from the past severities
and violent conduct of its princes, that toleration could no longer
be admitted; and a concession for liberty of conscience, which would
probably have appeased the reformers, excited the greatest resentment in
the Catholics.
{1577.} Henry, in order to divert the force of the league from himself,
and even to elude its efforts against the Hugonots, declared himself the
head of that seditious confederacy, and took the field as leader of the
Romanists. But his dilatory and feeble measures betrayed his reluctance
to the undertaking; and after some unsuccessful attempts, he concluded
a new peace, which, though less favorable than the former to the
Protestants, gave no contentment to the Catholics. Mutual diffidence
still prevailed between the parties; the king's moderation was
suspicious to both; each faction continued to fortify itself against
that breach, which, they foresaw, must speedily ensue; theological
controversy daily whetted the animosity of the sects; and every private
injury became the ground of a public quarrel.
{1578.} The king, hoping by his artifice and subtlety to allure the
nation into a love of pleasure and repose, was himself caught in the
snare; and sinking into a dissolute indolence, wholly lost the esteem,
and, in a great measure, the affections, of his people. Instead of
advancing such men of character and abilities as were neuters between
these dangerous factions, he gave all his confidence to young, agreeable
favorites, who, unable to prop his falling authority, leaned entirely
upon it, and inflamed the general odium against his administration. The
public burdens, increased by his profuse liberality, and felt more heavy
on a disordered kingdom, became another ground of complaint: and the
uncontrolled animosity of parties, joined to the multiplicity of taxes,
rendered peace more calamitous than any open state of foreign or even
domestic hostility.
{1579.} The artifices of the king too refined to succeed, and too
frequent to be concealed; and the plain, direct, and avowed conduct of
the duke of Guise on one side, and that of the king of Navarre on the
other, drew by degrees the generality of the nation to devote themselves
without reserve to one or the other of those great leaders.
The civil commotions of France were of too general importance to be
overlooked by the other princes of Europe; and Elizabeth's foresight and
vigilance, though somewhat restrained by her frugality, led her to take
secretly some part in them. Besides employing on all occasions her good
offices in favor of the Hugonots, she had expended no inconsiderable
sums in levying that army of Germans which the prince of Conde and
Prince Casimir conducted into France;[*] and notwithstanding her
negotiations with the court, and her professions of amity, she always
considered her own interests as connected with the prosperity of the
French Protestants, and the depression of the house of Guise. Philip,
on the other hand, had declared himself protector of the league; had
entered into the closest correspondence with Guise; and had employed
all his authority in supporting the credit of that factious leader. This
sympathy of religion, which of itself begat a connection of interests,
was one considerable inducement; but that monarch had also in view the
subduing of his rebellious subjects in the Netherlands; who, as they
received great encouragement from the French Protestants, would, he
hoped, finally despair of success, after the entire suppression of their
friends and confederates.
* Camden, p 452.
The same political views which engaged Elizabeth to support the Hugonots
would have led her to assist the distressed Protestants in the Low
Countries; but the mighty power of Philip, the tranquillity of all
his other dominions, and the great force which he maintained in these
mutinous provinces, kept her in awe, and obliged her, notwithstanding
all temptations and all provocations, to preserve some terms of amity
with that monarch. The Spanish ambassador represented to her, that many
of the Flemish exiles, who infested the seas, and preyed on his master's
subjects, were received into the harbors of England, and were there
allowed to dispose of their prizes; and by these remonstrances the queen
found herself under a necessity of denying them all entrance into her
dominions.
But this measure proved in the issue extremely prejudicial to the
interests of Philip. These desperate exiles, finding no longer any
possibility of subsistence, were forced to attempt the most perilous
enterprises; and they made an assault on the Brille, a seaport town
in Holland, where they met with success, and after a short resistance
became masters of the place.[*]
* Camden, p. 443.
The duke of Alva was alarmed at the danger; and stopping those bloody
executions which he was making on the defenceless Flemings, he hastened
with his army to extinguish the flame, which, falling on materials so
well prepared for combustion, seemed to menace a general conflagration.
His fears soon appeared to be well grounded. The people in the
neighborhood of the Brille, enraged by that complication of cruelty,
oppression, insolence, usurpation, and persecution, under which they and
all their countrymen labored, flew to arms; and in a few days almost all
the whole province of Holland and that of Zealand had revolted from the
Spaniards, and had openly declared against the tyranny of Alva. This
event happened in the year 1572.
William, prince of Orange, descended from a sovereign family of great
lustre and antiquity in Germany, inheriting the possessions of
a sovereign family in France, had fixed his residence in the Low
Countries; and on account of his noble birth and immense riches, as
well as of his personal merit, was universally regarded as the greatest
subject that lived in those provinces. He had opposed, by all regular
and dutiful means, the progress of the Spanish usurpations; and
when Alva conducted his army into the Netherlands, and assumed the
government, this prince, well acquainted with the violent character of
the man, and the tyrannical spirit of the court of Madrid, wisely fled
from the danger which threatened him, and retired to his paternal estate
and dominions in Germany. He was cited to appear before Alva's
tribunal, was condemned in absence, was declared a rebel, and his ample
possessions in the Low Countries were confiscated. In revenge, he had
levied an army of Protestants in the empire, and had made some attempts
to restore the Flemings to liberty; but was still repulsed with loss by
the vigilance and military conduct of Alva, and by the great bravery
as well as discipline of those veteran Spaniards who served under that
general.
The revolt of Holland and Zealand, provinces which the prince of Orange
had formerly commanded, and where he was much beloved, called him anew
from his retreat; and he added conduct, no less than spirit, to that
obstinate resistance which was here made to the Spanish dominion. By
uniting the revolted cities in a league, he laid the foundation of that
illustrious commonwealth, the offspring of industry and liberty, whose
arms and policy have long made so signal a figure in every transaction
of Europe. He inflamed the inhabitants by every motive which religious
zeal, resentment, or love of freedom could inspire. Though the present
greatness of the Spanish monarchy might deprive them of all courage, he
still flattered them with the concurrence of the other provinces,
and with assistance from neighboring states; and he exhorted them, in
defence of their religion, their liberties, their lives, to endure the
utmost extremities of war. From this spirit proceeded the desperate
defence of Harlem; a defence which nothing but the most consuming famine
could overcome, and which the Spaniards revenged by the execution of
more than two thousand of the inhabitants.[*] This extreme severity,
instead of striking terror into the Hollanders, animated them by
despair; and the vigorous resistance made at Alemaer, where Alva was
finally repulsed, showed them that their insolent enemies were not
invincible. The duke, finding at last the pernicious effects of
his violent counsels, solicited to be recalled; Medinaceli, who was
appointed his successor, refused to accept the government: Requesens,
commendator of Castile, was sent from Italy to replace Alva; and this
tyrant departed from the Netherlands in 1574; leaving his name in
execration to the inhabitants; and boasting in his turn, that, during
the course of five years, he had delivered above eighteen thousand of
these rebellious heretics into the hands of the executioner.[**]
* Bentivoglio, lib. vol.1.*
** Grotius, lib. ii.
Requesens, though a man of milder dispositions, could not appease the
violent hatred which the revolted Hollanders had conceived against the
Spanish government; and the war continued as obstinate as ever. In the
siege of Leyden, under taken by the Spaniards, the Dutch opened the
dikes and sluices, in order to drive them from the enterprise: and the
very peasants were active in ruining their fields by an inundation,
rather than fall again under the hated tyranny of Spain. But
notwithstanding this repulse, the governor still pursued the war; and
the contest seemed too unequal between so mighty a monarchy and two
small provinces, however fortified by nature, and however defended
by the desperate resolution of the inhabitants. The prince of Orange,
therefore, in 1575, was resolved to sue for foreign succor, and to make
applications to one or other of his great neighbors, Henry or Elizabeth.
The court of France was not exempt from the same spirit of tyranny and
persecution which prevailed among the Spaniards; and that kingdom, torn
by domestic dissensions, seemed not to enjoy, at present, either
leisure or ability to pay regard to foreign interests. But England, long
connected both by commerce and alliance with the Netherlands, and now
more concerned in the fate of the revolted provinces by sympathy in
religion, seemed naturally interested in their defence; and as Elizabeth
had justly entertained great jealousy of Philip, and governed her
kingdom in perfect tranquillity, hopes were entertained that her policy,
her ambition, or her generosity, would engage her to, support them under
their present calamities. They sent, therefore, a solemn embassy to
London, consisting of St. Aldegonde, Douza, Nivelle, Buys, and Melsen;
and after employing the most humble supplications to the queen, they
offered her the possession and sovereignty of their provinces, if she
would exert her power in their defence.
There were many strong motives which might impel Elizabeth to accept of
so liberal an offer. She was apprised of the injuries which Philip
had done her, by his intrigues with the malecontents in England and
Ireland:[*] she foresaw the danger which she must incur from a total
prevalence of the Catholics in the Low Countries: and the maritime
situation of those provinces, as well as their command over the great
rivers, was an inviting circumstance to a nation like the English, who
were beginning to cultivate commerce and naval power.
* Digges, p. 73.
But this princess, though magnanimous, had never entertained the
ambition of making conquests, or gaining new acquisitions; and the whole
purpose of her vigilant and active politics was to maintain, by the most
frugal and cautious expedients, the tranquillity of her own dominions.
An open war with the Spanish monarchy was the apparent consequence of
her accepting the dominion of these provinces; and after taking the
inhabitants under her protection, she could never afterwards in honor
abandon them, but, however desperate their defence might become, she
must embrace it, even further than her convenience or interests
would permit. For these reasons, she refused, in positive terms, the
sovereignty proffered her; but told the ambassadors, that, in return for
the good will which the prince of Orange and the states had shown
her, she would endeavor to mediate an agreement for them, on the most
reasonable terms that could be obtained.[*]
* Camden, p. 453, 454.
She sent accordingly Sir Henry Cobham to Philip; and represented to him
the danger which he would incur of losing entirely the Low Countries, if
France could obtain the least interval from her intestine disorders, and
find leisure to offer her protection to those mutinous and discontented
provinces. Philip seemed to take this remonstrance in good part; but no
accord ensued, and war in the Netherlands continued with the same rage
and violence as before.
It was an accident that delivered the Hollanders from their present
desperate situation. Requesens, the governor, dying suddenly, the
Spanish troops, discontented for want of pay, and licentious for want
of a proper authority to command them, broke into a furious mutiny, and
threw every thing into confusion. They sacked and pillaged the cities of
Maestricht and Antwerp, and executed great slaughter on the inhabitants:
they threatened the other cities with a like fate: and all the
provinces, excepting Luxembourg, united for mutual defence against their
violence, and called in the prince of Orange and the Hollanders as their
protectors. A treaty, commonly called the Pacification of Ghent, was
formed by common agreement; and the removal of foreign troops, with
the restoration of their ancient liberties, was the object which the
provinces mutually stipulated to pursue. Don John of Austria, natural
brother to Philip, being appointed governor, found, on his arrival at
Luxembourg, that the states had so fortified themselves, and that the
Spanish troops were so divided by their situation, that there was no
possibility of resistance; and he agreed to the terms required of him.
The Spaniards evacuated the country; and these provinces seemed at last
to breathe a little from their calamities.
But it was not easy to settle entire peace, while the thirst of revenge
and dominion governed the king of Spain, and while the Flemings were so
strongly agitated with resentment of past, and fear of future injuries.
The ambition of Don John, who coveted this great theatre for his
military talents engaged him rather to inflame than appease the quarrel;
and as he found the states determined to impose very strict limitations
on his authority, he broke all articles, seized Namur, and procured the
recall of the Spanish army from Italy. This prince, endowed with a lofty
genius, and elated by the prosperous successes of his youth, had opened
his mind to vast undertakings; and looking much beyond the conquest of
the revolted provinces, had projected to espouse the queen of Scots,
and to acquire in her right the dominion of the British kingdoms.[*]
Elizabeth was aware of his intentions; and seeing now, from the union of
all the provinces, a fair prospect of their making a long and vigorous
defence against Spain, she no longer scrupled to embrace the protection
of their liberties, which seemed so intimately connected with her own
safety. After sending them a sum of money, about twenty thousand pounds,
for the immediate pay of their troops, she concluded a treaty with them;
in which she stipulated to assist them with five thousand foot and
a thousand horse, at the charge of the Flemings; and to lend them a
hundred thousand pounds, on receiving the bonds of some of the most
considerable towns of the Netherlands, for her repayment within the
year. It was further agreed, that the commander of the English army
should be admitted into the council of the states; and nothing be
determined concerning war or peace, without previously informing the
queen or him of it; that they should enter into no league without
her consent; that if any discord arose among themselves, it should be
referred to her arbitration; and that, if any prince, on any pretext,
should attempt hostilities against her, they should send to her
assistance an army equal to that which she had employed in their
defence. This alliance was signed on the seventh of January, 1578.[**]
* Camden, p. 466. Grotius, lib. iii.
** Camden, p. 466.
One considerable inducement to the queen for entering into treaty with
the states, was to prevent their throwing themselves into the arms of
France; and she was desirous to make the king of Spain believe that it
was her sole motive. She represented to him, by her ambassador, Thomas
Wilkes, that hitherto she had religiously acted the part of a good
neighbor and ally; had refused the sovereignty of Holland and Zealand
when offered her, had advised the prince of Orange to submit to the
king; and had even accompanied her counsel with menaces, in case of his
refusal. She persevered, she said, in the same friendly intentions; and,
as a proof of it, would venture to interpose with her advice for the
composure of the present differences: let Don John, whom she could not
but regard as her mortal enemy, be recalled; let some other prince more
popular be substituted in his room; let the Spanish armies be withdrawn;
let the Flemings be restored to their ancient liberties and privileges;
and if, after these concessions, they were still obstinate not to return
to their duty, she promised to join her arms with those of the king of
Spain, and force them to compliance. Philip dissembled his resentment
against the queen, and still continued to supply Don John with money and
troops. That prince, though once repulsed at Rimenant by the valor of
the English, under Norris, and though opposed, as well by the army of
the states as by Prince Casimir, who had conducted to the Low Countries
a great body of Germans paid by the queen, gained a great advantage
over the Flemings at Gemblours; but was cut off in the midst of his
prosperity by poison, given him secretly, as was suspected, by orders
from Philip, who dreaded his ambition. The prince of Parma succeeded to
the command; who, uniting valor and clemency, negotiation and military
exploits, made great progress against the revolted Flemings, and
advanced the progress of the Spaniards by his arts as well as by his
arms.
During these years, while Europe was almost every where in great
commotion, England enjoyed a profound tranquillity; owing chiefly to
the prudence and vigor of the queen's administration, and to the wise
precautions which she employed in all her measures. By supporting
the zealous Protestants in Scotland, she had twice given them the
superiority over their antagonists, had closely connected their
interests with her own, and had procured herself entire security from
that quarter whence the most dangerous invasions could be made upon her.
She saw in France her enemies, the Guises, though extremely powerful,
yet counterbalanced by the Hugo*nots, her zealous partisans, and even
hated by the king, who was jealous of their restless and exorbitant
ambition. The bigotry of Philip gave her just ground of anxiety; but the
same bigotry had happily excited the most obstinate opposition among his
own subjects, and had created him enemies whom his arms and policy were
not likely soon to subdue. The queen of Scots, her antagonist and rival,
and the pretender to her throne, was a prisoner in her hands; and, by
her impatience and high spirit, had been engaged in practices which
afforded the queen a pretence for rendering her confinement more
rigorous, and for cutting off her communication with her partisans in
England.
Religion was the capital point on which depended all the political
transactions of that age; and the queen's conduct in this particular,
making allowance for the prevailing prejudices of the times, could
scarcely be accused of severity or imprudence. She established no
inquisition into men's bosoms; she imposed no oath of supremacy, except
on those who received trust or emolument from the public; and though
the exercise of every religion but the established was prohibited by
statute, the violation of this law, by saying mass, and receiving the
sacrament, in private houses, was in many instances connived at;[*]
while, on the other hand, the Catholics, in the beginning of her reign,
showed little reluctance against going to church, or frequenting the
ordinary duties of public worship. The pope, sensible that this practice
would by degrees reconcile all his partisans to the reformed religion,
hastened the publication of the bull which excommunicated the queen, and
freed her subjects from their oaths of allegiance; and great pains were
taken by the emissaries of Rome, to render the breach between the two
religions as wide as possible, and to make the frequenting of Protestant
churches appear highly criminal in the Catholics.[**] These practices,
with the rebellion which ensued, increased the vigilance and severity of
the government; but the Romanists, if their condition were compared with
that of the nonconformists in other countries, and with their own
maxims where they domineered, could not justly complain of violence or
persecution.
* Camden, p. 459.
** Walsingham's Letter in Burnet, vol. ii. p. 418. Cabala,
p. 406.
The queen appeared rather more anxious to keep a strict hand over
the Puritans; who, though their pretensions were not so immediately
dangerous to her authority, seemed to be actuated by a more unreasonable
obstinacy, and to retain claims, of which, both in civil and
ecclesiastical matters, it was as yet difficult to discern the full
scope and intention. Some secret attempts of that sect to establish a
separate congregation and discipline, had been carefully repressed in
the beginning of this reign;[*] and when any of the established clergy
discovered a tendency to their principles, by omitting the legal habits
or ceremonies, the queen had shown a determined resolution to punish
them by fines and deprivation;[**] though her orders to that purpose had
been frequently eluded, by the secret protection which these sectaries
received from some of her most considerable courtiers.
But what chiefly tended to gain Elizabeth the hearts of her subjects,
was her frugality, which, though carried sometimes to an extreme, led
her not to amass treasures, but only to prevent impositions upon her
people, who were at that time very little accustomed to bear the burdens
of government. By means of her rigid economy, she paid all the debts
which she found on the crown, with their full interest; though some
of these debts had been contracted even during the reign of her
father.[***] Some loans, which she had exacted at the commencement
of her reign, were repaid by her; a practice in that age somewhat
unusual;[****] and she established her credit on such a footing, that no
sovereign in Europe could more readily command any sum which the public
exigencies might at any time require.[v] During this peaceable and
uniform government, England furnishes few materials for history; and
except the small part which Elizabeth took in foreign transactions,
there scarcely passed any occurrence which requires a particular detail.
* Strype's Life of Parker, p. 342. Strype's Life of Grindal,
p. 315.
** Heylin, p. 165, 166.
*** D'Ewes, p. 245. Camden, p. 446.
**** D'Ewes, p. 245.
v D'Ewes, p. 246.
The most memorable event in this period was a session of parliament,
held on the eighth of February, 1576; where debates were started which
may appear somewhat curious and singular. Peter Wentworth, a Puritan,
who had signalized himself in former parliaments by his free and
undaunted spirit, opened this session with a premeditated harangue,
which drew on him the indignation of the house, and gave great offence
to the queen and the ministers. As it seems to contain a rude sketch
of those principles of liberty which happily gained afterwards the
ascendant in England, it may not be improper to give, in a few words,
the substance of it. He premised, that the very name of liberty is
sweet; but the thing itself is precious beyond the most inestimable
treasures and that it behoved them to be careful, lest, contenting
themselves with the sweetness of the name, they forego the substance,
and abandon what of all earthly possessions was of the highest value
to the kingdom. He then proceeded to observe, that freedom of speech in
that house,--a privilege so useful both to sovereign and subject,--had
been formerly infringed in many essential articles, and was at present
exposed to the most imminent danger: that it was usual, when any subject
of importance was handled, especially if it regarded religion, to
surmise, that these topics were disagreeable to the queen, and that the
further proceeding in them would draw down her indignation upon their
temerity: that Solomon had justly affirmed the king's displeasure to be
a messenger of death; and it was no wonder if men, even though urged by
motives of conscience and duty, should be inclined to stop short when
they found themselves exposed to so severe a penalty: that by the
employing of this argument, the house was incapacitated from serving
their country, and even from serving the queen herself, whose ears,
besieged by pernicious flatterers, were thereby rendered inaccessible
to the most salutary truths: that it was a mockery to call an assembly
a parliament, yet deny it that privilege which was so essential to its
being, and without which it must degenerate into an abject school
of servility and dissimulation: that as the parliament was the great
guardian of the laws, they ought to have liberty to discharge their
trust, and to maintain that authority whence even kings themselves
derive their being: that a king was constituted such by law, and though
he was not dependent on man, yet was he subordinate to God and the law,
and was obliged to make their prescriptions, not his own will, the rule
of his conduct: that even his commission, as God's vicegerent, enforced,
instead of loosening this obligation; since he was thereby invested with
authority to execute on earth the will of God, which is nothing but
law and justice: that though these surmises of displeasing the queen by
their proceedings, had impeached, in a very essential point, all freedom
of speech,--a privilege granted them by a special law,--yet was there
a more express and more dangerous invasion made on their liberties, by
frequent messages from the throne: that it had become a practice, when
the house was entering on any question, either ecclesiastical or civil,
to bring an order from the queen, inhibiting them absolutely from
treating of such matters, and debarring them from all further discussion
of these momentous articles: that the prelates, emboldened by her royal
protection, had assumed a decisive power in all questions of religion,
and required that every one should implicitly submit his faith to their
arbitrary determinations: that the love which he bore his sovereign
forbade him to be silent under such abuses, or to sacrifice, on this
important occasion, his duty to servile flattery and complaisance; and
that, as no earthly creature was exempt from fault, so neither was the
queen herself; but, in imposing this servitude on her faithful commons,
had committed a great and even dangerous fault against herself and the
whole commonwealth.[*]
It is easy to observe from this speech, that, in this dawn of liberty,
the parliamentary style was still crude and unformed; and that
the proper decorum of attacking ministers and counsellors, without
interesting the honor of the crown, or mentioning the person of the
sovereign, was not yet entirely established. The commons expressed great
displeasure at this unusual license; they sequestered Wentworth from
the house, and committed him prisoner to the serjeant at arms. They
even ordered him to be examined by a committee, consisting of all those
members who were also members of the privy council; and a report to be
next day made to the house. This committee met in the star chamber, and,
wearing the aspect of that arbitrary court, summoned Wentworth to appear
before them, and answer for his behavior. But though the commons had
discovered so little delicacy or precaution in thus confounding their
own authority with that of the star chamber, Wentworth better understood
the principles of liberty, and refused to give these counsellors any
account of his conduct in parliament, till he were satisfied that they
acted, not as members of the privy council, but as a committee of the
house.[**] He justified his liberty of speech by pleading the rigor and
hardship of the queen's messages; and notwithstanding that the committee
showed him, by instances in other reigns, that the practice of sending
such messages was not unprecedented, he would not agree to express any
sorrow or repentance. The issue of the affair was, that after a month's
confinement, the queen sent to the commons, informing them, that, from
her special grace and favor, she had restored him to his liberty and to
his place in the house.[***]
* D'Ewes, p. 236, 237, etc.
** D'Ewes, p. 244.
*** D'Ewes, p. 241.
By this seeming lenity, she indirectly retained the power which she had
assumed, of imprisoning the members and obliging them to answer before
her for their conduct in parliament. And Sir Walter Mildmay endeavored
to make the house sensible of her majesty's goodness, in so gently
remitting the indignation which she might justly conceive at the
temerity of their member; but he informed them, that they had not the
liberty of speaking what and of whom they pleased; and that indiscreet
freedoms used in that house, had, both in the present and foregoing
ages, met with a proper chastisement. He warned them, therefore, not to
abuse further the queen's clemency, lest she be constrained, contrary
to her inclination, to turn an unsuccessful lenity into a necessary
severity.[*]
The behavior of the two houses was, in every other respect, equally tame
and submissive. Instead of a bill, which was at first introduced,[**]
for the reformation of the church, they were contented to present a
petition to her majesty for that purpose; and when she told them, that
she would give orders to her bishops to amend all abuses, and, if they
were negligent, she would herself, by her supreme power and authority
over the church, give such redress as would entirely satisfy the nation,
the parliament willingly acquiesced in this sovereign and peremptory
decision.[***]
Though the commons showed so little spirit in opposing the authority
of the crown, they maintained, this session, their dignity against an
encroachment of the peers, and would not agree to a conference which,
they thought, was demanded of them in an irregular manner. They
acknowledged, however, with all humbleness, (such is their expression,)
the superiority of the lords: they only refused to give that house any
reason for their proceedings; and asserted, that where they altered a
bill sent them by the peers, it belonged to them to desire a conference,
not to the upper house to require it.[****]
* D'Ewes, p. 259.
** D'Ewes, p. 252.
*** D'Ewes, p. 257.
**** D'Ewes, p. 263.
The commons granted an aid of one subsidy and two fifteenths. Mildmay,
in order to satisfy the house concerning the reasonableness of this
grant, entered into a detail of the queen's past expenses in supporting
the government, and of the increasing charges of the crown, from the
daily increase in the price of all commodities. He did not, however,
forge to admonish them, that they were to regard this detail as the pure
effect of the queen's condescension, since she was not bound to give
them any account how she employed her treasure.[*]
* D'Ewes, p. 246.
CHAPTER XLI.
ELIZABETH.
{1580.} The greatest and most absolute security that Elizabeth enjoyed
during her whole reign, never exempted her from vigilance and attention;
but the scene began now 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 tranquility 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
unacquainted with law and order; where even the natural dominion
of hereditary princes so often met with opposition and control. The
nobility began anew to break into factions; the people were disgusted
with some instances of Morton's avarice; and the clergy, who complained
of further encroachments on their narrow revenue, joined and increased
the discontent of the other orders. The regent was sensible of his
dangerous situation; and having dropped some peevish expressions, as
if he were willing or desirous to resign, the noblemen of the opposite
party, favorites 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 pretence of delivering their prince from
captivity, and restoring him to the free exercise of his government:
Queen Elizabeth interposed by her ambassador, Sir Robert 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 interests with those of James Stuart, of
the house of Ochiltree, a man of profligate manners, who had acquired
the king's favor, 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, or of
associating her with him in the administration.[*] Elizabeth, alarmed
at the danger which might ensue from the prevalence of this interest
in Scotland, sent anew Sir Robert Bowes to Stirling; and accusing
D'Aubigney, now created earl of Lenox, of an attachment to the French,
warned James against entertaining such suspicious and dangerous
connections.[**]
* Digges, p. 412, 428. Melvil, p. 130.
** Spotswood, p. 309.
The king excused himself by Sir Alexander Hume, his ambassador; and
Lenox, finding that the queen had openly declared against him, was
further 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
resolution nor constancy, or Morton, who appeared to be an accomplice in
the murder.[*]
* Spotswood, p. 314, Crawford, p. 333. Moyse's Memoirs,
Spotswood, p. 312. t Digge, p. 359. 373.
Sir Thomas Randolph was sent by the queen to intercede in favor 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 Glencairne, 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. Morton died with that constancy and
resolution 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 on account of
every revolution in Scotland; both because that country alone, not being
separated from England by sea, and 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 suffered, 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; 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 encumbered 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.[*]
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 assaulted 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.[**] By means of Sir Christopher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain,
a great favorite of the queen's, he obtained her consent and
approbation; and he set sail from Plymouth in 1577, with four ships
and a pinnace, on board of which were one hundred and sixty-four able
sailors.[***] He passed into the South Sea by the Straits of Magellan;
and attacking 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 Magellan,
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, apprehending the resentment of the Spaniards, endeavored
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 valor, and who was allured by the prospect of sharing in the
booty, determined to countenance that gallant sailor: she conferred
on him the honor of knighthood, and accepted of a banquet from him at
Deptford, on board the ship which had achieved so memorable a voyage.
* Camden, p. 475. Cox's Hist, of Ireland, p. 368.
** Camden, p. 478. Stowe, p. 689.
** Camden, p. 478. Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 750
Purchas's Pilgrim, vol. i. p. 46.
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.[*] 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, part of it in the pay of the prince of
Parma's troops she 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 measure which, as she herself openly declared,
she never embraced except when constrained by the necessity of her
affairs. The parliament, besides granting her a supply 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 reconciled 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 imprisonment and a fine of two
hundred marks; the being present was punishable by a year's imprisonment
and a fine of a hundred marks: a fine of twenty pounds a month was
imposed on every one who continued, during that time, absent from
church.[**] To utter slanderous or seditious 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.[***] The Puritans
prevailed so far as to have further applications made for reformation in
religion:[****] and Paul Wentworth, 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.[v]
* Camden, p. 480.
** 23 Eliz. cap. 1.
*** 23 Eliz. cap. 2.
**** D'Ewes, p. 302.
v Camden, p. 477.
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
reflected, that as some species of literature was necessary for
supporting these doctrines and controversies, the Romish communion
must decay in England, if no means were found to give erudition to the
ecclesiastics; and for this reason he founded a seminary at Douay, 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 Lorraine imitated this example, by erecting a like seminary
in his diocese of Rheims; and though Rome was somewhat distant, the pope
would not neglect to adorn, by a foundation of the same nature, that
capital of orthodoxy. 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 danger or fatigue, from maintaining and propagating their
principles. They infused into all their votaries an extreme hatred
against the queen, whom they treated as a usurper, a schismatic, a
heretic, a persecutor of the orthodox, and one solemnly and publicly
anathematized by the holy father. Sedition, rebellion, sometimes
assassination, were the expedients by which they intended to effect
their purposes against her; and the severe restraint, not to say
persecution, under which the Catholics labored, 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
Protestants, 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 many instances, been
much exaggerated. This reproach, however, they must bear from posterity,
that, by the very 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 erudition 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 prevarication, 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 prevalent
among the zealous Catholics in England, that the excommunication
fulminated against Elizabeth excited many scruples of a singular kind,
to 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 favorable opportunity offered, to rebel against her, and that
no dangers or difficulties could free them from this indispensable 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 forever binding on Elizabeth and her partisans,
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 afterwards 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 whatever measures
she might pursue, she never would depart from the principles of the
reformation.
The duke of Alencon, now created duke of Anjou, 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
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 ambassador, sent over Simier, an agent of his own; an
artful man, of an agreeable conversation, who soon remarking the queen's
humor, amused her with gay discourse, and instead of serious political
reasonings, which he found only awakened her ambition, and hurt his
master's interests, 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 between 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 dominion
would prevail over her inclination to marriage, began to apprehend
that she was at 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,
endeavored 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, without 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, that she threatened to send him
to the Tower.[*]
* Camden, p. 471.
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 further 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."[*]
The duke of Anjou, encouraged by the accounts sent him of the queen's
prepossessions in his favor, 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 Secretary Walsingham, to concert with the French ambassadors
the terms of the intended contract of marriage. Henry had sent over,
on this occasion, a splendid embassy, consisting of Francis de Bourbon,
prince of Dauphiny, 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 younger of England;
that if there be but one male, and he succeed to the crown of France,
he should be obliged to reside in England eight months every two 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.[**]
* Camden. p. 471.
** Camden, p. 484.
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, contributed 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 further
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 ambassador to France, in
order to form closer connections 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 favorable sentiments which Elizabeth seemed to
entertain towards him. But this princess, though she had gone further in
her amorous 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 alliance between France and
England.[**] Henry with reluctance 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, foreseeing hostility
with Spain to be the result of this confederacy, had declared that
she would prefer the marriage with the war, before the war without the
marriage.[***] The French court, pleased with this change of resolution,
broke off the conferences concerning the league, and opened a
negotiation for the marriage.[****] 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; [v] and
not only the court of France, but Walsingham himself, Burleigh, and all
the wisest ministers of Elizabeth, were in amazement doubtful where this
contest between inclination and reason love and ambition, would at last
terminate.[v*] [17]
* Digges, p. 387, 396, 408, 426.
** Digges, p. 352.
*** Digges, p. 375, 391.
**** Digges, p. 392.
v Digges, p. 408.
v* See note Q, at the end of the volume.
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 expected from her some money, by which
he might be enabled 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.[*] She sent him a present of a
hundred thousand 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 Cambray; 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
to make choice of him for her husband. In the midst of the pomp which
attended the anniversary of her coronation, she was seen, after long and
intimate discourse with him, to take a ring from her own finger, and to
put it upon his; and all the spectators concluded, that in this ceremony
she had given him a promise of marriage, and was even desirous of
signifying her intentions to all the world. St. Aldegonde, ambassador
from the states, despatched 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 titular
divinity, testified their joy by bonfires and the discharge of their
great ordnance.[**]
* Digges, p. 357, 387, 388, 409, 426, 439. Rymer. xv. p.
793.
** Camden, p. 486. Thuan. lib. lxxiv.
A Puritan of Lincoln's Inn had written a passionate book, which he
entitled, "The Gulph 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
constancy 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 ambition, as well as prudence, rousing itself by
intervals, still filled her breast with doubt and hesitation. Almost
all the courtiers whom she trusted and favored--Leicester, Hatton, and
Walsingham--discovered an extreme aversion to the marriage; and the
ladies of her bed-chamber made no scruple of opposing her resolution
with the most zealous remonstrances.[*]
* Camden, p. 486.
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 perfidious Catharine, brother to the cruel and
perfidious Charles, and who had himself imbrued his hands in the blood
of the innocent and defenceless Protestants: that the Catholics were her
mortal enemies, and believed, either that she had originally usurped
the crown, or was now lawfully deposed by the pope's bull of
excommunication; 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 supplying 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 connections; and were
more influenced by sympathy in theological opinions, than by the
principles of legal and hereditary 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 defenceless like the generality of her subjects:
that the plain and honorable path which she had followed, of cultivating
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 insure 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 connections; and to
prove, that the affection and confidence of the English could never be
maintained, where they had such reason to apprehend that their interests
would every moment be sacrificed to those of a foreign and hostile
nation: that notwithstanding these great inconveniences, discovered by
past experience, 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 however
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.[*]
* Letters of the Sidneys, vol i. p. 287, et seq. Cabala, p.
363
{1582.} 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.[*] 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 liberties; 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 feeling 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 English Catholics
never ceased during the whole course of her reign; but the variety of
revolutions which happened in all the neighboring kingdoms, were the
source, sometimes of her hopes, sometimes of her apprehensions. 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 |
