to take the Stamp of her Royal Authority or otherwise not to pass for current Money in her Kingdom which had a strange effect and enriched both her and her People She invited all sorts of Artificers into England and by proposing to them good terms and great Privileges she repeopled the almost-desolate City of NORWICH and the Towns of COLCHESTER and MAIDSTON She encreased the Inhabitants of many of her other Ancient Towns and she by her Laws reduced the Inhabitants of the Countrey-Villages from Laziness and Beggary to Labour and Husbandry so that there was no part of her Kingdom but was cultivated and improved to the best advantage When she was to settle any thing relating to her Revenues her Treasury or the Administration of justice she admitted none to advise her but men of good Knowledge and Experience in those Affairs If she considered of any Military Concerns she always call'd to her Assistance the old Experienc'd Commanders which had spent much time in Camps She was as careful to give a good and a prudent Dispatch of Publick Transactions and the great Affairs of private men Ambassies the Petitions of her Subjects the Requests of her Allies and Confederates and all matters concerning Commerce and Trade with Foreigners She took the opportunity of the times and her Subjects Affections to her to curb the Luxury of Youth all immoderate Expences and waste in Cloathes and other Furniture and by severe Laws carefully put in Execution She reduced her People to the Ancient Thrift when they were declining towards Effeminacy and over-great Expences which are ever the fore-runners of Poverty and the Causes of great Calamities and Revolutions in all those States they have prevailed in She went on to consider and provide whatever was recommended to her as useful to any part of her State carefully viewing the Conveniencies and the Inconveniencies that were annexed to every Change And whatever was at last found useful and profitable to the Body of her People was setled by the Authority of her Council or Parliament as the case required She procured the Repeal of all those Laws which were either unprofitable or unjust and she brought others which were out of use into esteem again and amended the defects that were found in them It was a Maxim with her That Equitable Laws and Equal Justice are the two sure and lasting Foundations of a State She was as much reverenced and feared on the account of her Justice Tâ—…mperance and Continence as on that of her Royal Authority and Majesty She favoured the Protestant Bishops and the Commons of England as a means to curb the Insolence of the Nobility She would never gratifie any great Ambitious man with the grant of any thing which might inflame his Avarice or make him arrogant She had a true value and a good esteem for all men of illustrious Parts and of good Learning and she preferr'd such men to all Employments and rewarded their Virtue with Honours When the meaner people at any time crowded about her Coach with great desire to see and salute her with loud Shouts and fervent Prayers for her Prosperity and long and happy Reign over them she would ever return their Loyal Zeal with much Courtship and Civility so that some said she was too Theatrical in her Carriage towards them but as by her Meekness Clemency Lenity Justice and the setling good Laws and exact Justice she had won their hearts so by this Condescention and Flattery she fixed their Affections so that they would have willingly sacrificed all they had to her Service and Safety She exercised a moral Friendship and Familiarity with many private persons and ever reserved in her sole disposal all the Rewards of Virtue and good Service She would never suffer any Immunities or Privileges Benefices Church-Livings Governments or the Rights of her Kingdom to be openly sold. She advanced her Friends Kinsmen and Relations with great Kindness and Affection and no less Moderation and Prudence She made Sir Henry Cary Lord Hâ—…nsdon who was her Cousin-German and she gave him Riches Employments and Attendance suitable to that Station She advanced William Lord Howard of Effingham on the score of his being related to her and of his good Deserts to be Lord Chamberlain of England of her own free motion without any solicitation from themselves or others She preserved the Family of Seymour which was ruin'd by the Attainder of Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset Uncle and Lord Protector of King Edward VI in the year 1552. and in the first year of her Reign she restored Edward his Son to the degree of Earl of Hertford She restored also several of the Nobility whose Families had been ruined by her Sister and put them into the same condition they were before She Attainted no man in all her Reign by Act of Parliament No man ever could perceive that the least remainders of any Offence were left in her mind but when she could most easily have revenged her self she always chose rather to forget the Injury so that every man presently promised himself a better Fortune for the future If there was any Quarrel between any of the great Nobility she presently made it her business to reconcile them each to other and she would on such occasions exhort them not to suffer any Enmity to settle between their Families that they should not involve their Children and educate them in the Dissentions of their Families and a desire of Revenge That they should cut off those Feuds that had descended to them from the Contests of their Ancestors and with an invincible Courage repress the Foreign Fury of their Enemies abroad but with one heart and one mouth provide for the Safety and Security of their Native Countrey at home As she took this care to put an end to the Dissentions of her Nobilty so she was no less careful to root up those evil Customs which had crept into the Nation in the former Reigns and tended apparently to the Ruin of it some of these she corrected and others she totally abolished She rescinded all Sales that were made for the cheating Creditors she dealt very severely with all those that were found guilty of any Frauds or Cheats in the Management of the Publick Revenues or the purveyance for her Court which she was wont to call Harpies which fouled and ravaged all they could come at and she discouraged as much as was possible all the tricks and corruptions of the Courts of Justice She encreased the Wages and Salaries of the Judges and that they might the better be enabled and encouraged to go their Circuits and administer Justice to her people she allowed them Travelling-Money and Purveyance The effect of this prudent Administration was the enriching her and her Subjects attended with great Glory and a willing obedience from those under her happy Government The Countrey was rarely well Tilled and improved The Subject quiet and rich and her Councils
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
Dyet of that Kingdom That the Hanse Towns of Germany might still have enjoyed their Ancient Privileges in England if they would have been contented to use them as Favours granted by our Princes and not have pretended they were their Right That as there was reason for the granting them when they were given so there was all the reason in the world they should be suspended restrained or quite taken away when the Reason ceased upon which they were granted that this had been done in Denmark Sweden and England in the Reigns of Edward the VIth and Queen Mary That the Hanse Towns had been made so rich by the Favour of Princes that they had been heretofore terrible even to their Benefactors that it became the King of Poland rather to favour her who was a Prince than to patronize the insatiable Avarice of the Merchants who when they were become very rich were too apt insolently to lift up themselves against Princes That the Queen was contented they should carry Corn and all other Merchandize to Spain except Ammunition and Warlike Stores for Sea or Land though it was lawful and the Practice of all Nations to intercept all those Provsions that were sent to an Enemy She had better success here than in Germany and setled her Subjects Trade in the Baltick so effectually that the Hanse Towns were never after in a condition to dispute the Trade of the English Thus the Queen by her Authority and Prudence mastered the Obstinacy of the Hanse Towns and forced them to sue for their Goods in her Court of Admiralty and to trade with her Subjects upon equal terms in all places and she so divided and broke their Power that they were never since able to contest with any Prince much less with her or her Successors Notwithstanding which the Kings of England have always religiously continued the same Privileges to the Hanse Towns though the tide of the Trade be long since wholly turn'd the English now carrying all that Trade to their own doors and much more than ever they received from them And I my self saith the late Earl of Carlisle was present in Council when Charles the IId after his Happy Restauration ratified the said Privileges She also by her Authority in the Year 1595. composed a War which had depended many years between the King of Sweden and the Emperor of Russia who had a greater respect for her than for any other Prince in Christendom her Subjects having opened a way by the White Sea and the Bay of Arch-angel to trade by Sea with him in the Year 1554. which was then and has ever since been of vast advantage to that remote barbarous and poor Kingdom The Subjects of which have not only been enriched but civilized and learned many mechanick Arts which they did not unsterstand before of us and those people we and the Hollanders have sent thither Her whole care was not imployed in defending her People from the violence of her foreign Enemies and the Frauds and Arts of the Neighbour Traders by Sea but she took effectual care at the same time in her Parliaments to promote excellent and useful Laws for the Restraint of excessive Dvmestick Expences and the regulating the Lives of her Subjects as will appear by the Printed Statutes of her time To this end she necessitated the meaner of her Subjects by sharp Laws as sharply executed to a modest and frugal way of living both as to their Diet and Habits She curbed and discountenanced the Luxury and expensive folly of the English Youth and Nobility both by her private Advices and her publick Laws and she prescribed them Rules for their Furniture Families and Retinues She had observed the Purveyers for her Court were a rapacious sort of men and under the colour and pretence of Law made great depredations on the Husbandmen and the Farmers in her Kingdom and therefore she kept a strict hand upon them and by her Severity when ever any Complaint was brought against them she kept them in awe There was another Generation of men called commonly the CONCEALERS of mean Extraction and worse Disposition who had obtained Commissions to enquire into the Frauds and Concealments of those that had got any Lands belonging to the Royal Demeans or Crown of England and they had under that pretence wrested from many of her Subjects their Inheritances and Estates but when she understood their Crimes she not only punished them for their Wrongs but revoked their Commissions which she had formerly granted out And by a Proclamation she forbad any further inquiry should be made into the Titles of her Subjects as to those Lands they possessed on the behalf of the Crown by which she put a stop to that sort os Miscreants and secured the Estates of her People from further wrong Whencver she found that her People had been afflicted or ruined in their Fortunes by the Judges and Governors she had set over them in any part of her Dominions she consolated them upon the first opportunity Before her time the Usurers of England had taken what they could get from all for usury and she to prevent the Frauds and rapacious Encroachments of these men first passed a Law that they should not take above ten in the hundred for one years interest which by the plenty of Money sunk after to Six and of late without any Act to five in the Hundred To prevent enhansement of the Market she made a severe Law against Forestallers Ingrossers and Regattors repelling their insatiable Avarice by imprisoning whipping and Pillory She called her Customs the Nerves of the Nation as they were the best branch of her Revenues and she made it her business to study them and well understand the value of them and the ways of raising them When her Exchequer was at the lowest ebb she detested all Monopolies and bitter Exactions upon her People which she thought to be utterly unlawful and tending more to the loading her with the hatred of her Subjects than the enriching of her Coffers She was very severe against all Informers or Promoters who having been for many Ages encouraged by her Predecessors as the Enrichers and Improvers of the Royal Revenues had contracted a vast envy from the whole Nation but she was the first Prince that would suffer their Crimes to be inquired into and finding they had been guilty of many ill Actions she put a stop to them and punished them for what they had done that they might no longer impoverish the better and richer part of her Subjects Thus she delivered her People from the grievous Oppressions of Usurers Ingrossers and Promoters She was no less careful to protect them against the Avarice of her Judges and Presidents and when any of them came to wait on her she would upon occasion speak very severely against their aspiring to those places the multitude of Suits and the over great variety of Causes
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
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
Queen Mary preserved him in her fair Esteem tho he was of a differing Religion In the first of Queen Elizabeth he was again call'd to the Council-Table In the 3d. year of her Reign he was made Master of the Wards and in the 14th Anno 1572. he was made Lord Treasurer of England upon the Death of William Lord Paâ—…let havingthe 25th of February of the preceding year obtained his Patentof Baron Lord Burleigh so that he was the first Peer of this Illustrious House though his Father and Grandfather had enjoyed good Employments under Henry the 8th In all the Contests between Sussex and Leicester this Great Man stood Neuter and would engage in neither of the Parties which made him the Head of a Third and enabled him to serve himself of both the other in whose ways he laid many rubs Others were raised to balance Factions he to support a Kingdom as he was the best Statesman in that Age so he was constantly on the watch for the Safety of his Mistress and her Kingdoms Leicester was the Cunningest man of the Age but Cecil the Wisest the Stoutest and being without Guile or Pride made it his business to baffle all Leicester's Projects for thâ—… Marriage of the Queen and the enslaving the Nation He and Sussex threw themselves once at the Feet of the Queen and presumed to tell her That all her good subjects were concern'd to see the Danger and Dishonour Dudley had brought upon her That he had transgressed all the bounds of a Subject and very much exceeded the Crimes of Northumberland his Father That he had bragg'd of Marrying her That this was a Dishonour to her Majesty and would bring Mischief on her Kingdoms for her Subjects would never endure the Soveraignty of an unchaste and wicked man And they advised her to put a stop to the Jealousies of her People and to consult her own Honour and the Safety of her Friends They represented to her very warmly the Dignity Power and Wealth of a Foreign Match and recommended to her Charles Arch-Duke of Austria second Son of Ferdinand the Emperor and Brother of Maximilian II. as a Prince worthy of her Affections These Discourses of these Great Men made a very deep Impression on the mind of the Queen and thereupon this Noble Earl was sent in the year 1567 to carry the George to Maximilian II. Emperor of Germany and had Commission at the same time to treat of this Marriage which he endeavoured to effect with all his Power though the Earl of Leicester opposed it The Gallantry of his Behaviour and the Splendor of his Equipage and Retinue gain'd him a Familiarity from the Emperor and a Reverence from the Arch-Duke a Respect from the People and his Mistress a kindness in that Court which stood her in great stead against the Attempts of the King of Spain and Pope of Rome which perhaps was all that was designed by the Treaty for it is said the Lord North who went with him had Orders under hand to oppose all his Negotiations as he did and by a few fond Scruples disappointed and at last defeated the whole Design It is supposed by some this Obstruction was procured by Leicester to secure his own Greatness When this Great but Ill Man had struggled many years with the opposite Parties which arose one after another against him in the Court and found himself sinking in the Favour of the Queen by his private Marrying the Countess of Essex during the Life of his first Wife fearing the Divine Justice the Change of the Times and the great Numbers of men he had exasperated against him he in the year 1585 obtained a Commission of the Queen for Levying 500 men to be sent into Holland and Zealand and was after that by another constituted Lieutenant and Captain-General of the whole Army designed for the Service of the United Provinces against the Spaniard whither he went the same year he had no good Success in this Expedition and the next year the Hollanders made loud and dreadful Complaints against him for mis-spending their Money and ill-managing their Affairs whereupon he was re-called and the Complaint following him hither he told the Queen That she having sent him thither with Honour he hoped she would not receive him back with Disgrace and that whom she had raised from the Dust she would not bury alive Thereupon he left the Court and the 4th of Septembâ—…r 1588 he died at Cornbury-Park in Oxfordshire Thus died this Favourite having in one year in the Wars lost all that Reputation and Favour he had acquired in so many years in the Court. Peregrine Lord Willoughby a Noble Gentleman a good Soldier and a Virtuous Man who was one of the Commanders under the Earl of Leicester succeeded him as General of the English Forces in the Netherlands He had more Experience more Courage and also more Success than his Predecessor so that he was stiled the Queen's first Sword-man and a great Master of the Military Art by the Historians of those times He did the States of Holland great Service by his brave Defence of Bergen ap Zoom against the Prince of Parma in the year 1588 But for all that he had some of the Fate of his Predecessor which fell to his lot for he was complained of by the Hollanders as well tho not so justly as Leicester but his Innocence clear'd him In the year 1589 he was sent General of 4000 men in aid of the King of Navarre into France and he died in the year 1601. The Queen in all the time of her Reign took care to Establish her Government by the Counsel Virtue and Fidelity of many Wise and Learned Men who spent their whole time in promoting the Publick Welfare and Peace of her Kingdoms Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State was one of the greatest of these and an Ornament to her Court and Council He so sedulously attended the execution of the Office committed to him and took his Measures for the Safety of her Person and Kingdoms and the Security of the Protestant Religion with that Prudence and Caution that it was scarce possible any thing should happen which his Care and Industry had not foreseen or his Spies discovered to him before-hand His Maxim was Knowledge is never too dear and accordingly he spent his whole Income and Time in her Service and died in the year 1590 so poor that the Queen gave his Daughter her Portion The Queen has been heard to say That his Diligence and Sagacity exceeded her Expectation The Lord Burleigh was made Lord Treasurer of England by her because he was the Cato of his Time a man well versed in the Affairs of the Treasury and a Provident and Careful Manager of them He would insinuate to the Queen That the Treasury was not her own Money but committed to her Care for the Safety of her People and therefore it was not to be spent in useless
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
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 perpetually Plotting how to ruin them or force them to preserve themselves by War The King of Spain pushed on rhe Incendiaries of France under pretence of securing the Catholick Religion but with a Design at the bottom to weaken that Kingdom by their intestine Wars and at last to subdue it Queen Elizabeth observed all this and saw whither it tended and by her seasonable Supplies upheld the Protestant Party which was the weaker till she forced the Court of France to see its Error and lay aside or rather change their destructive Methods for others that were more infamous and as ineffectual In the mean time the noble Kingdom of France was desolated by Fire and Sword their Populous Towns destroyed their Rich Churches and Monasteries plunder'd their Nobility and Gentry slain on both sides and by their own Swords their Matrons Ravished and the Children Murdered in the Arms of their Parents and France was more wasted by this War in her bowels than by all the Foreign Wars she had been engaged in from the time the English were expelled to that time Was ever Church-Treasures better spent At the same time that France was thus miserably harass'd by an intestine War the Spaniards were as busie in the Low-Countries to extirpate Heresie as they pretended but in truth to deprive those Provinces under that pretence of their Ancient Liberties and Civil Privileges and to submit them to the Servitude of the Insolent Spaniards that so they might from thence pass on to the Conquest of England and France and so erect an Universal Monarchy in Europe which Design they had Vanity enough to discover To this end in the year 1564. they erected Seven new bishopricks to curb that people In the year 1565. he commanded the Council of Trent to be Revived together with the Inquisition and a strict observation of the Edicts concerning Religion Upon this the Nobility of those Countries as well those that persisted in the Roman-Catholick Religion as those that were well inclined to the Reformation seeing the Liberty and Riches Trade and Commerce of their Countrey must be ruined if these courses were taken they interceded with Margaret the King's Sister their Regent that the King's Letter might not be put in execution but she went on however and they on the other hand stood upon their guard and as much as was possible hindred it The next year the Quarrel grew higher and the multitude rose in many places with an irresistible fury and destroyed all the Images in the Churches of many of the great Cities the Torrent ran so high and was so impetuous that the Regent was forced to publish an Edict of Liberty of Conscience to appease the people the Spaniards being not able by any other means to secure the Possession of these Countries but so soon as the people were quieted the Edict was recalled which they owned was granted only to gain time to send for Men and Moneys to force the Inhabitants of the Netherlands to submit to the King's Will and to punish them for their disobedience Yet however in the mean time whilst this Edict was observed all places returned to the former state of Peace and Trade went on successfully so that if the King of Spain could have perswaded himself to have complied with his Interest in this Affair he and his Posterity had continued in the Peaceable Possession of these Provinces which would have been worth the owning Rich Populous and Potent and able to defend themselves against the French But by pursuing contrary Methods he brought a War upon himself which wasted Spain ruined his Treasures erected a part of these Provinces into an Independent Commonwealth and so depopulated and impoverished the rest that they are not able to defend themselves against the French So that the breaking this Edict proved the Ruin of all the Spanish Greatness This Liberty of Conscience which was extorted from the Regent by pure Force and Fear being sent into Spain to be confirmed by the King he was highly displeased at it and ordered some of his Council to let the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont know That if they or either of them had opposed these Insurrections with that Bravery they had shewed on other occasions and as they were bound in Duty to have done things could never have been brought by the Populace into the state they were now in That if yet they would do their Duty without mincing or dissembling absolutely they might reduce things into the former state or at least keep them as they were till the King could come thither himself to settle them That it was the Duty of a good Subject when he once knew his Prince's Pleasure to set himself roundly without considering what should be the event to himself or others to put the same in execution and that willingly readily and effectually tho he himself were of a contrary opinion for that it did not become them to think themselves wiser than their Prince since they were his Subjects and Vassals They had Advices at the same time from Spain That the King was fixedly resolved to oppose these Grants of his Sister the Regent both to prevent the Example as to his other Provinces and also preserve the Popish Religion in these And they were informed also that under the pretence of preserving the Catholick Religion in the Netherlands there was a Design formed to advance the King's Power and that they were not displeased ai Court that they had this occasion given them to bring the whole under and settle in them a new and more Absolute Form of Government because they concluded in Spain That all the Obstinacy the people had shewn proceeded from their Reliance upon their great Freedoms and Privileges But then this was to be concealed with the utmost care from them and the King and the Regent to delude and deceive them wrote the kindest Letters and spoke the sweetest Words to the Confederate Lords and especially to the Prince of Orange that the Wit of man could invent But in the mean time the Regent Levied Two Regiments in Flanders under the Earls of Arenbergh and Mâ—…em and Two more in Germany undeâ—… Count Philip of Overstein and Three of Walloons and a German Regiment of Horse under Count Mansfield These Forces were Levied in distant places and upon different pretences and brought into or near the Provinces and then the Regent began to throw off her Mask by degrees And she ordered the Protestant Meetings and Sermons in many places to be disturbed pretending they were not kept just in the same place that they were at first allowed And after she went on and seized on and imprisoned some of the Preachers on the same pretence and she hanged one of them near AELEST And when complaint was made of these Proceedings to the Regent she would sometimes say Her Consent was not free but extorted from her by fear and therefore she was not bound to
was granted by Henry the IVth in the year 1596. did them more damage than the breach of all the other Six that went before it because by its long duration it disarmed and effeminated that Party and robbed them of their Fears their Martial Courage and that keen Zeal for their Religion which the Perfidy and Violence of the former Times had kept alive We desire Peace and good days but God who knows our temper and what will follow very often sends us Troubles for our good which like Physick keeps us alive tho it doth not please us In the year 1565. there was a secret League made at Bayone between the Crowns of France and Spain which was called The Holy League because chiefly designed for the Extirpating the Protestant Religion out of France and Flanders tho it was managed with all the Privacy and Secrecy that was possible yet the suspicion of the Protestant Party gave them the first hint to dive into it and within a little time it was discovered both by its effects and by the cross Interests of many of the Roman-Catholicks who were to be deprived of their Civil Privileges in lieu of having their Religion established and preserved This gave the occasion to all those fearful Commotions in Flanders which I have just now related And in France there followed a Civil War in the year 66. another in the year 1568. which in the year 1572. was ended by a Treaty of Marriage between Henry of Bourbon King of Navarre Head of the Protestants and Margaret Sister of Charles the IXth then King of France Here the Roman-Catholick Party played their last Card and with a Diabolical Perfidy and Cruelty which has no Example in Sacred or Prophane History and Massacred vast Numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry of the Protestants who were come to Paris to see the Marriage not being able to suspect a Court could be so base as to stain it self in so Treacherous a manner with the blood of men who relied upon their Faith The next year after Charles died and Henry the IIId his Brother who had been a great Actor in the Massacre succeeded him in the Kingdom of France Under him the Holy League as it was called went slowly on and he was not so forward to involve his Kingdom in War and Blood as the weaker Princes his Brothers had been but he was rather inclined to destroy them insensibly by the Arts of Peace as it came afterwards to be done but this Method was disliked by the Popish Party in France which is for the most part Fiery and Cruel and will never use slow and gentle ways but when it is impossible they should do otherwise Hereupon the Duke of Guise a Valiant but very Factious Gentleman began in the year 1576. to set up himself against his Prince and in the year 1584. he got himself declared Head of the Holy League against the King his Master as a Favourer of Heresie by Gregory the XIIIth then Pope of Rome and a great part of the bigotted and discontented Clergy and Nobility of France Whereupon in the year 1585. followed the Seventh Civil War in France upon the Pope's Excommunicating the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde for Heresie This last War was began by the Popish Party against the opinion and without the consent of Henry King of France and accordingly it thrived the King of Navarre beating them in the Battel of Courtay in the year 1587. After which Victory the King was desirous to have a Peace and the Guises and the Popish Party to continue the War And upon this the Roman Catholick Party subdivided it self into two Factions part siding with the King for a Peace and part joining with the Guises to carry on the War and depose this King as a Favourer of Heresle softned with Pleasures and unfit for Government The Duke of Guise was a younger Branch of the Family of Lorrain which is esteemed the Direct Heir of the House of Charles the Great and consequently it has a Pretence to the Crown of France which is foreclosed by nothing but the too great Antiquity of the Claim and the Weakness of that Family Henry the IIId the then King of France was become the last of the House of Valoise and thought unfit for Generation and upon his Death the Crown of this Kingdom was to devolve to Henry King of Navarre who was the Head of the Protestant Party and all the Family was in the same Interest but the Cardinal of Bourbon who was a very old Gentleman so that if things were suffered to go quietly on the Death of Henry III. would put the Protestants of France in Possession of the Throne in the Person of Henry IV. This was the true ground of that dreadful Revolution which shook the Foūndations of the French Monarchy and Nation They considered that if a Protestant Prince was once quietly setled in the Throne nothing but a Miracle could preserve the Roman-Catholick Religion in France and they durst not trust an Event to the Providence of God and the Reasons and Consciences of men which in all probability would put an end to the Romish Religion in France and so weaken it in all the rest of Europe that it would never be in a condition to make use of Force more against those that had forsaken it so the Design was laid between the King of Spain the Pope and the Duke of Guise That Henry the IIId should be Deposed and turned into a Monastery as Chilperick was and Henry the IVth should be excluded as an Heretick relapsed and Excommunicated and a new King of France should be chosen and then each of these Heads of this League hoped to make their own Market in the end Henry the IIId saw all this and to save himself in the year 1588. called an Assembly of the Three Estates of France at Bloise but finding the greater part of his Subjects by the procurement of the Popish Clergy inclined to join with the Duke of Guise against him he ordered Henry Duke of Guise and Charles his Brother Cardinal of Lorain to be both Assassinated by his Guards and secured many of their Friends but the Duke of Maine another of the Brothers of the Duke of Guise escaped the slaughter and thereupon almost the whole Kingdom of France revolted and took up Arms against him under the Duke of Maine so that he had no way to save his own Life and Crown but to call Henry King of Navarre and his Protestant Subjects to his Assistance against these his enraged Catholick Subjects who were now become his implacable enemies Being thus in a condition to have forced Paris and to have driven the Conspirators out of France one James Clement a Dominican Monk stabbed him the first of August in his Tent under the Walls of Paris The House of Valoise thus failing in him when it had enjoyed the Crown of France Two hundred 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
murthered them but that Tyrone pretended to intercede to have their 〈◊〉 spared This they durst never 〈◊〉 done but that they knew all the â—…ans in Ulster would second them The Deputy to revenge this Insurrection proclaimed Mac Guire a Traytor and invading Fermanagh he took Inniskilling but upon his withdrawing the Irish returned and drove the English he had left out of Fermanagh During this Tumult Tyrone came thither as by chance and asking what the matter was and what had provoked their Anger against the English he gravely reprehended Mac Guire the Beginner of the Insurrection and then began seemingly to appease the exasperated meaner Irish people tho in truth he was the first Promoter of all this Disturbance and did this only to conceal himself and avoid being suspected by the English Hereupon the Queen recalled Fitz-William who had never been a Soldier and sent a new Deputy in his stead Sir William Russel youngest Son of Francis Earl of Bedford was sworn Lord Deputy of Ireland the 11th of August 1594. Under him this great Revolution hapned Tyrone's Brother about the same time Befieged Inniskilling and defeated 46 English Horse and 600 Foot that came to Relieve it under the Conduct of Sir Edward Herbert and Sir Henry Duke yet Tyrone had the Impudence to come to Dublin and impose upon the Council That he had no hand in this Insurrection tho some offered to prove him a Traytor which was not then believed In March 1595. he broke into a second open Rebellion notwithstanding all his Oaths and Asseverations which in an Irish man are the certain tokens of Treachery and Falshood Bagnal his mortal Enemy thereupon marched against him with 1500 Foot and 250 English Horfe and Tyrone appeared with 1500 Irish Horse but retired without attempting any thing but soon after he appeared with 8000 Foot to second his Horse Yet this handful of men fought all his Forces and came off with good Success tho they were in great danger of being destroyed as they had been if the Enemies Powder had not failed in the Action In June 1595. Sir John Norris arrived with Two thousand Veterane Soldiers and One thousand New-raised men and with the Title of Lord General of the Forces in Ulster he being to command absolutely in the absence of the Deputy The Queen's Design in sending Norris with this large Commission was that he and the Deputy should act with the greater vigor against the Enemy But then tho Norris was an excellent Commander he was a little too violent and disdained to be subject to the Orders of the Deputy and which was yet worse disagreed with him in the general method of managing the War and was very stiff in his opinion besides so that much time was spent in useless Contests between these two high-spirited men which very much prejudiced the Queen's Affairs and secured Tyrone who cunningly made use of it from being suppressed in the beginning of his Rebellion By this time the Rebels had taken several of the English Forts and were become so expert in the use of Arms that they were almost a Match for the English Sir John Perrot to save charges had armed the Irish in Ulster against the Islâ—…nder Scots and taught them the use of Fire-Arms and Fitz-Williams had pursued the same false Measures and had taken many Irish into the English Army and sent others of them into the Low-Countries to be bred Soldiers and now they were become stout Rebels to the damage of the English The Deputy having in the mean time spent the Summer in the Field against the Enemy took care to settle Connaught and Leinster in the Winter and finding them much disordered by the Injuries of the Presidents he heard their Complaints very patiently and redressed what he found amiss with much Justice that he might raise in the people an expectation and hopes of better â—…mes to come And he also levied â—…ore Forces and invited Tyrone to coâ—… 〈◊〉 him to Dublin and sent him a Passport The Earl came accordingly being tossed between hopes and fears and there the Deputy before many of the Nobility of that Kingdom represented to him the Benefits he had received at the Queen's hands which he readily acknowledged pretending That he had on that consider at ion patiently born the Injuries of Fitz-Williams Government and the Wrongs done him by Bagnal the Marshal That he had saved the English from the Fury of Mac Guire and preserved them in the possession of Fermanagh That his good Actions had been misrepresented and he had been ill rewarded for them That he desired nothing more than to be restored to the Queen's Favour which he had been deprived of by the slanders of his Enemies This cunning Defence appeased the Deputy and he was resolved to try if he could reclaim him by favours and good usage and so he permitted him to return home again Yet in September of this year he offered the King of Spain the Kingdom of Ireland if he would supply him with 3000 Men and a little Treasure Thus were the Winter of this year and the Spring of the next spent in needless and ineffectual Treaties Tyrone pretending to submit to gain time and at last he was Pardoned but Three Ships arriving from Spain with Powder and 200 men he refused his Pardon a great while and when he took it he used it as a cover for his Treasonable Designs He was always Treating and Rebelling at the same time and finding a Discontent between Sir John Norris and the Lord Deputy he made use of the one against the other and in the mean time surprized the Garisons and embroiled the Countrey to the great hazard of Extirpating the English A Treaty with a perfidious man tends to nothing but to make him insolent and the Government secure to its Ruin If you never trust him he can never hurt you The English Council was so weary of these Chargeable Wars that they dreaded nothing more than a War in Ireland So that it was then a Maxim here That it were well for England if Ireland could be sunk into the bottom of the Ocean but since that was not possible to be done it had been well if they had gone roundly to work and sending competent Forces had pursued these counterfeiting Rebels to utter destruction not suffering any Irish-man to have any Fire-Arms The Deputy observing that Tyrone slighted him and made his applications to Norris to whom he sent Messengers to commemorate his Loyalty and Duty to the Queen and to beg her Majesties Pardon he thereupon wrote to the Queen That he had not been used to Wars and was unacquainted with the Fatigues that attended Insurrections and Tumults That King Philip of Macedonia was less terrible to him than a desultory Enemy and a barbarous Irish Teagne That this languid Sedition might be composed without wounds or bloodshed as some thought if good men were but sent to treat with the Rebels That
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
Queen went into the City of London in a Triumphant Chariot the Spanish Colours that were taken being born before her to St. Paul's Church where was a Sermon and a solemn Thanksgiving at which the Mayor and all the Companies were present and the same Piety was commanded at the same time in all the remoter parts of her Kingdom and it was observed by her Subjects with the highest Expressions of Joy and Gratitude towards God and of Loyalty and Affection towards her so that she was now in the height of all her Glory both at Home and Abroad beloved by her Friends and feared by her Enemies who were never after in a condition to assault her Kingdom the second time but found it difficult to defend their own against her and her brave Martial Commanders To revenge this Attempt upon her Kingdoms the Queen the same year put out a Declaration of War against Philip King of Spain which was sharply Penn'd and from thenceforward to the end of her days there was a perpetual and a sharp War carried on against the Spaniards which kept her Subjects quiet at home The very next year she sent Sir Francis Drake with a Fleet into Spain who took the Groyne as is said above by which Action she defeated the Designs of that King who was preparing there for a second Invasion and having abated his Pride and Rashness into a more tractable Modesty she thereby delivered her People from a signal Danger In this War the Earl of Essex signalized himself by taking Cadiz in 1596. and Burning all the ships he found in that Harbour George Earl of Cumberland and Thomas Lord Howard a younger Son of the Duke of Norfolk lay heavy upon the Spaniards and took many of their ships richly laden giving all but the tenth part which was reserved for the Queen to the Mariners and Soldiers as the Reward of their Valour In the year 1597. having heard the King of Spain was preparing a Fleet against Ireland she sent a Navy of 120 ships part English and part Hollanders under the Earl of Essex and in it a Land-Army of 6000 men but this Fleet went out and met with so severe a storm that it was forced to return and after that was detained by contrary Winds so that the Provisions being spent the greatest part of the Army and of the ships were dismissed the rest got to Sea the 17th of August This Fleet went to the Azores where Sir Walter Rawleigh took the Town of Fial and beat the Spaniards that endeavoured to hinder his passage to it After this they lost the opportunity of surprizing the Spanish Indian Fleet which they there waited for and returned into England without any signal Victory or what might help to bear the Charges of this Expedition which was owing in great part to the Emulations between the Chief Commanders who envied each other the Glory of doing well Tho the English did not get much by this Expedition yet the Spaniards were great Losers one of their biggest Caracks being forced ashore and burnt three ships were taken and many others of that Fleet being kept out too long perished by tempestuous weather whereas all the English Fleet returned in safety In the year 1597. George Clifford Earl of Cumberland at his own proper Costs and Charge put out a Fleet of Eleven ships to way-lay the Caracks that go every year from Lisbon to the East-Indies but they having notice of his being there sheltered themselves under the Fort of St. Juliana which had a Hundred great Guns to defend it and here he attended so long that there was no ships sent that year From thence he set sail to the Canary Islands and took that which is called Lancerata with the Town upon it which he pillaged Thence he passed to Boriquena in the Bay of Mexico in the West-Indies and took Porto Rico the principal Town in it and one of the Keys of America with the loss of less than 30 of his men though it was very strong and defended by 400 Spanish Soldiers besides the Towns-men The Earl considering the strength and importance of the Place resolved to keep it though the Spaniards offered him a vast price for the redemption of it but within a short time a Disentery with grievous Torments seized the English Garison so that in 40 days he buried 70 of his men and this forced him to return home with 60 great Guns but otherwise more exalted by the Victory than enriched However he did the Crown of Spain a vast damage for that Year there went no Fleet to the East-Indies and there came none home from America It is observed of this Great Man That his building so many great ships and some other less honourable Diversions wasted more of his Estate than any of his Ancestors had spent After this the Rebellion of Tyrone grew so formidable to the Queen and the English Nation that all the Money and Forces the Queen could space were imployed that way and spent in Ireland of which I have given an Account in its proper place So that from henceforth there was no considerable Expedition undertaken against the Spaniards There was one singular Instance of Personal Valour in the Course of this War which happened in the Year 1591. but was reserved to this Place that the Steps by which the Spanish Pride and Greatness were abated and pull'd down might appear the better by being laid together May this Magnanimity of this Virgin Queen be an encouragement and an Example to the Present Age for the humbling another Prince who in our times and by our means is become a terror to all his Neighbours on the score of his Naval Forces though infinitely inferior in that and the Point of Wealth too to Philip the IId King of Spain But to return Tho. Lord Howard Second Son of the Duke of Norfolk was sent this year with six Men of War and six Ships of Burthen to way-lay the American Flect in its return to Spain whilst he was waiting for it at the Azores where he lay six months his Soldiers and Sea-men being generally sick Alphonso Bassano the Spanish Admiral came upon him suddenly with 80 Ships so that the English could hardly gain the main Sea to make their defence One RICHARD GREENVILL Vice-Admiral being in a Ship called the REVENGE staying a little too long to take in some of his men who were on shoar and not hoisting his Sails neither in the mean time out of a contempt of the Spaniards by all these oversights happened to be shut in between the Spanish Fleet and the Island Attemping when it was too late to break through the Spanish Fleet which was divided into four Squadrons the Spanish Admiral called the St. Philip a Ship of vast bulk clapt in between him and the Wind to deprive him of it and three smaller Ships surrounded him and poured in their great and small Shot on all sides the Spaniards very often boarded him but
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