could get down and get into a Posture of Assisting them he saw all their Army dispersed and they forced to flee into Scotland whereupon he formed a Design to Murder the Bishop of Carlisle and the Lord scrope Warden of the West Marshes which when he saw he could not effect he recommended the Two Earls to the Scots and seized Greistoke and Caworth Castles as his own which belonged to the Family of the Dacres and he got together about 3000 Borderers with some others who were the Friends of that Ancient and Splendid Family The Lord Hunsdon hearing of this Insurrection drew out a part of the Garison of Berwick of which he was Governour and marched against this Incendiary who met Hunsdon and fought stoutly at the Head of his Party which was yet at last over-powered and broken the Lord Hunsdon having no great reason to be overjoyed at the Victory by reason of the Number of men he lost Dacres fled into Scotland and was with the two Earls Attainted in the next Parliament Both these Rebellions were caused by Pope Pius his Bull tho they broke out before the Bull was Published here in England which was one great reason that they spread no further The Delivery of the Queen of Scots who was then in the Custody of George Earl of Shrewsbury the Restoring the Popish Religion and the suppressing the Protestant was the last thing they aimed at and the King of Spain was the Fomenter of these Troubles and had sent them Assurances that he would send them Assistance from Flanders and had his Agent at Court to promote it But all these Projects being disappointed England soon returned to her former state of Peace and the rest of the Popish Party seeing their Weakness and the Severity of the Government against these Ring-leaders soon found how much it was their Interest to be quiet The secret Head of all these Motions was Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk who was the Richest most Noble and Wisest Peer then in England and of the greatest Authority with the Queen and no less beloved by the People This Great Man having appeared a little over-inclined to favour the Interest of the Captive Queen of the Scots in the XIth year of the Queen's Reign he drew upon himself both the Suspicion of the Queen and the Practices of his Enemies at Home and Abroad The Pope the King of Spain and many of the Nobility of England for different and very contrary ends promoting a Marriage between the Queen of Scots and this Duke which being by the means of these Rebellions discovered in part to the Council of England in the latter end of the year 1669 he was first Committed he left the Court in Discontent and resolved to Marry the Queen of Sâ—…ots without the Queen of England's Leave tho he had promised the Queen he would proceed no further in this business Whereupon he was committed Prisoner to the Tower in the year 1571 and the 16th of January 1572. he was found Guilty of High-Treason and Beheaded the 15th of June following The Greatness of his Fortunes and Soul and the wonderful Affection the People of England on all occasions shewed to this Noble Gentleman added to his Compassion for the Queen of Scots who was a Lady of great Wit and Beauty first stirred in him the thought of Marrying her upon her first coming into England which coming to the Queen's ears he was a little before the Rebellion of the North put under Confinement yet he found means to send Money to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland but so privately that after this he had his Liberty again By the procurement of one Robert Ridolf Agent for Pope Pius Quintus here in England under the pretence of Merchandize he was again drawn into a secret Practice for the Marrying that Captive Queen which being discovered to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh by the Duke's Secretary out of mere Treachery he was again Imprisoned Tried and Convicted by one whom he most trusted and leaft suspected of Designing against him Thus wonderfully did God appear for this Religious Queen turning all the Crafty Imaginations of her Enemies and all their intended Violences upon their own heads for the Preservation of this Church and Nation Saith Mr. Cambden The Love that the People of England bore to the Duke of Norfolk is incredible which he had acquired by a Courtesie and Goodness which was worthy of so great a Prince The Wiser part of the Nation were very differently affected towards him some being affrighted at the Danger which was threatned to the Nation from his Numerous Party whilst he lived to Head them And others very heartily commiserating this Noble Gentleman who was of an excellent Temper of great Beauty and of a Manly Aspect and would have been the Ornament and Securer of his Countrey if the fraudulent Arts of his Enemies had not turned him out of his former course and way of living by the deceivable hopes of greater things and the specious pretences and shews of promoting the Publick Welfare His End renewed the Memory of his Father's most unhappy Fate who Twenty Five Years before was Beheaded in the same place only because he wore the Scutcheon of Edward the Confessor in his Arms which were granted to the. Mowbrays Dukes of Norfolk from whom he was descended Lineally by King Richard the IId This Bull of Pope Pius V. and his Practises against England produced a shoal of Traytors to plague that Generation for they were ever after it restlefly plotting and conspiring against their Sovereign their Countrey and their Kindred with an invincible perfidy and obstinacy which the Executions of many could not extinguish But yet the Calamity did not end there for from the same Exuberant Fountain of Mischief issued those refractory and stabborn Recusants who separating from the Communion and Service of the Church of England which till then they had frequented without the least scruple or difference they set up Popish Conventicles and the Latin Mass and called over a swarm of Jesuits Priests and Monks to infest the Nation and incense those that entertained them against the Religion and Government that was established and so perpetuated our Quarrels and kept open the bloody wounds of this Kingdom This is the thing we have most reason to complain of because it has brought upon all the succeeding Times great miseries and distresses and the Wisdom of our Forefathers has not been able to cure this Disease The Queen seeing in the mean time the mischief this would bring upon her Kingdoms and being roused by the Rebellions in the North and the intimations she had that there were Designs on foot against her Person and Life took up a resolution to put a stop to it and to that end passed an Act in the next Parliament for the levying 20 l. the Month upon all that should refuse to go to Church and attend at the Service of God or to take the Oath
free enlightned Countrey And their case was perfectly like ours for we too of late were to be Conquered and our Laws changed for the same end It was observed with great wonder on all sides That when they took so many and punished so severely those that had pull'd down and destroy'd the Images there was not one of them to be found that would confess that they had been put upon this or persuaded to it by those of the Reformed Religion but they all said it proceeded from an Impulse upon thâ—…ir minds of which they could give no account But however in Spain it was resolved to take the opportunity of these Troubles to bring under and subdue all these Provinces and to deprive them by way of Punishment of all their Privileges and Liberties and altho all was quiet in the beginning of the year 1567 yet they were not satisfied with the Punishment of the particular persons that had offended but resolved to extend their Revenge to all the Provinces and to those of their own Religion as well as to their Opposers And to fulfil this Bloody Tyrannical Resolution the Duke d' Alva was chosen a man of great Experience in Warlike Affairs and well acquainted with these Countries and of a merciless violent Temper The Inquisition and Clergy of Spain opened their Treasures and furnished the King liberally with Money also for they looked upon this as an Holy War and hoped to make it the dawning to a general Destruction of the Protestants This Duke arrived at Brussels the 22d of August 1567. with 8678 Spanish and Italian Foot and 1600 Horse and 12000 German Horse and Foot tho all was quiet and no opposition to be feared if they he brought with him did not cause it He concealed a great part of his Commission yet what he produced of it went very much beyond that which had been given to the Regent that now was recalled and discharged of the Government The Duke usurped presently an Absolute and Uncontroulable Authority and having appointed a Council of Twelve Bloody Men he disposed of the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects of the Low-Countries of all States and Conditions contrary to their Laws without any Appeal Reformation or Revision of his Sentence He proceeded to that height of Cruelty and Tyranny that Nine of the Twelve left the Council out of pure shame and went home For he had obtained from the King before he came thither a Full Absolute Sovereign Authority which was not bounded by any Lâ—…ws or Instructions and was not to be contradicted by any body Which was contrary to all the Laws of that people and to the King's Oath and Promise but he relied upon his Forces and was not at all concerned what men thought or said of him Amongst the Eighteen Rules which the Council of Blood prescribed to themselves to judge by these were some 1. All Petitions made by the States Cities or Nobility of the Land against the New Bishops and the Inquisition or to have any of the Placaets made by the King or Council moderated were Conspiracies against God and the King 2. That all the Lords Nobility and Governors that had not appeared against the Petitions Preachings and breaking down of Images are guilty of the same Crime tho they appeared discontented at them and ashamed 3. And all those that took the Proceedings of this Court for Tyrannical Unjust or Illegal The First this Council began with was Count Egmont the Count Van Hoorne and Anthony Van Straten Burgomaster of Antwerp who were treacherously summoned to a great Council and there Arrested by the Order of the Duke d' Alvâ—… the 9th of September 1567. which put the Countrey into such an affright that all degrees of men fled into all the Neighbour Countries but however they went on and filled the Prisons with the remainder and such as they hapned to take and it was observed that they had before-hand taken good care to Repair Strengthen and enlarge these places yet in some places they were broken up and the Prisoners discharged by Force Having spent the rest of this year in Ruining and Attainting the Nobility they in the year 1568. began to Persecute the meaner sort of people citing Thirty Forty or Fifty at a time out of every City in the Provinces to appear before this Council and upon their not appearing as none but the Imprisoned durst they seized upon their Estates and confiscated their Goods to the King's use Thus they dealt with the Rich but as for the poorer people they took them up and hang'd them without any more Ceremony They pretended by this Violence to enrich the King and to establish the Romish Religion but they frighted away the people alienated their hearts from him and drove many Roman Catholicks into Protestant Countries where they embraced that Religion they had only a moderate opinion of before To remedy a part of these Inconveniencies they published an Order That whosoever harboured or assisted any person that was fled or held any Correspondence by Letters or otherwise should be thought guilty of the same Crime and that any Ship that carried off any of their Goods or any Wagon or Boat that furthered their Escape or conveyed away their Goods should be forfeited The noise of these Proceedings alarmed all the Protestants in France and was the principal Cause of the renewing the War there of which I have already given a short account Queen Elizabeth was a sorrowful Observer of all these Tyranical Encroachments on the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of her Neighbours and such as fled into England from the bloody and outragious treatment of the Duke of Alva and the Spaniards found here in England a secure Sanctuary and had her leave to settle at Norwich Colchester Sandwich Maidstone and Hampton to the great Advantage of the English Nation and the great Impoverishing of the King of Spain's Territories by setting up here the making of SAYES BAYES and STUFFS which the English before fetched out of France and Flanders The King of Spain would have no Hereticks as he call'd them and none of his Subjects should have any Civil Liberties to secure them against his Will or Humour But then he might have soreseen he should have lost his Subjects his Trade his Wealth and he had reason to fear he should lose his Countrey too but he trusted in Force and it deceived him but no Force could secure the other Three Men are not like Beasts of Burthen they must be well treated or they will flye or not work or be poor or fail and the Land become desolate and not be able to defend it self How happy had Philip II. and Lewis XIV been if they had but understood this The ignorance of this has ruined many flourishing Empires I might say all and this is that first Cause of the Ruin of the Ottoman Empire which has sapped its Foundations and brought a Consumption
from the Queen and to dispose them to Sedition and Rebellion The Queen saw the Tendence of this and did not think it was fit to despise their Complaints That therefore she might prevent the ill effects of their Malice and withdraw the matter that fed their Fury and threatned her Kingdom with Schisms and Factions which would be the Causes of great Calamities she appointed a Conference or Disputation between the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants at London Concerning the Authority of the Church and the Supremacy of the Pope the Ceremonies in use in the Church of Rome and the Change of the Elements in the Holy Eucharist that she might by this means unite the disagreeing minds of her Subjects in one and the same opinion and mutual Love and Charity to each other In this Conference many of the most reverend Mysteries of the Christian Religion were on both sides debated with great Warmth and Heat and much Learning yet nothing was gained on either side by reason of the immoderate Opposition and the implacable Hatred they bore each to other So when the Popish Party saw that the Pope's Authority which was once reverenced as Divine was now become contemptible and infamous 2nd that all the Reasons they could pretend for the Justification of their Ceremonies were overwhelmed by the load of Infamy their Pride and Cruelty had brought upon them so that it was not possible for them to abate the Hatred or remove the Contempt the people were then possessd with against the Popish Clergy they sullenly pretended That in the Matters of Religion there was no need of Reason and Disputation and defended themselves with more Passion and Anger than Reason and Judgment After this Disputation there were Acts of Parliament passed for the Establishing the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church as also for Restoring the Queen's Supremacy with the unanimous Consent of the Peers and the Applause of the Commons But however the Popish Party refused still to comply and openly said These Laws were not to be submitted to and thereupon began a Dissention which is not yet ended The turbulent Bishops and Clergy who still adhered to the old Rites and Ceremonies being thereupon bereaved of their Sees made great Complaints of the Iniquity and Injustice of these Laws and concealing themselves as well as they could in corners and lurking-holes for fear of being prosecuted for their disobedience they said the Queen was guilty of Heresie and solicited that part of the Nobility and Commonalty which still stuck to the Church of Rome to renounce their Obedience to her and stoutly to maintain the Old Service They also sent their Agents to Rome to perswade the Pope to Excommunicate her by Name as one that had brought a New Heresie into the Church and had confined the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln and many of the inferior Clergy for sticking firmly to the Romish Ceremonies And lastly That she had assumed a Jurisdiction and Royal Authority as well in all Spiritual Causes as Secular The Queen on the other side had by this time found the Inclination of her People and being now well setled in her Throne did not think fit to act any longer with that Reservedness she did at first when she feared the Number and Authority of the Papists who had then the Law on their side but by her Proclamation she couragiously and openly commanded them That they should embrace the True Religion which was most acceptable to God and leave their Popish Rites or otherwise depart out of her Kingdoms Royal City and Dominions within so many months And upon this she removed all those Popish Noblemen which had in her Sister's time been advanced to any Publick Employments or Stations in the Court or Kingdom and she setled Protestants in all those Places and put the whole Management of Publick Affairs into their hands affirming very stoutly That she would sooner lay down her life than desist from that Zeal and Resolution she had taken up for the bringing down the Wickedness of the Papists This Bravery encouraged all her Friends and struck her Enemies dumb Thus was the Popish Religion abolished in England when it had flourished many Ages in great Wealth by the help of a profitable Ignorance and a fallacious and deceitful Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures And the Protestant Religion being restored to that Liberty Esteem and Splendor it had had in the times of Edward the VIth it was soon after by the means of their common Language and Vicinity communicated to the Scots and spread it self not only in their Cities and great Towns but also in their Villages and Countrey Habitations It is impossible to the Life to describe the Calamities this Revolution brought upon the Scots Nation The most sacred and venerable Churches which seem'd to be secured from Violence by the Awe of Religion were burnt down the most sacred Chappels were first Rifled and then Demolished by the Rabble The Sepulchres of their Ancestors were pulled down their Statues beaten down and trodden under foot and the basest and most lewd Injuries done to the Altars as if the Papists had been mere Pagan Idolaters I am so enraged saith my Author a Learned Scot against these men on the account of the great Ruin they wrought in my Native Countrey that I cannot forbear expressing my Resentment For I am of opinion That these Popish Moâ—…ments ought indeed to have been shut up not to have been demolished because they were the Ornaments of our Countrey But to teturn to Queen Elizabeth she made it no part of her business to find out those peaceable Roâ—…ish Priests who had betaken themselves to private lurking holes and secret places more out of Fear than any Legal necessity And if any of them by chance happened to be taken they were committed to an honourable and easie restraint in the Cities or delivered up into the hands of their own Bishops to the end that by this her Moderation she might in the beginning of her Reign create an opinion of her Clemency in all her Subjects and at the same time deprive these Priests of the opportunity of doing Mischief There was not one of these men put to death till Pope Piâ—…s the Vth in the year 1570 excommunicated her by his Bull upon which there followed a Rebellion of the Papists in the Noâ—…th This was in the Twelfth Year of her Reign and in the next Ten Years that followed there was but Twelve men of that Religion executed who were all Convicted of very great Crimes by the most Legal Trials The name of Papist was not punished in any man that was not guilty of great Wickednesses because in the beginning of a Reign it is a dangerous thing to punish Offences with too much Rigor whereas Clemency is of good use And she accordingly took care by her Benefits to allure the minds of her Popish Subjects to her rathet than by Cruelties to fright them
Thus the Entrance of her Reign was made happy and blessed and she was able by the Blessing of God to settle her Religion and to lay the Foundations of a Long Peace at Home and Abroad Having thus totally abolished all that Papal Superstition and Pomp which for so many Ages had domineered over the English so that there was scarce any sign left that it had once been here her first and greatest care was to advance men of Piety and Learning to the Bishopricks and Preferments in the Church There were many Protestant Clergy-men of great Integrity and Honesty Innocency and Holiness who during the Marian Persecution had fled into Germany or being driven from their Churches lurked up and down the Nation in obscure and remote places these she recalled and restored to their former or better Stations with more honour than they had been in before So that after a Recess of Five years Duration thesemen who had been banished with Ignominy were with Honour and Reputation repossessed of their Countrey their Good Names and their Liberties and Fortunes She re granted to them all their Ancient Privileges with some Improvements and she took such as were of good report for their Learning and exemplary Lives and set them to Govern the Church as BISHOPS When any man was commended to her as a man of Learning she would ask if there were not others to be found of more Learning and Piety to whose Authority Fidelity and Prudence she might recommend the Care of the Church She took great care to curb the immoderate Liberty of the PURITANS who licentiously began to sow Discords and Divisions in the Church and with a Fiery Zeal in their Preachments endeavoured to excite the common people who were then quiet and at ease to Sedition by declaiming against the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops and by her Prudence and Authority she reduced many of the first Leaders from their rash courses to a moderate Temper In the Eighteenth year of her Reign A. C. 1575. the Anabaptists first appeared or at least were discovered to be in England a Conventicle of Dutch-men of that Sect being then detected without Aldgate in London and Twenty seven of the Meeters were taken up and Imprisoned of which Four bearing Faggots at Paul's Cross recanted their dangerous Opinions and one Dutch-man and ten Women were condemned to be burnt one of the Ten Women also recanted eight others were banished but two of the number continued so obstinate that the Queen ordered the Writ de Heretico Comburendo to be issued against them tho Mr. John Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs interceded with the Queen to spare their lives and banish them In this Letter he blesseth God that none of the English were infected with these mâ—…d Opinions And saith he I will most readily grant That these FANATICK Sects are by no means to be cherished in any State but are to be severely corrected but to exterminate them with Fire and Faggot is I think too hard The Queen thereupon gave them a Months Reprieve and ordered that Learned Divines should endeavour in that time to reduce them which proving without effect these two were burnt in Smithfield the 22d of July and they died in great horror with crying and roaring In the Twenty sixth Year of her Reign one Robert Brown an English Clergy-man began a new Sect also in the City of Norwich his Hearers being half Dutch half English The Queen endeavoured to suppress this Schism in its Rise and prohibited his Books but that not taking effect Thacker and Coping two of his Disciples were hanged at St. Edmonds-Bury in Suffolk The Queen was the more severe upon these Sects because her Subjects were then untainted and these men made it their business to draw in the unlearned multitude and enflame them both against the Eccle siastick and Civil Government and the Queen besides having before this time been forced to be very severe against some Popish Traitors that had conspired against her she did not think it became her to be less concerned for the Majesty of God than for her own Personal Safety After this she caused their Conventicles to be carefully watched and seized the Effects of all Foreign Sectaries she found in England She dealt more gently in the mean time with the English Puritans who were the first beginners of the English Separation and left them to the Discipline of the Bishops and the High Commission where they were often call'd to account for Reproaching the Church Licentious Preachments and Libelling the Bishops in their Prints Having taken these effectual Cares for the Adorning and Confirming the Church she committed all the other Concerns of Religion to the Management of Peaceable Moderate and Judicious men and spent her whole Care and Solicitude in preserving adorning and strengthning her State and Kingdoms In all this time she was never severe against Any Papist who had not first been clearly convicted to have raised Sedition armed the People against her or by Rumors and false Insinuations to have endeavoured to render the Queen odious and contemptible to her People PIUS IV. Pope of Rome in the beginning of her Reign A. C. 1561. having deeply considered the Dangers and Ruin which then threatned the Papacy and Church of Rome though he was enraged against the Protestants to the utmost degree yet seeing how little the Passions and Violences of the last Pope Paul IV. had profited them he thought it became him to act a contrary part and â—…called the Council of TRENT which had been some years before indicted by the Authority of the See of Rome rather for the upâ—…olding the Pope's pretended Ecclesiastical Authority than for the promoting the Salvation of men and which when things succeeded contrary to the expectation of his Predecessors in that See had been frequently intermitted and had not been assembled since the year 1552 but was now again renewed as the only means left for the healing the Wounds of Christendom In this Council many things which had by the Mistakes Ambition and Avarice of the Popes of Rome been changed and corrupted were considered and debated and particularly that grand Question was to be determined Concerning the Authority and Power of the Pope in Sacred and Civil Caâ—…ses When the Protestant Princes were call'd to this Council they answered That they did not own the Pope had any Power to call a Council That it did not belong to him but to the Emperor to Indict Councils That he had no Right to give or take away Kingdoms And having sharply declaimed against the corrupt Manners of his Clergy and deplored the Calamities of the times on that account they represented the Pride Pomp Luxury Ambition Avarice and Cruelty of the Court of Rome in which mere Wolves took upon them the Office of the Pastors of the Church And they said this Council at Trent was not called to Establish Religion and true Piety
encreased if they were suppressed they turned the Envy of the Favour shewn to the Papists upon the Government and easily persuaded the People that Popery would be restored in England Whether she consulted of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 War she always set God befoâ—… 〈◊〉 and directed all things to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the promoting Charity and Piety she Religiously observed the stated and ap pointed Festivals of the Church when she was present at the appointed Prayers and the Sermons both which she heard with much Devotion and Attention but without the least mixture of Superstition She ever received the Eucharist with highest Expressions of Respect and used the Ceremonies of the Church When she went to hear the Week day or Lent-Sermons she was ever attended by many of her Nobility of both Sexes but without any extraordinary Splendor in her Dress or Retinue According to the nature and circumstance of the times she religiously and devoutly listned to the Sermons made before her and according to the Merits of the Preachers rarely failed to shew them her Favour and salute and thank them before they went away She very freely exposed her Life to the utmost hazards for the preserving the Dignity and Discipline of the Church to which end she caused her Laws against the Papists to be constantly and regularly executed and she shewed the same Severity against the Obstinacy of the Protestant Dissenters whom she kept all her times under strict and sharp Restraint I think it is not needful to shew here again to what great Perils she exposed her Life for the Preservation of the Reformed Religion She shewed her self ever easie and merciful to the People and condescended to humour them and promote their Welfare with the utmost Humanity By this her Clemency and Sweetness and the Equity of her Laws and the Proceedings on them her Courteous Behaviour and Obliging Speeches to them she so intirely won their Hearts and fixed their Affections that without any Command of hers of their own accord and by an universal Consent they every year celebrated her Coronation-Day with a Religious Joy They chearfully exposed their Lives to any Danger for her Safety and never refused to suffer or hazard any thing if they might but enjoy their beloved Queen Being thus secured of the Affection of her People she lived pleasantly and securely in Peace and Plenty and she could safely treat her Nobility as became a Prince when she was sure to be reverenced and obeyed her Authority being supported thus by the Love and good disposition of her Subjects towards her The People honoured some of her Ministers of State too and very much applauded them and upon every New-Year's Day freely made a present to them to testifie the grateful sense they had of the Benefits they had received by their Ministry The People of the meanest degree had ever an easie access to the Queen and could with the utmost freedom make their Complaints to her of any Injury they had suffered from the greatest of the Nobility so that it is very difficult to say whether her Subjects most feared her Authority or loved her Humanity and Courtesie All these many and great Virtues her Piety the Love of her Kingdom and the careful diligence she employed to win and keep the Affections of her Subjects sprang from one and the same Fountain her Prudence This taught her how much it contributed to the Safety and Security of her State to have her Privy Council consist of none but Wise and Faithful Men chosen freely and prudently by her self And by the Authority and with the Approbation of this Council she provided for the Government of her Border-Counties and Garisons approved men of good Understandings and well Educated who were to take care to secure her Kingdom from External Surprizes and Internal Broils they were directed by her to take care also of whatever tended to the Welfare of her People and to punish what was wicked and disquieting which they did not only by the execution of good Laws but also by the exemplary Lives they led The Parliaments in her time were frequent and well tempered the Lower House being generally chosen of Men of good Prudence and beloved by the people upon the opinion of their Integrity Fidelity and Piety By their Advice and Assistance the Royal Authority became more resplendant and whilst they did their Duties she as carefully observed their Privileges and regarded their Petitions and Advices but if at any time they hapned to transgress their bounds and intrench upon her Authority she would make them soon sensible that they were her Subjects as well in Parliament as out of Parliament And the truth is those Notions and Practices which afterwards imbroil d this Kingdom and injealoused some and ruined one of her Successors began to spring up in her time and were only suppressed by the prudence and steadiness of the Queen her wise Council good Government and the affection the People bore to her so that it was not possible for Factious and Ambitious Men in her times to raise those Fears or foment those Distrusts that became so fatal afterwards Though she was thus jealous of her own Regal and Sovereign Authority by which she had the right of conferring Titles of Honour administring Justice c. yet she did little of importance without the concurrence of the Three Estates And they never stubbornly and generally invaded the Royal Authority despised her Commands or resisted her Counsels and Admonitions Whilst she was setling the methods of her Government she laid down this as a certain Maxim which she had learned from the English History and her own Observation and Experience That the People of England were more governable in times of War than in times of Peace That the common People were hardened and made valiant by War but by too much Peace became sloathful and dissolute and at the same time Factious and unquiet That the Nobility if once manumised from the Labours and Perils of War would in Peace become expensive luxurious and effeminate Her greater care was to know throughly the state of her Kingdoms and those men that were intrusted by her to govern her People whose Words and Actions she carefully observed She carefully observed the Examples of her Royal Ancestors the Publick Laws and Institutions the Manners and Inclinations of the Common People the Names and Abilities of her Nobility their Publick Offices and Private Estates the number of her Soldiers and Garisons her Fleets and Forts and whatever else had been provided for the defence and safety of her Kingdoms her Customs Taxes Crown-Lands and Revenues and the Charges and Expence she was to make in all which she prudently and providently altered many things for the better She never put Arms into the hands of the meanest and poorest of the People that their wants might not prompt them to Sedition So that the Militia in her time was generally supplied by the Yeomanry and richer Tenants
Confinement could thus comfort his drooping Spirits with the prospect of that Honour would be paid him in his Grave when his Name should be imbalmed in the grateful memory of his Subjects It is a wonder there is no more care taken by the Living to render this grateful Acknowledgment to their Ancestors for all that they have left them But if we are unmindsul of the Dead if their cold Bones can merit no corner in our Hearts or thoughts why are we so regardless of the Living a Prince can scarce deserve better of his Subjects instruct direct reform or amend them more effectually by any other method than by Good Histories The Precepts that are so delivered slide insensibly and pleasantly into the minds of the Reader and make lasting Impressions on his Memory Nor is this Benefit confined to the Subject and meaner Persons even Princes themselves do borrow from History those Counsels and Assistances they shall hardly gain from Courtiers and Ministers sometimes they will not sometimes they dare not Admonish their Master whilst a good History shews them by others what will be the effect of ill-concerted Designs and Counsels and at the same time is an Awe upon them suggesting this Thought frequently to them How will this look in History Thus Augustus Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Fourth of France became Famous to Posterity by observing carefully in History what Fate had attended the Princes that preceded them Posterity too are to be taken care of if the present Age is not such as a Good or a Wise Man would wish it let us try if we can make the next Generation better by shewing the Chain of Calamities have followed at the heels of the Vices of the last and of this Age. At her Death the Thrift the Probity the Piety and the Hospitality of the English Nation was much abated The Luxury that attended the Peaceable Reign of James the First and the Beginning of Charles the First brought on a War that threatned our Ruin What has hapned since the Restitution to the time in which Their Majesties began Their Reign is now fresh in Memory but will be lost if not written And I am persuaded nothing can possibly be invented to make us Wiser than we now are sooner or more easily than a good History of this Period of Time but then our Princes and Great Men must encourage it and skreen the Writer or it will never be done The Expence is too great for a Private Man and the Materials are most of them locked up from the view of all those who have not the Royal Authority consenting to their Inspection and the Royal Purse to support the Charge of Transcribing them Methinks every Prince that resolveth to do things worthy to be written should take care to have one good Historian about him to preserve the Memory of his Actions Those that live ill will find what they fear above all things a man to paint out those things to the Life which they would gladly have concealed Story will go on with or without their care but to their Damage if not discreetly encouraged But why do I write thus in all the Misfortunes that have so lately befallen me My Character has been written with the Poison of Asps instead of Ink so that one single Word in another man's Work otherwise interpreted than either he or I meant it as is plain by the words that follow and explain it has been enough to sink me after my Reputation had been sufficiently pierced by the Arrows of Envy and Detraction But all that I shall say in my own Defence is That I hate what I am supposed to be guilty of as much as any man in the Nation and never suffered said or thought the thing in all my Life THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK THE Birth and Parentage of Queen Elizabeth Page 1 Her Education 3 Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongues and her Observations in Reading 4 5 Her Tutor in Theology 8 She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues 9 The Untimely Death of her beloved Brother Edward VI. 12 And the Succession of Q. Mary 13 She was a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty 15 She was hated by the Popish Bishops for her Religion 16 Her Life was saved by King Philip 18 The Death of Queen Mary 19 The Nation then divided into Factions 22 Calais newly lost 23 She at first dissembled her Religion 24 Her Prime Counsellors 26 She dissembled with the K. of Spain 27 She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain 29 The Treaty of Cambray 30 The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais 31 She resolves to reform the Religion of England 32 The contending Religions equally balanced 33 Her first Parliament The Complaints of the Popish Bishops 39 The Reformation established 40 The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformation 43 The Happiness of England 44 Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergy-men 45 And to curb the immoderate Liberty of the Protestant Dissenters 47 The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. 50 The Council of Trent restored The Plea of the Protestants against it The Popish Party inclined to Rebel 53 The Setâ—…lement of the Civil State considered 55 The Means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom 59 Laws and Orders made for the Publick Good 60 The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility 61 She favoured her Kindred and advanced them 62 Her Care to abolish the evil Customs and bad Laws of former times 64 The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry 67 Her Answer Her Temperanee and Chastity 71 The Princes and Great Men that courted her 73 The Character of the Earl of Leicester 75 Of Robert Earl of Essex 85 Of Thomas Earl of Sussex 89 Of Sir William Cecil afterward created Lord Burleigh 90 Of the Lord Willoughby 94 Of Sir Francis Walsingham Of Mary Queen of Scotland 97 And of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton 98 The French desirous of a War with England 99 They design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England 101 The Scots send to England for Assistance against the French The Scotch War The First Civil War in France 110 The Death of Francis II. The Beginnings of the Misfortunes of Mary Queen of Scotland The deplorable condition of Princes 113 118 Murray comes into England Queen Elizabeth durst not restore the Queen of the Scots to her Throne 124 The Trial of the Queen of the Scots 125 Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Queen of the Scots Rebellions in England Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders A second Rebellion The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of them His Character 141 143 They are fâ—…llowed by many Treasous and Conspiracies 145 Which occasion Acts of Parliament against the Recusants 146 Colleges built for the English Papists beyond the Seas 147 Parry's Conspiracy Babington's 151 A
freed thereby from all fear of Foreign or Domestick Dangers she made it her next great business to reform the Religion of England She foresaw that if she suffered Popery to continue she could never establish her own Government Therefore she resolved with pious and holy care to establish the Reformation that had been begun by her Father and carried on by her Brother and to suppress and eradicate by degrees by the Authority of her Parliaments without force or violence the Popish Superstition which she esteemed a Corrupt and Immoderate Religion and equally iâ—…jurious to Princes and their Subjects In these times the contending Religions were so near an Equality and so balanced each against other that the Authority of the Prince was able to turn the scale Henry the VIIIth was able to settle a Mongrel sort of Popery Edward the VIth advanced this to a thorough Reformation Queen Mary without much difficulty re-setled the old Mass of unrefined Popery And now when it was become ten times more hated than before on the account of the Perfidy and Bloodshed that had been employed to establish it Queen Elizabeth comes upon the stage resolved to use all her Skill and Authority for the intire Extirpation of it and the People readily and willingly complied with her in it or rather in truth led her the way and were a little too hot on the work She presently summoned a Parliament which was opened the 25th of January after her Accession to the Crown the great Design of which was To put an end to the Distractions of the Nation in matters of Religion and to that end by the Lord Keeper Bacon she desired They would consider of it without heat or partial affection or using any reproachful terms of Papist or Heretick and that they would avoid the Extremes of Idolatry and Superstition on the one hand and Contempt and Irreligion on the other and that they would settle things so as might bring the People to an Uniformity and cordial Agreement in them And as to the State she promised she would use her utmost endeavour to advance the Prosperity and preserve the Affections of her Subjects And tho she had need then of their Assistance yet she professed she would desire no Supply but what they did freely and chearfully offer And at the same time she represented Calais as a thing which they could not at that time hope to recover Thus she would neither wheedle nor deceive her Subjects but with an English Sincerity laid before them the Truth of the Case and left it to God to direct them to what was best to be done The Houses having heard and well considered what was offered on both sides came at last to a full Resolution That all the Acts and Laws of Mary her Sister in favour of the Romish Religion should be Repealed That the good Laws of Edward the VIth and Henry the VIIIth in favour of the Reformation should be Revived and Confirmed That the Mass which had been Restored by the Laws enaâ—…ted in Queen Mary's time should be Abolished as a thing that was full of Vanity and Levity That all Images should be taken away out of the Churches And all use of Holy Water That the Liturgy and Publick Prayers should be all performed in the English Tongue and by a Form prescribed and then by Act of Parliament Confirmed and Allowed as it had been before in her Brother's Reign that so the People having a full and clear knowledg of the Service of the Church might the better and more devoutly join both Voice and Heart in it By this her prudent Care she gave the Romish Church one of the most mortal Wounds she ever received from any hand by Rupudiating and Despising Abolishing and Exposing all her Pagan Pageantry and Jewish Ceremonies She commanded all her Magistrates to take effectual Care That the Romish Religion should not be exercised in Publick or in any open Churches or Chappels That all the Priests which should exercise the Romish Rites and Ceremonies should be excluded out of the Church and deprived of their Benefices That they should exercise at all times a severe and wholesom Discipline That the minds of men might thereby be reclaimed from Vice and fixed in the true Worship of God She commanded them to get as many of the Popish Books together as they could possibly and burn them and that they should take away and destroy all the Preparations and Vestments belonging to the Mass all the Images and all other the Ceremonies of that Church She commanded That for the future no Respect or Obedience should be paid to the Pope as the Head of the Church Nor did she scruple to assume the Authority of a Governour of the Church in her own Dominions in all cases Sacred and Civil which is called with us The ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY And she abolished by Act of Parliament all that Authority and Jurisdiction which had heretofore been Usurped or used by the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom in Publick or in Private which is called the Popish Tyranny and was a pretended Supreme both Spiritual and Secular Jurisdiction She also restored the Oath of Supremacy which had been first introduced by Henry VIII her Father continued by Edward VI. her Brother and was taken away and abolished by â—…ueen Mary by which she was acknowledged to be the Supreme Governor in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions and that they renounced all Foreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and True Allegiance She declined the use of the word Supreme Head in this Oath which had been used before by her Brother and Father both in Reverence to our Saviour to whom she thought that Title only belonged and also to abate by this Verbal Compliance the Reluctance she feared from the Popish Party For if she gained her Point she was unconcerned for the Form of Words as all Wife Princes ever were Against the Passing this Act Nine Bishops and Two Peers Protested viz. the Earl of Shrewsbery and Viscount Montacute and they added some words which were very injurious to the Queen and the States but she wisely dissembled it and gave them no disturbance on that account The Popish Bishops and Priests in the mean time were not idle and unconcerned Spectators but being agitated by Hopes and Fears and a confused Expectation what would be the Event of these Counsels they made loud and bitter Complaints That men were drawn away from the Ancient and Established Roman Rites and Ceremonies That Christ's Vicar the POPE was robb'd of his Supremacy and Divine Jurisdiction That the Reverence to the Holy and Apostolick See was brought to nothing and that now the Pope's Authority was despised intolerable Heresies were daily minted So they endeavoured to retain the Nation in the Profession of their Religion and to uphold their Ceremonies by any means and when this failed to alienate the minds of the People
to take the Stamp of her Royal Authority or otherwise not to pass for current Money in her Kingdom which had a strange effect and enriched both her and her People She invited all sorts of Artificers into England and by proposing to them good terms and great Privileges she repeopled the almost-desolate City of NORWICH and the Towns of COLCHESTER and MAIDSTON She encreased the Inhabitants of many of her other Ancient Towns and she by her Laws reduced the Inhabitants of the Countrey-Villages from Laziness and Beggary to Labour and Husbandry so that there was no part of her Kingdom but was cultivated and improved to the best advantage When she was to settle any thing relating to her Revenues her Treasury or the Administration of justice she admitted none to advise her but men of good Knowledge and Experience in those Affairs If she considered of any Military Concerns she always call'd to her Assistance the old Experienc'd Commanders which had spent much time in Camps She was as careful to give a good and a prudent Dispatch of Publick Transactions and the great Affairs of private men Ambassies the Petitions of her Subjects the Requests of her Allies and Confederates and all matters concerning Commerce and Trade with Foreigners She took the opportunity of the times and her Subjects Affections to her to curb the Luxury of Youth all immoderate Expences and waste in Cloathes and other Furniture and by severe Laws carefully put in Execution She reduced her People to the Ancient Thrift when they were declining towards Effeminacy and over-great Expences which are ever the fore-runners of Poverty and the Causes of great Calamities and Revolutions in all those States they have prevailed in She went on to consider and provide whatever was recommended to her as useful to any part of her State carefully viewing the Conveniencies and the Inconveniencies that were annexed to every Change And whatever was at last found useful and profitable to the Body of her People was setled by the Authority of her Council or Parliament as the case required She procured the Repeal of all those Laws which were either unprofitable or unjust and she brought others which were out of use into esteem again and amended the defects that were found in them It was a Maxim with her That Equitable Laws and Equal Justice are the two sure and lasting Foundations of a State She was as much reverenced and feared on the account of her Justice Tâ—…mperance and Continence as on that of her Royal Authority and Majesty She favoured the Protestant Bishops and the Commons of England as a means to curb the Insolence of the Nobility She would never gratifie any great Ambitious man with the grant of any thing which might inflame his Avarice or make him arrogant She had a true value and a good esteem for all men of illustrious Parts and of good Learning and she preferr'd such men to all Employments and rewarded their Virtue with Honours When the meaner people at any time crowded about her Coach with great desire to see and salute her with loud Shouts and fervent Prayers for her Prosperity and long and happy Reign over them she would ever return their Loyal Zeal with much Courtship and Civility so that some said she was too Theatrical in her Carriage towards them but as by her Meekness Clemency Lenity Justice and the setling good Laws and exact Justice she had won their hearts so by this Condescention and Flattery she fixed their Affections so that they would have willingly sacrificed all they had to her Service and Safety She exercised a moral Friendship and Familiarity with many private persons and ever reserved in her sole disposal all the Rewards of Virtue and good Service She would never suffer any Immunities or Privileges Benefices Church-Livings Governments or the Rights of her Kingdom to be openly sold. She advanced her Friends Kinsmen and Relations with great Kindness and Affection and no less Moderation and Prudence She made Sir Henry Cary Lord Hâ—…nsdon who was her Cousin-German and she gave him Riches Employments and Attendance suitable to that Station She advanced William Lord Howard of Effingham on the score of his being related to her and of his good Deserts to be Lord Chamberlain of England of her own free motion without any solicitation from themselves or others She preserved the Family of Seymour which was ruin'd by the Attainder of Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset Uncle and Lord Protector of King Edward VI in the year 1552. and in the first year of her Reign she restored Edward his Son to the degree of Earl of Hertford She restored also several of the Nobility whose Families had been ruined by her Sister and put them into the same condition they were before She Attainted no man in all her Reign by Act of Parliament No man ever could perceive that the least remainders of any Offence were left in her mind but when she could most easily have revenged her self she always chose rather to forget the Injury so that every man presently promised himself a better Fortune for the future If there was any Quarrel between any of the great Nobility she presently made it her business to reconcile them each to other and she would on such occasions exhort them not to suffer any Enmity to settle between their Families that they should not involve their Children and educate them in the Dissentions of their Families and a desire of Revenge That they should cut off those Feuds that had descended to them from the Contests of their Ancestors and with an invincible Courage repress the Foreign Fury of their Enemies abroad but with one heart and one mouth provide for the Safety and Security of their Native Countrey at home As she took this care to put an end to the Dissentions of her Nobilty so she was no less careful to root up those evil Customs which had crept into the Nation in the former Reigns and tended apparently to the Ruin of it some of these she corrected and others she totally abolished She rescinded all Sales that were made for the cheating Creditors she dealt very severely with all those that were found guilty of any Frauds or Cheats in the Management of the Publick Revenues or the purveyance for her Court which she was wont to call Harpies which fouled and ravaged all they could come at and she discouraged as much as was possible all the tricks and corruptions of the Courts of Justice She encreased the Wages and Salaries of the Judges and that they might the better be enabled and encouraged to go their Circuits and administer Justice to her people she allowed them Travelling-Money and Purveyance The effect of this prudent Administration was the enriching her and her Subjects attended with great Glory and a willing obedience from those under her happy Government The Countrey was rarely well Tilled and improved The Subject quiet and rich and her Councils
Plenty and was attacked by the Blandishments of Nature and a multitude of external pleasing Objects yet she persisted in the Resolution she had taken and with a constant and unmoveable Soul preferred her Maiden State to any Marriage Though she was almost every night tempted to change her Resolution by the Luxury Chearfulness and Wantonness of a Court which shewed it self in Interludes Banquets and Balls and was surrounded on all sides with the Enticements of Pleasures and the things which might provoke the most cool and languid Lust yet she preserved her self from being Conquered or broken by them For the Fear of God and a true Sense of Piety extinguished in her all Feminine Intemperance and Lust. Though she was the Sovereign and Mistress of all she did nothing that was insolent tho she haâ—… an abundance of Wealth at her Command she was not dissolute but she governed her self by the severest Rules of Chastity and Continence Yet her Juvenile Age for she was then about Twenty five years old and the Intemperance which will ever attend a Court gave occasion to some injurious Reports but then she as casily washed off that slanderous Infamy which was one of the most raging Crimes of the Age by the incredible Continence and Chastity of her whole Life her Modesty and Prudence over-ruling and controuling the Natural Inclination and Disposition Her Maids of Honour who waited on her took a wonderful pleasure in her Manners her Discourses and Conversation and wholly applied themselves to imitate her borrowing from her examples of Modesty and Chastity so that they would never suffer any young Nobleman to have any familiar Acquaintance with any of them if he had not recommended himself to them by some Generous Manly Action in the Wars Amongst those who in the several parts of her Life aspired to the Honour of her Bed Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire and Marquess of Exeter was the first who courted her in her youngest years And after him Christian III. King of Denmark for his Son Frederick after this â—…erdinand the Emperor desired her for his Son Charles Philip II. King of Spain Erix King of Sweden and Adolph Duke of Holstein the Dukes of Anjou and Alenzon both Princes of the House of France desired to have Married her but all this was to no purpose for when she had by these Treaties deluded them and secured her self she ever after pretended That at her Coronation she had obliged her self not to Marry a Foreign Prince Yet there were some at home who after this deceived themselves with these deluding hopes amongst whom was James Earl of Arran a Scotch Nobleman who was recommended to the Queen for an Husband by the Protestants of that Kingdom as the best means of Uniting England and Scotland but though she commended this Gentleman yet she rejected the Proposal There was also one Sir William Pickering a Gentleman who had improved himself by Ambassies and the French Breeding who aspired to it tho it was so much above his Fortunes And Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel asterwards Duke of Norfolk one descended of one of the Noblest and Richest Families in the English Nation and a person of great Interest and Authority though he was advanced in years yet he would also very fain have married the Queen but when he perceived his Old Age was ridicul'd and despised he left the Court and went abroad and never came back again into England She persisted in this Resolution of Celebacy with a Constancy that was admired then and ever since and at last she would grow angry when any of her Subjects spake to her of Marriage which they as passionately desired as she declined it The reason of this was wonderfully exagitated in the thoughts of men and some were very unmannerly to speak the best of it in their Conjectures whilst others ascribed it with much more probability to an habit of Chastity which put a Curb upon all irregular Desires or the fears of changing her Fortune and diminishing her Authority it being but reasonable she should â—…spect that whosoever had Married her would have taken upon him the principal Administration and so have abated her Power and Reputation others ascribed it to the Counsel of her Friends who yet prevailed with her to suffer Treaties of Marriage to be carried on to render Foreign Princes more favourable to her Interests by the hopes of attaining her at last But whatever was the true Cause of it which can be certainly known to none but God had this Queen been of the Communion of the Church of Rome this single Virtue would have gone a great way to the Canonizing of her as it has of many others and she certainly would have much more deserved it than any of the best that have been Sainted on that account only The common people of England for a long time most firmly believed That Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester and Lord Steward of the House to her Majesty would be the man that would marry the Queen He was youngest Son to John Dudley Duke of Northumberland who with his Eldâ—…r Sons â—…ohn call'd Larl of Warwick Sir Amâ—…rose Sir Guilford and Sir Henry Dudley had been found Guilty of High â—…reason and the Father anâ—… Sir Guilford a younger Son was beheadâ—…d in the fiâ—…st year of Queen Mary s Reign when this Roâ—…ert who was the youngest Son his â—…ather had then living was spared merely on the account of his youth and never Tried or Dishonoured This Gentleman in his younger years was a very goodly Person of a Bâ—…autiful and Lovely Complexion and Features but high foreheaded which yet was not then thought any diminution of his Beauty he was a very great Politician but no great Soldier and tho he was not over-righteous in his Actions yet in his Letters there was not known a Stile more Religious and fuller of the strcams of Devotion This Favourite was then in the Verdure and most Flowering Spring of his Youth of a Stately Carriage a Modest and Grave Look a great Flatterer of a pleasant and easie nature in outward shew or appearance and being endowed with all those Accomplishments the City or Court could teach him in which he had had his Education he had insinuated himself into the Favour and Familiarity of the Queen by his specious shews of Loyalty Industry and Vigilance in her â—…ervice and for a long time managed the greatest Station in the Court and was reputed the First Minister of State though his Counsels were not over-fortunate His Brother Ambrose was Heir to the Estate and he to the Wisdom of that Family for he had all the Arts of the Publiâ—…an Dudley his Grandfather and the Policies of Northumberland his Father He was the most reserved man of that Age that saw all and was invisible carrying a depth not to be fathomed but by the Searcher of Heâ—…rts He became in his latter times sullen to his Superiors haughty towards his
Defamer of others to be drawn into Troubles by the means of one Somervil a mad Papist his Father-in-Law and one Hall a Popish Priest and being found guilty of Treason he his Wife Somervil and the Priest were all sentenced to die Somervil hanged himself in Prison Adern was executed and Hall the Author and Procurer of all this Mischief was preserved by the Intercession of Leicester This was by all men looked upon a Spectacle of great Compassion He laid Snares for many of the Nobility ruining the Reputation of some of them endangering the Lives of others and some Noble Families he utterly extinguished He impiously and sacrilegiously invaded the Revenues of the Church and brought some of the Bishops into Danger and Dis-favour He incensed the Queen against the Lord Archbishop Grindal a Prelate of great Integrity and Honesty by his Calumnies and Slanders This Grave and Religious Prelate was as Mr. Cambden saith first made Bishop of London then Archbishop of York and afterwards of Canterbury and for many years enjoyed the Favour of the Queen till by the crafty Insinuations of Leicester she was set against him upon a pretence and slanderous Report That he was a Favourer of the Conventicles of the turbulent Puritan Preachers and of their Preachments but in truth because he would not patiently dissemble the Disorders of one Julio an Italian Physician and a Favourite of Leicester's who had Married another man's Wife for which the good Prelate stoutly prosecuted him though Leicester appeared for the Criminal The best of Princes after all the Care and prudent Foresight that Mortality is capable of are yet sometimes deceived in the choice of their Servants Leicester having married the Countess Dowager of Essex who was a Widow when his first Lady died and having no Children of his own was easily perswaded by his Wife to recommend Robert Devereux the young Earl of Essex her Son to the Queen as one fit to serve her Majesty and by this he opened the way to that great man and brought him with good advantage into the Court and into Business Nor would this Nobleman afterwards refuse to acknowledge That all the Authority and Favour he had acquired with the Queen was owing in a great measure to the Assistance his Step-Father had at first given him When he had some time served as a Volunteer first under his own Father in Ireland and after in other places he was made General of the Horse and Field-Marshal under the Earl of Leicester when in the year 1585 he went General of the English Forces in the Low Countries In this Expedition this Noble Gentleman behaved himself with that Courage Bravery Moderation and Prudence that he won the Love and Esteem of the whole Army and by that Reputation he became very Popular which afterwards was the occasion of his Ruin The truth was he for Honesty Valour Liberality and Sincerity was equal to the best of the Nobility of his time but in Prudence and Discretion he was inferior to many He for a long time enjoyed the Favour of the Queen which his goodness prompted him freely to employ to the doing good and to the relief of the indigent and oppressed so that all his Greatness seemed only to be lodged in him as Water in a Cistern for the good of others He was not observed to be addicted to any Vice but that of Missing and Luxury but as to all his other Appetites he had them in a tolerable subjection to his Reason In the year 1587 he was made Master of the Horse In 1590 he was sent into France with an English Army to assist Henry the IVth In 1596 he was made Earl Marshal of England and after that Master of the Ordnance the same year In the year 1597 he was Admiral of the second Squadron of that Fleet which was sent against Cadiz In 1599 he was made Lord Deputy of Irelâ—…nd with more ample power than had been given to any of his Predecessors and a good Army This Expedition was the occasion of the Ruin of this Great Man his Army being wasted without any considerable Advantage Cambden attributes this to the Discontent of the Earl of Essex Because Sir Robert Cecil was made Master of the Wards which so netled him who desired to engross all hâ—…s Mistress's Favours that he left Ireland without leave and returned to England where he perished in his Discontent and Folly in the year 1600. The Queen was in her own Temper a Person of an extraordinary Piety and Goodness and without any exception yet her Virtue was scarce able to secure her from being made infamous and unhappy by the Wickedness of the Earl of Leicester she in the beginning of her Reign relying too much upon his Counsel and as it were committing her self and her Kingdoms to his Industry and Care to the neglect of the rest of the Nobility who hated this Minister Whilst the rest of the Peers withdrew from Danger or stood as it were at a gaze in a stupid amazement or servilely and patiently complied with him But Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex and Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold to the Queen and President of the North agoodly Gentleman of a Brave and Noble Nature constant to his Friends and Servants and the best Soldier the Queen then had would not so tamely yield to Leicester there being in his Nature as well as Morals a perfect Antipathy to the other so that the Court for a long time stood divided between them and they kept Spies upon each other's actions The Queen did what she could to reconcile them but it was utterly impossible they were equal in Power and Estate but so differing from each other in their Designs and Interests and so unwilling on both sides to yield that nothing but Death could determine this mortal Feud between them This Noble Martial Earl died in the year 1583. He would often remonstrate That Leicester's Covetousness and his other Vices were intolerable that he had more Authority with the Queen than all the rest of the Nobility that he disposed of all the Rewards of Virtue and Industry and all the rest were forced to truckle under and serve him that his Pride Laziness Luxury and dissolute Manners were not to be born and there was hardly a good man in the Nation who was not in his heart convinced of the truth of all this and did not wish to see this ill man humbled The truth is Sussex was the honester man and the better Soldier Leicester the more accomplished Courtier and the deeper Politician not for the general Good but his own partitular Profit Sir William Cecil was a Person of great Learning singular Judgment and admirable Moderation and Prudence unto which is justly attributed very much of the Prosperity which England for so many years enjoyed under this most auspieious Government He was made Secretary of State the 5th of Edâ—… the 6th 1551. His opposition to the Exclusion of
ways or in satisfying the Avarice and Knavery of her Ministers but for the Benefit and Welfare of the State and that the best thing which could possibly be done by any person was to do that which tended to the good of his Countrey Mary the Daughter of James V. King of Scotland was a young Lady of great Beauty and by the Arts of her Mother who was a French Lady and descended of the House of Lorain she was perswaded to marry Francis the Eldest Son of Henry II. then King of France by which he obtained the Title of King of Scotland in her Right After Mary Queen of England was dead the House of Guise in France perswaded this Prince and his Lady to assume and use the Royal Arms of England because she was of the Royal Family and accordingly it was Engraven on all their Plate and put upon all their other Furniture and they used it in their Seals to the great Injury and Exasperation of Queen Elizabeth She suffered also her self to be stiled Queen of England which highly incensed the English Nation against her and the French Court it being thought the greatest Contempt that could possibly be offered to us to assume that Title at a time when France was engaged in a War with Spain But however the Civil War which soon after broke out in France and lasted many years the defeating their Designs in Scotland the Deaths of Henry II. and Francis II. and all other the Calamities that followed this foolish Attempt sufficiently revenged the Injury offered to the Queen and the English Nation Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was an Industrious Wise and an Active Statesman but apt to be heat and of a fiery Temper He was at that time the English Leiger Ambassador in the Court of France and was highly exasperated to see this Affront put upon his Mistress and he made sharp and loud Complaints of it to the Council of France After a tedious Debate and many Hearings he at last by the means of Montmorancy Constable of France obtained an Order or Promise That the Queen of the Scots should no more use the Royal Arms of England nor the Title of Queen of England or Ireland during the Life of Queen Elizabeth or of any Children born of her The Envy and Hatred which was occasioned by this imprudent Contest between these two great Ladies who were equal in Authority and Beauty had an ill effect upon them in all the after-parts of their Lives and at last ended in the violent Death of Mary Queen of the Scots The French seemed then to desire nothing more than a pretence for a War with England Throgmorton the Ambassador was made the subject of their Court-Jesters and Comedians Raillery one of his Servants was contrary to the Laws of Nations taken violently and unjustly from him and sent to the Gallies by the Brother of the Duke of Guise the English which Traded in France were without any provocation or complaint made of them to their own Queen most unjustly Imprison'd and otherwise exposed to Contempt and Blows The Ambassador bore all things with an invincible Resolution and resolved whatever he suffered not to be frighted from his Post but to watch the first opportunity to revenge the Contempt was offered to his Character and their violations of the Laws of Nations He complained openly and freely to the Council of France of the Affronts offered to his Mistress of their Violence Injuries and Rapins committed upon her Subjects And as for the Duke of Guise he considered him only as a Subject of France and said many things of him with the utmost Freedom and Sharpness and the Duke of Guise answered him with some vehemence The Council on the other hand laid all the blame on the common people of France and offered a specious but unâ—…rue Excuse for what had been done The Ambassador thereupon calling God and man to bear witness how much they had violated the Law of Nations and the Liberty of an Ambassador which was Sacred by the Laws of God and man returned to his House and from thenceforward made it his business to imbroil France he exasperated by his Arts Anthony King of Navarre the Prince of Conde his Brother Montmorancy and the rest of the Peers of that Kingdom till he made all France the Scene of a Civil War and filled it with inexpressible Calamities which ended in the utter Ruin of the exorbitant Power and Greatness of the House of Guise Tho this Great man did all this yet upon his return into England he did not meet with a Recompence proportionable to his Integrity Courage and Industry because the Lord Burleigh was his Enemy and sought by all means to curb and conquer this lively free and haughty Spirit which too often appeared against him The French having obtained a Matrimonial Right to the Crown of Scotland thought it afforded them a fair pretence and an happy introduction into the Island and designed to employ these Advantages for the Conquest of England also They thereupon taking hold of the Disorders their own Cruelty and Perfidy had caused in Scotland raised a Potent Army under the Command of the Count de Martigues and Monsieur La Brosse two Expert Commanders and sent them into Scotland These French Gentlemen did all that was possible to Establish the Faction that favoured France in Scotland they wasted and destroyed all that durst oppose them and threatned the intire Destruction of all that any way opposed their designs Their Violence and Cruelty in the mean time highly exasperated the common people of that Kingdom and they began to whisper That the Destruction of all the Scotch Nobility and the Extirpation of their Government was intended Thereupon the Scots began in good earnest to think how they might preserve themselves and defend their Lands and Territories from the Incursions and Depredations of the French The French on the other side meeting with Repulses and seeing the whole Nation arm against them when they expected the most profound Submission retired to Leith which they had then Fortified for their security whither the Scotch Nobility sollowed them and there were frequent but small Skirmishes between them and the French But however still the storm fell heaviest on that part of the Scots which had embraced the Reformation for that was made the pretence for sending over these French Forces and they on the contrary saw that during the Marriage of their Queen with Francis II. King of France there was no hopes of Security against the Pride and Cruelty of their new Masters and that they were not able to defend themselves without Assistance from abroad Whereupon they sent their Agents with Letters to Queen Elizabeth laying before her Majesty the miserable Estate they were reduced to and imploring her Protection and Assistance for the prevention of their Ruin The Queen being before exasperated by the ill usages she had received from the Guifes and
this Great Man who was of a Regal Spirit and is supposed to have been a Bastard Son of Henry the VIIIth despised too much the Complaints of his Countrey-men and forced the greatest of the English to fly before his Authority and as for the Irish he made them better than they would otherwise have been both by his Threats and Severity and by his good Advices and by the strength of his Reason he made them understand how much it was for their good to continue firm in their Allegiance to the Queen This was an hard Task considering the Capacity and Temper both of the People he was to deal with and of the Times in which he governed Ireland In the year 1588. Sir William Fitz-Williams was made Lord Deputy of Ireland and continued till the 11th of August 1594. He was a Covetous Unjust man and laid the Foundations of a great many Troubles to the English in after times but in all his Ireland was tolerably quiet till towards the latter end of his Government only the Irish took up an Aversion for the English Government and Sheriffs by his means and Tyrone having Six Companies allowed him under the Queen's Pay he changed his men so often that the whole Countrey became Disciplined men and he got great quantities of Lead into his Possession under pretence of building a fine House In the year 1593 the College of Dublin was finished at the Queen's Charges and Burleigh was the first Chancellor and Usher the first Scholar in it That which made Ireland so quiet under Fitz-Williams was the Justice Prudence and Valour of his Predecessor Sir John Perrot which had broken the Power of the Heads of the Irish Clans and so well Civilized and Planted that Kingdom with English Colonies and Garisons that during these Six years there was but Eight hundred Foot and Three hundred Horse maintained to keep the Natives in quiet The Irish were also so well setled in their Lands Estates and Cattel that it was no mans Interest to make any Disturbance And there was no Foreign Prince that could be brought to join with them or lend them any Assistance The Spanish Armada in the latter end of the year 1588. lost Seventeen of its Ships upon the Northern and Western Shores of this Kingdom and 5394 of the men in it perished and tho some of the Popish Natives sheltered some of them yet they all robbed them of their Freasures and got what they had for it And King James of Scotland looked upon himself as the Presumptive Heir of this Kingdom after the Queen and kept a fair Correspondence with the English and restrained the Scots and Islanders from joining with the Irish. There was a Rumor in England That there was a vast Treasure found in the Spanish Ships which perished in Connaught and Ulster And Fitz-Williams the Lord Deputy made a severe search after it commanding by a Proclamation all the Spanish Treasures to be brought into the Exchequer for the Queen's use and he imprisoned Sir Owen O Toole and Sir John O Dogherty two of the greatest men in the North in the Castle of Dublin on this pretence tho they were the best affected to the English of any of the Inhabitants but he could discover nothing tho he kept the first Two years in Restraint and the latter all his time who was discharged by his Successor and died soon after being much decayed by the Hardships of a long Imprisonment and Old Age. But all these ill things done under Fitz Williams made work for them that followed him Upon the Death of Mac Mahon who was one of the Heads of an Irish Clan and had not long before taken a Patent from the Queen for the County of Monaghan to him and his Heirs Male for ever Hugh Roe his Brother and Heir Petitioned the Deputy to be setled in his Inheritance according to the Queen's Patent and the Laws of the Kingdom and the Irish say it coft him Six hundred Cows to have a Promise of it And then the Deputy only said he would go in person to do it But as soon as he came to Monaghan he Imprisoned Tried and Condemned Hugh Roe by Military Law and without any Legal Trial pretending he had Levied Forces two years before to distrain for Rent he pretended was due to him in the Ferny Hereupon he was hanged and the County was divided between Sir Henry Bagnal Marshal Captain Henslow and four of the Mac Mahons under a Yearly Rent each of these giving the Deputy considerable Bribes as they said in their Complaint to the Council of England The Deputy denied all this but it was observed That from thenceforward the Irish loathed Sheriffs and the Neighbourhood of the English fearing the same fate might at one time or other attend them that had befallen Hugh Roe The Report of this Villany Spread it self all over Ulster and the Heads of the Clans were greatly terrified and incensed at it and had close Cabals wherein they severely taxed the ill Management Covetousness and Cruelty of the Deputy There was then in Ulster a Great Man called Hugh O Neal the Son of one Mathew a Smith a Cunning and a Crafty man who from his youth had served the Queen in the Wars In Desmond's Rebellion he had done the Queen good Service and got much Reputation both for his Courage and Industry The Queen on the other side protected this poor obscure Gentleman against the Malice of the O Neals who hated him as the Enemy to their Nation and she advanced him from an abject and mean Condition to great Honour and made him Earl of Tyrone for his Merits and Deserts He became intoxicated with his too good fortune and ungratefully and madly design'd to ruin her that had made him what he was and now nothing would serve him but he would needs be King of Ulster and to that end he assumed the Title of O Neale and cast off all Respect and Allegiance for the Queen He disciplined the rude and ignorant Kerns after the English manner under the pretence I have before recited and in the mean time under hand instilled into them an invincible hatred of the English Religion and Government calling the first Heresy and the latter a shameful Slavery and Servitude by which he disposed them so well to a Rebellion that almost the whole Nation revolted at once from the Queen In July 1591. Tyrone was made a County and divided into Eight Baronies Dungannon being appointed for the Shire-Town which with the Authority of Marshal Bagnal so fretted Tyrone that it 's believed it occasioned his Confederating this Summer underhand with the rest of the Irish to defend their pretended Rights and not to admit Sheriffs into their Counties The effects of this first appeared in the year 1593. when O Connor became troublesome in Connaught and O Donnel and Mac Guire chief of Fermanagh rose in Ulster against the Sheriffs and would have
She encreased the Wages of her Judges that she might deliver them at once from the temptation and suspition of Bribery She passed an excellent and a most equitable Law for the more speedy determining the Cases depending in her Courts She admonished her Judges That they should consider the Judgment or Jurisdiction they exercised was God's and therefore they should hear with patience and give judgment with equity and justice truly and without any corruption That they should diligently study the Law and consider it well and with relation to the profit of the State and not shew the sharpness of their Wits by a falacious interpretation of a doubtful Law to the injury of her People but that without partiality they should administer equal Justice to all and severely punish those they found guilty If therefore there were any just cause os complaint in her times it was only owing to the Judges who had a full liberty to have satisfied the Nation by their Fidelity and Integrity and the Religious Observation of their Oaths and so were not necessitated to become a Grievance to her People by Illegal Prooâ—…edings But then all these cares shew the Corruption of the Times and that many of the Law-Proceedings had been corrupted by the Lawyers which made these Laws for the correction of them necessary When she had thus restored her Law-Courts her next care was to restrain the License of the Theatre and she prohibited all Exercises and Plays but what were Manly and tended to the fitting her Subjects for War by making their bodies more hardy and active and their Souls more valiant Her Divine Virtues are not to be Recompenced by Statues of Brass or Marble which have more of Ostentation than true and solid Honour nor are they to be Equall'd by any Commendations or Magnificent Titles for they deserved more Lasting Monuments to be erected in the Minds and Judgments of men for an Everlasting Remembrance And certainly Posterity will stand amazed to read and consider a State so firmly established by the Greatness of her Soul and Counsels so many Victories obtained and such incredible things done in her Times Tho her Reign was the most glorious and happy period or space of time that had ever hapned to this Island from the Norman Conquest to her days yet there were some Misfortunes and Calamities that clouded the Brightness of it In the fifth year of her Reign there was a Plague brought out of France by her Soldiers from Newhaven which destroyed more people in England than any that had happened before it The Earthquakes that happened frequently in those times frighted the English more than any other thing they being very unusual and attended with horrible Noises in the earth and some Damage The Queen was always ready to relieve any of her Subjects that had suffered by these Earthquakes Inundations or Fire her Coffers were ever open to redress the Calamities of her Subjects and to enable them to repair their Losses When the people of London fell into an outragious Tumult on the account of a Famine and a great want of Corn she first by her Royal Proclamation appeased their enraged minds and then commanded the Lord Mayor to undertake the Care of supplying the Wants of the City and she sent many Ships into the Baltick Sea and to Poland for Corn which upon their return put an end to these Complaints She would punish the Iniquities of her Magistrates whenever she found them guilty but then she would defend their Lawful Power and assert their Just Authority against ill men with the hazard of her Life Thus she put a stop to the Insolence of the Londoners when they were in the greatest Rage that was possible by the sole Authority of her Proclamation without any Forces She frequently issued considerable Sums of Money out of her Treasury for the Relief of the Poor She took a particular care that all Religious Foundations and places built for the benefit of the Poor should be employed to the right uses and that the Lands and Houses belonging to them should for ever be preserved intire to them As she took effectual and wise Care to heal the Wounds of the State or Civil Government so she well understood the Diseases of the Church were to be taken into consideration too and to be prevented with the utmost hazard of a Prince's Personal Safety To this end she made severe Laws against the selling Livings the Avarice of Patrons and the Simony of Clergy-men She detested the giving Curacies and Preferments to those that had no Learning She preferred honest stout men who were well read in Divine and Humane Literature and well acquainted with Men and Books and the Times to the Dignities of the Church and the greatest and best endowed Livings But on the other hand she despised all those that had neither Virtue nor Parts nor Learning but above all the dishonest slanderous and crasty Knaves who were at a catch to injure others She compelled all that were inducted into any Benefice to swear That they had not given nor promised any thing to any person whatsoever directly or indirectly on the account of that Preferment She would not suffer any Benefice to be bought or sold but she detested the Buyer and the Seller as the worst of Plagues and took care to exclude them from that and all other Preferments She was never silent or unconcerned when unworthy and unfit men were recommended to the Dignities of the Church The most earnest solicitations of the greatest of her Courtiers and Favourites could in this case have no effect upon her and in all other things which concerned the Safety and Welfare of the Church she took a Pious and Religious Care to place her Favours to the best advantage She was a Lady of Great Beauty of a Decent Stature and of an Excellent Shape In her youth she was adorned with a more than usual Maiden Modesty her Skin was of pure white and her hair of a yellow colour her Eyes were beautiful and lively In short her whole Body was well made and her Face was adorned with a wonderful and sweet Beauty and Majesty This Beauty lasted till her Middle Age tho it declined In her Old Age she became deformed with Wrinkles Leanness and fallen Lips so that it was hard to believe she had ever had that Excellent Composure and Lovely Beauty But then Time was able to make no change in her as to her Majesty her Princely Speech and Carriage her Mind was as high her Manners as regular and the Course of her Life the same it had ever been She was however so displeased to see her Beauty wear off and her Body decline from its former Lustre that she made her self a little ridiculous by her taking too much notice of it If she hapned by accident to cast her eye upon a true Looking-glass she would be strangely transported and offended because it did not
appear before her Judges to answer for it But the two Brothers made their escape and fled first into France there they heard of the Insurrections in Ireland into which Kingdom they passed and served the Queen against her Rebel-Subjects in hopes by some signal Acts of Valour to blot out their said Crime and regain her Favour And in truth they served her many years with extraordinary Fidelity and Courage against those Barbarous Rebels yet after all the Earl of Essex could not obtain their Pardon without very great difficuly and many and repeated Solicitations The Eldest of these two Brothers afterwards lost his Life in the Service of the Queen and under the Command of the Earl of Essex In all private Suits she was observed to be a religious Observer of Justice and Equity and to keep the Ballance even between the greatest and the meanest of her Subjects She preserved the poorest from wrongs and made it her care that every man might enjoy what was his own and serve the Publick with it by the impartiality of Justice and the equity of all Law-proceedings providing carefully for the preservation of Human Society for the good of the whole Community When any Case happened to be wrongfully determin'd by reason of Perjury or Interest Partiality or mistake in any of her Courts she would upon complaint hear it her self taking to her assistance men of the greatest Authority and much celebrated for their exact knowledge of the Laws of England And when she had thus sifted it to the bottom she would ever give a most just and wise Sentence by which she made her Judges the more careful to keep within the bounds of Equity and Justice and shewed her Subjects that no part of her People should want the benign influence of her care and assistance in time of need She always took care that her inferior Magistrates should be reverenced and the Authority of her Council and Laws kept up But then whatever had been injuriously transacted by Bribery or Error in any of her Courts she as willingly corrected that Errors might not encrease and multiply by her carelesness or the ignorance of her Judges and that Mistakes might not get strength by time and plead custom She would sometimes also cause Cases to be heard by her other ordinary Judges after they had been determined that she might keep the ordinary Judges in awe and make them the more circumspect when they were liable to have their Actions scanned over again In her Personal Expences she was â—…hrifty and sparing that she might not exhaust her Exchequer and at the same time to teach her Subjects by her own Example to live thriftily and soberly after the manner of their Ancestors In her Government and all her Publick Actions she carried all things in such manner as might best befit her Honour and represent her to the World as a great and a splendid Prince Nor would she at any time make any considerable expence till she had first consulted with her Treasurer Burleigh concerning the state of her Exchequer and what Monies she had to defray the same It ws then thought his Advices to her made her more sparing than was fit toward the Sword-men and Commanders in the War It is certain however that she never called Grey Willoughby Norris or Sir Francis Vere to the Council-Table though they were excellent Commanders and had done her good service in Holland Spain France and Ireland by the gaining of many signal Victories and the spreading the Fame and exalting the Reputation of the English Nation When some of them had wasted the Estates left them by their Ancestors and complained to her of their Poverty beseeching her to give them wherewith to pay off the Debts they had contracted in her Service it is certain she never contributed any thing to that purpose from her Treasure nor in the least assisted or favoured them in any thing She sought rather to encourage and win her Generals and Nobility over to Acts of Valour by her Commendations than by the gift of Money Lands or Offices In her conversation with them she would shew them much patience and affability and would frequently acknowledge how much they had obliged her by their Actions But as to those that had lost their Lives in her Service or done any great Action for the Safety Liberty and Glory of her Kingdom she would often take occasion to speak of them with much affection and honour which was the best Reward they often met with for having served her with great Iudustry and Courage When Sir Philip Sidney a Gentleman of noble Birth and honest Disposition of great Parts Learning Virtue and Fame had lost his life before Zutphen in the Netherlands in the Year 1586. he was not only lamented by the whole Army in the Camp and Elegies made to his Honour by the Universities of England but he was commended also by the Court and the Queen commanded his Body to be publickly interred in St. Paul's Church in London which was performed with much solemnity and a vast concourse of the Nobility Gentry and Citizens And it was fit all this respect should be shewed to his Memory on the score of his Virtue Learning and Merits which have made him so famous in those and all the succeeding times This is an Honour that is more lasting and more noble than any Statues or Funeral Monuments which are often destroyed by Fire Wars Earthquakes or Time and without any of these are sometimes lost to the knowledge of men and themselves buried in forgetfulness but his Books and Actions will make him admired in all times The Magnificent Funeral of this Noble Knight was an honour to the Queen and to the Age and even to Learning it self The Earl of Leicester who was his Unkle was chief Mourner at his Funeral and extoll'd the Virtue of his Nephew to Heaven in hopes the lustre of his Pupil's Name would reflect upon himself an equal commendation and glory but in truth Sir Philip Sidney was his own Tutor and gained all the glory he met with by his natural Endowments and his Studies and perhaps it was owing too in great part to the scarcity of Learning at that time which made those that enjoyed it then more conspicuous and regardable than they have been since when it became more common but then this latter neglect has made it less desired and less aspired to and almost wheeled us about to the same point of the Circle he was in Nor was the Queen's Favours confined only to her Generals and Great Men but she would condescend to celebrate the Memory of the meanest common Soldier that had had the honour to spend his life in the service of his Countrey to excess She redeemed out of Captivity those that were taken of the meaner People and she willingly gave to their Parents Wives and Children that Money and those Rewards they might justly have expected from her if they
never granting them upon Caprice to shew her Absolute Power upon the Intercession of Favourites or the Letters of Great men to those that were mean and neither deserved nor could maintain the Grandeur of that Noble Title She set a high Value upon the most Noble Order of the Garter and took the utmost care to keep it as the sincerest Reward of an extraordinary Fidelity Industry and Nobility and therefore she would never suffer it to be in the least corrupted by any mixture of mean persons Tho the Lord Burleigh was her Principal Councellor and the First Mover in all her greater Affairs without whose advice she would rarely resolve upon any thing of moment and he had deserved so very well of her by his unparallel'd Care Labour and Vigilance yet because he was but a Gentleman born and a Peer of her own Creation only it was very long before she could persuade her self to take him into the Order of the Garter which has flourished now Three hundred years and more and has in all times been given to the Greatest and Best of the Nobility at Home for the best Services they could do for their Princes and Countrey or to Foreign Princes Abroad who were united to us by the most strict and indearing Bonds of Friendship and Interest She gave Governments Magistracies Court-Offices and other Places of Trust Reputation and Profit to those that deserved well of her that by the example of these Rewards she might provoke others to imitate their Fidelity and Industry She would never endure that any man she employed should raise to himself an odious or oppressive Gain either from the Power or Office she had given him If she observed a man to do nothing but for Money she would never trust him and as for any Offices or Governments she took care to keep them as much as was possible out of such men's hands Yet she was not too hard to or suspicious of her Servants she extended her Favour to all those she found good men and her Friendship and Kindness was lasting to all those she found honest thrifty sober men but then in Law-Suits she would not suffer any the least distinction to be made between her Servants and Favourites and the rest of her Subjects lest they being exalted by it above measure should any way endanger the common Liberty of her People or the Publick Peace and Safety She raised Sadler from nothing Mildmay and Fortescue from mean Fortunes to the Honour of Knighthood and made them Privy Councellors for their good Services and lest that Dignity should suffer by the meanness of their Estates she gave them a Competency by way of Addition to what they had before She would always remember to Reward those well that had served her faithfully as her Ambassadors in Foreign Courts And she raised many of her servants for their Fidelity and protected others of them from the Violence of Great Men She protected Sir Thomas Knevet from the Violence of the Earl of Oxford who to revenge a Wound he had received from Sir Thomas in a Duel was mustering up all his Friends and Servants to destroy him which the Queen prevented by giving him a Guard for some time She so effectually recommended the Cause of her Bishops to her people when they were attacked by the Clamours and Reproaches of the Puritans that nothing was more dear to the Multitude than their Bishops and no Name was more Popular or beloved than theirs so that all men stood up for their Dignity and Authority She curbed the Boldness Rage and Fury of these Pretenders to Godliness by Laws well and severely executed and she made it her business to preserve the Church to the utmost of her Power as well from the Disturbance of Seditious Preachers within as the Insults of Declared Enemies without Her Motto was Semper eadem Always the same and in this affair she took the greatest care to verify it never departing one tittle from what she had once setled or changing the Methods she had established but upon great reason She had a very great Love for Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State who was one of the Pillars of her Kingdom and so intent upon the Preservation of the Publick Safety and the Discovery of the Designs of her Enemies against her Person and Government that he took little care of his own private Family and made no provision for those he left behind him But then it was hardly well taken by the body of the Nation to see the most part of his Inheritance sold after his death to repay those Moneys to the Treasury which he had spent in the Queen's Service The Envy of which however fell heaviest upon the Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester who were none of his Friends whilst he lived and took this opportunity to revenge the Affronts they had received from him She had also a particular favour for Sir Nicholas Bacon the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal who was the Ornament of the Court and the great Luminary of Westminster-Hall She highly esteemed Egerton and Popham But above all her other Councellors and Ministers of State she valued Burleigh the Lord Treasurer and Howard the Lord Admiral of England the Ornament of his own Family and a strange Example of Modesty Civility and Liberality These men enjoyed her Favour to the last and were ever of great Authority with her She loved a Prudent and Moderate Habit in her private Apartment and conversation with her ownServants but when she appeared in Publick she was ever richly adorn'dwith the most valuable cloaths set off again with much gold and Jewels of inestimable Value and on such occasions she ever wore High Shooes that she might seem Taller than indeed she was The first day of the Parliament she would appear in a Robe Embroidered with Pearls the Royal Crown upon her Head the Golden Ball in her Left-hand and the Scepter in her Right and as she never failed then of the loud Acclamations of her People so she was ever pleased with it and went to the House in a kind of Triumph with all the Ensigns of Majesty There was at such times so great a Concourse of the People to see and salute the Queen that many were trodden down and some have been lamed The Royal Name was ever venerableâ—… to the English Nation but this Queeâ—… was more sacred than any of her Ancestors She alone was able to furnish her whole Sex with the Examples of Chastity Temperance and all other Vertues And she was very vigilant to keep her Family and Court in severe Discipline She persuaded all Married Women to pay a modest Respect to their Husbands as to their Superiors She kept a severer Guard upon her own desires than upon those of others that were about her so that by degrees she made them seem at least like her self because she ever laboured so to have them She banished from her Court all
She ever consulted first with her wisest and best experienced Ministers and Statesmen of whose Fidelity Industry and Ability she had formerly made good proof and she commanded them to speak freely and plainly what was best to be done and when she had heard the Advices of all she chose what she thought was best When she had thus wearied her self and oppressed her Spirits she sought for rest and peace and would either walk in a shady Garden or pleasant Gallery without any other Attendance than that of a few Learned Men. Then she took her Coach and passed in the sight of her People to the Neighbouring Groves and Fields and sometimes would hunt or hawk spending in her Youth all her time in this change of Labour or innocent Divertisement Nor was she less careful to exercise her mind in Learning than her body by Labour but by a wise distribution of her time she consulted the good and welfare both of Body and Soul There was scarce a day in her life but she imployed a part of it in reading and study sometimes before she entered upon her State-affairs and sometimes after them so that by this means she gained a part of every day for her self and the improvement of her own Faculties In her Studies she mixed pleasing and serious things one with another In the Summer she for the most part lived in the Countrey then she took her Royal Progresses into the several Counties of England and she would amuse her self with considering and commending the pleasantness and goodness of her Countrey and the greatness and variety of the Fruits England produced she would also admire the Wisdom and Goodness of God in diversifying the face of the Earth by the mixture of Fields Meadows Pastures and Woods and she would as occasion offered hunt too In all this she was intent upon that which was her main business the government of her People the management of her Family and of her Revenues and the observing the state and condition the carriage and designs of the Neighbour States and Princes which way soever she went she was sure to draw upon her the eyes of her People Innumerable crowds of them met her in all places with loud hearty Acclamations with Countenances full of joy and hearts equally filled with love and admiration and this ever attended her in publick and in private for what sight in this World can possibly please Mortals like that of a just beneficent and kind Prince So that those Places were accounted the most happy in which for the goodness of the Air or the pleasantness of the Fields she was pleased to stay the longest In her Progress she was the most easie to be approached Private Persons and Magistrates Men and Women Countrey people and Children came joyfully and without any fear to wait upon her and see her Her ears were then open to the Complaints of the afflicted and of those that had been any way injured She would not suffer the meanest of her People to be shut out from the places where she resided but the greatest and the least were then in a manner levelled She took with her own hand and read with the greatest goodness the Petitions of the meanest Rusticks And she would frequently assure them that she would take a particular care of their Affairs and she would ever be as good as her word She by her Royal Authority protected those that were injured and oppressed She punished the Fraudulent False Perfidious and Wicked In all this variety of Affairs she was able to keep her temper and appear with an equal and uninterrupted serenity and humanity to all that came nigh her She was never seen angry with the most unseasonable or uncourtly Approach She was never offended with the most impudent or importunate Petitioner There was no commotion to be seen in her mind no Re-proaches no Reprehensions came from her Nor was there any thing in the whole course of her Reign that more won the hearts of the People than this her wonderful facility condescention and the strange sweetness and pleasantness with which she entertained all that came to her Thus for the most part she spent her Summer She spent her Winter in London in the procuring the safety of her People and that of her Allies and Confederates Before day every morning she heard the Petitions of those that had any business with her and calling her Secretaries of State and Masters of Requests she caused the Orders of Council Proclamations Patents and all other Papers relating to the Publick to be read which were then depending and gave such order in each Affair as she thought fit which was set down in short Notes either by her self or her Secretaries As often as any thing happened that was difficult she called her great and wise men to her and proposing the diversity of Opinions she very attentively considered and weighed on which side the strongest reason lay ever preferring that way which seemed most to promote the publick safety and welfare When she was thus wearied with her morning work she would take a walk if the Sun shined into her Garden or otherwise in her Galleries especially in windy or rainy Weather She would then cause Stanhop or Sir Henry Savill or some other very learned Man to be called to walk with her and entertain her with some learned Subject the rest of the day she spent in private reading History or some other Learning with great care and attention not out of ostentation and a vain ambition of being always learning something but out of a diligent care to enable her self thereby to live the better and to avoid sin and she would commonly have some Learned Man with her or near her to assist her whose Labour and Industry she would well reward Thus she spent her Winter In the Summer time when she was hungry she would eat something that was of light and easie digestion in her Chamber with the Windows open to admit the gentle breezes of wind from the Gardens or pleasant Hills Sometimes she would do this alone but more commonly she would have her Friends with her then When she had thus satisfied her hunger and thirst with a very moderate repast she would rest awhile upon an Indian Couch curiously and richly covered In the Winter-time she observed the same Order but she omitted her Noon-sleep When her day was thus spent she went late to Supper which was ever sparing and very moderate At Supper she would divert her self with her Friends and Attendance and if they made her no anfwer she would put them upon mirth and pleasant discourse with great civility She would then also admit Tarleton a famousComedian and a pleasant Talker and other such like men to divert her with Stories of the Town and the common Jests or Accidents but so that they kept within the bounds of modesty and chastity In the Winter-time after Supper she would some time hear a Song or
but to confirm the Inventions of men or rather of Satan not for the reforming the Lives and Manners of men but to defend the Pretended Dignity of the See of Rome and the vast and boundless Authority of the Pope That it was not intendâ—…d for the Purging the Christian Flock but for the Establishing and Confirming their inveterate Errors Tho the Pope had had these sharp Replies from the German Protestant Princes and the Guise's and Spanish Faction had represented to him That it would be an undervaluing of his Power and Person to send a Nuncio to England where he would certainly be rejected yet Pius IV. would not be discouraged but said He would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard that whatsoever was done to gain Souls to Christ did beseem that See And accordingly he sent Abbot Martiningo to the Queen who came as far as Flanders and there he met with her Commands not to cross the Seas but at his Peril and altho the King of Spain and the Emperor of Germany did earnestly intreat he might be heard yet the Queen stood her ground and replied That she could not treat with the Bishop of Rome whose Authority was for ever excluded out of England by Act of Parliament Nay she would give the Pope's Nuncio no other Answer but a flat Denial tho she gave this reason to the French and Spaniards to give them some satisfaction For she well perceived this Remedy did not tend to the healing the Wounds of the Church but to the making them incurable and the Event justified her Conduct In the mean time the Queen clearly foresaw that the Restoring the Protestants to their Native Countrey and their former Stations would disoblige all the Popish Nobility of England who tho for the present they suppressed their Resentment yet when occasion was offered they would not fail to do her the utmost Mischief that was in their Power The only noise of the coming of a Nuncio from the Pope encouraged many to break the Laws made against the Pope and his Authority with great boldness and they spread false Reports abroad That the Queen was going to change her Religion and alter the Government of the Realm to dispose the Protestants to join with the Papists in a Rebellion to her Ruin She saw also that at length she should be involved in a Foreign War and that the Pope would fulminate against her all which Dangers the Greatness of her Soul despised She also changed her Privy-Council into which she chose Protestants of famed Prudence and Moderation and she openly and avowedly broke the Power and lessened the Authority of her Popish Nobility and Gentry The Pope having at this time sent a Legate into Ireland who had joined himself to some desperate Traytors then in Rebellion against her and endeavouring to deprive her of all Right and Title to that Kingdom Some others of that Persuasion were found also to have practised with the Devil by Conjurations Charms and casting Figures to be informed of the Length and Continuance of her 〈◊〉 but Heaven would not and Hell could not help them The Affairs of the Church being thus setled she applied her mind to restore the Civil State of England to its Ancient Strength and Happiness it having been strangely shaken by the Factions and Divisions in the Three Reigns that preceded hers To this purpose she passed many Acts of Parliament and other State-Orders for her own Security and the Welfare of her Subjects She made some new Additions to the old Laws for the better Administration of her Civil Government for the Promoting the common Interest of her Subjects or for the Regu lating her Parliaments She enriched her Kingdom also and whereas she found a great part of the current Money of England adulterared and mixed with Brass she reduced it all to the old Standard and made it good STERLING She furnished all her Havens Sea-Ports Cities and Frontier places with Garisons Forts Castles Cannon Ball Gun powder and Provisions She took care to have her own Gunpowder made in England which before had been fetch'd in from abroad She cast great quantities of Brass and Iron Ordnance after she had discovered a plentiful Mine of Brass at KESWICK in Cumberland She fortified BERWICK anew and caused all the Frontier places towards Scotland to be repaired and placed Garisons of good Soldiers in them Tho she was upon better terms with the Scots than any of her Ancestors for many Ages had been especially after they embraced the Reformed Religion yet she would not so wholly rely on their good affections as to neglect a timely provision for her own Security And when all these great Designs had brought a Debt upon the Crown she chose rather to sell a part of her Crown-Lands to pay it than be over-burthensome to her People She ordered also the Debts contracted by her Father and Brother but neglected by her Sister to be paid She provided a great Magazine and furnished her Kingdom with plentiful Stores of Arms and Ammunition and all sorts of Warlike Provisions that she might always have at hand whatever was needful to secure her against the sudden Insults of her Foreign Enemies or any Insurrections which might be raised at home She caused her Forces to be often drawn out viewed and mustered and with Honours and other Rewards she recompenced those that in this kind had deserved well of her by which she much encouraged her Soldiers and Sea-men She encreased her Fleet and built many large Men of War and furnished her Naval Stores with whatever was needful and she encreased the Wages of her Mariners and Seamen and appointed a Guard of Ships to ride always in the Downs for the Security of the British Seas and carefully scoured the Seas by her Men of War and purged them from Pyrates and Sea-Robbers so that in all her time the Seas were secure safe and open Dr. Heylin in his History of the Reformation acquaints us that she began these Preparations in the year 1560. Ahd that holding it a safer Maxim in the Schools of Policy not to Admit than to endeavour by strong hand to Expel an Enemy she entertained the fortunate thoughts of Walling her Kingdom round about with a puissant Navy for ouâ—… Merchants had already encreased their Shipping by managing some part of that Wealthy Trade which formerly had been Monopolized by the Hanse-Towns or Easterlings And thereupon she resolved not to be wanting to her self in Building Ships of such Burthen and so fit for Service as might enable her in a short time not only to Protect her Merchants but to Command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great Loss and almost to his total Ruin in the last Twenty years of her Glorious Government At the same time by her Proclamation dated November 15. 1560. she commanded all the Easterling Flemish and Spanish Moneys to be brought into the Mint