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
minds of his Subjects to enslave the Innocent and the Guilty And altho he made Religion his Pretence yet Ambition and Worldly Greatness and the subduing his own People and all his Neighbours was the Real Motive at the bottom I conclude therefore That he was a Tyrant and a Perfidious Man and his Subjects that revolted from him upon such horrid Provocations and after they had done all that was possible to bring him to better courses were no Rebels I cannot here but observe how frequently and passionately of late the Hollanders were called Rebels and Traytors here by a sort of men who were going to act upon us all the ill things the Spaniards did there but wanting Numbers they were forced to go slowly on and had great thoughts of heart that our Doctrine of Non-Resistance might fail them when they stood most in need of it to bind up our hands till they should cut our Throats and therefore they declaimed furiously against these Hollanders to fright us into the snare But certainly the man must be very silly that would at all regard the being called a Rebel by the Roman-Catholicks or part with all that is valuable to avoid that Reproach from such men of all others But to return from this Digression concerning the Cause of this War The Queen seeing her Neighbours in the Netherlands thus oppressed by the Savage Tyranny of the Duke De Alva and so injuriously exhausted by his Arbitrary and Illegal Exactions Prosecutions and Murthers and all the other Calamities of an unjust War and the distressed Inhabitants of these Provinces flocking in great numbers into her Kingdom to shelter themselves from the Affronts Assassinations Pride and Cruelty of this Enemy and Executioner with all they could bring away with them she opened her Ports to receive them and with great compassion heard their bitter Complaints whilst they deplored the Miseries of their Country and begged her Protection pursuant to the Treaties and Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy She always expressed a great regard for those Nations and Countries that lay near hers and were by Leagues united to her and she was the more afflicted for this People because fhe saw the extirpating the Protestant Religion was made the Pretence of one of the most flagrant Injuries that was ever offered to a Free People And therefore she was the more easily induced to deliver these her nearest Allies out of the Jaws of this Pyratc and Enemy of Mankind and to curb the Insolence of these Spanish Forccs that from all quarters were poured in upon these miserable Countries to enslave and destroy them She thought there was nothing in this world which so well became the Majesty of a Prince and tended more to her Reputation and Glory than the taking Arms against such men as these and in the Defence of such Supplicants to deliver them at once from the most intolerable Dangers and from Slavery It is very probable she would for a longer time have dissembled the Injuries the King of Spain had done to her and her Subjects if he would have mitigated his Rigors in the Low Countries but seeing that was not to be hoped for she resolved to put a stop to his Rage by Force and for the Glory of God and the common Safety of the Protestant Interest to assist the Netherlanders with Men Money Arms Ammunition and whatever else was necessary to keep them out of the hands of their Oppressors She neither feared the Greatness of Philip the IId nor the Threats of France nor the Secret and Treacherous Machinations and Plots of her own Popish Subjects at home nor the Hazards Expences or Calamities of a very dangerous and lasting War abroad with the Richest and most Potent Princes in her Times but putting her sole Trust and Confidence in the Providence and Protection of God she chearfully and undauntedly entred the Lists with these men that her Neighbours and Friends Confederates and Allies might enjoy their Ancient Liberties and Privileges their beloved Countrey their Estates and Fortunes and the Liberty of their Consciences and live happily She thought no Labour no Danger no Expence too great to be hazarded to obtain so great a Blessing for them but went through all that stood in her way with Courage Equinimity Fidelity and Constancy By which she acquired an Immortal Glory and is still esteemed the Deliverer and Preserver of this People and in truth of the whole Protestant Interest in Christendom The Kings of France and Spain in the mean time threatned to expel her out of her Kingdoms and promoted Rebellions in England and Ireland to that end against her but there happened such dreadful Civil Wars in both their Kingdoms that they were very much disabled from prosecuting these Designs to the degree they intended And she for her part was not wanting but sent her Forces both into France and Flanders to find these two Monarchs work at home and by kindling Fires in their Kingdoms prevented their laying her own in Ashes Thus at the same time she delivered Britain from the fear of a War with France and Flanders and whilst she protected her Oppressed Neighbours she preserved her own Subjects from an intolerable Foreign Servitude Thus she preserved England for ever from the Danger of a Spanish Invasion and Conquest upon which they were then bent and slew vast numbers of their best Commanders and Forces both by Sea and Land France for the first Thirty Years of her Reign was perpetually involved either in an actual Civil War within its own bowels or enjoyed an uneasie and a suspected Peace so that this Kingdom was never so quiet as to be able to look abroad and give any disturbance to its Neighbours The Protestant Party was strong and numerous and every day grew greater and was headed by the Princes of the Royal Family of the House of Bourbon And the Popish Party on the other side was the far greater Party and was headed by the Royal Family that was in Possession of the Crown of France So that Henry II. and Francis II. Charles IX and Henry III. his Sons who were all successively Kings of France one after the other did all that was possible by Wit and Policy Force Perfidy Wars Massacres Breach of Faith and Surprizes to extirpate this Party and when all was done the End of Seven Civil Wars one after another was a Toloration and the End of every Toleration but the last was a Civil War began by the Popish Party upon the Principle That no Faith was to be kept with Hereticks which Maxim was so often alledged either by way of Excuse or by way of Incitement or Justification that nothing but the Weakness of the Protestant Party could possibly have induced them to accept a Security which had been so often forfeited and which they were certain would last no longer than till the Popish Party were in a condition to break it And yet the keeping of the Seventh that
sixty Years the Right of it fell to Henry King of Navarre of the House of Bourbon but he was suspected by all his Popish Subjects stoutly resisted by all that were in the League against his Predecessor and Excommunicated by the Pope and sorely laid at by the King of Spain who dreaded nothing so much as the seeing France in the hand of a Valiant Wise Protestant Prince now his Invincible Armado was returned back srom England with Shame Ignominy and Contempt and such a Loss as Spain was never able since to recover The Queen-Mother of France who had been the principal Incendiary when she saw the Duke of Guise fall in the Assembly of Bloise and her only Son in the utmost danger of being Murdered or Deposed she died with the mere apprehension of the Calamities she had brought upon her own head and Family before her Son was slain And as for Henry the IVth the new King of France he saw things in that Disorder and Confusion that he was forced to raise his Camp and retreat from Paris into Normandy from whence he sent to Queen Elizabeth for Succors of Men Money and Ammunition The Queen presently sent Peregrine Lord Willoughby who had signalized his Valour in the Netherlands with Four thousand Men and Two and twenty thousand Pounds of English Money in Gold which was a Sum which Henry the IVth owned he had never before seen together in Gold at once Henry had beat the Leaguers before these men arrived contrary to the expectation of all the World and being thus reinforced from England he pursued his Victory to the Gates of Paris and was in a fair way to have taken the City but that he did not think it possible and he was besides unwilling to run the hazard of seeing the Capital City of France plundered by his own Army This tenderness of his at length brought him under the necessity of changing his Religion to gain the Crown of France In the year 1590. the King of Spain sent Forces to take possession of Bretagne a Province of France pretending a Title to it for himself and some of the English Courtiers advised Queen Elizabeth not to concern her self any farther in the Affairs of that Kingdom to her great impoverishing and no advantage telling her Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy used to say It would be better for all the Neighbour Nations to have France under Twenty Kings than One To which she as stoutly replied The Evening of the last Day the Crown of France should see would be fatal to England And the next year she sent a Fleet and Three thousand Land-men to secure that Province out of the hands of the Spaniards This small Number of men being commanded by Sir John Norris a person of great Experience and Conduct preserved that Province not only from the Dominion but in a good degree also from the Rapines and Cruelties of the Spaniards She spent in Three years in these French Affairs besides the Gold she sent to Henry the IVth into Normandy 226058 Crowns of French Money yet she did not burthen her Subjects to pay it but got it together by her Thrifty Management This Queen was wholly intent upon the humbling the Pride of Spain and at the same time she opposed his Greatness and curb'd his Ambitious Designs in France and the Netherlands she sent a potent Fleet and an Army into Spain in the year 1589 to revenge the Invasion of the preceeding year and to settle Anthony a Bastard in the Kingdom of Portugal which was then in the Possession of Philip the IId King of Spain The Army consisted of Eleven thousand Men and there went in the Fleet Fifteen hundred Sea-men The Army was commanded by Sir John Norris and the Fleet by Sir Francis Drake They first landed at the Groyne in Galicia without any Opposition and the next day they took the Lower-Town by Scalado but not without the loss of a great many men And here they found a vast Magazine of Gunpowder and Maritime Stores which was brought hither for another Expedition against England In this Expedition Robert Earl of Essex gave proofs of his Martial Inclinations for he stole away from Court without the Queen's Leave she being unwilling to venture any of her principal Nobility in so dangerous an Undertaking as this seemed then to be but this brisk young Gentleman on the contrary despising the soft Pleasures of a Court greedily embraced this opportunity of Revenging the Wrongs of his Countrey and set Sail after the Fleet in a single Ship and he had the good fortune to fall into the English Fleet after they had left the Groyne and were going to attack Lisbon wherein they had not the same success by reason their Forces were too small and the Fleet was kept at too great a distance to relieve the Army which was forced to march about Sixty Miles by Land but however they took the Towns of Paniche and Chascais and brought out of Spain One hundred Great Guns and about Sixty Ships sent by the Hanse Towns in Germany loaded with Corn which went round about Scotland and Ireland by the Vergivian Ocean to avoid being intercepted by the English the Queen having before warned those Cities That if they sent any Provisions or Ammunition into Spain she would treat them as Enemies Besides all these they brought back with them a very rich Prey in Housholdstuff Money and Plate which they gathered in that Kingdom but the most considerable advantage was the intercepting all the Stores which had been gathered for a second Expedition against England the Design of which was after this laid aside and the discovering the Weakness of the Spaniards when they were set upon at their own doors so that after this time the English despised this before so formidable Enemy they having with so small an Army marched so many Miles and taken so many places in two of the best peopled Provinces of that Kingdom In the year 1591. Robert Earl of Essex was sent into Normandy with Four thousand English to Assist Henry the IVth in the Reduction of Roan where before that City he lost his Brother Walter who was â—…ain by a Musquet This was so far from terrifying this Noble Earl that it was with wonder observed by the French that he exposed his own person the more freely that he might take all opportunities to revenge his Death After this in the year 1596. the Queen sent him her General again into Spain the Fleet which consisted of One hundred and fifty Ships being partly English and partly Dutch was commanded by Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England and the Land-Forces which were about Seven thousand and three hundred men were to be commanded by Essex and Howard as Joynt-Generals Essex having the Precedence on Shore and Howard at Sea They came before Cadiz the 20th of June but did not attempt to Land while the 22d and then they took
ways or in satisfying the Avarice and Knavery of her Ministers but for the Benefit and Welfare of the State and that the best thing which could possibly be done by any person was to do that which tended to the good of his Countrey Mary the Daughter of James V. King of Scotland was a young Lady of great Beauty and by the Arts of her Mother who was a French Lady and descended of the House of Lorain she was perswaded to marry Francis the Eldest Son of Henry II. then King of France by which he obtained the Title of King of Scotland in her Right After Mary Queen of England was dead the House of Guise in France perswaded this Prince and his Lady to assume and use the Royal Arms of England because she was of the Royal Family and accordingly it was Engraven on all their Plate and put upon all their other Furniture and they used it in their Seals to the great Injury and Exasperation of Queen Elizabeth She suffered also her self to be stiled Queen of England which highly incensed the English Nation against her and the French Court it being thought the greatest Contempt that could possibly be offered to us to assume that Title at a time when France was engaged in a War with Spain But however the Civil War which soon after broke out in France and lasted many years the defeating their Designs in Scotland the Deaths of Henry II. and Francis II. and all other the Calamities that followed this foolish Attempt sufficiently revenged the Injury offered to the Queen and the English Nation Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was an Industrious Wise and an Active Statesman but apt to be heat and of a fiery Temper He was at that time the English Leiger Ambassador in the Court of France and was highly exasperated to see this Affront put upon his Mistress and he made sharp and loud Complaints of it to the Council of France After a tedious Debate and many Hearings he at last by the means of Montmorancy Constable of France obtained an Order or Promise That the Queen of the Scots should no more use the Royal Arms of England nor the Title of Queen of England or Ireland during the Life of Queen Elizabeth or of any Children born of her The Envy and Hatred which was occasioned by this imprudent Contest between these two great Ladies who were equal in Authority and Beauty had an ill effect upon them in all the after-parts of their Lives and at last ended in the violent Death of Mary Queen of the Scots The French seemed then to desire nothing more than a pretence for a War with England Throgmorton the Ambassador was made the subject of their Court-Jesters and Comedians Raillery one of his Servants was contrary to the Laws of Nations taken violently and unjustly from him and sent to the Gallies by the Brother of the Duke of Guise the English which Traded in France were without any provocation or complaint made of them to their own Queen most unjustly Imprison'd and otherwise exposed to Contempt and Blows The Ambassador bore all things with an invincible Resolution and resolved whatever he suffered not to be frighted from his Post but to watch the first opportunity to revenge the Contempt was offered to his Character and their violations of the Laws of Nations He complained openly and freely to the Council of France of the Affronts offered to his Mistress of their Violence Injuries and Rapins committed upon her Subjects And as for the Duke of Guise he considered him only as a Subject of France and said many things of him with the utmost Freedom and Sharpness and the Duke of Guise answered him with some vehemence The Council on the other hand laid all the blame on the common people of France and offered a specious but unâ—…rue Excuse for what had been done The Ambassador thereupon calling God and man to bear witness how much they had violated the Law of Nations and the Liberty of an Ambassador which was Sacred by the Laws of God and man returned to his House and from thenceforward made it his business to imbroil France he exasperated by his Arts Anthony King of Navarre the Prince of Conde his Brother Montmorancy and the rest of the Peers of that Kingdom till he made all France the Scene of a Civil War and filled it with inexpressible Calamities which ended in the utter Ruin of the exorbitant Power and Greatness of the House of Guise Tho this Great man did all this yet upon his return into England he did not meet with a Recompence proportionable to his Integrity Courage and Industry because the Lord Burleigh was his Enemy and sought by all means to curb and conquer this lively free and haughty Spirit which too often appeared against him The French having obtained a Matrimonial Right to the Crown of Scotland thought it afforded them a fair pretence and an happy introduction into the Island and designed to employ these Advantages for the Conquest of England also They thereupon taking hold of the Disorders their own Cruelty and Perfidy had caused in Scotland raised a Potent Army under the Command of the Count de Martigues and Monsieur La Brosse two Expert Commanders and sent them into Scotland These French Gentlemen did all that was possible to Establish the Faction that favoured France in Scotland they wasted and destroyed all that durst oppose them and threatned the intire Destruction of all that any way opposed their designs Their Violence and Cruelty in the mean time highly exasperated the common people of that Kingdom and they began to whisper That the Destruction of all the Scotch Nobility and the Extirpation of their Government was intended Thereupon the Scots began in good earnest to think how they might preserve themselves and defend their Lands and Territories from the Incursions and Depredations of the French The French on the other side meeting with Repulses and seeing the whole Nation arm against them when they expected the most profound Submission retired to Leith which they had then Fortified for their security whither the Scotch Nobility sollowed them and there were frequent but small Skirmishes between them and the French But however still the storm fell heaviest on that part of the Scots which had embraced the Reformation for that was made the pretence for sending over these French Forces and they on the contrary saw that during the Marriage of their Queen with Francis II. King of France there was no hopes of Security against the Pride and Cruelty of their new Masters and that they were not able to defend themselves without Assistance from abroad Whereupon they sent their Agents with Letters to Queen Elizabeth laying before her Majesty the miserable Estate they were reduced to and imploring her Protection and Assistance for the prevention of their Ruin The Queen being before exasperated by the ill usages she had received from the Guifes and
March with the English Army for England where he was rewarded for this Service with the Government of Berwick which he did not long enjoy for he died the 14th of December 1562. This War saith Mr. Cambden preserved all Britain from Ruin restored the Scots to their Ancient Liberty and setled the Peace and enlarged the Reputation of the English Nation so that from thenceforward during all her happy Reign she had no reason to apprehend any danger from Scotland the Protestants of that Nation esteeming the Queen their Patroness and Deliverer and the English acknowledging she had laid a sure foundation for their future Security Thus she delivered Scotland from those Foreigners who designed by Violence and Force to suppress not only the Protestant Religion but their Civil Rights and Liberties also and to bring upon that Free Nation an intolerable French Slavery Of this the Scots were then so extremely sensible saith my Author who was of that Nation That they being delivered by her means from Foreign Servitnde they thereupon subscribed to a League to maintain the Protestant Religion and to use the English Worship and Rites After this a Civil War arose in France and the Queen sent Supplies under the Earl of Warwick in 1562. to the Prince of Conde the Count de Rohan and Coligny the Defenders of the Protestant Religion and of the Liberties of that Kingdom To these Forces when the Protestants themselves opposed thâ—…m she sent afterwards Additional Forces and great Sums of Money At this time the French Protestants put Havre de Grace into her hands as a Cautionary Town and it was Garison'd with English Soldiers but so soon as their Fear of the Popish Party was a little abated by a Peace granted to them which yet waâ—… of no duration they joined with their Popish Countreymen to drive out their Benefactors and with equal Violence endeavoured to reduce the Town under the Crown of France again The Earl of Warwick seeing his men consumed by a War without and a Plaâ—…ue within the Town and no Relief to be expected in due time he thereupon began a Treaty with the Enemy and the 28th of July 1563. the Articles of Surrender were signed the next day there came a Fleet of 60 Sail of English Ships into the Haven on which the Garison was Transported into England And the Protestants of France had the chief hand in the driving them out as all sides acknowledge The Death of Francis II. King of France the 5th of December 1560. when he had Reigned but Seventeen Months put an end to all the French Ambitious Designs of Conquering England and Reducing Scotland and to the Fears of both these Kingdoms on that score Mary Queen of Scotland being thus deprived of her Beloved Husband soon grew weary of that Kingdom and getting a small Number of Ships together for that purpose she went on board at Calais the 14th of August and she landed at Leith the 20th of the same month in the year 1561 being attended by many of the Nobility and some great Ladies of both the French and Scots Nation Not long after the Queen of England having opposed this Princess's designs of Marrying Charles Archduke of Austria and rather recommending to her choice the Lord James Darnley Eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox and the next Heir after her of the Crowns of England and Scotland so that this Match would undoubtedly secure her Title to England too after the Death of Queen Elizabeth whereupon she married him at Edinburgh in the year 1565 and the next year after James their only Son was born to the great Joy of both the Nations for he was then thought one of the Pillars of Christendom the Ornament of his Native Countrey and Family and all men presaged That he would one day become the King of Great Britain as it came afterwards to pass by the wonderful good Providence of God This Marriage was attended with a Catastrophe and Tragick Event which is grievous to the thoughts and scarce possible to be enough lamented Mary Stewart the Relict of Francis II. King of France and the Immediate Heiress and Lawful Queen of Scotland and the Presumptive Heir of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Mother of James VI. soon after became a Lamentable Example of the Unsteadiness of Human Affairs The Lord Darnley her Husband having out of Jealousie ordered the Murther of one David Rixio the Queen's Secretary was afterwards himself Poisoned first and then Murdered at Edinburgh in the year 1567 The effect of which was the Deposing the Queen her self who was suspected to have an hand in it and the Imprisoning her in a Castle in the Lake of Locklevin where she was forced to subscribe a Resignation of the Crown and Government of Scotland in the year 1568. The Queen by the Providence of God escaped afterwards out of this Restraint the 2d of May and raised some Forces to recover her Crown again which were intirely routed and dispersed by the Forces of the Regent of Scotland So that having nothing more to trust to in that Kingdom she took shipping with intention to pass into France but being by stress of Weather or the Treachery of those that carried her brought into England she was landed at Warkinton in Cumberland the 17th of the same Month and not long after committed Prisoner to the Castle of Carlisle so that being driven from her Native Countrey by her own Subjects she found an uneasie and cruel Restraint where she expected a Refuge and a Sanctuary The Laws of Hospitality and that Kindness which Nature teacheth all men to use towards those that are of the same Lineage and Blood not being able to protect her against the Jealousie of a Rival Queen When Mary Queen of the Scots saw her self reduced to this Calamitous Condition forsaken of all her Subjects and Servants and forced to flee in one day about Sixty Miles and then not thinking her self secure till passing to Sea she was thrown upon the English shore She wrote a Letter to the Queen of England before she left Scotland and sent it by one Beton and she gave him a Diamond which the Queen had sent her before this as a Pledge of her Friendship she also ordered him to tell the Queen That she intended to leave Scotland and to come into England and did most earnestly beseech her to send her such Help and Assistance as was necessary in case the Scots should persist in the same Methods of Oppression Queen Elizabeth assured this Gentleman That she would shew the Queen of Scots all that Affection that she could possibly expect from a Sister Before this Gentleman could get back again she left Scotland contrary to the Advice of all her Friends and came into England and as soon as she was on shore she sent the Queen a Second Letter in French in the Conclusion of which she tells the Queen of England That she was come into her
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
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
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
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
appear before her Judges to answer for it But the two Brothers made their escape and fled first into France there they heard of the Insurrections in Ireland into which Kingdom they passed and served the Queen against her Rebel-Subjects in hopes by some signal Acts of Valour to blot out their said Crime and regain her Favour And in truth they served her many years with extraordinary Fidelity and Courage against those Barbarous Rebels yet after all the Earl of Essex could not obtain their Pardon without very great difficuly and many and repeated Solicitations The Eldest of these two Brothers afterwards lost his Life in the Service of the Queen and under the Command of the Earl of Essex In all private Suits she was observed to be a religious Observer of Justice and Equity and to keep the Ballance even between the greatest and the meanest of her Subjects She preserved the poorest from wrongs and made it her care that every man might enjoy what was his own and serve the Publick with it by the impartiality of Justice and the equity of all Law-proceedings providing carefully for the preservation of Human Society for the good of the whole Community When any Case happened to be wrongfully determin'd by reason of Perjury or Interest Partiality or mistake in any of her Courts she would upon complaint hear it her self taking to her assistance men of the greatest Authority and much celebrated for their exact knowledge of the Laws of England And when she had thus sifted it to the bottom she would ever give a most just and wise Sentence by which she made her Judges the more careful to keep within the bounds of Equity and Justice and shewed her Subjects that no part of her People should want the benign influence of her care and assistance in time of need She always took care that her inferior Magistrates should be reverenced and the Authority of her Council and Laws kept up But then whatever had been injuriously transacted by Bribery or Error in any of her Courts she as willingly corrected that Errors might not encrease and multiply by her carelesness or the ignorance of her Judges and that Mistakes might not get strength by time and plead custom She would sometimes also cause Cases to be heard by her other ordinary Judges after they had been determined that she might keep the ordinary Judges in awe and make them the more circumspect when they were liable to have their Actions scanned over again In her Personal Expences she was â—…hrifty and sparing that she might not exhaust her Exchequer and at the same time to teach her Subjects by her own Example to live thriftily and soberly after the manner of their Ancestors In her Government and all her Publick Actions she carried all things in such manner as might best befit her Honour and represent her to the World as a great and a splendid Prince Nor would she at any time make any considerable expence till she had first consulted with her Treasurer Burleigh concerning the state of her Exchequer and what Monies she had to defray the same It ws then thought his Advices to her made her more sparing than was fit toward the Sword-men and Commanders in the War It is certain however that she never called Grey Willoughby Norris or Sir Francis Vere to the Council-Table though they were excellent Commanders and had done her good service in Holland Spain France and Ireland by the gaining of many signal Victories and the spreading the Fame and exalting the Reputation of the English Nation When some of them had wasted the Estates left them by their Ancestors and complained to her of their Poverty beseeching her to give them wherewith to pay off the Debts they had contracted in her Service it is certain she never contributed any thing to that purpose from her Treasure nor in the least assisted or favoured them in any thing She sought rather to encourage and win her Generals and Nobility over to Acts of Valour by her Commendations than by the gift of Money Lands or Offices In her conversation with them she would shew them much patience and affability and would frequently acknowledge how much they had obliged her by their Actions But as to those that had lost their Lives in her Service or done any great Action for the Safety Liberty and Glory of her Kingdom she would often take occasion to speak of them with much affection and honour which was the best Reward they often met with for having served her with great Iudustry and Courage When Sir Philip Sidney a Gentleman of noble Birth and honest Disposition of great Parts Learning Virtue and Fame had lost his life before Zutphen in the Netherlands in the Year 1586. he was not only lamented by the whole Army in the Camp and Elegies made to his Honour by the Universities of England but he was commended also by the Court and the Queen commanded his Body to be publickly interred in St. Paul's Church in London which was performed with much solemnity and a vast concourse of the Nobility Gentry and Citizens And it was fit all this respect should be shewed to his Memory on the score of his Virtue Learning and Merits which have made him so famous in those and all the succeeding times This is an Honour that is more lasting and more noble than any Statues or Funeral Monuments which are often destroyed by Fire Wars Earthquakes or Time and without any of these are sometimes lost to the knowledge of men and themselves buried in forgetfulness but his Books and Actions will make him admired in all times The Magnificent Funeral of this Noble Knight was an honour to the Queen and to the Age and even to Learning it self The Earl of Leicester who was his Unkle was chief Mourner at his Funeral and extoll'd the Virtue of his Nephew to Heaven in hopes the lustre of his Pupil's Name would reflect upon himself an equal commendation and glory but in truth Sir Philip Sidney was his own Tutor and gained all the glory he met with by his natural Endowments and his Studies and perhaps it was owing too in great part to the scarcity of Learning at that time which made those that enjoyed it then more conspicuous and regardable than they have been since when it became more common but then this latter neglect has made it less desired and less aspired to and almost wheeled us about to the same point of the Circle he was in Nor was the Queen's Favours confined only to her Generals and Great Men but she would condescend to celebrate the Memory of the meanest common Soldier that had had the honour to spend his life in the service of his Countrey to excess She redeemed out of Captivity those that were taken of the meaner People and she willingly gave to their Parents Wives and Children that Money and those Rewards they might justly have expected from her if they
the Queen was dead and that the Princess Elizabeth was the indisputed Heir to the Crown of whose Right and Title none could make any Question and therefore the Lords intended to Proclaim her Queen and desired their Concurrence which was joyfully entertained by them and they all cried God save Queen Elizabeth long and happily may she reign She being thus advanced to the Throne not only by her own undoubted Right and the Providence of God but by the Confent and with the Approbation of all the Three Estates then Assembled in Parliament which I think never before hapned to any of our Princes besides her she was received by the whole Nation with incredible Transports of Joy and Affection and the loudest Acclamations they could make men highly valuing the Innocence of her former Life and commiserating the hardships she had suffered in the former Reign to the hazard of her Life When God had thus brought this Queen to the Throne of her Ancestors of a sudden the course of things and the current of affairs took a new bias the heavy Tempests and Misfortunes that attended England weâ—e instantly blown over and a serene and prosperous course of things succeeded in their place Thus in a moment she was not only freed from the Miseries of an Imprisonment but adorned with the highest degree of Honour and Power and this Lady with a Masculine or rather Heroick Soul which was worthy to have governed the Empire of the World for almost Forty five years after managed the Royal Scepter of England and was the Arbitrator prescribing the Conditions of Peace and War to all the Princes of Christendom with a Greatness of Mind and a Wisdom that became so high a Station This Virtue which was almost Divine joined with so admirable a Prudence renders her worthy of the Applause and Honour of all mankind Thus one may see and admire the great force and power of Time and the wonderful Changes of Human Affairs and how useful it is to arrive at Prosperity by the Waves of Adversity Whilst she was in her private Station she was perpetually under the fear and danger of Death but by the Goodness of God she escaped all the Insults of Adverse Fortune her Innocence procured her Safety that made way for her Liberty so her Soveraignty was acknowledged and from her prudent Management of that Royal Station she gained an â—…ndless Glory and an Immortal Name Thus attaining the Possession of a Kingdom with Glory and the Publick Safety and the Good Will of her Subjects she on all occasions shewed the Greatness and Brightness of her Wit and Soul That she had well studied and digested the best Arts and had had an excellent Education and wise Instruction the good Effects of which were now made known by her wise promoting the Good and Safety of her People In the beginning of her Reign she found the Nation at home filled with Divisions and Heart-burnings by reason of the contrary methods used in the two preceding Reigns Abroad she had never an Ally she could trust to all was in War or an uncertain and unsteady Peace The Spanish Government was bâ—…come odious here and the English called their Assected Gravity Pride and Insolence The French had equally incensed us by the late Surprize of Calais The Tâ—…easury was at the lowest Ebb and our Bulwark which our ncestors had preserved Two hundred and ten years was taken from us in one weeks time in the beginning of January in this year The New Queen proposed to herself the common Safety and Welfare of her People and pursued it with the utmost Care and Asfection She was then Twenty five years of Age and something more when the Royal Diadem of England descended to her and she began the difficult work of raising the low and calamitous state of England and redressing those Grievances which the opposite Interests and Designs of the former times had brought upon this Nation She was not only ripe and sit for Government but she had by this time acquired a strange and unusual degree of Civil Prudence She knew the Publick or Royal Laws of England not only by reading them in Books but also by the great Reflection she had made on our History and on what had happened in her own times and by her Conversation with great men and the application she had ever made of her Mind to whatever was worth regarding The 14th of January after her Sister's Death 1558 9 she was Crowned with the Ancient and Usual Ceremonies when her People gave her fresh Instances of their Loyalty and Affection by crowding in unusual Numbers to see and partake in the Joy of this Solemnity And she having observed that her Sister by the sullenness of her Behaviour had much disobliged the People frequently looked on them with a chearful and pleasing Countenance and returned the Respects they paid her with great sweetness She took the Ancient and Usual Coronation-Oath That she would govern her Kingdom according to the Ancient and Laudable Laws and Customs of England which she observed more willingly than most of her Predecesfors had before her and this gained her both the Love and Reverence of her People At first she cherished in her Roman Catholick Subjects a belief she would Imbrace that Religion they prosessed She changed nothing in the Publick Service or the Administration of the Sacraments that she might not enrage her Papists and give them a pretence for Separation before she had well Established herself The Kingdom of England was then very unsetled and had received great Damages both at home and abroad the French had wrested from us the strong Town of Bologne in the Year 1546. before the death of Henry the VIII â—h and Calais in the beginning of this Year The Sea was full of Privateers and there was scarce any thing to be trusted to In this Disorder of Affairs she wisely thought That the only way to settle and preserve the Nation from Imminent Ruine was to chuse wise and upright Men to manage the Publick Affairs She declined the use of Rash and overbold Men who have commonly brought mischief on the States that have trusted to them Being weary of the Popish Ceremonies and their Conversation she retired for some time to one of her Country Houses as it were for Diversion and Pleasure but in truth that she might with the greater Leisure and Secrecy consider of the Methods she should take for the removing the Dangers which threatned her Kingdom for the Preservation of its Peace for the Abating the Power of the Popish Party and the setling that Religion here which she believed was most for the Glory of God as being most agreeable to the Sacred â—…criptures The Men that she most relied on in this great and difficult Work were William Lord Parre of Kendal Marquess of Northampton whom she had restored to his Honours Francis Russel Earl of Bedsord Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
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 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
this Great Man who was of a Regal Spirit and is supposed to have been a Bastard Son of Henry the VIIIth despised too much the Complaints of his Countrey-men and forced the greatest of the English to fly before his Authority and as for the Irish he made them better than they would otherwise have been both by his Threats and Severity and by his good Advices and by the strength of his Reason he made them understand how much it was for their good to continue firm in their Allegiance to the Queen This was an hard Task considering the Capacity and Temper both of the People he was to deal with and of the Times in which he governed Ireland In the year 1588. Sir William Fitz-Williams was made Lord Deputy of Ireland and continued till the 11th of August 1594. He was a Covetous Unjust man and laid the Foundations of a great many Troubles to the English in after times but in all his Ireland was tolerably quiet till towards the latter end of his Government only the Irish took up an Aversion for the English Government and Sheriffs by his means and Tyrone having Six Companies allowed him under the Queen's Pay he changed his men so often that the whole Countrey became Disciplined men and he got great quantities of Lead into his Possession under pretence of building a fine House In the year 1593 the College of Dublin was finished at the Queen's Charges and Burleigh was the first Chancellor and Usher the first Scholar in it That which made Ireland so quiet under Fitz-Williams was the Justice Prudence and Valour of his Predecessor Sir John Perrot which had broken the Power of the Heads of the Irish Clans and so well Civilized and Planted that Kingdom with English Colonies and Garisons that during these Six years there was but Eight hundred Foot and Three hundred Horse maintained to keep the Natives in quiet The Irish were also so well setled in their Lands Estates and Cattel that it was no mans Interest to make any Disturbance And there was no Foreign Prince that could be brought to join with them or lend them any Assistance The Spanish Armada in the latter end of the year 1588. lost Seventeen of its Ships upon the Northern and Western Shores of this Kingdom and 5394 of the men in it perished and tho some of the Popish Natives sheltered some of them yet they all robbed them of their Freasures and got what they had for it And King James of Scotland looked upon himself as the Presumptive Heir of this Kingdom after the Queen and kept a fair Correspondence with the English and restrained the Scots and Islanders from joining with the Irish. There was a Rumor in England That there was a vast Treasure found in the Spanish Ships which perished in Connaught and Ulster And Fitz-Williams the Lord Deputy made a severe search after it commanding by a Proclamation all the Spanish Treasures to be brought into the Exchequer for the Queen's use and he imprisoned Sir Owen O Toole and Sir John O Dogherty two of the greatest men in the North in the Castle of Dublin on this pretence tho they were the best affected to the English of any of the Inhabitants but he could discover nothing tho he kept the first Two years in Restraint and the latter all his time who was discharged by his Successor and died soon after being much decayed by the Hardships of a long Imprisonment and Old Age. But all these ill things done under Fitz Williams made work for them that followed him Upon the Death of Mac Mahon who was one of the Heads of an Irish Clan and had not long before taken a Patent from the Queen for the County of Monaghan to him and his Heirs Male for ever Hugh Roe his Brother and Heir Petitioned the Deputy to be setled in his Inheritance according to the Queen's Patent and the Laws of the Kingdom and the Irish say it coft him Six hundred Cows to have a Promise of it And then the Deputy only said he would go in person to do it But as soon as he came to Monaghan he Imprisoned Tried and Condemned Hugh Roe by Military Law and without any Legal Trial pretending he had Levied Forces two years before to distrain for Rent he pretended was due to him in the Ferny Hereupon he was hanged and the County was divided between Sir Henry Bagnal Marshal Captain Henslow and four of the Mac Mahons under a Yearly Rent each of these giving the Deputy considerable Bribes as they said in their Complaint to the Council of England The Deputy denied all this but it was observed That from thenceforward the Irish loathed Sheriffs and the Neighbourhood of the English fearing the same fate might at one time or other attend them that had befallen Hugh Roe The Report of this Villany Spread it self all over Ulster and the Heads of the Clans were greatly terrified and incensed at it and had close Cabals wherein they severely taxed the ill Management Covetousness and Cruelty of the Deputy There was then in Ulster a Great Man called Hugh O Neal the Son of one Mathew a Smith a Cunning and a Crafty man who from his youth had served the Queen in the Wars In Desmond's Rebellion he had done the Queen good Service and got much Reputation both for his Courage and Industry The Queen on the other side protected this poor obscure Gentleman against the Malice of the O Neals who hated him as the Enemy to their Nation and she advanced him from an abject and mean Condition to great Honour and made him Earl of Tyrone for his Merits and Deserts He became intoxicated with his too good fortune and ungratefully and madly design'd to ruin her that had made him what he was and now nothing would serve him but he would needs be King of Ulster and to that end he assumed the Title of O Neale and cast off all Respect and Allegiance for the Queen He disciplined the rude and ignorant Kerns after the English manner under the pretence I have before recited and in the mean time under hand instilled into them an invincible hatred of the English Religion and Government calling the first Heresy and the latter a shameful Slavery and Servitude by which he disposed them so well to a Rebellion that almost the whole Nation revolted at once from the Queen In July 1591. Tyrone was made a County and divided into Eight Baronies Dungannon being appointed for the Shire-Town which with the Authority of Marshal Bagnal so fretted Tyrone that it 's believed it occasioned his Confederating this Summer underhand with the rest of the Irish to defend their pretended Rights and not to admit Sheriffs into their Counties The effects of this first appeared in the year 1593. when O Connor became troublesome in Connaught and O Donnel and Mac Guire chief of Fermanagh rose in Ulster against the Sheriffs and would have
there were those in Ireland who had conferred with the Rebels and had sent into England the Rebels Defamations against him and others of her Governors By which passage the Deputy slily taxed Sir John Norris as one that had done nothing worthy of his former Military Reputation but thought to work upon the good nature of the Ulster Clowns by his Courtship and Flattery which tended rather to the making them more insolent This carriage of the General 's was the occasion of fierce Contests and Quarrels between him and the Deputy and the effect of it was that not only the Heads of the Clans in Ulster but those also in Connanght and Leinster took Arms and revolted from the Crown of England The Deputy seeing things by their Divisions brought to so desperate an estate resolved to get rid of the Government and by his Letters humbly besought the Queen a good General might be sent in his place In this doubtful time Sir John Norris as earnestly desired to be Deputy and that his Brother who was fitter for the Labours of the War might be made President of Munster But he obtained neither of his Requests The Council of England was divided for some time between the Lord Burroughs and the Earl of Essex but the latter joining with the former it was carried for him and he had both the Supreme Civil and Military Power put into his hands The 15th of May 1597. Thomas Lord Burroughs arrived at Dublin with a Commission to be Lord Deputy of Ireland With the Supreme Authority he presently commanded Norris to his Presidency of Munster which with the disappointment of the Deputy's Place broke his heart Johnstonius saith The reason of this was because Norris was a person of more Experience in the War and of greater Fame than Burroughs So that when he came to Dublin Norris was no way pleased with the change for that he dreaded the fiery Temper of that Lord with whom he had formerly had some quarrels which he would now have willingly sacrificed to the Welfare of his Countrey But the Deputy was of an Implacable Temper and commanded him into Munster upon the peril of his life not permitting Norris to see him This Great and Stout Man could not bear the Affront but he that had run through so many Perils in the Field in the Netherlands France and Portugal he that had despised the Rages of the Duke d' Alva in Holland and put a stop to the Victories of the Duke of Parma fell under this and expired in the Arms of his Brother Thus he became a wonderful Instance of humane frailty as well as of Martial Courage being rather pitied than approved because his Management in Ireland was much inferior to what he had done elsewhere and short of what was expected from him The Lord Lieutenant died in November following yet in that short time he beat the Irish in Ulster and recovered the Fort of Blackwater and Garison'd it with English Sir Thomas Norris was nominated for his Successor but he was melancholy and would not accept it his Brother the General being just then dead also Thereupon the Archbishop of Dublin and Sir Robert Gardiner Lord Chief Justice were sworn the 15th of November when the Council concluded their Account of the State of the Kingdom That it was an universal Irish Rebellion to shake off all English Government In August this year Tyrone had the good fortune to rout Marshal Bagnal his mortal Enemy in a Wood half a mile beyond Armagh where the Marshal 13 Captains and 1500 English Soldiers were slain The Irish by this Defeat got Arms Victual Ammunition and Reputation and the Fort of Blackwater so that the English were reduced from an Offensive to a Defensive War This nettled the Queen and she sent to Ormond who was Lieutenant-General to clear the Army of all the Irish and she sent 2000 Foot and 100 Horse to recruit the Army Tyrone sent after this 4000 Kerns into Munster and the President not being able to resist them by reason his Forces were small that whole Province rebelled also in October 1598. and began to Kill Rob and Ravage the English without Measure or Mercy Thus the Rebellion grew to that height that it became terrible to the Queen Tyrone in the mean time sent submissive Letters to the Earl of Ormond and promised the Spaniards that he would accept no Conditions from the English magnifying his Victories beyond all reason and truth So that now the Courtiers in England began to consider as Mr. Cambden observes That by long use it was grown to a destructive custom in Ireland That Rebels and Traytors might with the Money they had gotten from the spoiled English by Pillage and Villany procure for themselves Protection and Pardon The Queen was well inclined to have sent the Lord Montjoy into Ireland but the Earl of Essex pretended to it and he was chosen Others say the Council put him upon it that he might put an end to the Troubles of Ireland which had been encreased by the Contentions between the Commanders that were employed before and also by the deaths of Sir John Norris and that of the Lord Deputy as well as by the Defeat of Marshal Bagnal That the Lords cried up the Valour of the Earl of Essex to the skies and affirmed that there was not in England any General who could undertake the Reduction of so far-spread a Rebellion with that Prudence Diligence and Courage they might expect from him Thus he was sent thither by the perfidious Commendations of his Enemies against the opinion of his real and true Friends that they that put him upon it might when he was there find an opportunity to ruin him The Earl on the other side was anxious and unresolved what to do for as he feared the Fate of his Father who perished in that Kingdom so he could not tell how to oppose his own Destiny and accepted of an Employment which no other durst pretend to purely to comply with the good opinion of the whole Privy Council which loaded him with Praises on this occasion tho in his heart he misdoubted the Event The Queen also sent him away thither with great Testimonies of her Affection to him commending him excessively for preferring her Service before his own Safety but then this was the last good day that unfortunate Earl ever saw He landed there the 15th of April 1599. with 13000 Horse and 16000 Foot which were made up 20000. there being more than that number in Arms against the Queen But with all these Forces he did nothing worthy of his former Reputation or of his Army And that Winter he went out of Ireland in a Discontent without the Queen's Leave and returned unexpectedly to the Court which proved his Ruin Tyrone grew insolent hereupon and profess'd publickly he would recover the Liberty of Religion and his Countrey Charles Lord Montjoy was thereupon sent Lord Deputy who landed the
24th of February 1599 600 The English Army was then 1200 Horse and 14000 Foot and the General finding the Irish Strength was in their Fastnesses he resolved to ruin them by small flying Parties placed in Garisons and this way accordingly destroyed them without redress and they began to talk of submitting which was not regarded because all the world saw there was no Truth Faith or Honour in this barbarous and false Enemy From thenceforward many that begged for Pardon were denied it if they did not bring in the Heads of their Fellow-Traytors or do some other considerable service to purchase it which they seldom failed of attempting and were very often taken by their own Party in the Fact and hanged The War went vigorously on and the Rebels were generally beaten in all places till the 23d of September 1601. when the Spaniards landed at Kingsale and the English immediately sat down before it yet the Spaniards tho beaten in every Sally defended the Town to the 24th of December when there was a general Battel between Tyrone and all the Rebels on the one side and so many of the English as could be spared out of the Trenches Tyrone was beaten out of the Field and he lost 1200 of his men 800 wounded and the English lost only one Cornet and six Soldiers The Spaniards knew nothing of the Battel and made no Sally till it was over tho the Fight was within one Mile of Kingsale but then they sallied twice to no purpose whereupon the 31st of December the Spaniards capitulated and delivered up the Town After this the War went on so successfully against these Rebels and they were reduced to such Necessities that the Parents eat their Children and three Children roasted the flesh of their dead Mother and lived upon it twenty days so that this exceeded the Famine of Jerusalem The 30th of March 1602. Tyrone submitted to Mercy at Melifont begging to be received upon his Knees Thus ended this most dangerous Rebellion that ever was made in Ireland before that time about a week after the Death of the Queen and before it was known It had never risen to that height but for the over-great penuriousness of the Queen for which she afterwards paid very dear and had not the happiness to see the Traytor Tyrone at her foot before her Death but however she was sufficiently revenged of all her Enemies by the Ruin Famine Deaths and Plagues that fell upon them Heaven favouring her Cause and blasting all their Undertakings against her It is very observable that the main pretence of this Rebellion was the Preservation of the Roman-Catholick Religion yet there was then never any Law passed in this Kingdom against it nor any Prosecution made of those that professed it but they had a perfect Liberty of Conscience to embrace which of the Religions they pleased only the Church-Preferments and Revenues were put into the hands of the Protestant Clergy and the Tythes paid to them and the Government was generally put into the hands of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but so that they were mixed and they of the other Religion being more in number were commonly returned on all Juries So that Liberty of Conscience will not keep a divided Kingdom always quiet but there have ever been men to be found who are as uneasie when they cannot persecute others as when they themselves are persecuted The Charge of this War from the first of October 1598. to the first of April 1603. amounted to Eleven hundred ninety eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen Pounds Nineteen Shillings and One Peny as Mr. Cox assures us from whence he inferreth how justly the Irish had for feited the Estates were taken from them and how reasonable it will ever be for the English in Ireland to contribute freely to the maintaining of a good Army for the preserving that Kingdom in Peace In her time the English Nation was at its highest pitch of Honour Wealth and Reputation The Queen was also in the greatest esteem that was possible with all the Neighbour Nations because she had delivered Scotland from the hated Dominion of the French and she had after this succoured and supported the Netherlands when their Affairs were most desperate she had sent vast Treasures into France to support Henry the IVth against the Holy League and the King of Spain and when after all Ireland had been stirr'd up against her and had made almost a general Revolt under the Command of a false and treacherous Traytor she had the good fortune to reduce that Kingdom by the Prosperity of her Arms and the Valour of her Subjects Spain was in her time terrible to all the other Nations in Europe till her Navies afflicted and ruined that Kingdom by burning their Fleets and Naval Stores at the Groyne and Cadiz Her Fame spread it self to the most distant parts of Europe and the Muscovites and Turks who were only known by report to the English before her happy times sent Ambassies to her to beg her Friendship and settle Commerce and Trade with her The King of Morocco and Fez in Barbary in Africa sent also an Ambassy to her so that her Subjects had the pleasure of smiling at the half-naked Moors and the Russ who were loaded with Furs after the manner of their Countrey The Hollander French Poles Germans Danes and Swedes and all the other Nations about her begged her Friendship in times of Peace her Assistance and Protection in times of War and on every occasion testified their sense of her Favours and their Gratitude for the good offices she had done them She laboured always to unite those Princes who were her Friends and Allies by Marriages and other such methods if any Controversie or Difference at any time arose between them she sent her Letters and her Ambassadors to both the Parties to compose them and they on the other side did for the most part acquiesce in her Judgment and yield to her Authority If in any part of her Dominions the Countrey hapned to become desolate and ill peopl'd she took particular care to send Colonies thither to supply that defect She brought her meanest Subjects from an idle poor and beggarly way of living to the practice of good and useful Trades many of which were brought into England in her time by the banished and persecuted Netherlanders to the great benefit and advantage of this Kingdom She made the Naval Glory of England equal to its Military or Land-Service and Reputation The Bounds of her Fame were not confined to England but extended to the utmost parts of the earth and the farthest Recesses of the Ocean for her Subjects in her time passed the Liâ—…e and filled all the corners of the habitable world with the fame of this most Celebrated Queen There was no place in the wide and remotest Ocean but her Subjects sailed thither with their Merchandize to enrich their Countrey The English Fleets