of England and Sir William Cecil Prime Secretary of State all of them men of great Prudence and Courage who had with much difficulty escaped the Marian Tempest These were the Chief Managers of her Secret Councels and acquainted with her most private Thoughts and Designs for the good and safety of her People and were all of them Protestants The Popish Nobility and great Men were either contented with a Vote in the Privy Council in which many of them still sat and others of them refusing however to be any otherwise concerned or foreseeing the Change that was intended had withdrawn themselves altogether and deserted their former Stations Of these she relied mostly on the Council of Cecil and Bacon who were closely united each to other and both equally in her Favour and were besides men of great Judgment They were also her Chief Ministers and most trusted by her for their Integrity and Industry Having throughly consider'd the state of the Nation she resolved at first to promote a Peace abroad and that she might gain her point in this with the greater case she used some Dissimulation Philip the II d King of Spain had lost the possession of England by the death of Queen Mary and to recover it had begun a Treaty of Marriage with Queen Elizabeth which she declined with much civility and modesty so that he still insisted upon it for some time and she was not willing wholly to undeceive him till she saw an end of the Treaty of Cambray Francis the Eldest Son of Henry the II d King of France having married Mary Steward Queen of the Scots and the next Heir after her of the Crown of England the French were forming a Design against her and made a kind of Claim of the Crown for the Dauphiness The Queen feared the King of Spain the moâ—…t of the two as being a Prince of deep Designs and formidable to all his Neighbours on the score of his vast Dominions and was resolved as time and opportunity should serve to abate his Power and cross his Designs She was as much offended with the King of France for the ravishing Calais from us and for assuming the Arms of England to hers and the Nation 's Dishonour yet she resolved to make a Peace with him as soon as she could Thus this Heroick Lady which had tried both Adverse and Prosperous Fortune being by Nature endowed with a strange Sagacity and Prudence which is very rarely to be found in that Sex and which she had also much improved by the Afflictons she had suffered by her wise Counsels soon brought this almost Shipwrack'd Vessel to a sase Port and governed it all her days with much ease and Peace by which she gave the World a noble Specimen of her Virtue Justice and Prudence She discovered all the Inclinations Forces Leagues and Counsels of her Neighbouring States She laid aside all her Feminine Indignation and would not suffer her most intimate Affections to have any place or consideration with her when she was to consult the Peace and secure the safety of her People Of which this may serve for a clear Proof From the beginning of her Reign she had established this as a Maxim That the King of Spain was the most formidable Enemy the English then had but then because that Nation was strong rich and powerful she seemingly paid for some time a great respect to the King of Spain that he and the French King might not join against her and she also sent an Ambassador to renew the Amity between her and the House of Austria Yet considering that it was necessary that she should in a short time have a War with Spain and that part of his Dominions lay near her and that others were more remote and very rich and fruitful so that they would well pay her Subjects for the pains and danger of attacking them She upon the whole concluded That it was her Interest to enter into a Treaty of Peace and Amity with the King of France and accordingly she kindly received his Ambassadors who were sent hither to renew the Peace She put out a Proclamation to forbid all her Subjects the offering any violence or wrong to the French that were then in England that she might prevent their enraging the Foreign Nations against her or her Subjects And in the Castle of Cambray she by her Ambassadors concluded a League with France upon Condition That the Town of Calais and all that belonged to it should after eight years be restored to the English and if the same was not done that the French King should pay to her at the exâ—…iration of the said Term 50000 Crowns and give Hostages of the Children of Noble Families for the persormance of the said Condition in the mean time and the assurance of an Oath that they would punctually and truly keep the said Agreement When this Peace came to be discovered by a Proclamation in London and all the Sea-port Towns almost all the good men of England were inwardly offended at it and they whispered their Discontents in all places Yet I cannot but think the Queen in this League how much soever it was spoken against did rather consult her own Honour and Reputation and the safety and welfare of her People than trust to the Faith of the King of Francâ—… as to the restitution of Calais The Hostages indeed fled away and the French broke their Faith as it was to be thought they would when they were to restore Calais but then the Advantages which England then gained by that seasonable Peace abundantly overbalanced the Damages sustained by the disappointment When the time was expired for the restitution of Caâ—…ais the English Ambassadors in the Court of France endeavoured to make that Nation appear odious and detestable to all Mankind because they had fraudulently departed from the Terms of the League so solemnly made at Cambray and afterwards sworn to by that King But Monsieur de l'Hospital Sieur de Vitry Chancellor of France a Learned and a Cunning Lawyer replied That Calais was lost by a War and regained by another That the Promise of restoring it was a Necessity imposed upon the French by the Iniquity of the Times which had enforced tâ—…em to yield so far to the English for the safety of their State but that in truth the English had as much right to Paris as they had to Calais and might with as good justice demand the first as the last Yet after all this Wise man never endeavoured to clear his Nation from the Guilt and Infamy of Fraud and Perjury which was a Task above his strength In all Revolutions and Changes the Queen always in the first place took care to secure the True Worship of God and the safety of all her Subjects When therefore she had thus secured her Peace abroad or at least had gained a Cessation of War till she might take breath and recover her strength and was now
Kingdom with an intire Reliance upon her Majesties most unquestionable good affections towards her not doubting but her Majesty would assist her and that by her Example and Encouragement others would be won over to her I do most earnestly therefore said she beseech you That I may presently be admitted to come to you because I am now in great Distress as I will more at large inform you when you shall please so far to have Compassion on me God grant your Majesty a long and an happy Life and me that Patience and Consolation which I â—…ope to obtain from him by your seasonable Assistance Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Knolles and some others to the Queen of the Scots to comfort her and promised her all that Protection and Assistance which the Equity of her Cause would allow but she would not suffer her to come to her And she ordered her to be removed to Carlisle which was a place of greatâ—…r Safety to her than that she was at present in where the Scots might perhaps surprize her Upon this the Queen of the Scots wrote a Third Letter to the Queen and sent it by the Lord Herris desiring that she might be suffered to come before her Majesty to propose the Injuries which had been done to her by her Subjects and to answer the accusations they did pretend to bring against her That it was most equitable and just that Queen Elizabeth should admit her who was her Nearest Kinswoman and was now an Exile into her presence and hear what she had to say for her self and restore her to her Kingdom which she had most unjustly been deprived of by those who had been most justly banished for their Treasons against her and wâ—…re Pardoned and Restored upon your Majesty's Intercession with me to my own Râ—… as now it plainly appeareth said she if your Majesty d th not prevent it Wherefore I once more Conjure your Majesty either to Admit me into your Presence and to Assist me or otherwise to suffer me forthwith to go out of England to seek help elsewhere and that you would not detain me as a Captive and a Prisoner any longer in the Castle of Carlisle because I came freely into England trusting in your many kind Letters Messages and the Pledges of an Honourable Reception This Letter wrought very much upon the heart of the Queen and she could not but pity the desolate and deplorable Estate of so near a Relation who being by Force of Arms taken by her own Subjects had been thrust from a Throne into a Prison brought into the utmost danger of her Life Condemned without being heard and was deprived of a Kingdom and had now fled to her out of a Confidence of her Assistance and was now at last willing and desirous that the Queen of England should be her Judge and when she had heard both her and her Subjects pronounce what Sentence she thought fit and just Princes are certainly the most unhappy part of Mankind because they are frequently reduced to those straits that they can scarce tell which way to turn them Sin or Misery Ruin or Dishonour surround and encompass them so that there is no possibility of avoiding both at once Had Queen Elizabeth dismissed the Queen of Scots she would without doubt have found enough who would have entertained her as an Instrument and Pretence to ruin both England and Scotland too If she detained her in England it was feared that her Wheedling Humour Youth and Beauty and her stout Attachment to the Popish Religion would draw in many of the English to take her part as long as she was considered as the nexâ—… Heir of the Crown after the Queen then Reigning and this would very much endanger the Peace of England Foreign Ambassadors would have Orders from their Masters when her Case was once known to espouse her Interest and promote her Affairs and a part of the Scots would certainly endeavour to restore her and suppress the Opposite Party when they had so fair a Prospect of making their own Fortunes into the bargain The Faith of those that were trusted with the keeping this Precious Depositum was not to be relied on and if-she should happen to dye by a Natural Death the Queen must expect to be defamed and slandered as the Murtherer of her So that the Queen saw that every day new and unforeseen Difficulties grew upon her If she were suffered to go into France it was feared the House of Guise which was related to her by her Mother might renew their old Pretences in her Right to England and again set on foot her former Claim of this Throne and might win many over to assist her either on the score of her Religion or the Probability of her Right or lastly merely out of a mad desire of changing the present Government which is never so easie or sweet as to please all That the parting with her would put an end to the League and Friendship between England and Scotland which was then considered as a thing of the greatest use that could possibly be conceived to England and it was to be feared if by her means the Popish part of Scotland prevailed against the Protestant the League with France would be renewed and this would be so much the more mischievous to England now because heretofore we had the Friendship of the House of Burgundy to balance that of Scotland but the Estates of that Family being all at this time united in the Person of Philip II. King of Spain England had not one Ally near it which could be relied on but the Scots If she were resetled in Scotland it was to be feared that those of the English Faction would be ruined and those of the French would be alone intrusted with all the Power The young Prince would be exposed to Dangers the Religion which was now well Established there would be changed the French and other Foreigners would be invited thither and entertained and Ireland would be more infested by the Highland-Scots than heretofore and Queen Mary her self would be in danger of losing her Life amongst her own Subjects Hereupon the far greatest part of the Council of England were of an Opinion That she ought to be detained here as a Prisoner of War till she had given sufficient satisfaction for her assuming the Title of the Crown of England and answered for the Death of the Lord Darnly who was a Subject of England For this the Countess of Lenox had furnished them with a Pretence by her coming to the Queen and with Tears in her eyes demanding Justice in her own and her Husbands name and had also besought the Queen That Mary Queen of the Scots might be Arraigned for the Death of her Son To whom the Queen had calmly and wisely answered That the Countess ought not to bring so grievous an Accusation or charge so black a Crime as this was upon a Princess so nearly related to
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
not remember that I have read elsewhere this Order for burning the Popish Books The Complaints of the Popish Bishops The Reformation estabâ—ished The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformâ—…tion The Happinesâ—… of England Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergymen And to curb the immoderate liberty of the Protestant Dissenters Anabaptists discovered Two of which were burnt The 〈◊〉 Conventicles suppressed The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. The Council of Trent recalled The Plea of the Protestant Princes against it Martiningo sent Nuncio into England And rejected by theQueen The Popish Party well disposed to rebel The Settlement of the Civil State taken into consideration The Money reduced to the old Standard The Security of the Nation providently taken care for Magaâ—…ines and Naval Stores provided LargeShips of War built The means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom Laws and Orders made for the publick good of her people The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility She fâ—…oured her Kindred and advanced them Her advice to the Nobility Her care to change or abolish evil Customs and Laws of former times 1559. The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry Which she refused and in a set Speech told them she resolved to live in Celebacy Her wonderful Temperance and Chastity The Princes and Great men that Couâ—…ted her * In 1560. * In 1560. †In 1568. ⸫ In 1574. By degrees she became more averse to Marriage than the seemed at first to be The character of the the Earl of Leicester She Prefer'd him in Title and estate and advanced his Brother The ill effects of Luxury His designs in debauching the Nobility Anno 1583. Leicester recommends Robert Earl of Essex to the Queen The Actions of that Earl in Holland His Character The Queen very much oppressed by the Infâ—…my and Villanies of Leicester The Character of Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex The Character of Sir William Cecil afterward Lord Burleigh The Earl of Sussex sent Ambassador to the Emperor The Ruin of Leicester HisDeath and Dishonour The Character of the Lord Willoughby The Character of Sir Francis Walsingham Burleigh made Lord Treasurer for his Virtue The Character and Story of Mary Queen of Scotland The Character of Sir N. Throgmorton The French desirous of a War with England Tâ—…rogmorton kindles the Civil Wars in France The French design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England The Scotch complain and arm against them The French retire to Leith The Scots send into England for assistance A Fleet sent into Scotland And an Army which besieged Leith Leith dismantled The first Civil War in France The Death of Francis II King of France Mary Queen of the Scoâ—…s Marrieth James 1. borr The beginniâ—…g of the Miâ—…ortunes of Mary Qu. of Scotland Her Impriâ—…onment at Carlâ—… The Queen of Scots Letter to Q. Elizabeth upon her first Landing in England The Thiâ—…d Letter The deploâ—…ble state of the Princes of the earth The Difficulties attending the keeping or dismissing the Queen os the Scots A Resolution taken to detain her as a Prisoner of War The Queen of England not acted by a spirit of Jealousie and Revenge Mildmay sent into Scotland to threaten the Regent Murray upon Q. Elizabeth's threats comes into England Q Elizabeth durst not restore the Qu. of the Scots to her Throne The Queen prevailed upon to put the Queen of Scots upon her Trial. The Trial of the Q. of the Scots Hatton's wheedling Speech The Speech censured Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Q. of the Scots Pins V Excommunicates the Qu and absolves all her Subjects Thereupon followed Rebellions and Insurrections in England The E. of Northumberland leads the way And is followed by the E. of Westmorland Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders The Causes of the Miscarriage of this Insurrection The Calamities of the Earl of Northumberland The Earl of Sussex prosecutes the Rebels with great Severity Another Rebellion springeth out of this The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of these Rebellions The Character of the D. of Norfâ—… After these Rebellions followed a shoal of Treasons and Conspiracies Which occasioned the Acts of P. against the Recusants The Colleges of the Jesuits opene lin Eanders c. And called Seminaries Parson and Campian the two first Seminary Priests sent into England Parry's Conspiracy against the Queen Babington's Conspiracy His Character Savage sent to assassinate the Qâ—…en The Persons in Babington's Conspiracy Babington the great Actor in it This Conspiracy proved fatal to the Queen of the Scots A Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists The Queen has a plentiful Supply given her in Parliament She dischargeth a Part of what was granted by her Proclamation The Spaniards send Lopez and two others to murther the Queen Cullin York and Williams sent from Flanders on the same Errand And executed in 1595. She spared none of those who fell into her hands A Digression concerning William Parry Parry's Confession His Design discovered by one Nevil The Queen's Severity to these Conspirators made her terrible to the English Papists But it was God that preserved her There has been but one Protestant Prince Murthered since the Reformation by them The second Civil War in France The third Civil War of France She sends 100000 Crowns and great Stores of Arms and Ammunition into 〈◊〉 to the Protestants A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without Success The true Causes of this and the other Civil Wars of France The Queen of England preserv'd the Protestants of France The beginning of the Low-Countrey War Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and re-called The King of Spaâ—…n enraged at the Edict for Liberty of Conscience The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government in the Nâ—…therlands The Regent grows severe against the Protestants on various pretences Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison The rest of the 〈◊〉 petition for a General Assembly of the States The Designâ—… of Spain discovered to the Nobility of the Netherlands The Discovery at the first only terrified and divided them Valenciens besieged A bloody Persecution against the Pâ—…otestants of the Netherlands The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The use Spain designed to make of this Disorder The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Flandâ—…rs The Council of Blood setled Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized And after them vast numbtrs of the meaner Inhabitants These Proceedings alarm all the Protestants in France and Queen Elizabeth They fly into England and set up many Manufactures The Conduct of this Prince considered The reasons which mov'd the Queen of England to oppose the Spaniards The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of Q. Elizabeth He com-plains to Q. Elizabeth of her Harbouring the Netherland Pyrates
Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists A plentiful Supply given to the Queen She dischargeth a part of it 158 A Digression concerning Parry 160 The Queen's Severity towards the Conspirators 163 The second Civil War in France 165 The third in which the Queen sends great Supplies of Men and Money 167 A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience 169 The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without success The true Causes of these Civil Wars 170 The Queen preserved the Protestants of France 171 The beginning of the Countrey-Wars 172 Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and recalled 172 The King of Spain enraged at it 174 The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government there 176 Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison 177 The rest of the Cities petition for a General Assembly of the States 178 The Designs of Spain discovered to the rest of the Nobility 179 Which at first only terrified and divided them 181 A Bloody Persecution against the Protestants in the Netherlands 182 The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Flanders The Council of Blood 185 Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized and after them vast Numbers of meaner people 187 The Protestants of France and the Queen of England alarmed at these Proceedings 188 The Subjects of the Low Countries fly into England 189 The Conduct of King Philip considered The Reasons why Queen Elizabeth opposed the Spaniards 191 The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of England 193 The King of Spain complains of the Queen for harbouring the Netherland Pyrates 194 They seize the Sea-Ports of Holland and Zealand The Queen of England undertakes the Protection of this oppressed People 197 The French Affairs during her time 201 A Private League between France and Spain against the Protestants 203 The Duke of Guise made Head of this League against his Sovereign 204 An Account of the House of Guise 205 The Reasons why Henry III. was to be deposed and Henry IV. excluded 207 The Queen Mother of France dieth of Grief Queen Elizabeth assists Henry IV. with Men and Money 209 Spain invaded by the English 211 The Actions of Robert Earl of Essex 212 The Affairs of Ireland during her Reign 216 Ulster the first Province that rebelled 218 A Quarrel between Ormond and Desmond 219 The Pope and King of Spain Interested in the Wars of Ireland 221 The Difficulty of administring Justice and Mercy seasonably 224 Sr. Jo. Perrot Lord Deputy of Ireland New Colonies sent into Munster The Irish complain of the English 226 And they of the Deputy 227 William's Character 228 The College of Dublin finished The English Colonies keep Ireland quiet for some time Part of the Spanish Armado Shipwrackt on the Coast of Ireland 229 The Rise of Hugh Oneale Earl of Tyrone 232 He aspires to be King of Ulster Tyrone made a County which occasioned that Rebellion 233 Sir William Russell Lord Deputy of Ireland under whom it began 234 Sir John Norris sent into Ireland 235 The Irish made very Expert in the use of Arms. Tho. Lord Burroughs made Deputy The Council of Ireland represent the Irish War as an Universal Rebellion of the whole Nation 241 Tyrone beats the English 243 He treats with Spain and England at the same time 244 The Earl of Essex sent Deputy The Lord Montjoy sent Deputy 246 No Irish pardoned but what merited the favour by some Signal Service 247 The Spaniards land at Kingsale The Irish reduced to eat man's Flesh 248 Religion causlesly made the Pretence of this Irish War Liberty of Conscience considered 249 The great Reputation of England in Queen Elizabeth's time 250 Sir Drake's Original and Story 253 The Story of John Oxenham 256 Drake's two Voyages into America 258 The Story of Mr. Tho. Cavendish 263 Philip King of Spam highly inc◅nsed against the English 265 The Invincible Armado Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England The Condition of the Spanish Fleet when the English left it 273 The King of Spain bears his Loss with much patience and prudence 275 The English and Hollanders glorify God for the Victory over the Spaniards at Sea 277 The Queen declares a War against Spain 278 The English Expeditions against that Kingdom A rare Example of Martial Valour Complaints made of the Depredations of the English at Sea 285 The Hanse Towns very clamorous against the English 287 The Trade of England prohibited in Germany 288 The Queen seizes the Still-yard 289 Poland continues a Trade with England 291 The Queen ends a War between the Russ and Swedes ibid. Her Laws for the enriching her Subjects Her Severity to those she imployed when found faulty 292 The Liberty of the Theatre restrained 297 The Calamities that happened in her times 298 Her kindness to her good Magistrates 299 Her tender care of the Church 300 Her Stature and Personal Accomplishments 301 She was concerned in her old Age for the decay of her Beauty She loved Flattery because it raised a good opinion of her in her Subjects but Crafty men made ill uses of it 303 She loved good Preachers 307 She loved Religion but hated Faction 308 Her Devotion in publick She exposed her Life for the Safety of the Church 309 She humoured and caressed the body of the People 310 Parliaments frequently held 312 Her Maxims concerning Peace and War 314 She would never arm the meanest of the People All honours carefully and sparingly bestowed in her time 315 Her Justice and Severity towards Offenders which made her beloved 317 Her Justice in other Instances 322 She was sparing in her Personal Expences but magnificent in her Publick 323 She was too sparing in her Rewards She shewed a great respect to the memory of the meanest Soldier that perished in her Service 327 The Praises of Henry VII who was her Example 329 Her Bounty to some Great Men 330 The manner of her bestowing Honours 333 The choice of her Servants Officers and Ministers 335 Her kindness to the Bishops and Church-men 337 Her Principal Favourites and Statesmen 338 Her Habit 339 Her Furniture 341 Her Dyet in publick and private 342 The Splendor and Divertisements of her Court 344 Her private way of living 346 Her Summer Progresses and her Carriage towards the People 348 She spent the Winter in London 350 Her Diet in Summer and Winter 352 Her Diversions and Private Conversation 353 She was subject to violent Anger 's 355 Her Sevērity to the Queen of Scots To Leicester 358 To Hatton 360 The Provocations she met with many and great 361 The Character of Sanders and others who defamed her 363 Her last Sickness 367 he spent the last moments of her life in Devotion 371 Her last Words and Death 373 The Sorrow for her Death at Home and Abroad 374 LICENS'D November 10. 1692. THE CHARACTER OF Queen ELIZABETH ELIZABETH Queen of England was born
March with the English Army for England where he was rewarded for this Service with the Government of Berwick which he did not long enjoy for he died the 14th of December 1562. This War saith Mr. Cambden preserved all Britain from Ruin restored the Scots to their Ancient Liberty and setled the Peace and enlarged the Reputation of the English Nation so that from thenceforward during all her happy Reign she had no reason to apprehend any danger from Scotland the Protestants of that Nation esteeming the Queen their Patroness and Deliverer and the English acknowledging she had laid a sure foundation for their future Security Thus she delivered Scotland from those Foreigners who designed by Violence and Force to suppress not only the Protestant Religion but their Civil Rights and Liberties also and to bring upon that Free Nation an intolerable French Slavery Of this the Scots were then so extremely sensible saith my Author who was of that Nation That they being delivered by her means from Foreign Servitnde they thereupon subscribed to a League to maintain the Protestant Religion and to use the English Worship and Rites After this a Civil War arose in France and the Queen sent Supplies under the Earl of Warwick in 1562. to the Prince of Conde the Count de Rohan and Coligny the Defenders of the Protestant Religion and of the Liberties of that Kingdom To these Forces when the Protestants themselves opposed thâ—…m she sent afterwards Additional Forces and great Sums of Money At this time the French Protestants put Havre de Grace into her hands as a Cautionary Town and it was Garison'd with English Soldiers but so soon as their Fear of the Popish Party was a little abated by a Peace granted to them which yet waâ—… of no duration they joined with their Popish Countreymen to drive out their Benefactors and with equal Violence endeavoured to reduce the Town under the Crown of France again The Earl of Warwick seeing his men consumed by a War without and a Plaâ—…ue within the Town and no Relief to be expected in due time he thereupon began a Treaty with the Enemy and the 28th of July 1563. the Articles of Surrender were signed the next day there came a Fleet of 60 Sail of English Ships into the Haven on which the Garison was Transported into England And the Protestants of France had the chief hand in the driving them out as all sides acknowledge The Death of Francis II. King of France the 5th of December 1560. when he had Reigned but Seventeen Months put an end to all the French Ambitious Designs of Conquering England and Reducing Scotland and to the Fears of both these Kingdoms on that score Mary Queen of Scotland being thus deprived of her Beloved Husband soon grew weary of that Kingdom and getting a small Number of Ships together for that purpose she went on board at Calais the 14th of August and she landed at Leith the 20th of the same month in the year 1561 being attended by many of the Nobility and some great Ladies of both the French and Scots Nation Not long after the Queen of England having opposed this Princess's designs of Marrying Charles Archduke of Austria and rather recommending to her choice the Lord James Darnley Eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox and the next Heir after her of the Crowns of England and Scotland so that this Match would undoubtedly secure her Title to England too after the Death of Queen Elizabeth whereupon she married him at Edinburgh in the year 1565 and the next year after James their only Son was born to the great Joy of both the Nations for he was then thought one of the Pillars of Christendom the Ornament of his Native Countrey and Family and all men presaged That he would one day become the King of Great Britain as it came afterwards to pass by the wonderful good Providence of God This Marriage was attended with a Catastrophe and Tragick Event which is grievous to the thoughts and scarce possible to be enough lamented Mary Stewart the Relict of Francis II. King of France and the Immediate Heiress and Lawful Queen of Scotland and the Presumptive Heir of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Mother of James VI. soon after became a Lamentable Example of the Unsteadiness of Human Affairs The Lord Darnley her Husband having out of Jealousie ordered the Murther of one David Rixio the Queen's Secretary was afterwards himself Poisoned first and then Murdered at Edinburgh in the year 1567 The effect of which was the Deposing the Queen her self who was suspected to have an hand in it and the Imprisoning her in a Castle in the Lake of Locklevin where she was forced to subscribe a Resignation of the Crown and Government of Scotland in the year 1568. The Queen by the Providence of God escaped afterwards out of this Restraint the 2d of May and raised some Forces to recover her Crown again which were intirely routed and dispersed by the Forces of the Regent of Scotland So that having nothing more to trust to in that Kingdom she took shipping with intention to pass into France but being by stress of Weather or the Treachery of those that carried her brought into England she was landed at Warkinton in Cumberland the 17th of the same Month and not long after committed Prisoner to the Castle of Carlisle so that being driven from her Native Countrey by her own Subjects she found an uneasie and cruel Restraint where she expected a Refuge and a Sanctuary The Laws of Hospitality and that Kindness which Nature teacheth all men to use towards those that are of the same Lineage and Blood not being able to protect her against the Jealousie of a Rival Queen When Mary Queen of the Scots saw her self reduced to this Calamitous Condition forsaken of all her Subjects and Servants and forced to flee in one day about Sixty Miles and then not thinking her self secure till passing to Sea she was thrown upon the English shore She wrote a Letter to the Queen of England before she left Scotland and sent it by one Beton and she gave him a Diamond which the Queen had sent her before this as a Pledge of her Friendship she also ordered him to tell the Queen That she intended to leave Scotland and to come into England and did most earnestly beseech her to send her such Help and Assistance as was necessary in case the Scots should persist in the same Methods of Oppression Queen Elizabeth assured this Gentleman That she would shew the Queen of Scots all that Affection that she could possibly expect from a Sister Before this Gentleman could get back again she left Scotland contrary to the Advice of all her Friends and came into England and as soon as she was on shore she sent the Queen a Second Letter in French in the Conclusion of which she tells the Queen of England That she was come into her
Reformation began which is now One hundred seventy five years though they have been engaged in endless Plots against the Protestant Princes yet they have been so far disappointed by the special Providence of God that I do not know of any Prince they have been able to Assassinate but Willian the First Prince of Orange and him they attempted twice before it succeeded In the year 1567. there broke out a second Civil War in France on the score of Religion which filled that once most flourishing Kingdom with Factions and Seditions and strangely exagitated the Towns and great Cities of that Kingdom so that the people of France ran upon each other as if they had been divided and set on by a Divine Judgment Catherine de Medicis the Queen Dowager of France had then assumed the Supreme Government as Guardian to CharlesIX herSon who was then a Minor She and her Council were contriving by all the ways that were possible to suppress the Protestants of France which grew numerous during the Minority of the King and under the Favour and Protection of the last Treaty to this end they had ordered some men to be Levied in Champagne and had sent for Six thousand Swiss The Prince of Conde and Coligny observing these Preparations concluded they were made against them and resolved to begin first and they formed a Design to surprize the King and the Queen-Mother at Meaux but she being informed of it withdrew in the night time towards Paris the Prince of Conde being thus disappointed followed them to Paris and Besieged that City which being reduced to some streights there followed a Fight at St. Dennis in which Montmorancy was slain but the Protestants were driven out of the Field and they fell next upon Chartres which they besieged Queen Elizabeth thereupon ordered her Ambassador Norris to interpose between the Parties and bring them to a Peace as he did but it was short and full of Insincerity and Treachery The Queen-Mother of France was now so afraid of Queen Elizabeth that to prevent her sending Succours to the Protestants she caused a Marriage to be proposed between her and the Duke of Anjou her Second Son who was afterwards King of France by the name of Henry III. and was now about Seventeen years of Age but this Treaty ended with the Peace for the procuring of which it was began In the year 1568. the War broke out again by the Perfidy of the Popish Party who had now joined with the Spaniards by a Treaty made in a clandestine manner at Baionne in the year 1565. for the Extirpating the Protestant Religion in France and Flanders and the mutual assisting each other to that purpose And the Duke de Alva the Spanish Governor of the Low-Countries had Orders to join with the Guises in this Religious work and tho the King of France had in the beginning of this year promised them of that Persuasion Liberty of Conscience yet he soon after put out an Edict to forbid all publick Exercise of any other Religion in France but the Roman-Catholick and commanding all the Protestant Ministers to depart out of France within a certain time This was followed by a severe Prosecution and in many places they were Assassinated or Robbed and all France was thereupon in Arms Queen Elizabeth ordered her Ambassador to use all his Endeavours to procure a solid and a sincere Peace shewing the King the Methods propâ—…sed would only serve to exasperate the minds of his People and deprive him of the Service of his most faithful Subjects so that the Forces of France being diminished with his People his Kingdom would be exposed to the Violence of its Enemies A Consideration which Lewis the XIVth may have reason one day to think more seriously of But now it was rejected and the young King of France sent into Spain to borrow Money and into Germany and Italy to raise Auxiliary Forces to carry on the War Whereupon the Queen resolved not to be wanting to the common Protestant Interest which was now plainly struck at and upon the French Protestants assuring her That they had not taken up Arms against the King's Authority but for their own sale Defence she sent them One hundred thousand Crowns in Money and great Stores of Ammunition and entertained all the French that fled into England with great Humanity It is worth the observing here the Wild Notions of Passive Obedience which have been since set on foot were not in being in these times the Queen desiring no other Security or Justification than this Protestation which being joined with her own knowledg of the Designs of the Guises was then thought sufficient to warrant a Defensive War when nothing less than the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion was intended She did not think these Subjects of France were obliged to submit to an Extirpation because it was the Will of their Monarch to have it so nor that she Assisted Rebels and Traytors against their Lawful Prince when she undertook the Defence of those of her own Religion against a Tyrant who contrary to all Faith and Humanity had designed the Destruction of those he was bound and had promised to protect The King of France seeing by this time a destructive War would follow to distract the â—…inds and divide the Forces of the Protestants promised that all those that continued quiet at home should be tolerated but this Facility as a Jesuit calls it when it was a mere Treachery had no effect the Perfidy of it was palpable If he was in good earnest why had he Revoked the former Edict and began the War Who could reconcile these two contrary Edicts That they should and should not be tolerated at one and the same time The Pope to promote this War gave the King leave to sell Church-Lands to the Value of 50000 Crowns by the year and saith the same Jesuit Never were Church Revenues better employed or granted away upon a better reason The destruction of Hereticks with Fire and Sword contrary to the Publick Faith is certainly a most Holy Work and an Excellent Subject to spend the Revenues of the Church on The next year the Armies drew into the Field and in March there followed a Fight at Jarnac in which the Prince of Condé was slain and Coligni became General of the Protestants and after this another at Moncontour in which the Protestants lost 20000 men They renewed their Forces however with that Alacrity that in the year 1570 they forced the King after a vast Expence of Blood and Treasure when he saw he could not any longer continue the War without apparent Ruin to make a Peace on the same terms with the former The Queen-Mother was the Firebrand of France and by her Dissimulation and Hypocrisy raised all these Combustions there She was jealous of the Princes of the Blood of the House of Bourbon who were become the Heads of the Protestants in that Kingdom and she
was then no open Wars proclaimed and he laid cunning Designs to ruin the English Nation which the necessity of his other affairs put off from time to time so that there were Threats of a War and great Preparations made for it rather than a War But when he saw Threats and Anger would not terrifie the English he turned his secret Anger into open War and entred into a Contention which in the end proved fatal to himself and his Nation He prepared to that end a vast Fleet of 134 Sail of Ships so great so arm'd and so mann'd that perhaps the Ocean never bore such another on its proud Billows there was on board it 20000 Land-men and 8300 Seamen and the Command of it was committed to the Duke of Medina Cali a Person of an exalted Worth and Reputation One Martin Reâ—…alda was under him the great Director of the Fleet being a Pilot of great Experience This Fleet which had raised so great an Expectation in the Neighbour-Countries that it was not doubted but it would not only subdue but overwhelm the little Island of Great Britain sailed from the Groyne the 12th of July 1588. and came within sight of Cornwal the 19th of the same Month whereupon the Beacons were fired and one Fleming came in with a Scout-Ship and assured the English Admiral the Spanish Fleet had been seen by him near the Lizzard The English Fleet was then in the Port of Plimouth under the Command of Charles Lord Howard then Admiral of England And as it was believed the Spanish Fleet would not have come that year so there was not on board it that number of men that was necessary to man it and which on the sudden was hardly possible to be got together but however the Admiral went first to Sea and gave the Signal for the rest to follow and he ranged them in their Order as they were able to get out The Spanish Ships were very much higher and stronger than the English and had greater and more Cannon but there was four CARACKS of an excessive Greatness and which seemed scarce fit for motion which served instead of Castles to defend the smaller Ships The English Fleet on the contrary was nimble and very well provided for Fight or Flight and managed by men that understood the Sea-Affairs wonderfully well so that they assaulted the Spanish Armado the 21st of July with Dexterity and Courage The Fight lasted three days without any intermission and then was intermitted for want of Gunpowder After this they followed the Spanish Fleet which kept its course for Flanders notwithstanding this continual Fight and when any Ship happened to be separated from the main body they would be sure to be upon it and for the most part they took it The English were at first but 40 Sail the rest not being able to get out of the Port. The St. Catherina a great Spanish Galiass the first day was so torn by the English Shot that they were forced to take it into the Body of the Fleet to repair the Mischief it had received The principal Galeon of Sevil wherein many of the Spanish Nobility sailed falling foul upon another Ship in this disorder had her Fore-mast broken and so could not sail with the rest but was left to the Mercy of the Seas and of the English The 22d of July Sir Francis Drake found this great Galeon which was disabled and summon'd it to yield which was done when they heard Drake was the man they had to do with The Commander of this ship was Valdez who was one of the principal persons in the Navy and he had with him 450 persons The same day the Admiral of the Squadron of Guipuscoa commanded by Michael de Oquendo Vice-Admiral of the whole Fleet was set on fire by a disobliged Hollander the upper part of it and most of the men perished but the Gunpowder never fired This night the Admiral of England followed the Spanish Lanthorn and was next morning in the midst of their Fleet. The 23d of July the Spanish Fleet was over-against Portland and the Wind was against the English but they being nimbler soon recovered that advantage again over the unwieldy Spaniards this day the English played with more fury on the Spaniards than the two former but they would not be provoked to stop till they came to Calis that being the Orders given them in Spain by this time the English Fleet was become a hundred strong of one sort or other and many Voluntier Ships made out by men of all degrees were come into it and by that time they came to Dover there was 130. of which yet there was not above 22. or 23. of the Queen's biggest ships that were able to grapple with the Spanish ships The 24th of July the Sea was calm and four great Galeasses which had Oars fought the English Fleet with great advantage by night the English wanted Gunpowder which they sent for that night The 25th the Spaniards being at the height of the Isle of Wight the Admiral of England with five of the biggest ships attacked the Admiral of Spain in the midst of his Fleet and then there followed a terrible fight which was managed on both sides with the utmost Bravery but the Spaniards grew weary of it and cast themselves again into the form of a Ring The 26th the Admiral Knighted Sir Martin Forbisher and Sir John Hawkins The 27th by Sun-set the Spanish Fleet arrived over-against Dover their Fleet cast Anchor this night in the Channel within sight both of Dover and Calis and the English Fleet were within Cannon-shot of it and now 130 strong from hence the Duke of Medina sent to the Duke of Parma who was then at Dunkirk and had Orders to join this Fleet to hasten out the Land Army which in 40 Fly-boats was to have joined him that being covered by this huge Fleet and with the Forces sent from Spain now aboard it a Descent might be made in England but the Hollanders having notice of his Intentions had sent a Fleet of 35. Men of War under the Command of Justin of Nassau their Admiral on board the which was 1200 Musketeers and he hadOrders not to suffer any ship to come out of the Ports of Flanders nor any Zabraes Pataches or other small Vessels of the Spanish Fleet to enter thereinto and this Dutch Fleet so awed the Duke of Parma and his Land-Army that they durst not stir nor indeed was his Army then come to the Sea or ready to be embark'd if he could have gone out and besides he wanted all manner of Necessaries for such an Expedition and all the Flandrians had no great inclinations to make the King of Spain Master of England to the Ruin of their own Civil Privileges The Mariners also that were to have served the Duke of Parma being terrified by the Hollanders withdrew from the danger and stole away for fear they should have been forced by the Duke to
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
at Greenwich the 7th of September 1533. Her Father was Henry the VIIIth Her Mother was the Lady Anna Boleyn the Daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn a Knight of great Estate and Esteem After She came to wear the Royal Crown of England She had a particular Affection for Greenwich that Pleasant Seat upon the Thames as for the place of Her Nativity and upon that account amongst many others She preferr'd Her Palace there before all Her other Country Seats near London as in truth it enjoys one of the Noblest Prospects in the World and an healthful and a pleasing Air. From Her very Cradle She was exposed to the Hazards and Hardships of an unkind Fortune Anna Boleyn Her Mother upon the Death of Queen Catherine in the Year 1535. the 8th of January was Arraigned for Treason and in 1536. being Sentenced was freed by Death from a bloody Marriage the 19th of May. The Inveterate Malice of the Popish Clergy having ever since pursued this Match with their Reproaches as unlawful and void because Queen Catherine his first Wife was then still living and very much inraged at it tho' to no purpose Hereupon soon after a Parliament was summoned which began the 8th of June In which the Issue of both the King 's former Marriages was declared Illegitimate and for ever excluded from claiming the Inheritance of the Crown as the King 's Lawful Heirs by Lineal Descent and the Attainder of Queen Ann and her Complices was Confirmed So that by Authority of Parliament She stood wholly incapacitated as to the wearing the Crown of England Her only Support in the mean time under all these Injuries and Afflictions was the Goodness of God The King Her Father observing in Her a Noble Presence of Mind a good Memory great Apprehension an Excellent Nature and good Dispositions towards Piety and Vertue caused Her to be diligently educated and brought up in Learning and taught whatever was suitable to Her Birth and Age. Her Tutoress was the Lady Champernon a Person of great Worth who formed this great Wit from Her Infancy and improved Her Native Modesty with wise Counsels and a Liberal and Sage Advice Thus Her Natural Parts were in progress of time polished and improved by the knowledge of many of the best and most useful Arts That when She came to Reign which was even then supposed She might manage Her Affairs with a steady hand happily and regularly Administer Justice and shew Mercy cure Her Anger and govern prudently all Her other Passions and Affections The King Her Father the day after Her Mother was beheaded married the Lady Jane Seymour and this New Queen what from the sweetness of Her Disposition and out of compliance with the King who loved Her very much was as kind to Her as if She had been Her Mother There is still extant two Letters written by this Young Princess to Her the one in Italian and the other in English in a fair Hand the same She wrote all the rest of Her Life when She was not full Four years of Age. The English Letter is Page 209 printed in the First Part of Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation and bears date in July 1537. This Ripe and Flourishing Infancy was a good Omen that the next Stage of Her Life would be most Excellent and accordingly before She was 17 years of Age She had made a very great progress in all the Liberal Sciences so easily did She apprehend and firmly retain whatever She was taught The Learned Mr. Roger Ashcam a man born and bred for that Age which was to refine the Greek and Latin to a Politeness and raise them to an Eloquence was Her Tutor for the Latin Tongue and by his Industry and Diligence he directed Her so well that from Cicero Pliny and Livy She became the Mistress of an Even Beautiful pure unmixed and truly Princely Stile which She could speak with Elegance and Facility As She became thus Eloquent and was well furnished with Knowledge by the means of this Tongue so upon all Occasions She was ready afterwards to express Her Love and Esteem for the Latin Tongue She became so perfect in it that she spoke it with all the Advantages of Eloquence so that some of Her Extemporary Orations were deservedly approved by both the Universities and they too are consigned to Eternity and left a lasting Impression on the minds of them that heard them though few of them are now extant but however there is one preserved and published by Mr. Fuller in his History of Cambridge Page 138. In this Tongue She did not make it Her business whilst She was reading the best Latin Authors to furnish Her Memory with Grammatical Observations or a plenty of high sounding Words or Elegant Phrases which might help to exalt her Reputation for Learning or adorn Her Stile But She treasured up those Precepts very carefully which were useful for the government of Her Life or for the managing Her Private Affairs or those of the State well and wisely To this end She read Livy's History Tacitus his Annals the Acts of Tiberius the Emperor and all Seneca's Works By all which She at last furnished Her Judgment with the best Remedies against all the Attacks of Fortune With an equal Industry She read over all the best of the Greek Orators and Historians with the Assistance of Mr. Ashcam She read Isocrates Aeschinis and Demosthenes She was curious not only to understand the Propriety of the Greek Idiom and the Sense of the Author but pried into the Antiquities that occurr'd the Causes they managed the Decrees of the People the Customs of the Grâ—…cians and the Manners of that Famous City of Athens till She throughly understood them She caused Sir John Fortescue a great Master in the Greek and Latin Tongue to read to Her Thucidides Xenophon and Polybins and after them Euripides Aeschines and Sophocles And to reward him for this Service She afterwards made him Master of her Wardrove and Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer And She would afterwards say that Fortescue for Integrity and Walsingham for Subtilty out-did Her Expectation no wonder then that he was ever of Her Privy Council She had afterwards a great Love for Sir Henry Savil a Gentleman of various and great Learning who afterwards composed many noble Volumes and arose to Honout purely by his Learnning In Her reading She did not only aim to understand Her Author and observe the softness of the Attick and the sweetness of the Greek Tongue which may serve for Ostentation But She mado many Observations for the Tempering of Manners The Sanctity of Justice and the allaying Humane Passions that nothing might be done by Her Angrily Proudly Injuriously and beyond the Rules of Civility There was not one remarkable Story or Expression in all the Works of Thucidides and Xenophon pertaining to the Governmene of Life or Manners or to the ordering Publick Affairs but She had it by heart She
was as great an Admirer of Philosophy as of Eloquence by which She attained the Knowledg of many excellent Things and that civil Prudence or Policy which is so absolutely necessary for all Princes And besides all that civil Prudence and the Knowledge of Governing by which the Publick Utility is acquired and improved She drew from the Ancient and most Noble Philosophers all those Precepts that they have set down for the gaining Moral Prudence and Vertue For Her greatest Care was spent in the Cultivating these two beautiful Parts of Philosophy I will omit the common Philosophers of whose Learning and Doctrine She was a great Lover The Divine Plato that illustrious Light of Greece was made more Noble by the Hands of this Heroick Princess Aristotle the Prince of the Philosophers the acute Master of Alexander the Great was read by Her She was throughly acquainted with Xenophon's Cyrus a Piece not writ with the Truth of an Historian but to represent the lively Image of a Just and Moderate Prince accomplished with all those Endowments which the Great Soerates had set sorth for the living well and happily Being thus prepared by Philosophy she was by the Learned Dr. Grindal Professor of Divinity initiated in Theology which above all other Sciences teacheth the Worship of God Pure Religion and the Knowledge of Heavenly Happiness and by these disposeth men to Justice Modesty Clemency Magnanimity and Humanity She chearfully and readily embraced a genuine and true Theology free from fictitious Legends and the Popish Superstitions which she afterwards made more venerable by an holy and pious Life without any Ostentation And being of a Great Wit and a Strong Memory She drew from the Annals of all Nations and People the Actions of the Greatest Princes and an innumerable number of their Fights and most Illustrious Victories She would frequently set before Her the Monuments of Her Predeccssors the â—…riumphs and incredible Victories obtained by the English at Cressy Poictiers Agincourt or Blagni and at Vernevil against the French with a vast effusion of their blood and she would frequently say These Victories were owing more to the Assistances of Heaven than the Arms of her Ancestors Besides the French Italian and English Tongues which She spake freely She well understood most of the common Languages now spoken in Europe but as to these Three I have mentioned it was hard to say which she knew best Of this there were many witnesses when She answered the Imperial Ambassador in Italian the French in French and the Sweden in Latin Sharply Prudently Pertinently Elegantly and Politely without any time taken to consider of it She gave de Ronsard a French Poet a Diamond of great Value as a Testimony of Her approving his elegant and splendid Poems in that Tongue She understood Musick very well and could Sing Dance and Play on the Lute with a composed Motion of Body attended with a Countenance Habit and Gesture which became a Queen She was a great Lover of Consorts when Voices were mixed with Instruments of Musick and at such times She would be strangely Facetious and Pleasant She spent Her times of Leisure and Diversion with the greatest Pleasure that was possible to Her Self and those about Her Yet after all Her Virtues procured Her more Honour and Esteem in all Nations than all these Ornaments of Industry Learning and Ingenuity though they appeared in Her to an higher and more illustrious degree than ever was found in any other Lady and were attended also with the greatest Sagacity and Judgment For there was not any Person in Her Times that exceeded Her in Chastity Piety Justice and Magnanimity Now I have shortly shown the Beginnings and Progress of Her Virtues and the Means and Degrees by which She attained to them It will be pleasant to shew how she brought them into Act under the Reign of Her Brother EDWARD the VIth who by the Consent of the Three Estates in Parliament abolished the Popish Religion and introduced the Reformed She having then attained to great degrees of Piety Eloquence and Learning went on in the commendable Improvement of all those Perfections She had received from the Bounty of Nature or Fortune She rendred Her Royal Extraction more illustrious by the Assistances She took every day from Books and when She had spent the time She had assigned to Polite Learning She betook Her self every day to the more severe Studies of Religion with a vigorous and lively Affection She read over Melancthâ—…n's Common-Places and gained very much by an exact and acurate Perusal of the Sacred Scriptures There were innumerable Sentences in the New Testament and the Oracles of the Prophets which She had treasured up in Her Memory and which She would afterwards upon occasion mention and She attended the Offices of Religion and Piety with great Devotion and Care She often addressed Her devoutest Prayers to God and implored his Assistance for the obtaining a Chast Heart a Pure and Unspotted Life and a Steady and Constant Soul The Wills of the Subjects of England were then divided and their Opinions distracted in the matters of Religion and She then shewed to mankind the true and salutary Doctrine not so much by Words as by a holy Life and good Actions She attentively heard the Sermons of the Clergy not only to please Her self with their Oratory but admitted them into the most intimate Recesses of Her heart with an incredible satisfaction and She joined devoutly and constantly in the Liturgy and Prayers of the Church The Death of Edward the VIth Her beloved Brother in his Childhood in the very Blossom of a promising Spring tho he was snatched away from Her by an immature Fate to the damage of his Countrey yet it gave no stop or affright to Her Piety but She consolated Her self with the Immortal Glory he had acquired in the short time he lived â—…o him succeeded MARY Her Sister who always adhered stifly to the old way of Worship and the Ceremonies and Superstitions of the Church of Rome even when they were abolished by Acts of Parliament and having now got the Crown made it Her greatest Design not only to restore the Pomp and Splendor of it as before but also to compel all her Subjects to submit to it by Force Threats Banishment and most Baâ—…barous Deaths and Cruelties To this purpose also she called over Cardinal Reginald Pool a Person of rare Learning and of a very Innocent Life and Conversation and which is rarely to be found in the men of that Persuasion of a great Proâ—…ity Candor and Sweetness of Temper The Popish Religion being thus restored there were New Bishops and New Preachers sought for to recommend it to the Nation and the Honest Innocent Religious Good men who had set the Crown upon Her Head upon Her Promise to Protect the Religion which She found Established were oppressed by the Fury of their Enemies which spread it self over the whole Kingdom of
the Queen was dead and that the Princess Elizabeth was the indisputed Heir to the Crown of whose Right and Title none could make any Question and therefore the Lords intended to Proclaim her Queen and desired their Concurrence which was joyfully entertained by them and they all cried God save Queen Elizabeth long and happily may she reign She being thus advanced to the Throne not only by her own undoubted Right and the Providence of God but by the Confent and with the Approbation of all the Three Estates then Assembled in Parliament which I think never before hapned to any of our Princes besides her she was received by the whole Nation with incredible Transports of Joy and Affection and the loudest Acclamations they could make men highly valuing the Innocence of her former Life and commiserating the hardships she had suffered in the former Reign to the hazard of her Life When God had thus brought this Queen to the Throne of her Ancestors of a sudden the course of things and the current of affairs took a new bias the heavy Tempests and Misfortunes that attended England weâ—e instantly blown over and a serene and prosperous course of things succeeded in their place Thus in a moment she was not only freed from the Miseries of an Imprisonment but adorned with the highest degree of Honour and Power and this Lady with a Masculine or rather Heroick Soul which was worthy to have governed the Empire of the World for almost Forty five years after managed the Royal Scepter of England and was the Arbitrator prescribing the Conditions of Peace and War to all the Princes of Christendom with a Greatness of Mind and a Wisdom that became so high a Station This Virtue which was almost Divine joined with so admirable a Prudence renders her worthy of the Applause and Honour of all mankind Thus one may see and admire the great force and power of Time and the wonderful Changes of Human Affairs and how useful it is to arrive at Prosperity by the Waves of Adversity Whilst she was in her private Station she was perpetually under the fear and danger of Death but by the Goodness of God she escaped all the Insults of Adverse Fortune her Innocence procured her Safety that made way for her Liberty so her Soveraignty was acknowledged and from her prudent Management of that Royal Station she gained an â—…ndless Glory and an Immortal Name Thus attaining the Possession of a Kingdom with Glory and the Publick Safety and the Good Will of her Subjects she on all occasions shewed the Greatness and Brightness of her Wit and Soul That she had well studied and digested the best Arts and had had an excellent Education and wise Instruction the good Effects of which were now made known by her wise promoting the Good and Safety of her People In the beginning of her Reign she found the Nation at home filled with Divisions and Heart-burnings by reason of the contrary methods used in the two preceding Reigns Abroad she had never an Ally she could trust to all was in War or an uncertain and unsteady Peace The Spanish Government was bâ—…come odious here and the English called their Assected Gravity Pride and Insolence The French had equally incensed us by the late Surprize of Calais The Tâ—…easury was at the lowest Ebb and our Bulwark which our ncestors had preserved Two hundred and ten years was taken from us in one weeks time in the beginning of January in this year The New Queen proposed to herself the common Safety and Welfare of her People and pursued it with the utmost Care and Asfection She was then Twenty five years of Age and something more when the Royal Diadem of England descended to her and she began the difficult work of raising the low and calamitous state of England and redressing those Grievances which the opposite Interests and Designs of the former times had brought upon this Nation She was not only ripe and sit for Government but she had by this time acquired a strange and unusual degree of Civil Prudence She knew the Publick or Royal Laws of England not only by reading them in Books but also by the great Reflection she had made on our History and on what had happened in her own times and by her Conversation with great men and the application she had ever made of her Mind to whatever was worth regarding The 14th of January after her Sister's Death 1558 9 she was Crowned with the Ancient and Usual Ceremonies when her People gave her fresh Instances of their Loyalty and Affection by crowding in unusual Numbers to see and partake in the Joy of this Solemnity And she having observed that her Sister by the sullenness of her Behaviour had much disobliged the People frequently looked on them with a chearful and pleasing Countenance and returned the Respects they paid her with great sweetness She took the Ancient and Usual Coronation-Oath That she would govern her Kingdom according to the Ancient and Laudable Laws and Customs of England which she observed more willingly than most of her Predecesfors had before her and this gained her both the Love and Reverence of her People At first she cherished in her Roman Catholick Subjects a belief she would Imbrace that Religion they prosessed She changed nothing in the Publick Service or the Administration of the Sacraments that she might not enrage her Papists and give them a pretence for Separation before she had well Established herself The Kingdom of England was then very unsetled and had received great Damages both at home and abroad the French had wrested from us the strong Town of Bologne in the Year 1546. before the death of Henry the VIII â—h and Calais in the beginning of this Year The Sea was full of Privateers and there was scarce any thing to be trusted to In this Disorder of Affairs she wisely thought That the only way to settle and preserve the Nation from Imminent Ruine was to chuse wise and upright Men to manage the Publick Affairs She declined the use of Rash and overbold Men who have commonly brought mischief on the States that have trusted to them Being weary of the Popish Ceremonies and their Conversation she retired for some time to one of her Country Houses as it were for Diversion and Pleasure but in truth that she might with the greater Leisure and Secrecy consider of the Methods she should take for the removing the Dangers which threatned her Kingdom for the Preservation of its Peace for the Abating the Power of the Popish Party and the setling that Religion here which she believed was most for the Glory of God as being most agreeable to the Sacred â—…criptures The Men that she most relied on in this great and difficult Work were William Lord Parre of Kendal Marquess of Northampton whom she had restored to his Honours Francis Russel Earl of Bedsord Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
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
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
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
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
the Crown which yet could not be proved by certain Evidence That the times were unjust and wicked and Malice was blinded with Prejudice and made no scruple to charge the most Innocent with horrid Crimes â—…hat however there was an All-seeing Justice which attended at the Throne of God which was the best Avenger of all secret Villanies It will appear by all this what Difficulties there were on all hands in this great Affair and that the Queen was not acted only by a spirit of Jealousie and Revenge for what was past or out of a Personal and Selfish Humour oppressed this Banished Queen without considering all things with great application of mind The Lord Herris who attended the Court for the Queen of Scots was not idle in the mean time but earnestly sollicited Queen Elizabeth That she would not rashly believe any Accusation which should be brought against a Sovereign Queen till she had been heard and that the Meeting of the States of Scotland should not be precipitated by the Earl of Murray the Prime Regent to the Prejudice of the Deposed Queen and the Ruin of all her Loyal and Good Subjects The Queen of England accordingly did interpose her Authority with Murray as to the lattter of these but the Regent went on for all that Assembled the States of Scotland and attainted several of those that had taken Arms for the Queen and seized their Estates and Houses The Queen of England being highly incensed upon this sent Sir Walter Mildmay to the Regent to tell him from her That she could not sit still and see the Sacred Power of Princes be brought into Contempt amongst their Subjects and be trodden under foot at the Will and Pleasure of Factious men That altho they had forgot all that Duty and Respect which they owed to their Queen yet she for her part could not forger the Affection and Compassion her Piety obliged her to shew to a Sister and a Neighbour Queen That therefore Murray should either come to her himself or send some able men who might answer the Complaints of the Queen of Scots against the Regent and his Partakers and shew the Causes for which they had Abdicated Deposed the Queen which if they did not forthwith do she would dismiss the Queen of Scots and lend her all her Forces in order to the resettling her in her Kingdom And at the same time she admonished them not to sell the Queen's Jewels and Wardrobe tho the States had given him leave to do it The Earl of Murray accordingly and some other of the Nobility came into England and the case of the Queen of Scots was heard at York by several of the Lords of the English Council but could be brought to no Issue by reason of the cross Interests and the mutual Fears on all sides Tho the Queen of England to the last declared That she detested the Insolence of the Scots in her soul who had presumed to Abdicate their Queen But then when the Duke of Norfolk thought it reasonable that Murray should be stayed in England and be prosecuted for the Death of the Lord Darnley which the Queen of Scots said she would prove against him tho this was approved by the Earls of Arundel Sussex Leicester and Clinton afterwards Earl of Lincoâ—…n yet the Queen was very angry at the Motion and openly said The Queen of Scots would never want an Advocate as long as the Duke of Norfolk lived So that upon the whole it is strongly probable she durst not dismiss or restore the Queen of Scots for fear it should involve both England and Scotland in Wars and Calamities which would have very much endangered the utter Ruin of both the Nations but then she was desirous as much as was possible to keep the Example from spreading to the Damage of other Princes and the Endangering other States in other Circumstances as much as it tended now to their Preservation Many have endeavoured to blacken this Act of the Queen's and others to defend and excuse it but for my part I think the Character God gave of King David may be applied to Queen Elizabeth here David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite And what if upon the whole the Queen of the Scots is to be excepted only in our Instance This Reflection will appear so much the more reasonable if we take into Consideration her Death too The Queen of Scots had been now a Prisoner in England almost XVIII Years when the Queen of England was prevailed upon by the earnest Solicitation of many of the Peers and Commons of England who fell down upon their Knees humbly requesting her Majesty as Melvil expresseth it to have Compassion upon their unsure Estate albeit she should slight her own Alledging That her Life was in hazard by the Practices of the Queen of Scotland and their Lives and Fortunes also Now as it was possible for the English to have kept all those ill men from her which might put the Queen of Scotland upon such Practices so it was utterly unreasonable that Queen Elizabeth should expect the Queen of Scots would desist from endeavouring by all the ways that were possible to recover her Liberty and her Kingdom tho with the Death of her Oppressor But by this time the King of Scotland her Son was become a man and he would have secured the Peace and Possession of that Kingdom and the Queen of Scots was now XLIV Years of Age and so not so likely if she had escaped to have been Courted or to have wrought her any great Mischief in the world as she might have done in her Younger years besides by this time the States of Holland had pretty well establishtd themselves to balance the Spaniards but then the House of Guise was then in its greatest Pride and the King of Spain was preparing his Invincible Armado which came two years after and these two may seem to have been the real Motives to it But whatever they were the thing cannot be justified neither ought it and Queen Elizabeth seems to own as much by her ruining Davison the Secretary to conceal her own fault tho in truth it made it much worse When the Queen of Scots was brought before the Lords that were to Try her for her Life she declined their Jurisdiction as well she might and alledged she was a Sovereign Queen to which the Chancellor the Lord Hatton replied You are accused but not condemned You say you are a Queen be it so if you are innocent you wrong your Reputation in avoiding Tryal You protest your self Innocent the Queen feareth the contrary not without grief and shame To examine your Innocence are these Honourable Prudent and upright Commissioners sent Glad will they be with all their hearts if they may return and
of Supremacy And finding that the Iesuits and Secular Priests were under the Mask and Pretence of Religion the Spies and Partisans of Philip II. King of Spain and the Emissaries and Promoters of the Papal Tyranny and Disorder and that their greatest business was to pervert her Subjects and to entice them to commit the most unnatural and horrid Crimes she banished them for ever from her Kingdoms and Territories and made it Treason for them to return and Felony for any of her Subjects knowing them to be such to entertain conceal or harbor them This which was designed by the Queen and the Government to cure or rather to prevent their Treachery and Malice by keeping them at a distance inflamed their rage against her so that concealing themselves under the Habits and Dresses of Lay men and sometimes under the Disguise of Mechanick and mean Trades and Employments they lay as it were in ambush expecting and ready to catch at any opportunity that offered it self to murther her In the year 1578. which was the 12th year of her Reign and the very year when the Popish Schism began several of the Popish Priests fled over into Flanders where Philip II. had already prepared for them a College at Doway and here they put themselves under the Government of one William Alan a Divine of Oxford who having obtained a large Pension from the Pope opened here a School for Rebellion and Treason To the end say they that as the Papal Priests in England are by time extinguished there might always be a new Race to supply their Places and sow the Seeds of the Roman Religion in England and therefore they called these Places Seminaries and those that were educated in them Seminary Priests The first of these Seminary Priests sent over were Robert Parson and Edmund Campion in the year 1580. Parson was a Somersetfhire man of a furious and hot Temper and of an ungenteel behaviour Campian was a Londoner well bred sweet and elegant and both of them had been bred up in the University of Oxford and had profess'd the Protestant Religion These men upon their coming over into England appeared sometimes in a Military Habit sometimes in the Dress of a Gentleman and at others in the Habits of the Clergy and sometimes like Paritors and frequented the Country Houses and Seats of the Popish Nobility and Gentry Parson was so hot with them for the deposing of the Queen that some of them were strongly inclined to deliver him up into the Hands of the Magistrates Campian made it more his business to pervert the People by his Writings to the Popish Religion but his Reign was not long for in the year 1581. he was taken and executed for High-Treason The Queen had before this put out a Proclamation to give these men a caution before-hand That seeing they had put off all that Love which they owed to their Countrey and the Allegiance which was due to her they should yet behave themselves prudently and modestly and not irritate her Justice any farther against them for she was now resolved not to be cruel to her self and her good Subjects any longer by sparing such Miscreants as she had found them to be So that how severely soever they were used they had the lessâ—…ason to complain because she had fairly before-hand told them what she meant to do and what usage they might expect at her hands In the year 1583. Francis Throgmorton the eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel and others of the Popish Religion conspired to deliver the Queen of Scots out of her Confinement Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip his Son Earl of Arundel were suspected and confined to their own Houses and some others were suspected and difficultly delivered themselves For about this time the outragious Malice of the Popish Party against the Queen broke out to that degree that they printed Books to exhorâ—… the Queens Servants to serve her as Judith did Holofernes The Author of which was never fully discovered but iâ—… was suspected that it was written by Gregory Martin of Oxford but Carter a Printer that printed it was hanged Throgmâ—… had the same Fate but Paget and Charles Arundel left the Nation and went into France Stafford the Queen's Ambassador desired they might be sent out of France which was denied because the Queen had at the same time entertained the Count de Montgomery and had then with her Sagner an Advocate of Berne an Ambassador for the King of Navar who was endeavouring to promote a War in France In the year 1585. William Parry a Welshman by Birth and of a very mean Extraction meanly learned in the Civil Law but proud and gallant beyond his Means being chosen a Member of the Lower-House declaimed very furiously against a Bill then proposed in Parliament against the Jesuits averring tâ—…at it was a cruel bloody desperate Bill and would be destructive to the Kingdom of England Being desired to shew his Reasons for what he said he refused to answer before any other than the Privy Council whereupon he was commitâ—…ed and afterwards upon his submission readmitted into the House but was afterwards accused by Edmund Nevil the Heir Male of the House of Westmorland to have a Design against the Life of the Queen which he confessed afterwards in the Tower upon which he was tryed and executed In the year 1586. J. Ballard a Ruffling Priest of the College of Reims came over to embroil the Nation and made his visit to most of the Popish Nobility and Gentry in England and Scotland being every where accompanied by one Mand who was a Spy employed by Sir F. Walsingham This Silken Priest came into England about Easter and contracted a great acquaintance and friendship with Mr. Anth. Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman of good Birth and Estate of great Wit and Learned above his years but being a great Zealot for the Romish Religion he about a year before this without the Queen's leave went into France and there was first debauched as to his Loyalty by Morgan an Agent for the Scotchmen in that Court Ballard informed this Gentleman that the Queen of England would not live long because there was one Savage come over to assassinate her This Project did not please Babington so he formed a new Design in which were Edward Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Sarisbury of the County of Denbigh Charles Tilney one of the Gentlemen Pensioners that waited upon the Queen and the only hope of his Family but reconciled to the Church of Rome under-hand by this Ballard Chidick Tichburn of the County of Southampton Edward Abington Son of the Queen's Cosserer Robert Grage of Surry John Traverse John Charnock of Lancaster John Jones whose Father had been Master of the Wardrobe to Queen Mary Savaâ—…e and one Barnwell of a Noble 〈◊〉 Family Henry Dun a Clerk in
keep her Promise And at other times she would say She promised them a Liberty to Preach but she never meant they should Marry Bury Baptize Administer the Lord's Supper and hold Consistories and the like When the Regent saw her Forces at hand she wrote to the City of Valentiennes to receive a Garison in the year 1566 because that City was more inclined to embrace the Reformed Religion than any of the rest in the Low-Countries and had rescued some that were condemned to be burnt for Heresie heretofore and also because it was nearâ—…r to France and so more suspected They refused to comply with this Command alledging many Reasons and Privileges to the contrary and were thereupon proclaimed Rebels the 14th of December After this all means good and bad were used to prevent the exercise of the Protestant Religion which had its effect in all places but Amsterdam Antwerp Sherlogen-bosk Maestricht Utrecht and Ghent for these Cities still upheld it These Proceedings alarm'd the Cities of Flanders and Antwerp sent a Committee of the principal Inhabitants to consult with the Deputies of the Cities in Brabant who all joined in a Petition to the Regent That there might be a General Assembly of the States to take present order concerning the business of Religion by provision That then new Orders might be therein made for the preserving the true Christian Religion the Authority and Majesty of their King and for the promoting the Prosperity of these Provinces That in the mean time assurance should be given to those of the Reformed Religion That they should not be molested or disquieted during this Suspension That after the said States have resolved with the King how they will settle these things those that were not satisfied with their Orders might have some Months time given them to retire in whither they pleased and those that would submit should have a general Pardon granted them This reasonable Request was very little debated because they of the Council knew the King's mind but was altogether rejected The principal Nobility of these Countries thereupon met at Dermondâ—… And here was read the Letter written by the Lord Montigni giving an account how much the King of Spain resented the present state of Affairs in the Low·Countries And there was also read a Letter written by Francis Davala the Spanish Ambassador in the Court of France to the Regent of Flanders the 29th of Auâ—…ust 1566. which was intercepted wherein he endeavoured to confirm her Highness in her opinion That all the Calamities of the Netherlands sprang from the Triumvirate meaning the Prince of Orange and the Counts of Egmont and Hoorne That it was fit nevertheless to shew these all the respect that was possible and to tell them that the King owned the preserving those Countries to have been the effect of their Loyalty and good Service But yet when time served he would punish them And also the two Lords that were now in Spain who should be kept there still to that purpose with Counsellor Rennert and that the King had sworn at Madrid That he saw well that what had happened in the Netherlands was not only prejudicial to his Honour but also to the Service of God which touched him so near that he would run the hazard of losing all the Dominions he had rather than not chastise this Rebellion exemplarily in the sight of all Christendom and that he would go thither in Person and send to the Emperor and the Pope for Assistance That his Majesty would certainly reap great Advantages from the ill things that had been done and expected to see those Countries brought under his Absolute Command and to settle after this both the Religion and the Civil Government as he thought fit which the King could never have done if these things had not hapned That the King had desired this a long time and they had now given him means to bring them under as to the Civil State and to quiet them as to the matters of Religion as he thought fit Thus the Crafty Spaniard made up his reckoning without his host and in the end found himself deceived The Nobility were never able howevâ—…r to come to any Resolve because Count Egmont was resolved to throw himself upon the King's Mercy and the Prince of Orange durst not undertake to Head the Leaguers against so Potent and Implacable a Prince as Philip the IId was then So this Discovery terrified and divided instead of uniting them And the City of Valenciens in the mean time defended it self very resolutely from the 14th of December to the 24th of March and then was forced to submit to Mercy Norcarmes the General for the King of Spain thereupon hanged up their Ministers and about Two hundred of the best of the Inhabitants whereupon the Regent forced or perswaded a great part of the Nobility to take an Oath to maintain the Roman-Catholick Religion but yet the Prince of Orange and some few others refused it and retired After this she fell to shut up all the Protestant Meeting-Houses and opened the Popish Churches furnishing them splendidly with new Images and other such-like Necessaries and they hanged up the contrary Party by whole-sale fifty or an hundred in a place some for pulling down their Images and others for bearing Arms against the Government And in some of the greater Cities they hanged up two three or four hundred men making Gallows of the Timber of their Meeting Houses Upon this many thousands of the Inhabitants of these Countries retired some into England and others into Germany so that by the beginning of May 1567. the Regent was intirely Mistress of all the Seventeen Provinces and there was not the least opposition any where made to whatsoever she was pleased to order Yet the King was never the more appeased but so soon as he heard the Inhabitants were mastered and brought under he put John Marquess of Bergen ap Zoom and the Marquess Van Montigni two Flandrian Noblemen both of the Roman Catholick Religion who went into Spain to inform him of the state of Affairs and to induce him to shew pity to his good Subjects into Prison where they both perished by what means was not known and besides he seized both their Estates In truth after long consultation it was resolved That the first Lâ—…gal Pretence that should be offered should be taken to bridle these provinces that they might so be brought into the new form of Conquered Kingdoms and be put under other Laws They pretended also that it was impossible without this to keep these Countries in the Roman-Catholick Religion because they were on all sides surrounded with Heretick Countries and relied very much upon their Civil Privileges and Liberties and this reason was very much pressed upon the King's Conscience by the Fathers of the Inquisition So that these Countries were doom'd to Slavery and Oppression as the only means to preserve Popery which can never thrive in a
upon it which in a few years will destroy it Thus also fell the Roman and all the other Empires when the fatal time was come Not that Religion was then the pretence of the oppressing their Subjects but Oppression is the same thing and will eternally have the same effect be the Pretence or Motive what it will Emanuel Van Meteren in his Third Book of the History of these times deploring the Loss his Countrey sustained by being deprived at once of all its Trades and so many of its useful and industrious Subjects saith That there was not less than an Hundred thousand people that then fled into strange Countries to earn their bread and tho some of these afterwards returned yet the main body of them never did and their Trades were lost to the English and other Nations who learned them of these people and exercise them to this day The Queen of England seeing the King of Spain was deaf to all her and her Neighbour Princes Entreaties and Intercessions with him for the mitigating his Sanguinary and Cruel Edicts concerning Religion and that he had set up in the Netherlands a Spanish Inquisition for the more grievous Torturing the Consciences of his Subjects That he had denied an Assembly of the States of the Netherlands which was the only and the usual way of composing their Affairs when they were in any disorder That he governed them rather by Arbitrary Orders sent from Spain than by the Laws of the Countrey or Counsels of the Natives That he made use of the Tumults which the meanest of the people had fallen into upon the account of the Images tho they were presently suppress'd and that by the Natives to bring one of the Freest Nations of Europe under the intolerable yoke of an Arbitrary Government turning unjustly the rash Folly and Madness of a few mean people to the great Damage of this whole Nation by pretending All that people had rebelled against him and thereby Forfeited their Ancient Liberties She saw also that he had sent Ferdinand Alavares Duke of Alva a Bloody man to usurp this Arbitrary Government who being no way related to the Royal Family was now constituted the Supreme Governor of these Provinces contrary to their Laws and that he had abolished and suspended the Jurisdiction and Authority of all their Legal Courts and brought in amongst them a new unheard of Tribunal which had proceeded illegally against several of the Nobility of that Countrey and condemned them to death and they had been thereupon executed That Spanish Garisons were quartered and Citadels built in the great Towns and Cities and the Twentieth Penny of all their Real Estates and the Tenth of their Personal had been illegally assess'd and by force levied She saw also that the Duke d' Alva the 29th of December 1568. had furiously and impatiently seized the Goods and Persons of her own Subjects and put them into the Custody of his Soldiers on the pretence of some Moneys stopped in England which belonged to the Merchants of Genoua who had consented to the Embargo and she concluded this enraged man was not content to oppress the Netherlands but would needs make himself a Terror to her and her people too whereupon this Heroick Lady commanded all the Ships and Goods of the Netherlands which were in her Ports to be stopp'd which were of greater value than those the Duke had been able to find in the Low-Countries whereby she humbled that proud hasty man and made him see how little she could fear either him or his Master This Action of the Queen 's opened the eyes of the poor oppressed people of these Countries and shewed them the way to deal with their Oppressors was to attack them by Water and not by Land They had made several attempts on the side of Germany under the Command of some of their banished Nobility in the year 1568 and they had been unfortunate in all of them Lewis Van Nassau Brother of William Prince of Orange tho he had 7000 men Horse and Foot and was a good and a prudent Commander and had taken all the care that was possible to prevent Misfortunes yet he was defeated near Emden The Prince of Orange who followed after was in a short time forced to retire into France tho he had 11000 men under him The two next years he served the Prince of Conde in France and in the year 1569. he took up the Resolution to grant Letters of Mart to all that would put out Ships to Cruise against the Spaniards in the Low Countries the Heer Van Dolhain being Admiral who in that year took and spoiled and ransomed many Ships This good success encouraged more in the year 1570. to take this course and as they grew stronger and more numerous so they had better success In 1571. they set upon the Fleet that was going to Spain and took and plundered a great part of it in the Texel The Duke of Alva sent out some Men of War against these Privateers but to small purpose because they were small and too nimble for his great Ships and Germany and England protected victuall'd and harboured them Whereupon in the year 1571. he sent to the Queen of England to complain of the Harbouring these Pyrates as he called them The Queen was in no haste to do his business after he had so far provoked her but in the year 1572. when they were become Rich and very Numerous she put out a severe Proclamation against them commanding them to be gone by a limited time or to be feized in her Harbours whereupon in March this year they put themselves under the Command of William Van Marck Lord Lumey to the number of about Thirty Ships or Fly-Boats well mann'd and victuall'd and these had the good fortune to find the Briel without any Garison and so they took Possession of it without any opposition the first of April The eighth of the same month Flushing joined with them and cast out the few Spaniards were there And after this in a short time the whole Provinces of South and North Holland as fast as they could by any means get rid of the Spanish Garisons revolted from them and took up Arms against the Duke of Alva declaring at first for the Prince of Orange as Stadtholder to the King of Spain in these Provinces Thus were the Foundations of the Liberties of the United Provinces in the Low Countries laid in the blood of its Inhabitants and as heartily at first promoted by the Roman-Catholick Subjects to preserve their Civil Privileges as by the Protestants to secure their Lives and Fortunes from the Arbitrary Violence of the Spaniards So that if either of them were Rebels it was because Philip the IId would not be contented with the same degree of Power the former Princes his Predecessors had enjoyed but made use of a Ferment the Providence of God and his own Cruelty and Imprudenee had raised in the
minds of his Subjects to enslave the Innocent and the Guilty And altho he made Religion his Pretence yet Ambition and Worldly Greatness and the subduing his own People and all his Neighbours was the Real Motive at the bottom I conclude therefore That he was a Tyrant and a Perfidious Man and his Subjects that revolted from him upon such horrid Provocations and after they had done all that was possible to bring him to better courses were no Rebels I cannot here but observe how frequently and passionately of late the Hollanders were called Rebels and Traytors here by a sort of men who were going to act upon us all the ill things the Spaniards did there but wanting Numbers they were forced to go slowly on and had great thoughts of heart that our Doctrine of Non-Resistance might fail them when they stood most in need of it to bind up our hands till they should cut our Throats and therefore they declaimed furiously against these Hollanders to fright us into the snare But certainly the man must be very silly that would at all regard the being called a Rebel by the Roman-Catholicks or part with all that is valuable to avoid that Reproach from such men of all others But to return from this Digression concerning the Cause of this War The Queen seeing her Neighbours in the Netherlands thus oppressed by the Savage Tyranny of the Duke De Alva and so injuriously exhausted by his Arbitrary and Illegal Exactions Prosecutions and Murthers and all the other Calamities of an unjust War and the distressed Inhabitants of these Provinces flocking in great numbers into her Kingdom to shelter themselves from the Affronts Assassinations Pride and Cruelty of this Enemy and Executioner with all they could bring away with them she opened her Ports to receive them and with great compassion heard their bitter Complaints whilst they deplored the Miseries of their Country and begged her Protection pursuant to the Treaties and Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy She always expressed a great regard for those Nations and Countries that lay near hers and were by Leagues united to her and she was the more afflicted for this People because fhe saw the extirpating the Protestant Religion was made the Pretence of one of the most flagrant Injuries that was ever offered to a Free People And therefore she was the more easily induced to deliver these her nearest Allies out of the Jaws of this Pyratc and Enemy of Mankind and to curb the Insolence of these Spanish Forccs that from all quarters were poured in upon these miserable Countries to enslave and destroy them She thought there was nothing in this world which so well became the Majesty of a Prince and tended more to her Reputation and Glory than the taking Arms against such men as these and in the Defence of such Supplicants to deliver them at once from the most intolerable Dangers and from Slavery It is very probable she would for a longer time have dissembled the Injuries the King of Spain had done to her and her Subjects if he would have mitigated his Rigors in the Low Countries but seeing that was not to be hoped for she resolved to put a stop to his Rage by Force and for the Glory of God and the common Safety of the Protestant Interest to assist the Netherlanders with Men Money Arms Ammunition and whatever else was necessary to keep them out of the hands of their Oppressors She neither feared the Greatness of Philip the IId nor the Threats of France nor the Secret and Treacherous Machinations and Plots of her own Popish Subjects at home nor the Hazards Expences or Calamities of a very dangerous and lasting War abroad with the Richest and most Potent Princes in her Times but putting her sole Trust and Confidence in the Providence and Protection of God she chearfully and undauntedly entred the Lists with these men that her Neighbours and Friends Confederates and Allies might enjoy their Ancient Liberties and Privileges their beloved Countrey their Estates and Fortunes and the Liberty of their Consciences and live happily She thought no Labour no Danger no Expence too great to be hazarded to obtain so great a Blessing for them but went through all that stood in her way with Courage Equinimity Fidelity and Constancy By which she acquired an Immortal Glory and is still esteemed the Deliverer and Preserver of this People and in truth of the whole Protestant Interest in Christendom The Kings of France and Spain in the mean time threatned to expel her out of her Kingdoms and promoted Rebellions in England and Ireland to that end against her but there happened such dreadful Civil Wars in both their Kingdoms that they were very much disabled from prosecuting these Designs to the degree they intended And she for her part was not wanting but sent her Forces both into France and Flanders to find these two Monarchs work at home and by kindling Fires in their Kingdoms prevented their laying her own in Ashes Thus at the same time she delivered Britain from the fear of a War with France and Flanders and whilst she protected her Oppressed Neighbours she preserved her own Subjects from an intolerable Foreign Servitude Thus she preserved England for ever from the Danger of a Spanish Invasion and Conquest upon which they were then bent and slew vast numbers of their best Commanders and Forces both by Sea and Land France for the first Thirty Years of her Reign was perpetually involved either in an actual Civil War within its own bowels or enjoyed an uneasie and a suspected Peace so that this Kingdom was never so quiet as to be able to look abroad and give any disturbance to its Neighbours The Protestant Party was strong and numerous and every day grew greater and was headed by the Princes of the Royal Family of the House of Bourbon And the Popish Party on the other side was the far greater Party and was headed by the Royal Family that was in Possession of the Crown of France So that Henry II. and Francis II. Charles IX and Henry III. his Sons who were all successively Kings of France one after the other did all that was possible by Wit and Policy Force Perfidy Wars Massacres Breach of Faith and Surprizes to extirpate this Party and when all was done the End of Seven Civil Wars one after another was a Toloration and the End of every Toleration but the last was a Civil War began by the Popish Party upon the Principle That no Faith was to be kept with Hereticks which Maxim was so often alledged either by way of Excuse or by way of Incitement or Justification that nothing but the Weakness of the Protestant Party could possibly have induced them to accept a Security which had been so often forfeited and which they were certain would last no longer than till the Popish Party were in a condition to break it And yet the keeping of the Seventh that
sixty Years the Right of it fell to Henry King of Navarre of the House of Bourbon but he was suspected by all his Popish Subjects stoutly resisted by all that were in the League against his Predecessor and Excommunicated by the Pope and sorely laid at by the King of Spain who dreaded nothing so much as the seeing France in the hand of a Valiant Wise Protestant Prince now his Invincible Armado was returned back srom England with Shame Ignominy and Contempt and such a Loss as Spain was never able since to recover The Queen-Mother of France who had been the principal Incendiary when she saw the Duke of Guise fall in the Assembly of Bloise and her only Son in the utmost danger of being Murdered or Deposed she died with the mere apprehension of the Calamities she had brought upon her own head and Family before her Son was slain And as for Henry the IVth the new King of France he saw things in that Disorder and Confusion that he was forced to raise his Camp and retreat from Paris into Normandy from whence he sent to Queen Elizabeth for Succors of Men Money and Ammunition The Queen presently sent Peregrine Lord Willoughby who had signalized his Valour in the Netherlands with Four thousand Men and Two and twenty thousand Pounds of English Money in Gold which was a Sum which Henry the IVth owned he had never before seen together in Gold at once Henry had beat the Leaguers before these men arrived contrary to the expectation of all the World and being thus reinforced from England he pursued his Victory to the Gates of Paris and was in a fair way to have taken the City but that he did not think it possible and he was besides unwilling to run the hazard of seeing the Capital City of France plundered by his own Army This tenderness of his at length brought him under the necessity of changing his Religion to gain the Crown of France In the year 1590. the King of Spain sent Forces to take possession of Bretagne a Province of France pretending a Title to it for himself and some of the English Courtiers advised Queen Elizabeth not to concern her self any farther in the Affairs of that Kingdom to her great impoverishing and no advantage telling her Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy used to say It would be better for all the Neighbour Nations to have France under Twenty Kings than One To which she as stoutly replied The Evening of the last Day the Crown of France should see would be fatal to England And the next year she sent a Fleet and Three thousand Land-men to secure that Province out of the hands of the Spaniards This small Number of men being commanded by Sir John Norris a person of great Experience and Conduct preserved that Province not only from the Dominion but in a good degree also from the Rapines and Cruelties of the Spaniards She spent in Three years in these French Affairs besides the Gold she sent to Henry the IVth into Normandy 226058 Crowns of French Money yet she did not burthen her Subjects to pay it but got it together by her Thrifty Management This Queen was wholly intent upon the humbling the Pride of Spain and at the same time she opposed his Greatness and curb'd his Ambitious Designs in France and the Netherlands she sent a potent Fleet and an Army into Spain in the year 1589 to revenge the Invasion of the preceeding year and to settle Anthony a Bastard in the Kingdom of Portugal which was then in the Possession of Philip the IId King of Spain The Army consisted of Eleven thousand Men and there went in the Fleet Fifteen hundred Sea-men The Army was commanded by Sir John Norris and the Fleet by Sir Francis Drake They first landed at the Groyne in Galicia without any Opposition and the next day they took the Lower-Town by Scalado but not without the loss of a great many men And here they found a vast Magazine of Gunpowder and Maritime Stores which was brought hither for another Expedition against England In this Expedition Robert Earl of Essex gave proofs of his Martial Inclinations for he stole away from Court without the Queen's Leave she being unwilling to venture any of her principal Nobility in so dangerous an Undertaking as this seemed then to be but this brisk young Gentleman on the contrary despising the soft Pleasures of a Court greedily embraced this opportunity of Revenging the Wrongs of his Countrey and set Sail after the Fleet in a single Ship and he had the good fortune to fall into the English Fleet after they had left the Groyne and were going to attack Lisbon wherein they had not the same success by reason their Forces were too small and the Fleet was kept at too great a distance to relieve the Army which was forced to march about Sixty Miles by Land but however they took the Towns of Paniche and Chascais and brought out of Spain One hundred Great Guns and about Sixty Ships sent by the Hanse Towns in Germany loaded with Corn which went round about Scotland and Ireland by the Vergivian Ocean to avoid being intercepted by the English the Queen having before warned those Cities That if they sent any Provisions or Ammunition into Spain she would treat them as Enemies Besides all these they brought back with them a very rich Prey in Housholdstuff Money and Plate which they gathered in that Kingdom but the most considerable advantage was the intercepting all the Stores which had been gathered for a second Expedition against England the Design of which was after this laid aside and the discovering the Weakness of the Spaniards when they were set upon at their own doors so that after this time the English despised this before so formidable Enemy they having with so small an Army marched so many Miles and taken so many places in two of the best peopled Provinces of that Kingdom In the year 1591. Robert Earl of Essex was sent into Normandy with Four thousand English to Assist Henry the IVth in the Reduction of Roan where before that City he lost his Brother Walter who was â—…ain by a Musquet This was so far from terrifying this Noble Earl that it was with wonder observed by the French that he exposed his own person the more freely that he might take all opportunities to revenge his Death After this in the year 1596. the Queen sent him her General again into Spain the Fleet which consisted of One hundred and fifty Ships being partly English and partly Dutch was commanded by Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England and the Land-Forces which were about Seven thousand and three hundred men were to be commanded by Essex and Howard as Joynt-Generals Essex having the Precedence on Shore and Howard at Sea They came before Cadiz the 20th of June but did not attempt to Land while the 22d and then they took
the Town on the first Assault by the Cowardise of the Spaniards which paid Five hundred and twenty thousand Ducats for its Ransom There was Two Millions more offered for the Redemption of the Ships in Port Real but it was refused by the Admiral he saying He was sent to Burn and not to Ransom the Spanish Navies The Spaniards confess they lost in the Sack of this Town in Ships Taken and Burnt in Canon Taken and Sunk and in Stores and Ammunition and Victuals above Twenty Millions of Ducats The Magnanimous Earl of Essex was for keeping the Town and Island and he offered to do it with Three hundred men and Three Months Provision for them but the rest of the Commanders who had enriched themselves were for returning and so he was forced to return much against his will the 5th of July when he had got little but a Noble Library which he chose out of that Rich Spoil The Spaniards observed The English in this Sack shewed themselves to be Hereticks by their Contempt of their Religious Houses and Places but in all other things they behaved themselves with great Valour Prudence and Generosity The Noble Earl would fain in his return have attempted the Groyne St. Andreo and St. Sebastian but the rest of the Commanders were against making any other Trial of their Fortune believing they had done enough for the Glory and Safety of their Countrey This Expedition secured England for the Remainder of her Reign against all the Attempts and Fears of Spain In the year 1599. this Earl was made Deputy of Ireland which proved his Ruin Sir Robert Cecil in his Absence being made Master of the Wards tho the Queen had promised him that Office and he depended upon it as that which was to repair his Estate shattered in her Service whereupon he came back without her Leave and the next year after was beheaded for Attempting to Raise an Insurrection in London against the Court. To pass from these Foreign Affairs to others that were of nearer concern to England there was in all her days a Destructive and most Chargeable War continued against her in Ireland The Irish Nation have ever since it was subdued by the English born an implacable hatred to the Conquerors which neither Marriages nor Benefits nor Losses nor Time it self has been able to extinguish But when in her time the Religion of England was changed and the general Body of the Irish and a great part of the old English Families persisted in the Popish Religion there was by that means a new Ferment added to their restless and unquiet spirits so that there was nothing to be heard of from thence but frequent and perfidious Rebellions which were the more dangerous and lasting because they were excited by the Pope's Bulls whom the Irish reverence above all other Nations and supported and carried on by Spanish Counsels Money and Forces Yet however the Queen did never think it her Interest to make a sharp and a concluding War upon them because this was not possible to be done without being grievous to her People of England whilst she was forced to spend such prodigious Sums of Money in the Netherlands and France as would have made an effectual War in Ireland insupportable She took care in the mean time to send over thither the Best and Wisest of her States men and Sword-men as her Deputy-Lieutenants and she sent them such Supplies of Men and Moneys as enabled them from time to time to keep the English Pale in good order and to hinder the Spanish Party from growing more Potent in the North than was convenient to consume his Forces and divert him from nearer and more dangerous Attempts and by her Generals and the Forces she sent over she wasted and consumed the Forces of the CLANS and great Irish Lords and by degrees brought the Wild and Barbarous Irish from the former way of living more like Beasts than Men in Woods and Mountains to the living in Populous and well-govern'd Towns and Villages She taught them to leave off their barbarous cruel Customs and to live soberly and according to Law to forsake their wild ways of Diet and Cloathing and live more Civilly and like the English The Northern Province of Ulster was the first that Rebelled the Scots and the Islanders in great Numbers pouring into that Province whereupon Shan O Neale in the year 1563. took up Arms against his Sovereign instead of sending to her for Assistance to drive out these Foreign Enemies He was first Reduced by the Earl of Sussex and forced to come into England to beg Pardon of the Queen The next year he broke out again and was reduced by Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy and in 1565. he perished in a drunken Fray by the Macdonnels to whom he fled for Succour and Refuge This Shan O Neale was so wicked and debauched a Villain in all his Actions that all men approved of the Revenge Macdonnel took of so false and perfidious a man that had done many Wrongs to them and their Families as well as to the English The Macdonnels were Scots and of the number of the Islanders that had setled in this Province of Ulster This Execution hapned the 2d of June 1567. Mr. Cox writes their Names MACCONEL In the year 1564. there hapned a Quarrel between the Earls of Ormond and Desmond which came to a Battel between them at Affane in the County of Waterford The next year they went over into England together to implead each other before the Queen who of the two was most inclined to favour Desmond In 1566. they returned and Desmond took the Field with Two thousand men to join Shan O Neale as was pretended but in truth to Revenge his Quarrels on the Earl of Ormond who defeated him and all his Forces near Drumelin and in the close of that year the Lord Deputy Sidney took Desmond Prisoner and at Limerick tried him for High-Treason and he was found Guilty and committed to Prison and his Brother John was Knighted and made Earl of Desmond This Quarrel was at first a personal private Feud between these Two Potent Families but in the year 1568. some Laws having passed in a Parliament which displeased the Great Men they took up the pretence of Religion to draw in the People and the Pope entred into it and the King of Spain was solicited to send Forces by the Earl of Desmond's younger Brother Titular Bishop of Cashil Thereupon the Lord Deputy began the War this very year and defeated Two thousand of their men near Kilkenny with the loss of one single man The Earl of Ormond was then in England and went into Ireland to reclaim his own Brothers who joined with Desmond in this Revolt which was designed to subvert the Government and clear the Countrey of all English Men and English Laws In the year 1569. Pope Pius Quintus Excommunicated the Queen and deprived her of all her Dominions and
this had such effect upon Ireland that there was no quiet to be looked for in that Kingdom to the end of her days But yet by the year 1571. Sir John Perrot Governor of Munster brought that Province into Peace The King of Spain was slow in meddling with the Irish Affairs and sent them little or no Supplies till the year 1578. which was Ten years after they began to treat with him for his Assistance This year one Stukely an English-man was sent by Gregory XIII Pope of Rome and the King of Spain with Eight hundred Italian Soldiers but he went with Sebastian King of Portugal into Africa where he and his men perished with that King In 1578. Sir William Drury was sworn Lord Deputy of Ireland the 14th of September The same year James Fitz Morris after he had Sworn Allegiance to the Queen before Sir John Perrot went into France and failing of any Supplies from thence he went into Spain where he obtained a few Men and some Money and in July 1579. he landed Eighty Spaniards at Semerwick in Kerry where he built a Fort and Sanders the Pope's Legate Consecrated the ground but the English took the three Ships for all that and put the Spaniards into a wonderful fright The Desmonds joined with these Rebels and soon after a great many of the old English who persisted in the Roman-Catholick Religion which was in a great degree owing to the smalness of the English Forces in Ireland the Army being then but about Six hundred men Sir William Drury sickned and died and Sir William Pelham was chosen in his Place by the Council and Sworn the 11th of October 1579. who was succeeded by Arthur Lord Grey Baron of Wilton Sworn the 14th of September 1580. He took the Fort above-mentioned and put all the Spaniards to the Sword which much displeased the Queen tho the Deputy alledged That he could not keep them his Prisoners the Army was so small and the Numbers of his Enemies were so great The Deputy went on with small Forces and an Invincible Resolution and Industry defeating and reducing them so often and so strangely that at last they got him represented to the Queen as a Bloody man that regarded not the Lives of the Subjects any more than the lives of Dogs but had Tyrannized with that Barbarity that there was little left for the Queen to reign over but Carcasses and Ashes The Necessity of the Times had indeed made him severe but he had shewed much more Mercy to the Irish than either they deserved or was consistent with the Queen's Interest or the Safety of the English that were in Ireland however in the midst of his Victories he was re-called in August 1582. The next year the miserable Earl of Desmond was taken in a Cabin in a Wood and slain unknown by an Irish man and his Head sent over into England and set on London-Bridge His Name was Girald and he was the Fifteenth Earl of that Family and with his Life ended this Rebellion in Munster The Queen was however a Lady of that Generous Mercy and Compassion that she was heartily concerned for the Bloods of these miserable Wretches who sought hers and her Protestant Subjects Ruin with an Hellish and Implacable â—…ury The distributing Mercy and Justice with Prudence is the hardest Task a Prince has and in truth there is none but God that can pretend to do it always well because he alone knows both the truth of all mens actions the ends and designs of them and the tempers of the Agents as to the present and the future But Princes are often deceived in one or more of these and so spare or punish when they should not Besides they are subject to the same Passions other men are and by them they are mis-led when the thing is plain It is better generally speaking to be too Merciful than too severe But when it is known once that a man will be so it ruins more than it can save and too much exposeth the Innocent Mercy to Multitudes and mean people is always seasonable and the contrary destructive but to pardon Great men for two three or four Rebellions one after another is to proclaim a liberty of doing it impunedly She was never guilty of this in England but in Ireland it was frequently done and therefore it was her own fault that she met with so much trouble and all her Mercy almost was thrown away and proved Cruelty to the English Pardon a barbarous Enemy and you make him insolent and therefore inexorable Justice especially upon a relapse is absolutely necessary but then this is to be understood only of great Men and of great Crimes such as Murder and Rebellion In the year 1584. June 26. Sir John Perrot was made Lord Deputy of Ireland He was sent thither in unquiet and dangerous times and he managed Affairs with so much Industry and Courage that he saved Ireland tho he himself fell a Sacrifice to the Malice of Hatton the Lord Chancellor of England In his time the Queen gave to several Adventurers of the Lands forfeited by Desmond and his Accomplices 574628 Acres The Proprietors were to People the same and to pay the Queen over and besides 1976 l. 7 s. 5 d. the year Quit-Rent To this end she invited the younger Brothers of the English Nation to settle in Ireland promising them great Privileges and Land at reasonable Rents The Burks in Connaught hereupon rebelled but were overthrown Seven of Three thousand scaping Thus things were again reduced into a tolerable good order and the dispeopled Province of Munster was at once Peopled and Civilized by the English but the Deputy had no share in it but it was managed by a Committee for he was on ill terms with the Queen upon the account of some indiscreet passionate words he had dropped and which were by the Malice of his Enemies told the Queen with many invidious Additions The Queen had ordered That if any unforfeited Lands were intermixed with those that were forfeited that the Proprietor should be compounded with to his content and be bought out that so the Undertakers might have his Mannor intire But when this came to be put in practice there was great and loud Complaints brought to the Deputy That the Adventurers had unjustly outed many innocent men of their Inheritances out of covetousness to get their Estates Whereupon a Proclamation was issued out Commanding the Proprietors to restore what they had unjustly taken which with the favour the Deputy shewed to the Ejected Irish by the Queen's Order put a stop to the Wrong and the Complaints As he had had no hand in the distribution of these Lands so he soon made the Adventurers sensible they were to expect no favour from him which turned to the advantage of the Irish but occasioned bitter Complaints from the English against the Deputy as a Favourer of the Irish rather than of the English But
24th of February 1599 600 The English Army was then 1200 Horse and 14000 Foot and the General finding the Irish Strength was in their Fastnesses he resolved to ruin them by small flying Parties placed in Garisons and this way accordingly destroyed them without redress and they began to talk of submitting which was not regarded because all the world saw there was no Truth Faith or Honour in this barbarous and false Enemy From thenceforward many that begged for Pardon were denied it if they did not bring in the Heads of their Fellow-Traytors or do some other considerable service to purchase it which they seldom failed of attempting and were very often taken by their own Party in the Fact and hanged The War went vigorously on and the Rebels were generally beaten in all places till the 23d of September 1601. when the Spaniards landed at Kingsale and the English immediately sat down before it yet the Spaniards tho beaten in every Sally defended the Town to the 24th of December when there was a general Battel between Tyrone and all the Rebels on the one side and so many of the English as could be spared out of the Trenches Tyrone was beaten out of the Field and he lost 1200 of his men 800 wounded and the English lost only one Cornet and six Soldiers The Spaniards knew nothing of the Battel and made no Sally till it was over tho the Fight was within one Mile of Kingsale but then they sallied twice to no purpose whereupon the 31st of December the Spaniards capitulated and delivered up the Town After this the War went on so successfully against these Rebels and they were reduced to such Necessities that the Parents eat their Children and three Children roasted the flesh of their dead Mother and lived upon it twenty days so that this exceeded the Famine of Jerusalem The 30th of March 1602. Tyrone submitted to Mercy at Melifont begging to be received upon his Knees Thus ended this most dangerous Rebellion that ever was made in Ireland before that time about a week after the Death of the Queen and before it was known It had never risen to that height but for the over-great penuriousness of the Queen for which she afterwards paid very dear and had not the happiness to see the Traytor Tyrone at her foot before her Death but however she was sufficiently revenged of all her Enemies by the Ruin Famine Deaths and Plagues that fell upon them Heaven favouring her Cause and blasting all their Undertakings against her It is very observable that the main pretence of this Rebellion was the Preservation of the Roman-Catholick Religion yet there was then never any Law passed in this Kingdom against it nor any Prosecution made of those that professed it but they had a perfect Liberty of Conscience to embrace which of the Religions they pleased only the Church-Preferments and Revenues were put into the hands of the Protestant Clergy and the Tythes paid to them and the Government was generally put into the hands of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but so that they were mixed and they of the other Religion being more in number were commonly returned on all Juries So that Liberty of Conscience will not keep a divided Kingdom always quiet but there have ever been men to be found who are as uneasie when they cannot persecute others as when they themselves are persecuted The Charge of this War from the first of October 1598. to the first of April 1603. amounted to Eleven hundred ninety eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen Pounds Nineteen Shillings and One Peny as Mr. Cox assures us from whence he inferreth how justly the Irish had for feited the Estates were taken from them and how reasonable it will ever be for the English in Ireland to contribute freely to the maintaining of a good Army for the preserving that Kingdom in Peace In her time the English Nation was at its highest pitch of Honour Wealth and Reputation The Queen was also in the greatest esteem that was possible with all the Neighbour Nations because she had delivered Scotland from the hated Dominion of the French and she had after this succoured and supported the Netherlands when their Affairs were most desperate she had sent vast Treasures into France to support Henry the IVth against the Holy League and the King of Spain and when after all Ireland had been stirr'd up against her and had made almost a general Revolt under the Command of a false and treacherous Traytor she had the good fortune to reduce that Kingdom by the Prosperity of her Arms and the Valour of her Subjects Spain was in her time terrible to all the other Nations in Europe till her Navies afflicted and ruined that Kingdom by burning their Fleets and Naval Stores at the Groyne and Cadiz Her Fame spread it self to the most distant parts of Europe and the Muscovites and Turks who were only known by report to the English before her happy times sent Ambassies to her to beg her Friendship and settle Commerce and Trade with her The King of Morocco and Fez in Barbary in Africa sent also an Ambassy to her so that her Subjects had the pleasure of smiling at the half-naked Moors and the Russ who were loaded with Furs after the manner of their Countrey The Hollander French Poles Germans Danes and Swedes and all the other Nations about her begged her Friendship in times of Peace her Assistance and Protection in times of War and on every occasion testified their sense of her Favours and their Gratitude for the good offices she had done them She laboured always to unite those Princes who were her Friends and Allies by Marriages and other such methods if any Controversie or Difference at any time arose between them she sent her Letters and her Ambassadors to both the Parties to compose them and they on the other side did for the most part acquiesce in her Judgment and yield to her Authority If in any part of her Dominions the Countrey hapned to become desolate and ill peopl'd she took particular care to send Colonies thither to supply that defect She brought her meanest Subjects from an idle poor and beggarly way of living to the practice of good and useful Trades many of which were brought into England in her time by the banished and persecuted Netherlanders to the great benefit and advantage of this Kingdom She made the Naval Glory of England equal to its Military or Land-Service and Reputation The Bounds of her Fame were not confined to England but extended to the utmost parts of the earth and the farthest Recesses of the Ocean for her Subjects in her time passed the Liâ—…e and filled all the corners of the habitable world with the fame of this most Celebrated Queen There was no place in the wide and remotest Ocean but her Subjects sailed thither with their Merchandize to enrich their Countrey The English Fleets
then first pierced into the vast Bays of the East-Indian Ocean and they frequented the Philippine Islands and the South Parts of Asia and the Eastern Shores of Affrica Drake and Cavendish in these times went round the Globe of the Earth and erected every where Trophies to the Honour of their Queen This last was not only above the hopes but beyond the thoughts of this Nation so far they were of attempting any thing of that nature before Sir Francis Drake was of a mean and obscure Extraction and born in Devonshire his Father embracing the Protestant Religion in the time of Henry VIII was persecuted for the same and forced to remove for his greater security into Kent after which he entred Orders and by Poverty was constrained to bind his Son to the Master of a Ship who sometimes passed into France and Flanders The young Man so well pleased his Master that he dying unmarried he gave this Servant of his his Ship After this he put himself under Mr. John Hawkins who in the year 1567. was preparing a small Fleet at Plymouth with a design to discover some yet unknown Parts of America but this Voyage was very unfortunate and the English falling into the hands of the Spaniards he lost all his stock and hardly escaped with his Liberty After this he became one of the most famous Mariners this Nation has produced and by his industry he opened the way to both the Indies which before was not known to the English For about five years after this first Voyage he preyed as a Pyrate upon the Spaniards wheresoever he found them and could master them and having by this means acquired a good sum of Money he built a stout Ship which he called the Dragon with which and two Barks he ventured once more in the Year 1572. to visit the Coasts of America and took Nombre de Dios a Town in the Bay of Mexico Here he was informed by the Negroes that were Slaves to the Spaniards and were called Cimarones that a vast Treasure in Gold and Silver was to be shortly after transported by Mules and other Land-Carriages from Panama in order to be shipped for Spain These he waylayed and seized all this Wealth which proved much more than he could bring away so that he was forced to leave the Silver a great part of which he buried in the Earth but he got all the Gold on board his Ship after which he burnt Sancta Cruz a Rich Receptacle of the Merchandises of this Country seated upon the River Chiagre which falls into the Gulf of Mexico at Porto Bello This Town of Sancta Cruz seems to be that which Mr. Gage in his Travels calls Venta de Cruzes and saith it lies about twelve Leagues from Panama to the East upon the Chiagre and was in his time inhabited by none but Mulatto's and Black-Moors who belonged to the Boats that carry the Goods brought thither from Panama to Porto Bello Thus far this bold Captain ventured to travel by Land with a small Party of resolute English men to the great loss and terror of the Spaniards and by the success of it encouraged others to follow him So that the Buccaneers which in our times have performed such wonderful things in America have only followed him in their Adventures From the Mountains of St. Pablo upon this River he first saw the Mar del Zur or the Pacifick Occan which washeth the Western Shoars of America and thereupon being strangely possess'd with a strong desire to sail herafter upon thatOcean he fell down upon his Knees and beseeched God to grant him that favour vowing to do his utmost for the discovering it and from thenceforth he found no rest in his mind night or day till he had accomplished this Resolution In the mean time our Great Man having divided the spoil he had taken amongst his followers with an open hand to all their content he set sail for England with vast Riches Whilst others gazed on the Gold he brought home with wonder He gloried in nothing but that he had seen the Mar de Zur and thought of nothing but the making Preparations to sail upon it which the Treasure he had got for he was now become very rich furnished him with means to effect and enabled him to build Ships for that purpose Whilst he was thus employed one John Oxenham a Common Sailer who had served under him in his former Expeditions as a Soldier Seaman and Cook and had gained the name of a Captain amongst the Mariners having scraped together under hand a good stock took up the same Project and resolved once more to rob the Mulatto's and sail upon that Sea before his Master to this end he got a single Ship and 70 Sailors to venture with him and in the year 1575. failed to the same place but hearing from the Negroes that now the Spaniards were become so cautious as to send a Guard of Soldiers with their Caravans to guard them from Panama to Porto Bello he drew his Ship ashore in a desolate place and covered it with Boughs burying his Cannon and Provisions in the earth and then with all his Company and six Negroes for his Guide he travelled to a River which falls into the South Sea where he cut down Timber and built some Boats and so passed to the Island of Pearls in that Ocean which lay not far from the Mouth of this River where he staid ten days to expect the return of the Ships from Peru and he intercepted one with fixty pound of Gold and another with One hundred pound of Silver and in these ships he passed back to the River The News of this being brought to the Spaniards they sent John de Ortega with an hundred Soldiers to pursue the bold Adventurers the River had Three Mouths and he was doubtful which to chuse till the Feathers of the Fowls the English had eaten came down and shewed him which way they were gone before The Spaniards found the Gold and the English contending about the dividing of it amongst them but they soon put an end to the brawl and defended themselves against the Spaniards who were more numerous than they with great Courage but many of them being slain in the Fight the rest were taken and amongst them Oxenham the Captainâ—… and sent to Lima where being not able to produce any Commission from the Queen for the invading these Spanish Dominions he and many of the Mariners were executed as Pyrates and the common enemies of mankind Drake who knew nothing of this Attempt and Miscarriage of Oxenham in the year 1577. the 13th of December set sail from Plimouth with five Ships and 163 Mariners the 16th of April he arrived in the Mouth of the River of Plate in Brafil the 20th of August he arrived at the Mouth of the Streights of Magellan when he came into the Pacifick Ocean he found it very turbulent and was driven by a furious Tempest in a
few days above a hundred Leagues to the South and here one of the Ships being separated returned back again through these Streights into England After this Drake took St. Jago in Chili and plundered it and here he got a Prize with 400 pound of pure Gold Arriving at Turapassa he found 13 Bars of Massy Silver of the value of CCCCM Ducats which was left on the ground by some Spaniards who were asleep by it he took the Silver and never waked the Keepers of it From thence he pass'd to the Port of Arica in which he found three Ships without one man in them but there was 57 Wedges of Silver each of 20 pound weight and some other Merchandize which he took Arriving at Lima he found twelve Ships but all the Mariners were on shore and yet in them he had a great quantity of Silk and a Chest of Minted Silver which shews how secure from Pyrates this Coast had to this time been Nor in truth till this time had any other than the Spaniards ever sailed upon this Sea except Oxenham In his journey to Panama he took a Barque without any resistance that afforded him 80 pound weight of Gold The first of March he took a Ship called the Cacofoga which had on board 80 pound weight of Gold and 13 Chests of Minted Money and as much Silver as balasted his own Ship the Master of this Ship told him That his Ship Drake's should henceforth be call'd the Cacofoga and the Spanish Ship the Cacoplata Being thus wonderfully enriched and as he thought sufficiently avenged on the Spaniards for the Loss he had sustained in his first Attempt upon Vera Crnz he began to consider of his return and not thinking the passage by the Streights of Magellan safe as in truth it was beset by the Orders of Francis Duke of Toledo then Viceroy of Peru he directed his Course Northward to the height of 42 Degrees of North Latitude to seek a paslage but finding nothing but snow and defolate shores he returned to 38 degrees and Wintered there calling the Countrey New Albion and here the naked people chofe him for their King and by their ignorance shewed him plainly the Spaniards had never been so far that way In the Month of November he set sail for the Molucca Islands the 9th of January his Ship stuck 27 hours upon a Rock but by the blessing of God came off it by a side-wind which seem'd to be sent of purpose to save this Hero From thence he passed to the Jsland of Java in the East Indies and so to the Cape of Good Hope which had never been seen before by any English-man and Watering at the Rio Grande in Africa he arrived in England the 3d. of November 1580. having in this time gone round the Globe of the Earth The People of England received him with great Triumph and a Publick Joy and the Queen as a Reward of the good Service he had done her against the Spaniards Knighted him and caused the Ship he had sailed in to be laid up at Deptford Mr. Gage our Countrey-man who lived some years in the Spanish Territories in America assures us his Memory is preserved there by the Spaniards who to this day saith he admire this Expedition and teach their Children to fear even his Name After this the Queen often made him one of her Admirals and he being grown exceeding rich took diligent care to put out a greater Fleet and openly assaulted the Island of St. Jago and took St. Domingo and Carthagena and some others in the West Indies being sent by the Queen with 21 Ships and 2300 men in the year 1585. The Towns they took in this Expedition were either so poor that there was nothing of Silver or Gold to be found in them or they had had such previous notice of the coming of the English that they had sent a way all that was valuable yet St. Domingo and Carthagena were forced to redeem themselves from Fire by Money the first gave Twenty five thousand Ducats and the latter One hundred and ten thousand which was presently divided amongst the Mariners and Seamen The Spaniards more regretted the loss of their ships great numbers being burnt and this hastned the Invasion designed upon England which was undertaken in the year 1588. which miscarrying the Spanish Greatness dwindled into nothing and after the Queen's Death they were glad to send to King James the First her Successor to beg a Peace in the first year of his Reign so the Honour of Reducing Spain was hers and that of setling Peace after a War that had lasted so long his The Riches and Fame Sir Francis Drake had acquired in these Maritime Expeditions encouraged Mr. Thomas Cavendish a Gentleman of Trimely in the County of Suffolk to pursue the same methods for the raising his Fortunes and with them the Reputation and Glory of the English Nation The 21st of July 1586. he set out from Plimouth with three ships the biggest of which was but 120 Tuns and 123 Seamen with Provisions for two years With this small Fleet he passed the Streights of Magellan and sailed up to the Coast of New Spain in the Mar del Zur and took 19 of the Spanish Merchant ships and burnt two or three of their Towns and then sailing to the Philippine Islands the Molucca's and the Cape of Good Hope he staid some time in St. Helens and the 9th of September 1588. he returned to Plymouth he having been the second man of this Nation that went round the Globe of the Earth with no less Honour tho he returned with less Spoils than the first Adventurer The Queen entertained him at Greenwich and bestowed upon him many Marks of her Favour and gave him some considerable Rewards Sir Martin Forbisher or Frobisher Sir John Hawkins Davis Jackman Jenkenson and Sir Walter Rawleigh and many others of the English employed their time in searching out the remotest parts of the world at the same time to very good effect there having been great Trades driven ever since by the Dutch and English by the means of their Discoveries Mr. Richard Hackluit who lived in these times took a particular care to collect and publish the Journals of all these Voyages by which he desâ—…rved very well of this Nation and it is a great pity that his Works are become so scarce and so little known and that no man has since pursued the same method these Discourses being of great use for all Mariners and serving very much for the enlarging and clearing the Geography of the World Philip King of Spain being highly incensed by the ruin of so many of his Towns and the losses he had sustained by Drake's Expeditions gave Order that all the English Sea-men that should after this be taken in America should be treated like Pyrates and the Enemies of mankind And all the Merchant Ships that fell into his hands were seized and the Merchants imprisoned tho there
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
had lived So that she kindled in the minds of all her Subjects by her bounty kindness and beneficence an ardent desire of Military Virtue and in this she exceeded the most of her Predecessors Burleigh though a man of great virtue and honour too stubbornly prosecuted the Cause of the Exchequer against the Commanders of those times and kept the Queen from shewing them that Favour and from giving them those Rewards they had by their Virtue and Industry so well deserved by which means he alienated from the Queen the hearts of many of the Nobility who were men of great knowledge valour industry and fidelity and had with the hazard of their Lives and Limbs procured hers and the Nation 's safety and after all in their old Age were left in poverty to struggle with the Debts and Diseases they had contracted in her Service To this man's sordid and sparing Humour was owing the failing of all Military Virtue in the following Reigns when men saw how rich he and the rest of the States men could leave their Families and Descendents whilst those of the greatest Generals and Commanders in the Wars were forced to be satisfied with the gilded glory of their Ancestors but ought in Reason and Justice to have been at least equally rewarded and I may say in point of Interest too Yet she was not over-liberal to the Gown-men and States-men in general nor did she take any extraordinary care of them or theirs She had learned this Lesson of her Grandfather Henry the VIIth Not to exhaust in any case the Fountain of her Bounty I mean the Exchequer which was again to be recruited by the Spoils of the People and unusual Taxes That Prince by his Virtue Labour Solicitude Thrifti ness and Provident Administration had re-established and improved the English Monarchy and the Revenues of the Crown and was for it much esteemed by the People of England of all degrees his Covetous Humour having been more beneficial to the Crown than damageable to the Body of the People because he gave few or none of the Crown-Lands to his Followers or Servants except when they were extorted from him by mere importunity or he was cheated with the pretence of an advantageous exchange but then he was also wont to give more freely the Estates of Convicted Criminals so that there are many Examples in the Rolls of his Times of men that rose by the Falls and grew rich by the Calamities and Ruins of others The small Gifts and inconsiderable Largesses this Prince gave when he was possessed of so much Wealth was a means that preserved England from Ruin after it had been so terribly exhausted by the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster The Earl of Oxford was one of the most Ancient Houses amongst the Nobility but by the excessive Bounty and Splendor of the former Earl was reduced to a very low and mean condition so that the Family was no longer able to maintain its Dignity and Grandeur And the Queen allowed that House One thousand Pound the year out of her Exchequer that one of the most Illustrious Houses in her Kingdom might not suffer that Want which was intolerable to those of meaner Extraction She also upheld Sir Edward Dyer an old Courtier who was become very poor and would not suffer him to want But as for those Spendthrifts and Wasters that had foolishly wasted their Patrimonies in Luxury and base Expences to gratifie their Intemperance and afterwards solicited her to bestow Pensions on them she sent some of them to her Privy Council who rejected their Petitions and gave those Reasons for it which the Queen was not willing to give her self and others who sought by way of Reward what they had never deserved she neglected That her Bounty might not encourage others to Luxury and imprudent Expences whilst they relied upon the Crown for the Repair of what they had wastfully consumed She for some time entertained and out of her Treasury supported An thony King of Portugal who was deprived of his Dominions by the Iniquity of Philip the IId King of Spain and fled to her with a few Servants for her Protection and Assistance She severely punished Sir Richard Bingham President of Connaught in Ireland tho he were an excellent Soldier because he was found guilty of a sordid and injurious Covetousness She entertained all Strangers that came to her Court with great Pleasantness Munificence and Decency and when they went from her she gave them Princely Presents Ursino Duke de Bracciano in Italy hearing of the Fame of this Queen came over into England to see her and he being a person of great Virtue and descended of one of the best Families in Italy the Queen gave him a splendid Reception and gave order he should be shewn her Fleets her Stores and Magazines her Veterane Soldiers and Garisons her Treasures and Wardrobes her Retinue and Princely Palaces and extorted from him a Confession That there was no where in the world a more Potent and Happy Prince than she She entertained several of the best and greatest Noblemen of Italy France Germany and Poland who all said of her That they never saw a more Magnificent Honourable Loving Courteous Prince than Queen Elizabeth and that her Virtue and Prudence was great and admirable above all the Examples they had ever seen read or heard In truth she was Mistress of all the Virtues that belonged to both Sexes and had none of the Faults belonging to her own but a little Unsteadiness in her Will Knighthood in her Times was rarely given and to none but men of Virtue and real Worth Soldiers and Gentlemen of good Families and Estates so that she scarce ever admitted any man into that degree of a mean Fortune or Extraction as was too frequently done in after times There were not many Enobled or raised from the lower degrees of Peerage to higher as Clinton and Howard her Admirals at Sea Lei cester and Warwick She made few Barons and amongst them Burleigh after he had served her many years with admirable Prudence Fidelity and Industry in many of the principal Offices at Court This lowest degree of Peerage was sparingly and with great Care and Consideration bestowed upon Worthy Men as a Reward of some signal Services and an Encouragement to others and not out of a Personal Affection or Respect It was not then sold by men that had easily obtained the Grant of a Blank Patent instead of ready Money and took no other care but who should give most for the Mercenary Creation which could only dishonour the person that gave it as well as he that bought it In her time none but the most Worthy the most Valiant the most Faithful to his Countrey and the most Loyal to his Prince could hope to obtain this Favour and raise his Name and Family Thus she charily and prudently kept the Rewards of Virtue and Industry
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
Drunkenness Filthiness Immodesty and the very fame and saspicion of Wantonness Whoredoms Rapes Adulteries and Incests were Crimes she detested and if she found any of her Retinue how great soever they were guilty of them they must never more come before her She banished Burgess one of her Maids of Honour because she had entred into an Intriegue with the Earl of Essex who loved her very passionately because the Queen suspected she had had an hand in his Ruin And the Lady Fitton another of these Maids was sent away too for yielding to the Inticements of a young Gentleman of Noble Birth The Noblemen found no more favour than the Ladies if once they were found guilty in the same kind She sent the Earl of Oxford to the Tower for attempting to Ravish one of her Maids of Honour that was a Tall and Lovely Lady If she knew any of her Nobility given to frequent Houses of ill fame she treated them with as little Respect as she did meaner men To conclude she shewed her self the Irreconcilable Enemy of all that had been found guilty of any base or immodest and unchaste Action She would frequently admonish her Servants and Attendants That they should take heed not to do any thing that might be dishonourable to her destructive to themselves and of ill Example to the Publick That they should take care not to bring an Ill Report upon the Chaste a Blot upon the Upright or an Infamy and Dishonour upon the Good In the Furniture of her Royal Palaces she ever affected Magnificence and an extraordinary Splendor she adorned the Galeties with excellent Pictures done by the best Artists the Walls she covered with Rich Tapistries She was a true Lover of Jewels and Pearls all sorts of Precious Stones Plate plain Bossed of Gold and Silver and Gilt Rich Beds Fine Coaches and Chariots Persian and Indian Carpets Statues Medals c. which she would purchase at great Prices The Specimen of her Rich Furniture was to be seen a long time after her Death at Hampton Court which was Moveabled above any of the other Royal Houses in her Times and here she had caused her Naval Victories obtained against the Spaniards to be represented in excellent Tapistries and laid up amongst the Richest Pieces of her Wardrobe These things did not only please the eyes of the Spectators and renew the Memory of the great things atchieved in her Times but they helped to raise in the minds of her Subjects and of Strangers too a Venerable Idea of the Majesty Wisdom Riches and Power of this Heroick Lady In her Meat Drink and other Nourishments and Refreshments she was very Temperate in private especially She was not subject to the love of Sleep or any of the other Pleasures of Human Life She eat very little but then she chose what was pleasant and easie of digestion and in her declining Age she became more Temperate than before but then she eat whensoever she was hungry She seldom drank above Three times at a Meal and that was common Beer and she very rarely drank again till Supper She would seldom drink any Wine for fear it should cloud her Faculties She loved Alicant Wine above any other She always Religiously observed the Fasting-Days When she made any Publick Feast or Dinners for her Honour or her Pleasure she would then order her Table to be served with all the Magnificence that was possible and many Side-Tables to be adorned with all sorts of Plate She had many of the Nobility which waited upon her at the Table at those times and served her with great Care and Attention In these things she took the greatest Pride to shew her Royal Treasures and made her greatest Feasts when Foreign Ambassadors were present who were highly pleased with these Shews At these times she would also have all sorts of Musick Vocal and Instrumental and after Dinner Dancing and she took care thus to entertain the most Illustrious Persons of other Nations that came into England Nor was she less careful that her great Ministers of State should keep up the Tables she allowed them and she would order her Nobility to keep good Hospitable Houses according to their Qualities and Degrees All which tended more to her Honour and the Reputation of the Nation than the Courses were afterwards taken up with a greater Expence The Splendor and Magnificence of the Publick Feasts in her times and the Ceremonies that were used when the several Courses were serv'd up to the Table would be troublesome to relate and perhaps a little ridiculous now they are antiquated The Cup-bearer never presented the Cup to the Queen but with much ceremony and kneeled always when he gave or took it and during the whole Refreshment Musick and Songs were heard and the Queen her self would frequently dance to humour the younger Persons in her Court for all these Solemnities were in her Royal Palace and were designed to adorn and sweeten her Government The coming of the Duke of Alenzon into England opened a way to a more free way of living and relaxed very much the old severe form of Discipline The Queen danced often then and omitted no sort of Recreation pleasant Conversation or variety of Delights for his satisfaction At the same time the plenty of good Dishes pleasant Wines fragrant Ointments and Perfumes Dances Masques and variety of rich Attires were all taken up and used to shew him how much he was honoured There were then acted Comedies and Tragedies with much cost and splendor From whence proceeded in after-times an unrestrainable desire of frequenting these Divertisements so that there was afterwards a greater concourse at the Theatre than at the Sermon When these things had once been entertained the Courtiers were never more to be reclaimed from them and they could not be satiated or wearied with them But when Alenzon was once dismissed and gone the Queen her self left off these Divertisements and betook her self as before to the care of her Kingdom And by her own Example and severe Corrections she as heartily endeavoured to reduce her Nobility to their old severe way of living and the former provident way of cloathing In her private way of living she always preferr'd her necessary Affairs and the dispatch of what concerned the Government before and above any Pleasures Recreations and Conversation and serious things before what was pleasing In the morning she spent the first fruits of her time in her Closet at her Devotions and then she betook her self to the dispatch of her Civil Affairs and to the reading of Letters and the ordering what Answers should be returned then she considered what was fit to be brought before the Lords of the Council she ever kept a vigilant eye upon the Motions of Philip II. King of Spain who was all her days plotting and contriving the Conquest of Europe and the reducing all his Neighbours and the Free-States and Cities of it under his obedience
a Lesson or two plaid upon the Lute but she would be much offended if there was any rudeness to any Person any reproach or licentious Reflection used Tarleton who was then the best Comedian in England had made a pleasant Play and when it was acting before the Queen he pointed at Sir Walter Rawleigh and said See the Knave commands the Queen for which he was corrected by a Frown from the Queen yet he had the confidence to add that he was of too much and too intolerable a power and going on with the same liberty he reflected on the over-great Power and Riches of the Earl of Leicester which was so universally applauded by all that were present that she thought fit for the present to bear these Reflections with a seeming unconcernedness But yet she was so offended that she forbad Tarleton and all her Jesters from coming near her Table being inwardly displeased with this impudent and unreasonable Liberty She would talk with Learned Men that had travelled in the presence of many and ask them many Questions concerning the Government Customs and Discipline used abroad She loved a natural Jester that would tell a Story pleasantly and humour it with his Countenance and Gesture and Voice but she hated all those Praters that made bold with other mens Reputation or defamed them She detested as ominous and unfortunate all Dwarfs and Monstrous Births She loved Little Dogs Singing Birds Parrots and Apes And when she was in private she would recreate her self with various Discourses a game at Chess Dancing or Singing Then she would retire into her Bed-chamber where she was attended by married Ladies of the Nobility the Marchioness of Winchester then a Widow the Countess of Warwick and the Lord Scroop's Lady whose Husband was Governor of the West Marshes She would seldom suffer any to wait upon her there except Leicester Hatton Essex Nottingham and Sir Walter Rawleigh who were more intimately conversant with her than anyother of theCourtiers She frequently mixed serious things with her Jests and her Mirth and upon Festival Days and especially in Christmas-time she would play at Cards and Tables which was one of her usual Pastimes and if at any time she happened to win she would be sure to demand the Money When she found her self sleepy she would take her leave of them that were present with much kindness and gravity and so betake her to her rest some Lady of good quality and of her intimate acquaintance always lying in the same Chamber And besides her Guards that were always upon Duty there was a Gentleman of Good Quality and some others up in the next Chamber who were to wake her in case any thing extraordinary happened Though she was endowed with all the Goods of Nature and Fortune and adorned with all those things which are valuable and to be desired yet there were some things in her that were capable of amendment nor was there ever any Mortal whose Virtues were not eclipsed by the neigbourhood of some Vices or Imperfections She was subject to be vehemently transported with Anger and when she was so she would shew it by her Voice her Countenance and her Hand She would chide her familiar Servants so loud that they that stood afar off might sometimes hear her Voice And it was reported that for small Offences she would strike her Maids of Honour with her hand but then her Anger was short and very innocent and she learned from Zenophon's Book Of the Institution of Cyrus the method of curbing and correcting this unruly and uneasie Passion And when her Friends acknowledged their Offences and humbly begged her pardon she with an appeased mind easily forgave them many things She was also of an Opinion That Severity was safe and too much Clemency was destructive and therefore in her Punishments and Justice she was the more severe The worst thing that she did in all her Reign was her treatment of the Queen of Scots who being by her own Subjects driven into Exile and not only deprived of her Regal Authority but of her Liberty her Estate and her Treasures and coming poor and distressed into England upon the Queen's promise and faith given she at first kindly and hospitably received and entertained her but afterwards confined her and at last upon pretence that the Queen of the Scots was plotting against her put her upon her trial condemned and at last executed her making her a sad and unheard-of Example of her cruel and unjust Severity Thus she polluted her happy Reign with the Innocent Blood not of an Enemy but of a Guest The memory of old Disgusts and Injuries prevailing more upon the mind of Queen Elizabeth than the dignity of a Sovereign Queen the Intercession of the Neighbour Princes the Laws of Hospitality the Tears of a Captive and a Kinswoman so that no Intercession no Supplications could take any place in a mind inexorably bent upon Revenge They that would excuse this mournful Action pretend the Queen of Scots was only confined to prevent mischief but she entering into a Conspiracy against the Queen of England in her own Kingdom and her Designs against the Life and Throne of Queen Elizabeth being thus detected there was no other way left to preserve the Life and consult the safety of Queen Elizabeth but by the punishment of the Queen of Scots and others who had conspired to destroy her That all Precautions were in vain and therefore it was absolutely necessary to cut off this Guest though her Cousin and the next Heir after her of the Crown of England and one that by her deprivation of her Kingdom and her Imprisonment in England was deprived of all means to hurt her If she would have taken the right method to secure her self she should have released her Captive and have sent her away which would have cut off the Causes and the Pretences of these Conspiracies and have tended more to her honour and peace than the way she took This Execution of the Queen of the Scots raised in the minds of the Neighbour Princes an enraged Indignation And she her self when she knew the Fact was done and could not be recalled deplored the united and common Indignation of all the Foreign Princes with many tears and gave many signs of her inward grief laying the blame of this wicked action wholly upon the Actors and upon every mention of the death of the Queen of Scots she would to her dying day weep bitterly and lament her misfortune in it So great was the force of her Repentance tho it came too late and was altogether useless It was thought she brought Leicester and Hatton two of her greatest Favourites to their Graves by her hard usages and the many Indignities she put upon them Leicester had offended her by attempting to imbroil the Affairs of the United Provinces in the Netherlands to that end he had suffered his Soldiers to live very irregular and without almost any
and sets down without any Truth the Imprisonments Tortures Punishments and Ignominies of the Papists He impudently writes That the Publick Places and Streets were washed with their Innocent Blood that the Priests were tormented the Matrons slain the Layicks hurried away to Death and Tortures forgetting or dissembling that in the short Five years Reign of Queen Mary there were more innocent Protestants burnt alive without Mercy than suffered in all the Forty four Years of that of Queen Elizabeth tho convicted of the greatest Crimes and executed upon the most Just and Legal Prosecutions viz. For disturbing the Peace of the Nation by Insurrections Tumults and Rebellions for entring into Conspiracies joining with Foreign Enemies or abetting and concealing Domestick Treasons and Traitors or for endeavouring to Murder the Queen The Moderation and Justice of the Queen has covered these passionate and false Scriblers with Infamy and Contempt and it were lost labour to endeavour to refute them Nor ought George Cone a Scot to be passed over in silence who in his History of the Life of Mary Queen of the Scots has persecuted the Memory of Queen Elizabeth with a rapid Fury He faith impudently That she was born in an Incestuous Marriage and got the Possession of England by Force which Expressions were the effects of a Flattering Affection to the Interest of the Popish Party and of Aversion for that of the Protestants These Treatments induced the Queen to be very severe against all Libels and Verses penned to the end to blacken the Reputation of any man which she forbad any to read or divulge and she ordered them to be burnt And she extended this her Severity to all Rumors and Reports that were spread abroad underhand for fear her People should by these means be excited to Rebellions or Seditions Whilst her Forces in Ireland under the Command of the Lord Montjoy were struggling hard with Tyrone for the Reduction of Ulster and Tyrone was reduced to a necessity of submitting himself to her which would have ended in the quieting of that Kingdom the Queen was involved in an uncurable and grievous Disease arising from the Greatness of her Age She spent many Nights sadly and restlesly without any sleep in much Anxiety and troublesome Cares her Stomach being wholly weakned and decayed loathed all sorts of Diet till at last the Anguish of her Troubled and Afflicted mind made her despair of a Recovery so that she despised the Counsels of her Physicians and became exasperated and stubbornly resolved against all Medecines The most powerful and considerable of her Friends who waited upon her night and day and did all they could to consolate and please her when they saw the muttering Discontents of her Physicians and considered seriously the uncertainty of the Event which might follow this Sickness of Body and Mind and the Imbecility of human Nature they became anxious and most earnestly besought her That she would curb this Disturbance and Grief of her mind that she would for the present not fill her mind with the Arguments of Learned men against the Fears of Death tho they had the shew of Wisdom that she would consult her own Reason and endeavour the Preservation of her Life and the Recovery of her former Health That she would not encrease her Danger by Despondency or her Distemper by her Obstinacy against all Medicines but that she would be pleased to yield to the Perswasions of her Physicians and follow their Advices Eat and endeavour to overcome her inward grief with Patience Lastly That she would be pleased to value and endeavour to preserve her own Life and deliver her Loyal and Faithful Servants Nobility and Subjects from that Anxiety and Sorrow that now oppressed them She made no other Answer to all this Wise and Loyal Advice but That she was full satiated with this present Life and now desired nothing more than to be translated to a state of Immortality and to make her escape out of this dark and disordered state of human Affairs That Death which many so much abhorred was only the payment of a Debt due to Nature and that our Spirits were of right to be restored to God from whom they came Thus her Body by slow degrees consumed away and she became very Lean Weak and Faint Yet after all her Mind was more afflicted than her Body She was night and day troubled with a sorrowful Remembrance of the late executed Earl of Essex The Grief of her Mind was encreased by the Necessity of her Affairs which compell'd her to yield to Tyrone not only his Life and Liberty and the Pardon of his Rebellions and Perfidy but a great part of his Estate which she esteemed a kind of rewarding him for his Treasons and Perjuries Her Sorrows were every day increased and made more insupportable by the Melancholy Humour which then abounded in her Blood and the restlessness of her Mind so that all her Strength being exhausted and her Mind which was filled with Indignation contributing more and more to the Disease she seemed to decline apace by the Weakness which augmented every day yet she bore this her last Sickness with a wonderful Constancy and Patience which alone deserved very great Commendation When some of the principal Nobility of England the Lord Admiral the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and one of the Secretaries of State in the Name and by the Order of the Privy Council told her Majesty That it was their humble Request That she would if not for her own sake yet for the good of her People throw off that load of Grief which oppressed her and lay aside the Resolution of dying That if she should happen to dye by the course of Nature in the present Circumstances of Affairs it would bring Ruin upon England That they had no hopes of any Prosperity after her Death unless the Certainty of the Succession were fixed by her If she should leave this to be determined after her Death in that flagrant desire men had of obtaining the Sovereignty there might many ill things be done and suffered which would augment the Sorrows of her People for the loss of so good a Prince Therefore they most earnestly and with one Voice and united Tears and Sighs intreated her That in her present Circumstances she would take care of the Common Safety of her People after her Death and that she would be pleased to remember That so many of the Lives of her Subjects would be exposed to the utmost hazard if she died without Naming her Successor To which she lovingly and modestly replied That if she died of this sickness the Kingdom would not want a Defender but would be in the same state of quiet Nottingham the Lord Admiral replied Whom do your Majesty mean She looking thereupon steadily on all that were then present said I mean James King Of Scotland my Dearest Kinsman and the Right Heir to Henry the VIIth This cheared all that were
present and she persisted constantly in this to her last Breath That he was her undoubted Heir When she had said this and recommended her Name and Memory to her Nobility she cast off all the Cares of this Life and betook her self wholly to the acts of Piety and Devotion she sent also for the Archbishop of Canterbury a Learned Pious and Moderate Prelate who was then the Guide of her Conscience and whose Salutary Advices she always much esteemed and gladly embraced When this great and good man came to her he admonished her to consider the Imperfection of the Human Nature and therefore advised her to place all her Hopes in the Merits of Christ. She replied with some difficulty of breathing or speaking That she was weary of this miserable Life which was subject to so many Calamities and Dangers That from her Soul she desired to pass to that Eternal Light which overflowed with all manner of Felicity and was hastning to her Heavenly Countrey to the Presence of her good Saviour and into his holy Arms. When the Bishop had ended his prudent and holy Exhortation she turned her a little and laying her Head upon her Right Arm she composed her self as it were to her Last Long Sleep with a Quiet Mind and a Composed Countenance nor were her Last Moments unlike the rest of her Life but it appeared by the motions of her Hand and Eyes that they were spent in the acts of Devotion and Mental Prayer Thus being at last wholly spent she quietly yielded up her Soul to God the 24th of March about Midnight in the year of our Lord 1602. in her Palace of Richmond and in the same Chamber Henry the VIIth her Grandfather died in She called this Royal Palace the Warm Box to which she could best trust her sickly Old Age and she was now come hither to avoid the over-sharp Winter She was a little less than Seventy years of Age and she had Reigned Forty four Years Four Months and Seven Days Thus died this Illustrious Queen which was not only the Greatest and the Best Woman of the times in which she lived but equal if not superior to any of her Predecessors in the Majesty of her Name or the Reverence that was paid to her by her Subjects and Neighbours in the Art of Governing in all the commendable Qualities of a Prince such as Council Policy Magnanimity in Misfortunes Moderation and Temperance in Prosperity Constancy in her Behaviour Maxims Friendship and Resolutions and accordingly the Glory that followed her and the Actions of her Reign was Incomparable She was lamented by them that then lived with an unfeigned and an unexpressible Grief and the Memory of her Virtue Learning and Piety has remained fresh and flourishing in all the following Times and shall do so for ever Her Words and Actions are in truth such as will render her Immortally Honourable be the Abilities of the Historians that shall truly represent the same what they will So soon as it was known that she was dead the Court was filled with the Lamentations and sorrowful Sighs and Tears of her Courtiers and Subjects as for the greatest Loss that ever befel any men There was never any where a greater a sincerer a more inconsolable Grief than that which then took possession of this Royal Palace nothing could stop the torrent of their Tears nothing could appease or soften their bitter Complaints The Noble Ladies which by the Order of the Privy-Council were appointed to take Care of her Body were scarce able to bear the load of their Sorrows which oppressed them but lifted up their Hands and Eyes to Heaven and implored the Mercy of God in this their Desolations and Affliction concluding without his powerful Assistance and favourable Interposition This Night would prove fatal to the English Nation and that nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom could be the consequence of so great and so deplorable a Loss as this The Countess of Warwick a Lady of great Honour Virtue Piety Sanctity and intirely beloved by the Queen testified her sorrow for the loss of her Mistress in all the effects of an inconsolable Affliction and would never be induced to put off that mourning Habit she had put on upon this occasion She performed all the Offices belonging to the Sepulture of the Queen with the utmost care piery and fidelity and by her Example taught all the rest of the Queen's Servants how they ought to behave themselves in this Mournful Affair Those of the Noblemen who were present at the time of her death expressed their Sorrows in silent tears and a deep but grave sorrow The meanest of her Servants were more noisy in their Lamentations and that Court became in a few hours a desolate place very few induring to stay in that place in which they had lost their good Mistress beneficent Sovereign and their great Benefactor When Report had once spread the News of her Death in the City of London an incredible Sorrow and Lamentation both of the Citizens and Strangers was observed which spread it self to all the Neighbour Nations as the fame of her Death was communicated to them But none more heartily deplored this loss than the HOLLANDERS who were thereby deprived of the Author of their Fortunes the Defender of their Liberty and the Preserver of their Peace and Safety A Prince she was that would refuse no Labour no Expence no Hazard how great soever it were that the Protestants might live in peace and enjoy their Liberty and this and the many good Offices she had done to them and all the Neighbour Nations had made her Name so venerable that it was no easie Task for the Magistrates at home or abroad to keep the common People in any bounds in this their outragious Sorrows for almost all that heard it were of Opinion That worse Times would follow and that many and great Calamities would ensue in England and all the Neighbour Nations THE END The Birth and Parenrage of Queen Elizabeth Her Education Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongâ—…e Her Observations in Reading G Grindal Her Tutor in Theology She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues Her Progress and Improvement under the Reign of Edward VI. The Untimely Dâ—…th of Her Bâ—…loved Brother 〈◊〉 VI. And the Succession of Q. Mary The Princess Elizabeth a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty She was hated by the P. Bishopâ—… for Her Religion Her Life was saved by King Philip. The Death of Queen Mary The Nation divided into Factions Calais newly lost Sâ—…e at first dissembled bâ—…r Religion 〈◊〉 Pâ—…ime Counsellors Câ—…cil and Bacon her Prime Ministers She dissembled with the King of Spain She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain The Treaty of Cambray The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais She resolved to resorm the Religion The contending Religions equally ballanced Her first Parliament * I do