Confinement could thus comfort his drooping Spirits with the prospect of that Honour would be paid him in his Grave when his Name should be imbalmed in the grateful memory of his Subjects It is a wonder there is no more care taken by the Living to render this grateful Acknowledgment to their Ancestors for all that they have left them But if we are unmindsul of the Dead if their cold Bones can merit no corner in our Hearts or thoughts why are we so regardless of the Living a Prince can scarce deserve better of his Subjects instruct direct reform or amend them more effectually by any other method than by Good Histories The Precepts that are so delivered slide insensibly and pleasantly into the minds of the Reader and make lasting Impressions on his Memory Nor is this Benefit confined to the Subject and meaner Persons even Princes themselves do borrow from History those Counsels and Assistances they shall hardly gain from Courtiers and Ministers sometimes they will not sometimes they dare not Admonish their Master whilst a good History shews them by others what will be the effect of ill-concerted Designs and Counsels and at the same time is an Awe upon them suggesting this Thought frequently to them How will this look in History Thus Augustus Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Fourth of France became Famous to Posterity by observing carefully in History what Fate had attended the Princes that preceded them Posterity too are to be taken care of if the present Age is not such as a Good or a Wise Man would wish it let us try if we can make the next Generation better by shewing the Chain of Calamities have followed at the heels of the Vices of the last and of this Age. At her Death the Thrift the Probity the Piety and the Hospitality of the English Nation was much abated The Luxury that attended the Peaceable Reign of James the First and the Beginning of Charles the First brought on a War that threatned our Ruin What has hapned since the Restitution to the time in which Their Majesties began Their Reign is now fresh in Memory but will be lost if not written And I am persuaded nothing can possibly be invented to make us Wiser than we now are sooner or more easily than a good History of this Period of Time but then our Princes and Great Men must encourage it and skreen the Writer or it will never be done The Expence is too great for a Private Man and the Materials are most of them locked up from the view of all those who have not the Royal Authority consenting to their Inspection and the Royal Purse to support the Charge of Transcribing them Methinks every Prince that resolveth to do things worthy to be written should take care to have one good Historian about him to preserve the Memory of his Actions Those that live ill will find what they fear above all things a man to paint out those things to the Life which they would gladly have concealed Story will go on with or without their care but to their Damage if not discreetly encouraged But why do I write thus in all the Misfortunes that have so lately befallen me My Character has been written with the Poison of Asps instead of Ink so that one single Word in another man's Work otherwise interpreted than either he or I meant it as is plain by the words that follow and explain it has been enough to sink me after my Reputation had been sufficiently pierced by the Arrows of Envy and Detraction But all that I shall say in my own Defence is That I hate what I am supposed to be guilty of as much as any man in the Nation and never suffered said or thought the thing in all my Life THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK THE Birth and Parentage of Queen Elizabeth Page 1 Her Education 3 Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongues and her Observations in Reading 4 5 Her Tutor in Theology 8 She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues 9 The Untimely Death of her beloved Brother Edward VI. 12 And the Succession of Q. Mary 13 She was a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty 15 She was hated by the Popish Bishops for her Religion 16 Her Life was saved by King Philip 18 The Death of Queen Mary 19 The Nation then divided into Factions 22 Calais newly lost 23 She at first dissembled her Religion 24 Her Prime Counsellors 26 She dissembled with the K. of Spain 27 She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain 29 The Treaty of Cambray 30 The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais 31 She resolves to reform the Religion of England 32 The contending Religions equally balanced 33 Her first Parliament The Complaints of the Popish Bishops 39 The Reformation established 40 The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformation 43 The Happiness of England 44 Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergy-men 45 And to curb the immoderate Liberty of the Protestant Dissenters 47 The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. 50 The Council of Trent restored The Plea of the Protestants against it The Popish Party inclined to Rebel 53 The Setâ—…lement of the Civil State considered 55 The Means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom 59 Laws and Orders made for the Publick Good 60 The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility 61 She favoured her Kindred and advanced them 62 Her Care to abolish the evil Customs and bad Laws of former times 64 The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry 67 Her Answer Her Temperanee and Chastity 71 The Princes and Great Men that courted her 73 The Character of the Earl of Leicester 75 Of Robert Earl of Essex 85 Of Thomas Earl of Sussex 89 Of Sir William Cecil afterward created Lord Burleigh 90 Of the Lord Willoughby 94 Of Sir Francis Walsingham Of Mary Queen of Scotland 97 And of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton 98 The French desirous of a War with England 99 They design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England 101 The Scots send to England for Assistance against the French The Scotch War The First Civil War in France 110 The Death of Francis II. The Beginnings of the Misfortunes of Mary Queen of Scotland The deplorable condition of Princes 113 118 Murray comes into England Queen Elizabeth durst not restore the Queen of the Scots to her Throne 124 The Trial of the Queen of the Scots 125 Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Queen of the Scots Rebellions in England Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders A second Rebellion The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of them His Character 141 143 They are fâ—…llowed by many Treasous and Conspiracies 145 Which occasion Acts of Parliament against the Recusants 146 Colleges built for the English Papists beyond the Seas 147 Parry's Conspiracy Babington's 151 A
Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists A plentiful Supply given to the Queen She dischargeth a part of it 158 A Digression concerning Parry 160 The Queen's Severity towards the Conspirators 163 The second Civil War in France 165 The third in which the Queen sends great Supplies of Men and Money 167 A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience 169 The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without success The true Causes of these Civil Wars 170 The Queen preserved the Protestants of France 171 The beginning of the Countrey-Wars 172 Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and recalled 172 The King of Spain enraged at it 174 The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government there 176 Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison 177 The rest of the Cities petition for a General Assembly of the States 178 The Designs of Spain discovered to the rest of the Nobility 179 Which at first only terrified and divided them 181 A Bloody Persecution against the Protestants in the Netherlands 182 The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Flanders The Council of Blood 185 Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized and after them vast Numbers of meaner people 187 The Protestants of France and the Queen of England alarmed at these Proceedings 188 The Subjects of the Low Countries fly into England 189 The Conduct of King Philip considered The Reasons why Queen Elizabeth opposed the Spaniards 191 The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of England 193 The King of Spain complains of the Queen for harbouring the Netherland Pyrates 194 They seize the Sea-Ports of Holland and Zealand The Queen of England undertakes the Protection of this oppressed People 197 The French Affairs during her time 201 A Private League between France and Spain against the Protestants 203 The Duke of Guise made Head of this League against his Sovereign 204 An Account of the House of Guise 205 The Reasons why Henry III. was to be deposed and Henry IV. excluded 207 The Queen Mother of France dieth of Grief Queen Elizabeth assists Henry IV. with Men and Money 209 Spain invaded by the English 211 The Actions of Robert Earl of Essex 212 The Affairs of Ireland during her Reign 216 Ulster the first Province that rebelled 218 A Quarrel between Ormond and Desmond 219 The Pope and King of Spain Interested in the Wars of Ireland 221 The Difficulty of administring Justice and Mercy seasonably 224 Sr. Jo. Perrot Lord Deputy of Ireland New Colonies sent into Munster The Irish complain of the English 226 And they of the Deputy 227 William's Character 228 The College of Dublin finished The English Colonies keep Ireland quiet for some time Part of the Spanish Armado Shipwrackt on the Coast of Ireland 229 The Rise of Hugh Oneale Earl of Tyrone 232 He aspires to be King of Ulster Tyrone made a County which occasioned that Rebellion 233 Sir William Russell Lord Deputy of Ireland under whom it began 234 Sir John Norris sent into Ireland 235 The Irish made very Expert in the use of Arms. Tho. Lord Burroughs made Deputy The Council of Ireland represent the Irish War as an Universal Rebellion of the whole Nation 241 Tyrone beats the English 243 He treats with Spain and England at the same time 244 The Earl of Essex sent Deputy The Lord Montjoy sent Deputy 246 No Irish pardoned but what merited the favour by some Signal Service 247 The Spaniards land at Kingsale The Irish reduced to eat man's Flesh 248 Religion causlesly made the Pretence of this Irish War Liberty of Conscience considered 249 The great Reputation of England in Queen Elizabeth's time 250 Sir Drake's Original and Story 253 The Story of John Oxenham 256 Drake's two Voyages into America 258 The Story of Mr. Tho. Cavendish 263 Philip King of Spam highly inc◅nsed against the English 265 The Invincible Armado Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England The Condition of the Spanish Fleet when the English left it 273 The King of Spain bears his Loss with much patience and prudence 275 The English and Hollanders glorify God for the Victory over the Spaniards at Sea 277 The Queen declares a War against Spain 278 The English Expeditions against that Kingdom A rare Example of Martial Valour Complaints made of the Depredations of the English at Sea 285 The Hanse Towns very clamorous against the English 287 The Trade of England prohibited in Germany 288 The Queen seizes the Still-yard 289 Poland continues a Trade with England 291 The Queen ends a War between the Russ and Swedes ibid. Her Laws for the enriching her Subjects Her Severity to those she imployed when found faulty 292 The Liberty of the Theatre restrained 297 The Calamities that happened in her times 298 Her kindness to her good Magistrates 299 Her tender care of the Church 300 Her Stature and Personal Accomplishments 301 She was concerned in her old Age for the decay of her Beauty She loved Flattery because it raised a good opinion of her in her Subjects but Crafty men made ill uses of it 303 She loved good Preachers 307 She loved Religion but hated Faction 308 Her Devotion in publick She exposed her Life for the Safety of the Church 309 She humoured and caressed the body of the People 310 Parliaments frequently held 312 Her Maxims concerning Peace and War 314 She would never arm the meanest of the People All honours carefully and sparingly bestowed in her time 315 Her Justice and Severity towards Offenders which made her beloved 317 Her Justice in other Instances 322 She was sparing in her Personal Expences but magnificent in her Publick 323 She was too sparing in her Rewards She shewed a great respect to the memory of the meanest Soldier that perished in her Service 327 The Praises of Henry VII who was her Example 329 Her Bounty to some Great Men 330 The manner of her bestowing Honours 333 The choice of her Servants Officers and Ministers 335 Her kindness to the Bishops and Church-men 337 Her Principal Favourites and Statesmen 338 Her Habit 339 Her Furniture 341 Her Dyet in publick and private 342 The Splendor and Divertisements of her Court 344 Her private way of living 346 Her Summer Progresses and her Carriage towards the People 348 She spent the Winter in London 350 Her Diet in Summer and Winter 352 Her Diversions and Private Conversation 353 She was subject to violent Anger 's 355 Her Sevērity to the Queen of Scots To Leicester 358 To Hatton 360 The Provocations she met with many and great 361 The Character of Sanders and others who defamed her 363 Her last Sickness 367 he spent the last moments of her life in Devotion 371 Her last Words and Death 373 The Sorrow for her Death at Home and Abroad 374 LICENS'D November 10. 1692. THE CHARACTER OF Queen ELIZABETH ELIZABETH Queen of England was born
Kingdom with an intire Reliance upon her Majesties most unquestionable good affections towards her not doubting but her Majesty would assist her and that by her Example and Encouragement others would be won over to her I do most earnestly therefore said she beseech you That I may presently be admitted to come to you because I am now in great Distress as I will more at large inform you when you shall please so far to have Compassion on me God grant your Majesty a long and an happy Life and me that Patience and Consolation which I â—…ope to obtain from him by your seasonable Assistance Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Knolles and some others to the Queen of the Scots to comfort her and promised her all that Protection and Assistance which the Equity of her Cause would allow but she would not suffer her to come to her And she ordered her to be removed to Carlisle which was a place of greatâ—…r Safety to her than that she was at present in where the Scots might perhaps surprize her Upon this the Queen of the Scots wrote a Third Letter to the Queen and sent it by the Lord Herris desiring that she might be suffered to come before her Majesty to propose the Injuries which had been done to her by her Subjects and to answer the accusations they did pretend to bring against her That it was most equitable and just that Queen Elizabeth should admit her who was her Nearest Kinswoman and was now an Exile into her presence and hear what she had to say for her self and restore her to her Kingdom which she had most unjustly been deprived of by those who had been most justly banished for their Treasons against her and wâ—…re Pardoned and Restored upon your Majesty's Intercession with me to my own Râ—… as now it plainly appeareth said she if your Majesty d th not prevent it Wherefore I once more Conjure your Majesty either to Admit me into your Presence and to Assist me or otherwise to suffer me forthwith to go out of England to seek help elsewhere and that you would not detain me as a Captive and a Prisoner any longer in the Castle of Carlisle because I came freely into England trusting in your many kind Letters Messages and the Pledges of an Honourable Reception This Letter wrought very much upon the heart of the Queen and she could not but pity the desolate and deplorable Estate of so near a Relation who being by Force of Arms taken by her own Subjects had been thrust from a Throne into a Prison brought into the utmost danger of her Life Condemned without being heard and was deprived of a Kingdom and had now fled to her out of a Confidence of her Assistance and was now at last willing and desirous that the Queen of England should be her Judge and when she had heard both her and her Subjects pronounce what Sentence she thought fit and just Princes are certainly the most unhappy part of Mankind because they are frequently reduced to those straits that they can scarce tell which way to turn them Sin or Misery Ruin or Dishonour surround and encompass them so that there is no possibility of avoiding both at once Had Queen Elizabeth dismissed the Queen of Scots she would without doubt have found enough who would have entertained her as an Instrument and Pretence to ruin both England and Scotland too If she detained her in England it was feared that her Wheedling Humour Youth and Beauty and her stout Attachment to the Popish Religion would draw in many of the English to take her part as long as she was considered as the nexâ—… Heir of the Crown after the Queen then Reigning and this would very much endanger the Peace of England Foreign Ambassadors would have Orders from their Masters when her Case was once known to espouse her Interest and promote her Affairs and a part of the Scots would certainly endeavour to restore her and suppress the Opposite Party when they had so fair a Prospect of making their own Fortunes into the bargain The Faith of those that were trusted with the keeping this Precious Depositum was not to be relied on and if-she should happen to dye by a Natural Death the Queen must expect to be defamed and slandered as the Murtherer of her So that the Queen saw that every day new and unforeseen Difficulties grew upon her If she were suffered to go into France it was feared the House of Guise which was related to her by her Mother might renew their old Pretences in her Right to England and again set on foot her former Claim of this Throne and might win many over to assist her either on the score of her Religion or the Probability of her Right or lastly merely out of a mad desire of changing the present Government which is never so easie or sweet as to please all That the parting with her would put an end to the League and Friendship between England and Scotland which was then considered as a thing of the greatest use that could possibly be conceived to England and it was to be feared if by her means the Popish part of Scotland prevailed against the Protestant the League with France would be renewed and this would be so much the more mischievous to England now because heretofore we had the Friendship of the House of Burgundy to balance that of Scotland but the Estates of that Family being all at this time united in the Person of Philip II. King of Spain England had not one Ally near it which could be relied on but the Scots If she were resetled in Scotland it was to be feared that those of the English Faction would be ruined and those of the French would be alone intrusted with all the Power The young Prince would be exposed to Dangers the Religion which was now well Established there would be changed the French and other Foreigners would be invited thither and entertained and Ireland would be more infested by the Highland-Scots than heretofore and Queen Mary her self would be in danger of losing her Life amongst her own Subjects Hereupon the far greatest part of the Council of England were of an Opinion That she ought to be detained here as a Prisoner of War till she had given sufficient satisfaction for her assuming the Title of the Crown of England and answered for the Death of the Lord Darnly who was a Subject of England For this the Countess of Lenox had furnished them with a Pretence by her coming to the Queen and with Tears in her eyes demanding Justice in her own and her Husbands name and had also besought the Queen That Mary Queen of the Scots might be Arraigned for the Death of her Son To whom the Queen had calmly and wisely answered That the Countess ought not to bring so grievous an Accusation or charge so black a Crime as this was upon a Princess so nearly related to
upon it which in a few years will destroy it Thus also fell the Roman and all the other Empires when the fatal time was come Not that Religion was then the pretence of the oppressing their Subjects but Oppression is the same thing and will eternally have the same effect be the Pretence or Motive what it will Emanuel Van Meteren in his Third Book of the History of these times deploring the Loss his Countrey sustained by being deprived at once of all its Trades and so many of its useful and industrious Subjects saith That there was not less than an Hundred thousand people that then fled into strange Countries to earn their bread and tho some of these afterwards returned yet the main body of them never did and their Trades were lost to the English and other Nations who learned them of these people and exercise them to this day The Queen of England seeing the King of Spain was deaf to all her and her Neighbour Princes Entreaties and Intercessions with him for the mitigating his Sanguinary and Cruel Edicts concerning Religion and that he had set up in the Netherlands a Spanish Inquisition for the more grievous Torturing the Consciences of his Subjects That he had denied an Assembly of the States of the Netherlands which was the only and the usual way of composing their Affairs when they were in any disorder That he governed them rather by Arbitrary Orders sent from Spain than by the Laws of the Countrey or Counsels of the Natives That he made use of the Tumults which the meanest of the people had fallen into upon the account of the Images tho they were presently suppress'd and that by the Natives to bring one of the Freest Nations of Europe under the intolerable yoke of an Arbitrary Government turning unjustly the rash Folly and Madness of a few mean people to the great Damage of this whole Nation by pretending All that people had rebelled against him and thereby Forfeited their Ancient Liberties She saw also that he had sent Ferdinand Alavares Duke of Alva a Bloody man to usurp this Arbitrary Government who being no way related to the Royal Family was now constituted the Supreme Governor of these Provinces contrary to their Laws and that he had abolished and suspended the Jurisdiction and Authority of all their Legal Courts and brought in amongst them a new unheard of Tribunal which had proceeded illegally against several of the Nobility of that Countrey and condemned them to death and they had been thereupon executed That Spanish Garisons were quartered and Citadels built in the great Towns and Cities and the Twentieth Penny of all their Real Estates and the Tenth of their Personal had been illegally assess'd and by force levied She saw also that the Duke d' Alva the 29th of December 1568. had furiously and impatiently seized the Goods and Persons of her own Subjects and put them into the Custody of his Soldiers on the pretence of some Moneys stopped in England which belonged to the Merchants of Genoua who had consented to the Embargo and she concluded this enraged man was not content to oppress the Netherlands but would needs make himself a Terror to her and her people too whereupon this Heroick Lady commanded all the Ships and Goods of the Netherlands which were in her Ports to be stopp'd which were of greater value than those the Duke had been able to find in the Low-Countries whereby she humbled that proud hasty man and made him see how little she could fear either him or his Master This Action of the Queen 's opened the eyes of the poor oppressed people of these Countries and shewed them the way to deal with their Oppressors was to attack them by Water and not by Land They had made several attempts on the side of Germany under the Command of some of their banished Nobility in the year 1568 and they had been unfortunate in all of them Lewis Van Nassau Brother of William Prince of Orange tho he had 7000 men Horse and Foot and was a good and a prudent Commander and had taken all the care that was possible to prevent Misfortunes yet he was defeated near Emden The Prince of Orange who followed after was in a short time forced to retire into France tho he had 11000 men under him The two next years he served the Prince of Conde in France and in the year 1569. he took up the Resolution to grant Letters of Mart to all that would put out Ships to Cruise against the Spaniards in the Low Countries the Heer Van Dolhain being Admiral who in that year took and spoiled and ransomed many Ships This good success encouraged more in the year 1570. to take this course and as they grew stronger and more numerous so they had better success In 1571. they set upon the Fleet that was going to Spain and took and plundered a great part of it in the Texel The Duke of Alva sent out some Men of War against these Privateers but to small purpose because they were small and too nimble for his great Ships and Germany and England protected victuall'd and harboured them Whereupon in the year 1571. he sent to the Queen of England to complain of the Harbouring these Pyrates as he called them The Queen was in no haste to do his business after he had so far provoked her but in the year 1572. when they were become Rich and very Numerous she put out a severe Proclamation against them commanding them to be gone by a limited time or to be feized in her Harbours whereupon in March this year they put themselves under the Command of William Van Marck Lord Lumey to the number of about Thirty Ships or Fly-Boats well mann'd and victuall'd and these had the good fortune to find the Briel without any Garison and so they took Possession of it without any opposition the first of April The eighth of the same month Flushing joined with them and cast out the few Spaniards were there And after this in a short time the whole Provinces of South and North Holland as fast as they could by any means get rid of the Spanish Garisons revolted from them and took up Arms against the Duke of Alva declaring at first for the Prince of Orange as Stadtholder to the King of Spain in these Provinces Thus were the Foundations of the Liberties of the United Provinces in the Low Countries laid in the blood of its Inhabitants and as heartily at first promoted by the Roman-Catholick Subjects to preserve their Civil Privileges as by the Protestants to secure their Lives and Fortunes from the Arbitrary Violence of the Spaniards So that if either of them were Rebels it was because Philip the IId would not be contented with the same degree of Power the former Princes his Predecessors had enjoyed but made use of a Ferment the Providence of God and his own Cruelty and Imprudenee had raised in the
from the Queen and to dispose them to Sedition and Rebellion The Queen saw the Tendence of this and did not think it was fit to despise their Complaints That therefore she might prevent the ill effects of their Malice and withdraw the matter that fed their Fury and threatned her Kingdom with Schisms and Factions which would be the Causes of great Calamities she appointed a Conference or Disputation between the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants at London Concerning the Authority of the Church and the Supremacy of the Pope the Ceremonies in use in the Church of Rome and the Change of the Elements in the Holy Eucharist that she might by this means unite the disagreeing minds of her Subjects in one and the same opinion and mutual Love and Charity to each other In this Conference many of the most reverend Mysteries of the Christian Religion were on both sides debated with great Warmth and Heat and much Learning yet nothing was gained on either side by reason of the immoderate Opposition and the implacable Hatred they bore each to other So when the Popish Party saw that the Pope's Authority which was once reverenced as Divine was now become contemptible and infamous 2nd that all the Reasons they could pretend for the Justification of their Ceremonies were overwhelmed by the load of Infamy their Pride and Cruelty had brought upon them so that it was not possible for them to abate the Hatred or remove the Contempt the people were then possessd with against the Popish Clergy they sullenly pretended That in the Matters of Religion there was no need of Reason and Disputation and defended themselves with more Passion and Anger than Reason and Judgment After this Disputation there were Acts of Parliament passed for the Establishing the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church as also for Restoring the Queen's Supremacy with the unanimous Consent of the Peers and the Applause of the Commons But however the Popish Party refused still to comply and openly said These Laws were not to be submitted to and thereupon began a Dissention which is not yet ended The turbulent Bishops and Clergy who still adhered to the old Rites and Ceremonies being thereupon bereaved of their Sees made great Complaints of the Iniquity and Injustice of these Laws and concealing themselves as well as they could in corners and lurking-holes for fear of being prosecuted for their disobedience they said the Queen was guilty of Heresie and solicited that part of the Nobility and Commonalty which still stuck to the Church of Rome to renounce their Obedience to her and stoutly to maintain the Old Service They also sent their Agents to Rome to perswade the Pope to Excommunicate her by Name as one that had brought a New Heresie into the Church and had confined the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln and many of the inferior Clergy for sticking firmly to the Romish Ceremonies And lastly That she had assumed a Jurisdiction and Royal Authority as well in all Spiritual Causes as Secular The Queen on the other side had by this time found the Inclination of her People and being now well setled in her Throne did not think fit to act any longer with that Reservedness she did at first when she feared the Number and Authority of the Papists who had then the Law on their side but by her Proclamation she couragiously and openly commanded them That they should embrace the True Religion which was most acceptable to God and leave their Popish Rites or otherwise depart out of her Kingdoms Royal City and Dominions within so many months And upon this she removed all those Popish Noblemen which had in her Sister's time been advanced to any Publick Employments or Stations in the Court or Kingdom and she setled Protestants in all those Places and put the whole Management of Publick Affairs into their hands affirming very stoutly That she would sooner lay down her life than desist from that Zeal and Resolution she had taken up for the bringing down the Wickedness of the Papists This Bravery encouraged all her Friends and struck her Enemies dumb Thus was the Popish Religion abolished in England when it had flourished many Ages in great Wealth by the help of a profitable Ignorance and a fallacious and deceitful Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures And the Protestant Religion being restored to that Liberty Esteem and Splendor it had had in the times of Edward the VIth it was soon after by the means of their common Language and Vicinity communicated to the Scots and spread it self not only in their Cities and great Towns but also in their Villages and Countrey Habitations It is impossible to the Life to describe the Calamities this Revolution brought upon the Scots Nation The most sacred and venerable Churches which seem'd to be secured from Violence by the Awe of Religion were burnt down the most sacred Chappels were first Rifled and then Demolished by the Rabble The Sepulchres of their Ancestors were pulled down their Statues beaten down and trodden under foot and the basest and most lewd Injuries done to the Altars as if the Papists had been mere Pagan Idolaters I am so enraged saith my Author a Learned Scot against these men on the account of the great Ruin they wrought in my Native Countrey that I cannot forbear expressing my Resentment For I am of opinion That these Popish Moâ—…ments ought indeed to have been shut up not to have been demolished because they were the Ornaments of our Countrey But to teturn to Queen Elizabeth she made it no part of her business to find out those peaceable Roâ—…ish Priests who had betaken themselves to private lurking holes and secret places more out of Fear than any Legal necessity And if any of them by chance happened to be taken they were committed to an honourable and easie restraint in the Cities or delivered up into the hands of their own Bishops to the end that by this her Moderation she might in the beginning of her Reign create an opinion of her Clemency in all her Subjects and at the same time deprive these Priests of the opportunity of doing Mischief There was not one of these men put to death till Pope Piâ—…s the Vth in the year 1570 excommunicated her by his Bull upon which there followed a Rebellion of the Papists in the Noâ—…th This was in the Twelfth Year of her Reign and in the next Ten Years that followed there was but Twelve men of that Religion executed who were all Convicted of very great Crimes by the most Legal Trials The name of Papist was not punished in any man that was not guilty of great Wickednesses because in the beginning of a Reign it is a dangerous thing to punish Offences with too much Rigor whereas Clemency is of good use And she accordingly took care by her Benefits to allure the minds of her Popish Subjects to her rathet than by Cruelties to fright them
and Parliaments honoured and reverenced In short all those Perfections which separately have made so many Great Men admired met in this one Lady viz. Civil Prudence for the Government of a State the knowledge of Equity and Laws and an exact Skill of managing a Kingdom and the Publick Affairs of it Her Goverment was not like that of most other Women turbulent and insolent but was grateful to her Subjects pleasing to the People acceptable to the Nobility and Gentry equal and just to her Allies and admired by the Neighbour Nations She has been celebrated not only in her own times but in all that have since followed and will be to the end of the world on the account of these Divine Virtues and Deserts For she was truly accounted the Parent of her â—…eople a Prince by her Nobles and the Patroness of true Piety and Religion by the Protestant Nations about her Nor was there ever any Prince that was equally esteemed and loved by the Nobility and Commonalty too of his own Kingdom as Queen ELIZABETH was by hers If she happened at any time to be sick or ever so little disordered in her health her Nobility would be so alarmed at it that they would willingly never stir from her to eat or drink or take any care of themselves and all degrees of people would fly in vast Numbers to the Churches and with Tears and the most devout Prayers beg her Life and Health and the Continuance of her Government over them till God heard their Petitions and restored her to her Health Nor was this an enjoined and formal Devotion but it was as hearty and as earnest as that which is made for the nearest and dearest Relations And when they had obtained their desire the Joy and the Gratitude they expressed shewed they took her Preservation and Life for a Publick and an Universal Blessing When in the beginning of her Reign she had first taken care to reform and settle Religion and after that to redress and restore the Civil State or Government of England which had been brought by the Calamities of the foregoing Reigns not only into a deplorable but almost into a desperate condition but now were by her Authority Prudence and Moderation with the Assistance of her Council brought to the state of Tranquility Order and Equity she designed the Fears of England which before oppress'd the Nation in relation to Foreign Dangers as well as Domestick expired When her first Parliament had setled the Succession and Religion their next care was for the Marriage of the Queen and the providing for future times and accordingly the Commons by common consent resolved to Address to the Queen fearing though without just cause That she should Marry a Foreign Prince and thereby bring the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion into the same dangers they had been exposed to in the former Reign They therefore represented the Affections of the Nation to her and said If they could hope she might be Immortal they would rest satisfied but that being a vain Imagination they earnestly besought her to chuse such an Husband as might make her self and the Nation happy and by the Blessing of God bring such Issue as might Reign after her Death which they prayed God might be very late To this she replied That tho the Subject they came about was not acceptable to her yet it was a great satisfaction to her to see how zealous they and her other Subjects were for her Welfare and that she bâ—…lieved they desired it for her's and the Nation 's Good And as to the changing my present state said she and Marrying which you so earnestly desire I would do I have long since peâ—…suaded my self That I was brought into the world by the special Providence of God that I might in the first place think and do what tended most to his Glory Therefore I have chosen that state of Life which is the freest from human cares that so I might be at leisure only to attend the Service of God And if it had been possible for the Marriage of a Potent Prince to have allured me or the Fears of Death to have affrighted me from this Resolution I might have been long since engaged in the Honourable State of Matrimony and these were my thoughts when I was â—…et a Subject But now when all the Cares which attend the Governing of a Kingdom are come upon me it would appear a very inconsiderate and imprudent thing in me to add to them the Cares of a Married State In truth said she I am already married if 〈◊〉 else will satisfie you to the Kingdom of ENGLAND See what I wonder you could forget the Pledge of my Marriage and betrothing to the Nation And stretching out her hand she shewed them on one of the Fingers of her Right Hand the Gold Ring had been put upon it according to the Custom at her Coronation And after a short pause she thus went on And I desire you would not look upon me as Childless and on that account weak and defenceless for you and all other English-men are my Children and Kinsmen and if God doth not deprive me of you as I hope he will not there can be no reason why I should be thought Childless Yet I cannot but commend you for this That you have not prescribed or appointed who should be my Husband for this would have been a very great Affront to a Sovereign Prince as I am and very misbecoming you who are my Subjects born But if ever it should please the Divine Majesty to incline me to change my Condition I promise you I will never do any thing that shall tend to the Damage of the State but will to the utmost of my power take such an Husband as shall take as much Care of the Kingdom as I do But then if I should continue in my present State of Life I do not doubt but that God will so direct mine and your Counsels that there shall be no doubt of my Successor who may be more beneficial to the Kingdom than one born of me for it is often observed That the Children of the Best Princes do degenerate from the Virtues of their Parents And as for me it will be the best Memorial and the greatest Honour I can wish to leave behind me to have this Inscription after my Death upon my Tomb HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN And she concluded That she took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her Thanks for the Care the Commons had of her By this means it came to pass that many Noblemen of great Estate and Power especially such as enjoyed the Blessings of Nature and Fortune Beauty and Wealth united together conceived an almost certain hopes that they should win their Maiden Queen and were by her Arts carried on in that expectation But on the contrary tho she lived in a Royal
report you guiltless believe me the Queen her self will be much affected with Joy who affirmed to me at my coming from her That never any thing befel her more grievous to her than that you were Charged with such a Crime Wherefore lay aside the bootless Privilege of a Royal Dignity which here can be of no use to you appear in Judgment and shew your Innocence lest by avoiding Tryal you draw upon your self suspicion and lay upon your Reputation an Eternal Blot and Aspersion This short Speech is highly commended for the Ingenuity and Softness of it but it was a detestable piece of Wickedness to wheedle a poor Captive Queen who was ignorant of the Laws of Nations and destitute of all Advice and Counsel out of her Reputation Majesty Innocence and Life and under the false Pretences of the Queen's Tenderness for her her Judges Uprightness and her own alledg'd Innocence to bring her by a Pretended Shew of Justice to a Scaffold as a Subject who was an Equal an Enemy and a Sovereign The Queen of Scots Innocence did not consist in her having never contrived any thing against Queen Elizabeth but in her Right to contrive all that was possible to recover her Liberty and her Kingdom and therefore when they had proved her in their Notion Guilty they had done nothing she was no Subject to Queen Elizabeth and so ought her no Allegiance and consequently could commit no Treason against her and the Queen of England ought to have set her at Liberty and commanded her out of her Kingdom before she could justly treat her as an Enemy So that this was all of it Pretence Injustice and Oppression and had Nathan the Prophet been sent to the Queen of England he would certainly have told her as he did David Thou hast slain her with the sword of the children of Ammon And the Complaint that she made to the Lord Hatton and all that she did after to excuse her self shew that she had a reluctance within and acted against the Dictates of her own Conscience so that this can be no Example for the future to any Prince or Subject but ought to be looked upon as the Dishonour and Shame of that otherwise most Excellent Princess Yet after all the Queen is not to be charged with the whole Guilt of this Royal and Innocent Blood but those Foreign Princes and the Priests and Jesuits are justly chargable with the greatest part of the blame because when they saw the Queen of Scots in so much danger of her Life they would never suffer her to be quiet but were eternally Plotting and Contriving Bribing and Conspiring how to murder Queen Elizabeth and to set up the Queen of Scots in her stead to restore their Beloved Popery here in England To demonstrate the Truth of this Assertion I must in the next place give an account of the Troubles and Conspiracies of the Popish Party against this Princess which to the shame of their Religion were all began and carried on under the pretence of a mighty Zeal for their Faith and in Obedience to its Principles Pope Pius Quintus in the year 1570 thought it became his Piety and would be an excellent Argument of his deserving that name to Arm all the Queen's Subjects against God and their Prince and Countrey and foolishly presumed the Avenger of Perjury would permit him to free them from the obligations of their Natural and sworn Allegiance to their Lawful Sovereign and his Vicegerent Thereupon he sent out his BULL to declare the Queen an Heretick and that she had forfeited all her Right to Reign and Govern And he excited all the Neighbour Catholick Princes to take Arms against her and put this Bull in Execution And one Dr. Morton the Pope's Legate à Latere here then lay lurking amongst the Papists in the North of England and with impatience expected the Roaring of this Bull as the Signal to Treason and Rebellion and in the mean time made it his business to excite their Madness and Rage and inflame their Hatred by vain hopes and promises that so he might engage them in a miserable destructive War The Popish Subjects of England being thus debauched from their Allegiance by the Pope's Authority and Approbation there presently followed a great many Seditions and Insurrections and some of the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion in compliance with their Religion began to be very ill affected towards their Prince Thus Religion became a Pretence for and a Promoter of Rebellion and Treason The first of the Nobility that entred into Action against the Queen was Thomas Piercy Earl of Northumberland who in the year 1569 had been privy to the Intended Marriage of Mary Queen of the Scots with Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and being discovered thereupon he submitted himself to the Earl of Sussex at that time President of the North yet after this he joined with Charles Nevil Earl of Westmorland and great Multitudes of people began to resort to them and they began to be suspected again by the Government as designing some Mischief The President of the North sent for them both at one time and freely told them what he had heard and they both stoutly disclaimed the having a Conspiracy in hand against the Queen and promised to adventure their Lives very zealously against any Traytor whatsoever that should take Arms against their Sovereign Yet after all Piercy began to raise what Forces he could in the year 1569 which being discovered to the Queen she sent her Letters to them requiring them to come both to Court The Earl of Northumberland was so easie a man and so far from that fiery Activity that is requisite in the Head of a Faction that upon the receit and reading of the Queen's Letter he was almost resolved to go to Court and cast himself at the Queen's Feet as in all probability he had done if his Servants and Followers who were more bent upon Mischief than he had not allarm'd him in the dead of the night and frighted him into a Rebellion by their crafty arts persuading him at the same time That all the Catholicks in England were ready prepared to assert that Religion and that if they neglected it any longer Foreign Princes would take this work in hand to the great Damage of the Nation Whereupon he fled to Branspeth in the Bishoprick of Durham to the Earl of Westmorland and they joining in a Rebellion summoned their Confederates and issued out a Proclamation in the Queen's Name commanding the people to put themselves in Arms for the Defence of her Majesty's Person In their Banner was a Cross Painted with the Five Wounds of Christ yet after all they never could assemble more than 2000 Horse and 5000 Foot so that tho they designed to have marched to York they durst not do it and upon the first News that the Earl of Sussex was advancing towards them they disbanded these Tumultuous Forces
of Supremacy And finding that the Iesuits and Secular Priests were under the Mask and Pretence of Religion the Spies and Partisans of Philip II. King of Spain and the Emissaries and Promoters of the Papal Tyranny and Disorder and that their greatest business was to pervert her Subjects and to entice them to commit the most unnatural and horrid Crimes she banished them for ever from her Kingdoms and Territories and made it Treason for them to return and Felony for any of her Subjects knowing them to be such to entertain conceal or harbor them This which was designed by the Queen and the Government to cure or rather to prevent their Treachery and Malice by keeping them at a distance inflamed their rage against her so that concealing themselves under the Habits and Dresses of Lay men and sometimes under the Disguise of Mechanick and mean Trades and Employments they lay as it were in ambush expecting and ready to catch at any opportunity that offered it self to murther her In the year 1578. which was the 12th year of her Reign and the very year when the Popish Schism began several of the Popish Priests fled over into Flanders where Philip II. had already prepared for them a College at Doway and here they put themselves under the Government of one William Alan a Divine of Oxford who having obtained a large Pension from the Pope opened here a School for Rebellion and Treason To the end say they that as the Papal Priests in England are by time extinguished there might always be a new Race to supply their Places and sow the Seeds of the Roman Religion in England and therefore they called these Places Seminaries and those that were educated in them Seminary Priests The first of these Seminary Priests sent over were Robert Parson and Edmund Campion in the year 1580. Parson was a Somersetfhire man of a furious and hot Temper and of an ungenteel behaviour Campian was a Londoner well bred sweet and elegant and both of them had been bred up in the University of Oxford and had profess'd the Protestant Religion These men upon their coming over into England appeared sometimes in a Military Habit sometimes in the Dress of a Gentleman and at others in the Habits of the Clergy and sometimes like Paritors and frequented the Country Houses and Seats of the Popish Nobility and Gentry Parson was so hot with them for the deposing of the Queen that some of them were strongly inclined to deliver him up into the Hands of the Magistrates Campian made it more his business to pervert the People by his Writings to the Popish Religion but his Reign was not long for in the year 1581. he was taken and executed for High-Treason The Queen had before this put out a Proclamation to give these men a caution before-hand That seeing they had put off all that Love which they owed to their Countrey and the Allegiance which was due to her they should yet behave themselves prudently and modestly and not irritate her Justice any farther against them for she was now resolved not to be cruel to her self and her good Subjects any longer by sparing such Miscreants as she had found them to be So that how severely soever they were used they had the lessâ—…ason to complain because she had fairly before-hand told them what she meant to do and what usage they might expect at her hands In the year 1583. Francis Throgmorton the eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel and others of the Popish Religion conspired to deliver the Queen of Scots out of her Confinement Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip his Son Earl of Arundel were suspected and confined to their own Houses and some others were suspected and difficultly delivered themselves For about this time the outragious Malice of the Popish Party against the Queen broke out to that degree that they printed Books to exhorâ—… the Queens Servants to serve her as Judith did Holofernes The Author of which was never fully discovered but iâ—… was suspected that it was written by Gregory Martin of Oxford but Carter a Printer that printed it was hanged Throgmâ—… had the same Fate but Paget and Charles Arundel left the Nation and went into France Stafford the Queen's Ambassador desired they might be sent out of France which was denied because the Queen had at the same time entertained the Count de Montgomery and had then with her Sagner an Advocate of Berne an Ambassador for the King of Navar who was endeavouring to promote a War in France In the year 1585. William Parry a Welshman by Birth and of a very mean Extraction meanly learned in the Civil Law but proud and gallant beyond his Means being chosen a Member of the Lower-House declaimed very furiously against a Bill then proposed in Parliament against the Jesuits averring tâ—…at it was a cruel bloody desperate Bill and would be destructive to the Kingdom of England Being desired to shew his Reasons for what he said he refused to answer before any other than the Privy Council whereupon he was commitâ—…ed and afterwards upon his submission readmitted into the House but was afterwards accused by Edmund Nevil the Heir Male of the House of Westmorland to have a Design against the Life of the Queen which he confessed afterwards in the Tower upon which he was tryed and executed In the year 1586. J. Ballard a Ruffling Priest of the College of Reims came over to embroil the Nation and made his visit to most of the Popish Nobility and Gentry in England and Scotland being every where accompanied by one Mand who was a Spy employed by Sir F. Walsingham This Silken Priest came into England about Easter and contracted a great acquaintance and friendship with Mr. Anth. Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman of good Birth and Estate of great Wit and Learned above his years but being a great Zealot for the Romish Religion he about a year before this without the Queen's leave went into France and there was first debauched as to his Loyalty by Morgan an Agent for the Scotchmen in that Court Ballard informed this Gentleman that the Queen of England would not live long because there was one Savage come over to assassinate her This Project did not please Babington so he formed a new Design in which were Edward Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Sarisbury of the County of Denbigh Charles Tilney one of the Gentlemen Pensioners that waited upon the Queen and the only hope of his Family but reconciled to the Church of Rome under-hand by this Ballard Chidick Tichburn of the County of Southampton Edward Abington Son of the Queen's Cosserer Robert Grage of Surry John Traverse John Charnock of Lancaster John Jones whose Father had been Master of the Wardrobe to Queen Mary Savaâ—…e and one Barnwell of a Noble 〈◊〉 Family Henry Dun a Clerk in
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
still shew her what she had been The Courtiers who knew her humour if she were to pass through any of the Ladies Chambers that waited on her presently conveyed away all the Looking-glasses and sometimes for haste broke them To please and flatter her they would also frequently admire her Beauty and pretend in her greatest Age and Deformity she was still handsome and lovely She was strangely pleased to hear the Beauty of her Face the Sweetness of her Voice and the Majesty and Decence of her Countenance still admired by others And this gave occasion to many unworthy strokes of Flattery and examples of Adulation Thus the Orators of those times would too often in their Speeches vainly commemorate and celebrate the wonderful and pleasing Beauty and Shape of their Queen and say The Majesty of her Countenance was not at all subject to the Injuries of Time when their eyes told them and all that saw her the contrary from thence they went on sometimes to tell her She had a Soul was worthy to Rule over the whole World and enjoyed those Favours of Fortune and Gifts of Nature and Art which fitted her for the Empire of the Universe Nor were her stately Palaces and Buildings her noble Furniture her fine Statues or excellent Pictures her great Treasures Virtues or Felicity forgotten on these occasions The Flatteries of Learned men towards her were very base and shameful and such as would hardly become the Stage or Theatre for they would often apply to her that Expression of Virgil's as spoken of her O Dea certe Surely this is a Goddess And that Sentence too which Tacitus marked as the utmost pitch of a wild and boundless Assentation Solam D. Elizabethae mentena tantae molis capacem That none but the Divine Soul of Queen Elizabeth was able to sustain that Weight By which extravagant Flatteries they would have had men think that the Name of their Queen had something of Divinity in it and that they revered her as a Goddess which fell from Heaven These base and pernicious Flatteries so far transported the minds of Caligula Domitian and Heliogabilus that they fell into a kind of Madness and forgetting the frailty of their humane state they assumed the Stile and Honours of gods and despised all Religions and the Providence of God The Queen especially in the beginning of her Reign endeavoured to raise in the minds of her Subjects an high opinion of her self and to that end she shewed her self on all occasions very Civil and Obliging to the Many in her Attire Retinue and Carriage She always openly profess'd that she would make it her business to employ her Estate and Fortunes in the most prudent Administration of her Royal Power and Authority Whatever she did or said was by her designed to draw upon her self the Applause and Good Wills of her Subjects and by this her Moderation and Prudence she won the Hearts and obtained the Prailes of all men Afterwards with the Prosperity of her Affairs Flattery that old haunter of the Courts of Fortunate Monarchs under the Vizor and Mask of Diligence Loyalty and Duty gained her ear and her heart and she was pleased to see her Parasitical Courtiers when they had looked intently on her of sudden cast their eyes upon the ground and craftilyseem to shake as if their Modesty was not able to bear the Greatness of her Majesty and the splendor of her Heavenly Eyes And if in their common Intercourses with her or their Publick Addresses to her they happened to fall into Flattery she never corrected them for it nor forbid these indecent and unseasonable Flatteries She would not suffer any of her Subjects tho Parliament-men to speak to her by way of Address or Business but upon their Knees and with great submission The crafty men of that Age who lay in Ambush made great use of this Infirmity of the Queen's and observed not only her Words but her Looks and Nods and flattered her in every thing Sir Thomas Henage a Knight was one of these cunning Blades who by the basest crouching Insinuations scrued himself into her good opinion and most intimate Familiarity and by this means in her Court raised himself to a great Power and Estate And besides him there were many others who were not ignorant of this useful Art tho they were inferior to him in Place Fortune and Fame Tho many of her more sincere and hearty Friends advised her Not to be imposed on by the specious Pretences of obsequious Diligence and Respect yet she was not only better pleased with Flattery than Truth but hated all that Liberty in her Subjects that was above this practice A Learned man taking notice in one of his Sermons before her That she that had been as meek as a Lamb was become an untameable Heifer he was reprehended by her so soon as he came out of the Pulpit as an over-confident man that dishonoured his Sovereign as in truth that was the worst Time and Place he could have chosen to Reprove her in David's a man of great Piety and Learning discoursing once very prudently of the many Infirmities of Old Age so provoked the Indignation of the Queen that she would never after endure to hear him Tho she was an utter Enemy to all Freedom of Speech yet she very well knew how to distinguish between a Crafty Preacher who made it his business to accomodate himself to the Opinions and Wills of his Hearers and a constant severe and grave man Accordingly she ever preferr'd a Moderate and Temperate Way of Preaching for fear her People should have been excited by such Turbulent men to excessive Insolence and the minds of wiser men should also have been offended In this affair she made good use of the provident Prudence of the Bishops who deprived the over-fiery spirits of the Liberty of Preaching and put a stop to their excessive Boldness And this was the principal Reason why none were suffercd to Preach in her times but such as were Licensed to do so Yet at the same time she was a Person of great Piety and endowed with the most ardent Love of Religion but then she did not think it was fit to suffer her Kingdoms to be embroiled by Seditious spirits under the Mask and Pretence of avoiding Persecution and promoting the Service of God And she was happy in this that in her times those Parties that have since spread themselves over this whole Kingdom were small and inconsiderable and so she was under no necessity of complying with them for her own safety but could treat them as she thought fit and perhaps if her two next immediate Successors had pursued the same Methods she did there had been no Civil War in England but whilst they sought to gratifie the Princes of the Roman-Catholick Religion abroad by their Lenity to the Papists at home the Protestant Dissenters grew up here and if they were connived at
present and she persisted constantly in this to her last Breath That he was her undoubted Heir When she had said this and recommended her Name and Memory to her Nobility she cast off all the Cares of this Life and betook her self wholly to the acts of Piety and Devotion she sent also for the Archbishop of Canterbury a Learned Pious and Moderate Prelate who was then the Guide of her Conscience and whose Salutary Advices she always much esteemed and gladly embraced When this great and good man came to her he admonished her to consider the Imperfection of the Human Nature and therefore advised her to place all her Hopes in the Merits of Christ. She replied with some difficulty of breathing or speaking That she was weary of this miserable Life which was subject to so many Calamities and Dangers That from her Soul she desired to pass to that Eternal Light which overflowed with all manner of Felicity and was hastning to her Heavenly Countrey to the Presence of her good Saviour and into his holy Arms. When the Bishop had ended his prudent and holy Exhortation she turned her a little and laying her Head upon her Right Arm she composed her self as it were to her Last Long Sleep with a Quiet Mind and a Composed Countenance nor were her Last Moments unlike the rest of her Life but it appeared by the motions of her Hand and Eyes that they were spent in the acts of Devotion and Mental Prayer Thus being at last wholly spent she quietly yielded up her Soul to God the 24th of March about Midnight in the year of our Lord 1602. in her Palace of Richmond and in the same Chamber Henry the VIIth her Grandfather died in She called this Royal Palace the Warm Box to which she could best trust her sickly Old Age and she was now come hither to avoid the over-sharp Winter She was a little less than Seventy years of Age and she had Reigned Forty four Years Four Months and Seven Days Thus died this Illustrious Queen which was not only the Greatest and the Best Woman of the times in which she lived but equal if not superior to any of her Predecessors in the Majesty of her Name or the Reverence that was paid to her by her Subjects and Neighbours in the Art of Governing in all the commendable Qualities of a Prince such as Council Policy Magnanimity in Misfortunes Moderation and Temperance in Prosperity Constancy in her Behaviour Maxims Friendship and Resolutions and accordingly the Glory that followed her and the Actions of her Reign was Incomparable She was lamented by them that then lived with an unfeigned and an unexpressible Grief and the Memory of her Virtue Learning and Piety has remained fresh and flourishing in all the following Times and shall do so for ever Her Words and Actions are in truth such as will render her Immortally Honourable be the Abilities of the Historians that shall truly represent the same what they will So soon as it was known that she was dead the Court was filled with the Lamentations and sorrowful Sighs and Tears of her Courtiers and Subjects as for the greatest Loss that ever befel any men There was never any where a greater a sincerer a more inconsolable Grief than that which then took possession of this Royal Palace nothing could stop the torrent of their Tears nothing could appease or soften their bitter Complaints The Noble Ladies which by the Order of the Privy-Council were appointed to take Care of her Body were scarce able to bear the load of their Sorrows which oppressed them but lifted up their Hands and Eyes to Heaven and implored the Mercy of God in this their Desolations and Affliction concluding without his powerful Assistance and favourable Interposition This Night would prove fatal to the English Nation and that nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom could be the consequence of so great and so deplorable a Loss as this The Countess of Warwick a Lady of great Honour Virtue Piety Sanctity and intirely beloved by the Queen testified her sorrow for the loss of her Mistress in all the effects of an inconsolable Affliction and would never be induced to put off that mourning Habit she had put on upon this occasion She performed all the Offices belonging to the Sepulture of the Queen with the utmost care piery and fidelity and by her Example taught all the rest of the Queen's Servants how they ought to behave themselves in this Mournful Affair Those of the Noblemen who were present at the time of her death expressed their Sorrows in silent tears and a deep but grave sorrow The meanest of her Servants were more noisy in their Lamentations and that Court became in a few hours a desolate place very few induring to stay in that place in which they had lost their good Mistress beneficent Sovereign and their great Benefactor When Report had once spread the News of her Death in the City of London an incredible Sorrow and Lamentation both of the Citizens and Strangers was observed which spread it self to all the Neighbour Nations as the fame of her Death was communicated to them But none more heartily deplored this loss than the HOLLANDERS who were thereby deprived of the Author of their Fortunes the Defender of their Liberty and the Preserver of their Peace and Safety A Prince she was that would refuse no Labour no Expence no Hazard how great soever it were that the Protestants might live in peace and enjoy their Liberty and this and the many good Offices she had done to them and all the Neighbour Nations had made her Name so venerable that it was no easie Task for the Magistrates at home or abroad to keep the common People in any bounds in this their outragious Sorrows for almost all that heard it were of Opinion That worse Times would follow and that many and great Calamities would ensue in England and all the Neighbour Nations THE END The Birth and Parenrage of Queen Elizabeth Her Education Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongâ—…e Her Observations in Reading G Grindal Her Tutor in Theology She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues Her Progress and Improvement under the Reign of Edward VI. The Untimely Dâ—…th of Her Bâ—…loved Brother 〈◊〉 VI. And the Succession of Q. Mary The Princess Elizabeth a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty She was hated by the P. Bishopâ—… for Her Religion Her Life was saved by King Philip. The Death of Queen Mary The Nation divided into Factions Calais newly lost Sâ—…e at first dissembled bâ—…r Religion 〈◊〉 Pâ—…ime Counsellors Câ—…cil and Bacon her Prime Ministers She dissembled with the King of Spain She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain The Treaty of Cambray The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais She resolved to resorm the Religion The contending Religions equally ballanced Her first Parliament * I do
THE CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH ELIZABETH MARY Queens of England UTERQUE QUATERQUE BEATI L Sturt sculp 〈…〉 THE CHARACTER OF Queen Elizabeth OR A Full and Clear ACCOUNT of Her Policies and the Methods of Her Government both in CHURCH and STATE Her VIRTUES and DEFECTS Together with The CHARACTERS of Her Principal Ministers of State And the greatest part of the Affairs and Events that Happened in Her Times Collected and Faithfully Represented By EDMUND BOHUN Esquire Semper eadem London Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIII Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO THE KING and QUEEN May it please Your Majesties I Here present you with the Noble Character and lively Representation of the Greatest Princess that ever sway'd this or any other Scepter A Princess whose Natural Endowments and Acquired Abilities made her the Envy or the Example of all the Crowned Heads about her whose Fame filled the World whilst she lived and the Histories of all Countries since she died In Persia they had heard of the Maiden Queen before they knew the Name of England And the Sophi asked our first Merchant that went thither if his Country was not governed by a Maid and upon his Reply It was so enquired no further Her Religion and her Morals her Publick and her Private Conversation with her Courtiers her Bed-chamber Women â—…er Maids of Honour her Friends and Relations are all accurately described in this small Piece and must needs yield great pleasure to Your MAJESTIES to read or hear them at convenient times The Great Things she did and the Ways Means and Instruments she employed under her to bring them into Act are very divertising and instructive Nor will it be any diminution of the Glory of Your Reigns that in some things you followed the Example of this Wise and Illustrious Queen I know Your Royal Cares are great and therefore I shall not presume to rob you of any more of Your precious Minutes than is requisite to beg Your favourable Acceptance of this bounden Duty of Your Majesties most Loyal Servant and Subject Edmund Bohun Feb. 6. 1692 3 THE PREFACE I Am bound in the first place to acquaint my Reader That the Learned Johnston a Scotch Physician is the Principal Author I have followed in this Piece for I would not translate him To what I found there I have added what I could light upon that was pertinent to my purpose in the Histories of those Times So that I am persuaded it cost me as much pains and time as it cost him at first to write it I took the liberty also to use my own Language and Thoughts as well as Judgment in the whole adding and diminishing as I thought fit though never without Reason or good Authority In such a Work as this things ought to be delivered without any order of time things of the same nature being laid together So that this is not intended so much for a regular Story of those Times as a Collection of Examples that others may thereby be instructed what to chuse or avoid what to commend or blame what had a good or an ill event Truth is as well the soul of a good Character as of an History to commend without cause or above measure is the part of a PANEGYRICK but it rendereth a Character or an History suspected and odious I love the Name and Memory of this Generous Queen as much as any man living but it could not bribe me to represent her otherwise than she was The mixing the Faults of great Persons with their Virtues abates the Envy of Mankind and purchaseth a kind and ready Acceptance of the whole A Lying Satyr is full as odious as a Flattering Panegyrick If I were worthy to have my Story written or my Picture drawn I should wish they might be equally true and represent both my Life and my Face just such as they were It is not impossible some may be offended with the Truth of this Little Piece but they must know I have no other share in it than the collecting things that lay dispersed before and the representing them as I found them I hope I have no-where Censured or Commended any thing above the truth but if I have upon admonition I shall endeavour to amend it As the Persons mentioned in it were all dead before I was born so I cannot be suspected to be guilty of Love or Hatred but what was the result of their Virtues or their Vices If I would not spare the Queen there was no reason I should spare any of her Courtiers and when any of our Nobility find any of their Ancestors did ill things and they are represented in Story let them remember the Princes of those times had their Faults too and they are as freely written Let them think also Thus it will be with us Infamy or Oblivion will cover our memories when we are dead if we do not live well It is only Virtue that can render a Name illustrious in the Annals of time though great Estates and swelling Titles may make a man seem great on this side the Grave And Posterity will be no more able to drown the Vices of this present Age than they are to prevent the knowledge of those that are past As a bad Face quarrels a true Looking-Glass so a bad Liver hates a true Historian and both equally without just cause There has nothing more Eclipsed the Glory of Queen Elizabeth than the want of a good History of her Reign in English Cambden is good in the Original but too short but the Version of that Author is intolerably bad would any good Pen do that by her Annals which I have done here by her Character it would be a grateful Tribute paid to Her Sacred Memory Would our Great Men live in the Memory of the World why let them promote the History of their Countrey and that will make their Names famous to Posterity Maecenas is oftener remembred for his bounties to Learning than for all his other Expences and Gallantry of which perhaps it was not the hundredth part No Nation in Europe hath exceeded the English in Martial Bravery but for want of good History much of the Honour of our Ancestors is lost both at home and abroad I would be contented to die when I had finished but one good Piece of our Story in such a manner as it should be worth the reading I would serve my Countrey in any honest and brave thing but History is my beloved Study with it I would if I had it in my power grow old and die It was the comfort of a Prince in all his Sufferings that his Name would one day like the Sun break through the Clouds of Reproach that the Iniquity of the Times had thrown about him and he should shine the more gloriously in History for the things he had suffered in his Life If he in the lowest Abyss of Misery in the melancholly Recesses of a
was as great an Admirer of Philosophy as of Eloquence by which She attained the Knowledg of many excellent Things and that civil Prudence or Policy which is so absolutely necessary for all Princes And besides all that civil Prudence and the Knowledge of Governing by which the Publick Utility is acquired and improved She drew from the Ancient and most Noble Philosophers all those Precepts that they have set down for the gaining Moral Prudence and Vertue For Her greatest Care was spent in the Cultivating these two beautiful Parts of Philosophy I will omit the common Philosophers of whose Learning and Doctrine She was a great Lover The Divine Plato that illustrious Light of Greece was made more Noble by the Hands of this Heroick Princess Aristotle the Prince of the Philosophers the acute Master of Alexander the Great was read by Her She was throughly acquainted with Xenophon's Cyrus a Piece not writ with the Truth of an Historian but to represent the lively Image of a Just and Moderate Prince accomplished with all those Endowments which the Great Soerates had set sorth for the living well and happily Being thus prepared by Philosophy she was by the Learned Dr. Grindal Professor of Divinity initiated in Theology which above all other Sciences teacheth the Worship of God Pure Religion and the Knowledge of Heavenly Happiness and by these disposeth men to Justice Modesty Clemency Magnanimity and Humanity She chearfully and readily embraced a genuine and true Theology free from fictitious Legends and the Popish Superstitions which she afterwards made more venerable by an holy and pious Life without any Ostentation And being of a Great Wit and a Strong Memory She drew from the Annals of all Nations and People the Actions of the Greatest Princes and an innumerable number of their Fights and most Illustrious Victories She would frequently set before Her the Monuments of Her Predeccssors the â—…riumphs and incredible Victories obtained by the English at Cressy Poictiers Agincourt or Blagni and at Vernevil against the French with a vast effusion of their blood and she would frequently say These Victories were owing more to the Assistances of Heaven than the Arms of her Ancestors Besides the French Italian and English Tongues which She spake freely She well understood most of the common Languages now spoken in Europe but as to these Three I have mentioned it was hard to say which she knew best Of this there were many witnesses when She answered the Imperial Ambassador in Italian the French in French and the Sweden in Latin Sharply Prudently Pertinently Elegantly and Politely without any time taken to consider of it She gave de Ronsard a French Poet a Diamond of great Value as a Testimony of Her approving his elegant and splendid Poems in that Tongue She understood Musick very well and could Sing Dance and Play on the Lute with a composed Motion of Body attended with a Countenance Habit and Gesture which became a Queen She was a great Lover of Consorts when Voices were mixed with Instruments of Musick and at such times She would be strangely Facetious and Pleasant She spent Her times of Leisure and Diversion with the greatest Pleasure that was possible to Her Self and those about Her Yet after all Her Virtues procured Her more Honour and Esteem in all Nations than all these Ornaments of Industry Learning and Ingenuity though they appeared in Her to an higher and more illustrious degree than ever was found in any other Lady and were attended also with the greatest Sagacity and Judgment For there was not any Person in Her Times that exceeded Her in Chastity Piety Justice and Magnanimity Now I have shortly shown the Beginnings and Progress of Her Virtues and the Means and Degrees by which She attained to them It will be pleasant to shew how she brought them into Act under the Reign of Her Brother EDWARD the VIth who by the Consent of the Three Estates in Parliament abolished the Popish Religion and introduced the Reformed She having then attained to great degrees of Piety Eloquence and Learning went on in the commendable Improvement of all those Perfections She had received from the Bounty of Nature or Fortune She rendred Her Royal Extraction more illustrious by the Assistances She took every day from Books and when She had spent the time She had assigned to Polite Learning She betook Her self every day to the more severe Studies of Religion with a vigorous and lively Affection She read over Melancthâ—…n's Common-Places and gained very much by an exact and acurate Perusal of the Sacred Scriptures There were innumerable Sentences in the New Testament and the Oracles of the Prophets which She had treasured up in Her Memory and which She would afterwards upon occasion mention and She attended the Offices of Religion and Piety with great Devotion and Care She often addressed Her devoutest Prayers to God and implored his Assistance for the obtaining a Chast Heart a Pure and Unspotted Life and a Steady and Constant Soul The Wills of the Subjects of England were then divided and their Opinions distracted in the matters of Religion and She then shewed to mankind the true and salutary Doctrine not so much by Words as by a holy Life and good Actions She attentively heard the Sermons of the Clergy not only to please Her self with their Oratory but admitted them into the most intimate Recesses of Her heart with an incredible satisfaction and She joined devoutly and constantly in the Liturgy and Prayers of the Church The Death of Edward the VIth Her beloved Brother in his Childhood in the very Blossom of a promising Spring tho he was snatched away from Her by an immature Fate to the damage of his Countrey yet it gave no stop or affright to Her Piety but She consolated Her self with the Immortal Glory he had acquired in the short time he lived â—…o him succeeded MARY Her Sister who always adhered stifly to the old way of Worship and the Ceremonies and Superstitions of the Church of Rome even when they were abolished by Acts of Parliament and having now got the Crown made it Her greatest Design not only to restore the Pomp and Splendor of it as before but also to compel all her Subjects to submit to it by Force Threats Banishment and most Baâ—…barous Deaths and Cruelties To this purpose also she called over Cardinal Reginald Pool a Person of rare Learning and of a very Innocent Life and Conversation and which is rarely to be found in the men of that Persuasion of a great Proâ—…ity Candor and Sweetness of Temper The Popish Religion being thus restored there were New Bishops and New Preachers sought for to recommend it to the Nation and the Honest Innocent Religious Good men who had set the Crown upon Her Head upon Her Promise to Protect the Religion which She found Established were oppressed by the Fury of their Enemies which spread it self over the whole Kingdom of
England and there was no place free from their Religious Butchery The Princess ELIZABETH in these doleful times seeing her self deprived of the Protection of a Kind Brother deserted by Her Friends and betrayed by Her Enemies had not the least hope of enjoying the Free Exercise of the True Religion Nor was this Calamity thought enough but Her Popish â—…nemies persecuted Her under the pretence She had Conspired with Sir â—…homas Wiat to Destroy Her Sister tho at his death he declared to all the world She had no hand in his Insurrection but however Her Sister was glad of this pretence to use Her ill and being spurr'd on by Her Popish Bishops who were highly cnraged against Her as the Head of the Reformed Religion She was sent close Prisoner to the Castle of WOODSTOCK in the year 1554. Thus She saw Her self deprived at once of all her Friends and Her Liberty too Her Servants and Friends abroad were many of them Attainted and others forced to seek their Safety in Foreign Countries And the Protestants in great Numbers became a Sacrifice to the Rage of the Popish Bishops So that no Orator is able truly and effectually to represent in words the Desolations and Calamities of those times Many however of the most Learned of the English Nation during this storm betook themselves to Germany as to their safest Harbour The rest who could not make a timely Escape were committed to Prisons tormented with various Arts of Cruelty and at last burnt alive The Publick places of our Cities were bathed with the Blood of Innocent and Holy men and our streets were filled with the dreadful shrieks and groans of the miserable men from their souls detesting the Cruelty of the Popish Clergy and the infamous Inhumanity of these Marian Times The Princess Elizabeth was a sorrowful Spectator of this Tragedy but for all the fear she lived in and the repeated Threats of Her Sister She stood her ground and would not be withdrawn from the Religion She had embraced and in Her Conscience approved but bore all with an undaunted and Heroick Courage The Chearfulness of Her Temper soon overcame the Greatness of the Calamity the Melancholy of a Prison and the Fear of Her Sister The Bitterness of Her Misfortunes was much allayed also by discovering to Her how tenderly the People loved her so that the Joy of this over balanced the Calamities of the Times and the Frowns of Fortune In the midst of such over-whelming Sorrows Suspicions and the Fears of an Ignominious Death no mortal ever saw her dejected or dispirited When the fears of Her Treacherous and Perfidious Enemies and that of Violence encompassed Her Good Reason encouraged Her a Sound Mind and a Quiet Conscience supported Her under Her Misfortunes and Her Hope and Trust in the Goodness and Mercy of God overcame all assaults of Despair It is not my Purpose to make the Reigns of Henry the VIII and Qeeen Mary odious and therefore I will not spend my time in representing the Cruelties that were then put in Practice the manifold Murthers extending to all Sexes and Ages or the Miseries that followed those that fled hence into Foraign Countries For tho the mischievous Example of the Popish Clergy who by their Authority Counsel and the specious pretences of Retrieving and Preserving the Ancient Piety and Worship raised and augmented these Persecutions and is for ever to be detested yet the Faults of Princes like those of our Parents are to be concealed as much as is possible and the Injuries they do us are patiently and silently to be suffered The Popish Clergy and especially some of the Bishops foreseeing what hazard their Religion was exposed to as long as the Princess Elizabeth lived and was the next Heir to the Crown of England because she had from her Infancy been bred up in the Protestant Religion made it their Great Design to hasten her Death with an implacable Malice that so they might at one blow cut off the Head of that Party which was here formed against their Church She in the mean while during all this calamitous time saw herself under Custody her faithful Servants in Prison and she had perpetually before her eyes the Images of a violent Death The People of England saw her Danger but could not so prudently conceal their Fears but upon all occasions openly and with great Anxiety said This Royal Off-spring was designed for Slaughter Truth and Innoccnce were not secure and the Ruin and Undoing of the Nation would be the effects of her Death Queen Mary in the mean time was distracted between the Shame of offending the whole Nation which generally believed the Princess Elizabeth to be innocent and the Fear of exposing her Religion which she loved above all things to the Hazard of another Protestant Reign She saw herself in danger of Conspiracies if her Sister lived and that on the other hand she could not take away her Life without being guilty of a great Wickedness Philip the II. a King of Spain the Husband of Queen Mary upon wise Reasons of State delivered the poor distressed and helpless Princess out of this horrid Danger out of pure Aversion to the Kingdom of France his most dreadful Rival For he wisely considered That Mary Qâ—…een of Scotland and Grandchild to Henry VII was married to Francis the Eldest Son of Henry II. King of France and that if the Princess Elizabeth were cut off she would be the undoubted Heiress of England Scotland and Ireland and would transfer and unite these Three Northern Crowns to that of France and make the House of â—…aloise dreadful to that of Austria This Thought put a stop to their Cruelty God by it procuring her Safety and with her preserving the English Nation to the universal joy of all who wished well to her or their Countrey Queen Mary her Sister died the 17th of November 1558 when she had Reigned Five Years Four Months and Eleven days being then in the XLIII Year of her Age concluding an unhappy Reign and an unfortunate Life She at her Death by her last Will left the afflicted and disconsolate Lady the Princess Elizabeth the Heir of the Crown of England rather out of an unavoidable Necessity than any thing of Choice There was then a Parliament sitting which began the 5th of that month in which she died and as the Government was then wholly in the hands of the Roman-Catholicks none of the other Party daring to appear or if they did not daring to own their Opinions the Death of Queen Mary was concealed for some hours for what purpose is not known but about Nine of the Clock the Lord Chancellor went to the House of Lords and first acquainted them with it This gave a great terror to the Bishops and those Counsellors who hadbeen severe against the Princess Elizabeth yet they all agreed to Proclaim her Queen so they sent for the House of Commons and the Chancellor told them also
the Queen was dead and that the Princess Elizabeth was the indisputed Heir to the Crown of whose Right and Title none could make any Question and therefore the Lords intended to Proclaim her Queen and desired their Concurrence which was joyfully entertained by them and they all cried God save Queen Elizabeth long and happily may she reign She being thus advanced to the Throne not only by her own undoubted Right and the Providence of God but by the Confent and with the Approbation of all the Three Estates then Assembled in Parliament which I think never before hapned to any of our Princes besides her she was received by the whole Nation with incredible Transports of Joy and Affection and the loudest Acclamations they could make men highly valuing the Innocence of her former Life and commiserating the hardships she had suffered in the former Reign to the hazard of her Life When God had thus brought this Queen to the Throne of her Ancestors of a sudden the course of things and the current of affairs took a new bias the heavy Tempests and Misfortunes that attended England weâ—e instantly blown over and a serene and prosperous course of things succeeded in their place Thus in a moment she was not only freed from the Miseries of an Imprisonment but adorned with the highest degree of Honour and Power and this Lady with a Masculine or rather Heroick Soul which was worthy to have governed the Empire of the World for almost Forty five years after managed the Royal Scepter of England and was the Arbitrator prescribing the Conditions of Peace and War to all the Princes of Christendom with a Greatness of Mind and a Wisdom that became so high a Station This Virtue which was almost Divine joined with so admirable a Prudence renders her worthy of the Applause and Honour of all mankind Thus one may see and admire the great force and power of Time and the wonderful Changes of Human Affairs and how useful it is to arrive at Prosperity by the Waves of Adversity Whilst she was in her private Station she was perpetually under the fear and danger of Death but by the Goodness of God she escaped all the Insults of Adverse Fortune her Innocence procured her Safety that made way for her Liberty so her Soveraignty was acknowledged and from her prudent Management of that Royal Station she gained an â—…ndless Glory and an Immortal Name Thus attaining the Possession of a Kingdom with Glory and the Publick Safety and the Good Will of her Subjects she on all occasions shewed the Greatness and Brightness of her Wit and Soul That she had well studied and digested the best Arts and had had an excellent Education and wise Instruction the good Effects of which were now made known by her wise promoting the Good and Safety of her People In the beginning of her Reign she found the Nation at home filled with Divisions and Heart-burnings by reason of the contrary methods used in the two preceding Reigns Abroad she had never an Ally she could trust to all was in War or an uncertain and unsteady Peace The Spanish Government was bâ—…come odious here and the English called their Assected Gravity Pride and Insolence The French had equally incensed us by the late Surprize of Calais The Tâ—…easury was at the lowest Ebb and our Bulwark which our ncestors had preserved Two hundred and ten years was taken from us in one weeks time in the beginning of January in this year The New Queen proposed to herself the common Safety and Welfare of her People and pursued it with the utmost Care and Asfection She was then Twenty five years of Age and something more when the Royal Diadem of England descended to her and she began the difficult work of raising the low and calamitous state of England and redressing those Grievances which the opposite Interests and Designs of the former times had brought upon this Nation She was not only ripe and sit for Government but she had by this time acquired a strange and unusual degree of Civil Prudence She knew the Publick or Royal Laws of England not only by reading them in Books but also by the great Reflection she had made on our History and on what had happened in her own times and by her Conversation with great men and the application she had ever made of her Mind to whatever was worth regarding The 14th of January after her Sister's Death 1558 9 she was Crowned with the Ancient and Usual Ceremonies when her People gave her fresh Instances of their Loyalty and Affection by crowding in unusual Numbers to see and partake in the Joy of this Solemnity And she having observed that her Sister by the sullenness of her Behaviour had much disobliged the People frequently looked on them with a chearful and pleasing Countenance and returned the Respects they paid her with great sweetness She took the Ancient and Usual Coronation-Oath That she would govern her Kingdom according to the Ancient and Laudable Laws and Customs of England which she observed more willingly than most of her Predecesfors had before her and this gained her both the Love and Reverence of her People At first she cherished in her Roman Catholick Subjects a belief she would Imbrace that Religion they prosessed She changed nothing in the Publick Service or the Administration of the Sacraments that she might not enrage her Papists and give them a pretence for Separation before she had well Established herself The Kingdom of England was then very unsetled and had received great Damages both at home and abroad the French had wrested from us the strong Town of Bologne in the Year 1546. before the death of Henry the VIII â—h and Calais in the beginning of this Year The Sea was full of Privateers and there was scarce any thing to be trusted to In this Disorder of Affairs she wisely thought That the only way to settle and preserve the Nation from Imminent Ruine was to chuse wise and upright Men to manage the Publick Affairs She declined the use of Rash and overbold Men who have commonly brought mischief on the States that have trusted to them Being weary of the Popish Ceremonies and their Conversation she retired for some time to one of her Country Houses as it were for Diversion and Pleasure but in truth that she might with the greater Leisure and Secrecy consider of the Methods she should take for the removing the Dangers which threatned her Kingdom for the Preservation of its Peace for the Abating the Power of the Popish Party and the setling that Religion here which she believed was most for the Glory of God as being most agreeable to the Sacred â—…criptures The Men that she most relied on in this great and difficult Work were William Lord Parre of Kendal Marquess of Northampton whom she had restored to his Honours Francis Russel Earl of Bedsord Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
freed thereby from all fear of Foreign or Domestick Dangers she made it her next great business to reform the Religion of England She foresaw that if she suffered Popery to continue she could never establish her own Government Therefore she resolved with pious and holy care to establish the Reformation that had been begun by her Father and carried on by her Brother and to suppress and eradicate by degrees by the Authority of her Parliaments without force or violence the Popish Superstition which she esteemed a Corrupt and Immoderate Religion and equally iâ—…jurious to Princes and their Subjects In these times the contending Religions were so near an Equality and so balanced each against other that the Authority of the Prince was able to turn the scale Henry the VIIIth was able to settle a Mongrel sort of Popery Edward the VIth advanced this to a thorough Reformation Queen Mary without much difficulty re-setled the old Mass of unrefined Popery And now when it was become ten times more hated than before on the account of the Perfidy and Bloodshed that had been employed to establish it Queen Elizabeth comes upon the stage resolved to use all her Skill and Authority for the intire Extirpation of it and the People readily and willingly complied with her in it or rather in truth led her the way and were a little too hot on the work She presently summoned a Parliament which was opened the 25th of January after her Accession to the Crown the great Design of which was To put an end to the Distractions of the Nation in matters of Religion and to that end by the Lord Keeper Bacon she desired They would consider of it without heat or partial affection or using any reproachful terms of Papist or Heretick and that they would avoid the Extremes of Idolatry and Superstition on the one hand and Contempt and Irreligion on the other and that they would settle things so as might bring the People to an Uniformity and cordial Agreement in them And as to the State she promised she would use her utmost endeavour to advance the Prosperity and preserve the Affections of her Subjects And tho she had need then of their Assistance yet she professed she would desire no Supply but what they did freely and chearfully offer And at the same time she represented Calais as a thing which they could not at that time hope to recover Thus she would neither wheedle nor deceive her Subjects but with an English Sincerity laid before them the Truth of the Case and left it to God to direct them to what was best to be done The Houses having heard and well considered what was offered on both sides came at last to a full Resolution That all the Acts and Laws of Mary her Sister in favour of the Romish Religion should be Repealed That the good Laws of Edward the VIth and Henry the VIIIth in favour of the Reformation should be Revived and Confirmed That the Mass which had been Restored by the Laws enaâ—…ted in Queen Mary's time should be Abolished as a thing that was full of Vanity and Levity That all Images should be taken away out of the Churches And all use of Holy Water That the Liturgy and Publick Prayers should be all performed in the English Tongue and by a Form prescribed and then by Act of Parliament Confirmed and Allowed as it had been before in her Brother's Reign that so the People having a full and clear knowledg of the Service of the Church might the better and more devoutly join both Voice and Heart in it By this her prudent Care she gave the Romish Church one of the most mortal Wounds she ever received from any hand by Rupudiating and Despising Abolishing and Exposing all her Pagan Pageantry and Jewish Ceremonies She commanded all her Magistrates to take effectual Care That the Romish Religion should not be exercised in Publick or in any open Churches or Chappels That all the Priests which should exercise the Romish Rites and Ceremonies should be excluded out of the Church and deprived of their Benefices That they should exercise at all times a severe and wholesom Discipline That the minds of men might thereby be reclaimed from Vice and fixed in the true Worship of God She commanded them to get as many of the Popish Books together as they could possibly and burn them and that they should take away and destroy all the Preparations and Vestments belonging to the Mass all the Images and all other the Ceremonies of that Church She commanded That for the future no Respect or Obedience should be paid to the Pope as the Head of the Church Nor did she scruple to assume the Authority of a Governour of the Church in her own Dominions in all cases Sacred and Civil which is called with us The ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY And she abolished by Act of Parliament all that Authority and Jurisdiction which had heretofore been Usurped or used by the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom in Publick or in Private which is called the Popish Tyranny and was a pretended Supreme both Spiritual and Secular Jurisdiction She also restored the Oath of Supremacy which had been first introduced by Henry VIII her Father continued by Edward VI. her Brother and was taken away and abolished by â—…ueen Mary by which she was acknowledged to be the Supreme Governor in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions and that they renounced all Foreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and True Allegiance She declined the use of the word Supreme Head in this Oath which had been used before by her Brother and Father both in Reverence to our Saviour to whom she thought that Title only belonged and also to abate by this Verbal Compliance the Reluctance she feared from the Popish Party For if she gained her Point she was unconcerned for the Form of Words as all Wife Princes ever were Against the Passing this Act Nine Bishops and Two Peers Protested viz. the Earl of Shrewsbery and Viscount Montacute and they added some words which were very injurious to the Queen and the States but she wisely dissembled it and gave them no disturbance on that account The Popish Bishops and Priests in the mean time were not idle and unconcerned Spectators but being agitated by Hopes and Fears and a confused Expectation what would be the Event of these Counsels they made loud and bitter Complaints That men were drawn away from the Ancient and Established Roman Rites and Ceremonies That Christ's Vicar the POPE was robb'd of his Supremacy and Divine Jurisdiction That the Reverence to the Holy and Apostolick See was brought to nothing and that now the Pope's Authority was despised intolerable Heresies were daily minted So they endeavoured to retain the Nation in the Profession of their Religion and to uphold their Ceremonies by any means and when this failed to alienate the minds of the People
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
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
before he came up to them and both the Farls fled into Scotland The Earl of Northumberland was not long there before he was discovered by the Regent of Scotland and was sent a Prisoner to the Castle of Loâ—…klevin and in 1572 delivered into the Queen's hands and the 22d of August in that year he was Beheaded at York The Earl of Westmorland fled into Flanders and was received into the Protection of the Spaniards where he lived to a great Old Age and died in the year 1584 having lived all that while he was there in great Penury and Want This was the last Earl of that Noble Family which had enjoyed that Earldom Six Descents from the year 1398 and was now wholly extinct he being Attainted in Parliament and leaving none but Daughters behind him As their Forces were small they did but very little mischief to any besides themselves First they marched to Durham which they entred without Resistance in a kind of silly Triumph and entring the Churches they cast to the ground the Bibles and trod upon them because they were English and then they plundered all the Church-Treasures threatning great Calamities to all those they called Hereticks Then they went Northward and Besieged Bernard-Castle which Sir George Bowes defended against them Eleven days and by that time they had taken it Sussex was upon them and they were forced to disband and fly for it so little did the Popish Religion gain by this Abortive Insurrection When the Queen heard of this sudden Insurrection she forthwith by the Advice of her Privy Council issued out a sharp Proclamation against the two Earls and all the rest of the Commanders and Abettors of this Rebellion and exhorted all her Subjects to join heartily with her to revenge the Injury which was hereby offered both to her and them The Popish Religion which in the beginning of her Reign was not able to preserve it self tho Established by Law when she came to the Crown in the Thirteen years which she had now Reigned was become so much less in Numbers than it was at her coming to the Crown and her Throne was now so well established that many of the Roman-Catholicks which were desirous enough of Innovation durst not be too forward to appear for fear the Event should prove ruinous to them So that many of them sent the Earls Letters to them to the Queen and promised to assist her towards the suppressing this Rebellion And the two Earls being by their Servants and a company of hot-headed Priests trick'd into a Rebellion had made so little Preparations that they seemed only to rise that they might fall the lower and rise no more But that which hastned the Reduction of them mostly was the Reputation and Valour of Thomas Ratcliff Farl of Sussex then President of the North He was a Gentleman of great Industry and Experience and having now the supreme Command in the North he would not give them time to fill up their Numbers but getting what Forces he could on a sudden together he marched against them with an Army of 7000 men and by his bold and quick approach struck Terror into the Rebels and extinguished this dangerous Fire in its beginning The two Earls were by this time sensible that a great part of the Popish Faction would not Rise and that they had neither Numbers nor Officers nor Ammunition nor Money to carry on a War and besides they heard that the Earl of Warwick and Clinton were Raising Forces in the South and had got together 12000 men and were marching towards them So that if they had beaten Sussex they had been sure of another Army in a few days that would have ruined the Remains of their small Forces So that they had no other course to take than to disband their men and skulk away as well as they could Whilst the Earl of Northumberland continued at Liberty in Scotland he was forced to lurk in a small Cottage destitute of Meat and Drink and all other Necessaries of human life suitable to a Person of his Birth and Quality as living amongst the bordering Thieves and it was not long before they grew weary of him and discovered him to the Regent of Scotland Morton the next Regent of Scotland sold him after this tho he had formerly been very kindly entertained by this Earl when he was forced to flec out of Scotland So that as he had broke his Faith to his Mistress he found no Faith nor Pity or Gratitude amongst others but was pursued to the Block by a Divine Vengeance which turned every thing against him But it was however the happiness of this Family that by his Attainder the Estate descended with the Title to Sir Henry Piercy his younger Brother upon whom it was by Name entailed by Queen Mary when she re-granted this Earldom to this Thomas in 1556 whereas the Family of the Nevils was intirely ruined and never got up again The Earl of Sussex prosecuted the Rebels with great Severity tho he had obtained so easie a Victory and without any Bloodshed hanging many of them who had the misfortune to fall into his hands plundering their Houses of all they had and confiscating and seizing their Estates And not contented with this he led his Army into Scotland in hopes to catch the Fugitive Earls and wasted Tivedale with Fire and Sword and then returned into England without gaining what he sought The Queen was so incensed against them too that she Attainted all that she could find were concerned in it that were men of Estate but shewed more Mercy to the Poorer people whose Ignorance might bespeak her Compassion She ordered also her Thanks to be given to those Noblemen and Gentlemen who in the heat of this Affair had taken Arms and come into her Assistance commanding competent Rewards to be given to all that deserved them and that they should spare the Lives of all those miserable men who should beg her Pardon and acknowledge their Fault Out of the Ashes of this Rebellion there arose another at Naworth in the North part of Cumberland upon Severus's Wall which was headed by Leonard the second Son of William Lord Dacres of Gillesland This Gentleman was discontented because the Estate of his Family was by Law so vested in the Daughters of Thomas Lord Dacres his Elder Brother that it would pass into other Families with them and this was the first spring of this Motion He was in the Conspiracy of the Two Earls and was then at Court managing an Intrigue with some Foreign Ambassadors for some Assistance to be sent to them but finding the War began unseasonably he went to the Queen and tendred her his Assistance against the Earls and she granted him her Commission for the Raising men to that purpose He thereupon sent some to encourage the Earls to persist and to assure them That he would join them with what Forces he could raise but before he
could get down and get into a Posture of Assisting them he saw all their Army dispersed and they forced to flee into Scotland whereupon he formed a Design to Murder the Bishop of Carlisle and the Lord scrope Warden of the West Marshes which when he saw he could not effect he recommended the Two Earls to the Scots and seized Greistoke and Caworth Castles as his own which belonged to the Family of the Dacres and he got together about 3000 Borderers with some others who were the Friends of that Ancient and Splendid Family The Lord Hunsdon hearing of this Insurrection drew out a part of the Garison of Berwick of which he was Governour and marched against this Incendiary who met Hunsdon and fought stoutly at the Head of his Party which was yet at last over-powered and broken the Lord Hunsdon having no great reason to be overjoyed at the Victory by reason of the Number of men he lost Dacres fled into Scotland and was with the two Earls Attainted in the next Parliament Both these Rebellions were caused by Pope Pius his Bull tho they broke out before the Bull was Published here in England which was one great reason that they spread no further The Delivery of the Queen of Scots who was then in the Custody of George Earl of Shrewsbury the Restoring the Popish Religion and the suppressing the Protestant was the last thing they aimed at and the King of Spain was the Fomenter of these Troubles and had sent them Assurances that he would send them Assistance from Flanders and had his Agent at Court to promote it But all these Projects being disappointed England soon returned to her former state of Peace and the rest of the Popish Party seeing their Weakness and the Severity of the Government against these Ring-leaders soon found how much it was their Interest to be quiet The secret Head of all these Motions was Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk who was the Richest most Noble and Wisest Peer then in England and of the greatest Authority with the Queen and no less beloved by the People This Great Man having appeared a little over-inclined to favour the Interest of the Captive Queen of the Scots in the XIth year of the Queen's Reign he drew upon himself both the Suspicion of the Queen and the Practices of his Enemies at Home and Abroad The Pope the King of Spain and many of the Nobility of England for different and very contrary ends promoting a Marriage between the Queen of Scots and this Duke which being by the means of these Rebellions discovered in part to the Council of England in the latter end of the year 1669 he was first Committed he left the Court in Discontent and resolved to Marry the Queen of Sâ—…ots without the Queen of England's Leave tho he had promised the Queen he would proceed no further in this business Whereupon he was committed Prisoner to the Tower in the year 1571 and the 16th of January 1572. he was found Guilty of High-Treason and Beheaded the 15th of June following The Greatness of his Fortunes and Soul and the wonderful Affection the People of England on all occasions shewed to this Noble Gentleman added to his Compassion for the Queen of Scots who was a Lady of great Wit and Beauty first stirred in him the thought of Marrying her upon her first coming into England which coming to the Queen's ears he was a little before the Rebellion of the North put under Confinement yet he found means to send Money to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland but so privately that after this he had his Liberty again By the procurement of one Robert Ridolf Agent for Pope Pius Quintus here in England under the pretence of Merchandize he was again drawn into a secret Practice for the Marrying that Captive Queen which being discovered to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh by the Duke's Secretary out of mere Treachery he was again Imprisoned Tried and Convicted by one whom he most trusted and leaft suspected of Designing against him Thus wonderfully did God appear for this Religious Queen turning all the Crafty Imaginations of her Enemies and all their intended Violences upon their own heads for the Preservation of this Church and Nation Saith Mr. Cambden The Love that the People of England bore to the Duke of Norfolk is incredible which he had acquired by a Courtesie and Goodness which was worthy of so great a Prince The Wiser part of the Nation were very differently affected towards him some being affrighted at the Danger which was threatned to the Nation from his Numerous Party whilst he lived to Head them And others very heartily commiserating this Noble Gentleman who was of an excellent Temper of great Beauty and of a Manly Aspect and would have been the Ornament and Securer of his Countrey if the fraudulent Arts of his Enemies had not turned him out of his former course and way of living by the deceivable hopes of greater things and the specious pretences and shews of promoting the Publick Welfare His End renewed the Memory of his Father's most unhappy Fate who Twenty Five Years before was Beheaded in the same place only because he wore the Scutcheon of Edward the Confessor in his Arms which were granted to the. Mowbrays Dukes of Norfolk from whom he was descended Lineally by King Richard the IId This Bull of Pope Pius V. and his Practises against England produced a shoal of Traytors to plague that Generation for they were ever after it restlefly plotting and conspiring against their Sovereign their Countrey and their Kindred with an invincible perfidy and obstinacy which the Executions of many could not extinguish But yet the Calamity did not end there for from the same Exuberant Fountain of Mischief issued those refractory and stabborn Recusants who separating from the Communion and Service of the Church of England which till then they had frequented without the least scruple or difference they set up Popish Conventicles and the Latin Mass and called over a swarm of Jesuits Priests and Monks to infest the Nation and incense those that entertained them against the Religion and Government that was established and so perpetuated our Quarrels and kept open the bloody wounds of this Kingdom This is the thing we have most reason to complain of because it has brought upon all the succeeding Times great miseries and distresses and the Wisdom of our Forefathers has not been able to cure this Disease The Queen seeing in the mean time the mischief this would bring upon her Kingdoms and being roused by the Rebellions in the North and the intimations she had that there were Designs on foot against her Person and Life took up a resolution to put a stop to it and to that end passed an Act in the next Parliament for the levying 20 l. the Month upon all that should refuse to go to Church and attend at the Service of God or to take the Oath
low as to employ one Roderâ—…ck Lopez a Jew and a Physician by Profession to Poyson the Queen Stephen Ferreira Gama and Emanuel Loisio two Portuges to stabher but all this was so seasonably discovered to the Queen by the Letters that were sent to them and intercepted by her Subjects that they were all three taken up and they all confessed their several Treasons and had Sentence of Death sor it and they were all three executed for it together with one Cullin an Irish Fencing-Master who was hired by the Fugitives in Flanders and sent over to Murther the Queen which he also confessed And not long after Edmund York and Richard Williams were hired by D. Ybarra a Spaniard and these Fugitives and sent into England on the same Errand and here taken up When the Queen was told of all the base Conspiracies against her Life she was no way terrified at the danger tho she saw Henry the III. fall by their Hands in the Year 1589. in France but repeated that Passage in the Psalms Thou art my God my time is in thy hand Psalm 31. And with a Maseuline Courage despising all their Rage and Baseness she took great care of her self and put her whole trust in God For the rest persisting to her dying day in her first Resolution not to spare one of these Traytors that fell into her hands as she at first told them in a Proclamation she would not And this is the true way of dealing with these Implacable Monsters who are neither worthy of Mercy nor capable of Repentance This Censure may possibly seem too severe to those that are not perfectly acquainted with the Principles and Tempers of these Men and therefore it will not be amiss to confirm it with an Example William Parry mention'd above was employed by the Jesuits to murther the Queen and they had thoroughly pèrswaded him That there was nothing more Glorious than to die for the service of the Church and that he would be reputed a Martyr if he could extirpate her who was the Favourer of Heresie and the Enemy of the Church To this End he came into England in the Year 1583. And to insinuate himself into the Queen's Favour whose Servant he had formerly been and to obtain her belief he freely and openly told her that he had been solicited to Murther her by Morgan and other Fugitive Priests beyond the Seas Pretending that he had entred into a Familiarity with them to no other end than to discover their secret Designs against her and to take care of her Safety to whom he owed his Life she having pardoned him when he had forfeited it to Justice in the year 1580. The Queen heard all this Story with an unconcerned Courage and told him That none of the Catholicks should be called in question on account of his Religion or of the Pope's pretended Supremacy if they behaved themselves in all other things like good Subjects Which words he afterwards confessed made such an impression on his mind that he could not forget them And after this he was so much in her good opinion that he solicited for an Employment but receiving a Letter from the Cardinal of Coma wherein he commended the Design he was engaged in saith he and sending him an Absolution in the Pope's Name tho he shewed the Letter to the Queen yet he persisted in his Resolution to Assassinate her and from thenceforward had no scruple in his mind concerning the Lawfulness of the Fact But then he pretended he was resolved first to try if he could perswade her by fair means to use the Catholicks more favourably And when at any time he went to the Queen he would lay by his Dagger for fear the Opportunity should be too strong a Temptation to him When he looked upon her and considered her Royal Virtues he confessed he was staggered in his mind But his Vows were in Heaven and his Letters and Promises on Earth that he would do it and this perpetually disquieted him and put him on At last he fell upon a Book written by Alan a Jesuit to prove That Princes that were Excommunicated might be Deposed or Slain and this Book was a strong Motive to him to go on with the Treason And he communicated it to Nevil who afterwards Accused him and they two having taken an Oath of Secrefse each to other formed a Design to set upon her with Ten Horsemen when she was in the Countrey and so Murther her They could however never find the opportunity and about six months after this the Earl of Westmorland dying and Nevil being his next Heir he discovered to Secretary Walsingham this Conspiracy By the Queen's Order he sent for Parry and asked him If he had had any Treaty with any Dissatisfied or Suspected person opening him a door for his Escape but he plainly denied he ever had for if he had confessed it and said he did it to try Nevil he had without doubt escaped but the Crime he had resolved upon had blinded his eyes so that he could not see it Nay he had the Impudence to say That tho the Queen had twice spared his Life yet he was not beholden to her for it because it had been unjust to have taken it The greatest part of this Narrative is extracted from his own Confession before the Lord Chancellor Hatton and others so that there can be no doubt of the Truth of it This her Severity to them struck a great Terror into the minds of the English Papists when they every where saw the Heads and Quarters of their Party exposed to the publick view but nothing could cure or appease their festered Malice Her Majesty and Presence we see was able to excite the Admiration and her undaunted Valour to terrifie this Cut-throat as he confessed but tho she charmed his hands yet neither was her Mercy or Goodness able to melt his hardned heart nor was her Severity towards him and other such Miscreants sufficient to mitigate the enraged Malice of the rest of the Jesuits and Popish Villains but they still went on with their Hellish Designs to destroy her But when all was done the Goodness of God watched over her to preserve her and frustrated all the Designs of wicked men against her and without this all the wise Counsel of Burleigh and Walsingham and the rest of her Servants would have signified nothing We may see Henry the IIId of France and Henry the IVth his Successor tho they both professed the Roman-Catholick Religion were Assassinated in the day time in the midst of their Servants and Friends by these Religious Villains when it was not possible they that did it could escape and yet this Queen who was more hated than either of them and less able to defend her self in the spite of all their Malice Reigned above Forty four years and died in Peace And it is worth the observing That in all the times since the
Reformation began which is now One hundred seventy five years though they have been engaged in endless Plots against the Protestant Princes yet they have been so far disappointed by the special Providence of God that I do not know of any Prince they have been able to Assassinate but Willian the First Prince of Orange and him they attempted twice before it succeeded In the year 1567. there broke out a second Civil War in France on the score of Religion which filled that once most flourishing Kingdom with Factions and Seditions and strangely exagitated the Towns and great Cities of that Kingdom so that the people of France ran upon each other as if they had been divided and set on by a Divine Judgment Catherine de Medicis the Queen Dowager of France had then assumed the Supreme Government as Guardian to CharlesIX herSon who was then a Minor She and her Council were contriving by all the ways that were possible to suppress the Protestants of France which grew numerous during the Minority of the King and under the Favour and Protection of the last Treaty to this end they had ordered some men to be Levied in Champagne and had sent for Six thousand Swiss The Prince of Conde and Coligny observing these Preparations concluded they were made against them and resolved to begin first and they formed a Design to surprize the King and the Queen-Mother at Meaux but she being informed of it withdrew in the night time towards Paris the Prince of Conde being thus disappointed followed them to Paris and Besieged that City which being reduced to some streights there followed a Fight at St. Dennis in which Montmorancy was slain but the Protestants were driven out of the Field and they fell next upon Chartres which they besieged Queen Elizabeth thereupon ordered her Ambassador Norris to interpose between the Parties and bring them to a Peace as he did but it was short and full of Insincerity and Treachery The Queen-Mother of France was now so afraid of Queen Elizabeth that to prevent her sending Succours to the Protestants she caused a Marriage to be proposed between her and the Duke of Anjou her Second Son who was afterwards King of France by the name of Henry III. and was now about Seventeen years of Age but this Treaty ended with the Peace for the procuring of which it was began In the year 1568. the War broke out again by the Perfidy of the Popish Party who had now joined with the Spaniards by a Treaty made in a clandestine manner at Baionne in the year 1565. for the Extirpating the Protestant Religion in France and Flanders and the mutual assisting each other to that purpose And the Duke de Alva the Spanish Governor of the Low-Countries had Orders to join with the Guises in this Religious work and tho the King of France had in the beginning of this year promised them of that Persuasion Liberty of Conscience yet he soon after put out an Edict to forbid all publick Exercise of any other Religion in France but the Roman-Catholick and commanding all the Protestant Ministers to depart out of France within a certain time This was followed by a severe Prosecution and in many places they were Assassinated or Robbed and all France was thereupon in Arms Queen Elizabeth ordered her Ambassador to use all his Endeavours to procure a solid and a sincere Peace shewing the King the Methods propâ—…sed would only serve to exasperate the minds of his People and deprive him of the Service of his most faithful Subjects so that the Forces of France being diminished with his People his Kingdom would be exposed to the Violence of its Enemies A Consideration which Lewis the XIVth may have reason one day to think more seriously of But now it was rejected and the young King of France sent into Spain to borrow Money and into Germany and Italy to raise Auxiliary Forces to carry on the War Whereupon the Queen resolved not to be wanting to the common Protestant Interest which was now plainly struck at and upon the French Protestants assuring her That they had not taken up Arms against the King's Authority but for their own sale Defence she sent them One hundred thousand Crowns in Money and great Stores of Ammunition and entertained all the French that fled into England with great Humanity It is worth the observing here the Wild Notions of Passive Obedience which have been since set on foot were not in being in these times the Queen desiring no other Security or Justification than this Protestation which being joined with her own knowledg of the Designs of the Guises was then thought sufficient to warrant a Defensive War when nothing less than the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion was intended She did not think these Subjects of France were obliged to submit to an Extirpation because it was the Will of their Monarch to have it so nor that she Assisted Rebels and Traytors against their Lawful Prince when she undertook the Defence of those of her own Religion against a Tyrant who contrary to all Faith and Humanity had designed the Destruction of those he was bound and had promised to protect The King of France seeing by this time a destructive War would follow to distract the â—…inds and divide the Forces of the Protestants promised that all those that continued quiet at home should be tolerated but this Facility as a Jesuit calls it when it was a mere Treachery had no effect the Perfidy of it was palpable If he was in good earnest why had he Revoked the former Edict and began the War Who could reconcile these two contrary Edicts That they should and should not be tolerated at one and the same time The Pope to promote this War gave the King leave to sell Church-Lands to the Value of 50000 Crowns by the year and saith the same Jesuit Never were Church Revenues better employed or granted away upon a better reason The destruction of Hereticks with Fire and Sword contrary to the Publick Faith is certainly a most Holy Work and an Excellent Subject to spend the Revenues of the Church on The next year the Armies drew into the Field and in March there followed a Fight at Jarnac in which the Prince of Condé was slain and Coligni became General of the Protestants and after this another at Moncontour in which the Protestants lost 20000 men They renewed their Forces however with that Alacrity that in the year 1570 they forced the King after a vast Expence of Blood and Treasure when he saw he could not any longer continue the War without apparent Ruin to make a Peace on the same terms with the former The Queen-Mother was the Firebrand of France and by her Dissimulation and Hypocrisy raised all these Combustions there She was jealous of the Princes of the Blood of the House of Bourbon who were become the Heads of the Protestants in that Kingdom and she
was perpetually Plotting how to ruin them or force them to preserve themselves by War The King of Spain pushed on rhe Incendiaries of France under pretence of securing the Catholick Religion but with a Design at the bottom to weaken that Kingdom by their intestine Wars and at last to subdue it Queen Elizabeth observed all this and saw whither it tended and by her seasonable Supplies upheld the Protestant Party which was the weaker till she forced the Court of France to see its Error and lay aside or rather change their destructive Methods for others that were more infamous and as ineffectual In the mean time the noble Kingdom of France was desolated by Fire and Sword their Populous Towns destroyed their Rich Churches and Monasteries plunder'd their Nobility and Gentry slain on both sides and by their own Swords their Matrons Ravished and the Children Murdered in the Arms of their Parents and France was more wasted by this War in her bowels than by all the Foreign Wars she had been engaged in from the time the English were expelled to that time Was ever Church-Treasures better spent At the same time that France was thus miserably harass'd by an intestine War the Spaniards were as busie in the Low-Countries to extirpate Heresie as they pretended but in truth to deprive those Provinces under that pretence of their Ancient Liberties and Civil Privileges and to submit them to the Servitude of the Insolent Spaniards that so they might from thence pass on to the Conquest of England and France and so erect an Universal Monarchy in Europe which Design they had Vanity enough to discover To this end in the year 1564. they erected Seven new bishopricks to curb that people In the year 1565. he commanded the Council of Trent to be Revived together with the Inquisition and a strict observation of the Edicts concerning Religion Upon this the Nobility of those Countries as well those that persisted in the Roman-Catholick Religion as those that were well inclined to the Reformation seeing the Liberty and Riches Trade and Commerce of their Countrey must be ruined if these courses were taken they interceded with Margaret the King's Sister their Regent that the King's Letter might not be put in execution but she went on however and they on the other hand stood upon their guard and as much as was possible hindred it The next year the Quarrel grew higher and the multitude rose in many places with an irresistible fury and destroyed all the Images in the Churches of many of the great Cities the Torrent ran so high and was so impetuous that the Regent was forced to publish an Edict of Liberty of Conscience to appease the people the Spaniards being not able by any other means to secure the Possession of these Countries but so soon as the people were quieted the Edict was recalled which they owned was granted only to gain time to send for Men and Moneys to force the Inhabitants of the Netherlands to submit to the King's Will and to punish them for their disobedience Yet however in the mean time whilst this Edict was observed all places returned to the former state of Peace and Trade went on successfully so that if the King of Spain could have perswaded himself to have complied with his Interest in this Affair he and his Posterity had continued in the Peaceable Possession of these Provinces which would have been worth the owning Rich Populous and Potent and able to defend themselves against the French But by pursuing contrary Methods he brought a War upon himself which wasted Spain ruined his Treasures erected a part of these Provinces into an Independent Commonwealth and so depopulated and impoverished the rest that they are not able to defend themselves against the French So that the breaking this Edict proved the Ruin of all the Spanish Greatness This Liberty of Conscience which was extorted from the Regent by pure Force and Fear being sent into Spain to be confirmed by the King he was highly displeased at it and ordered some of his Council to let the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont know That if they or either of them had opposed these Insurrections with that Bravery they had shewed on other occasions and as they were bound in Duty to have done things could never have been brought by the Populace into the state they were now in That if yet they would do their Duty without mincing or dissembling absolutely they might reduce things into the former state or at least keep them as they were till the King could come thither himself to settle them That it was the Duty of a good Subject when he once knew his Prince's Pleasure to set himself roundly without considering what should be the event to himself or others to put the same in execution and that willingly readily and effectually tho he himself were of a contrary opinion for that it did not become them to think themselves wiser than their Prince since they were his Subjects and Vassals They had Advices at the same time from Spain That the King was fixedly resolved to oppose these Grants of his Sister the Regent both to prevent the Example as to his other Provinces and also preserve the Popish Religion in these And they were informed also that under the pretence of preserving the Catholick Religion in the Netherlands there was a Design formed to advance the King's Power and that they were not displeased ai Court that they had this occasion given them to bring the whole under and settle in them a new and more Absolute Form of Government because they concluded in Spain That all the Obstinacy the people had shewn proceeded from their Reliance upon their great Freedoms and Privileges But then this was to be concealed with the utmost care from them and the King and the Regent to delude and deceive them wrote the kindest Letters and spoke the sweetest Words to the Confederate Lords and especially to the Prince of Orange that the Wit of man could invent But in the mean time the Regent Levied Two Regiments in Flanders under the Earls of Arenbergh and Mâ—…em and Two more in Germany undeâ—… Count Philip of Overstein and Three of Walloons and a German Regiment of Horse under Count Mansfield These Forces were Levied in distant places and upon different pretences and brought into or near the Provinces and then the Regent began to throw off her Mask by degrees And she ordered the Protestant Meetings and Sermons in many places to be disturbed pretending they were not kept just in the same place that they were at first allowed And after she went on and seized on and imprisoned some of the Preachers on the same pretence and she hanged one of them near AELEST And when complaint was made of these Proceedings to the Regent she would sometimes say Her Consent was not free but extorted from her by fear and therefore she was not bound to
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
the Town on the first Assault by the Cowardise of the Spaniards which paid Five hundred and twenty thousand Ducats for its Ransom There was Two Millions more offered for the Redemption of the Ships in Port Real but it was refused by the Admiral he saying He was sent to Burn and not to Ransom the Spanish Navies The Spaniards confess they lost in the Sack of this Town in Ships Taken and Burnt in Canon Taken and Sunk and in Stores and Ammunition and Victuals above Twenty Millions of Ducats The Magnanimous Earl of Essex was for keeping the Town and Island and he offered to do it with Three hundred men and Three Months Provision for them but the rest of the Commanders who had enriched themselves were for returning and so he was forced to return much against his will the 5th of July when he had got little but a Noble Library which he chose out of that Rich Spoil The Spaniards observed The English in this Sack shewed themselves to be Hereticks by their Contempt of their Religious Houses and Places but in all other things they behaved themselves with great Valour Prudence and Generosity The Noble Earl would fain in his return have attempted the Groyne St. Andreo and St. Sebastian but the rest of the Commanders were against making any other Trial of their Fortune believing they had done enough for the Glory and Safety of their Countrey This Expedition secured England for the Remainder of her Reign against all the Attempts and Fears of Spain In the year 1599. this Earl was made Deputy of Ireland which proved his Ruin Sir Robert Cecil in his Absence being made Master of the Wards tho the Queen had promised him that Office and he depended upon it as that which was to repair his Estate shattered in her Service whereupon he came back without her Leave and the next year after was beheaded for Attempting to Raise an Insurrection in London against the Court. To pass from these Foreign Affairs to others that were of nearer concern to England there was in all her days a Destructive and most Chargeable War continued against her in Ireland The Irish Nation have ever since it was subdued by the English born an implacable hatred to the Conquerors which neither Marriages nor Benefits nor Losses nor Time it self has been able to extinguish But when in her time the Religion of England was changed and the general Body of the Irish and a great part of the old English Families persisted in the Popish Religion there was by that means a new Ferment added to their restless and unquiet spirits so that there was nothing to be heard of from thence but frequent and perfidious Rebellions which were the more dangerous and lasting because they were excited by the Pope's Bulls whom the Irish reverence above all other Nations and supported and carried on by Spanish Counsels Money and Forces Yet however the Queen did never think it her Interest to make a sharp and a concluding War upon them because this was not possible to be done without being grievous to her People of England whilst she was forced to spend such prodigious Sums of Money in the Netherlands and France as would have made an effectual War in Ireland insupportable She took care in the mean time to send over thither the Best and Wisest of her States men and Sword-men as her Deputy-Lieutenants and she sent them such Supplies of Men and Moneys as enabled them from time to time to keep the English Pale in good order and to hinder the Spanish Party from growing more Potent in the North than was convenient to consume his Forces and divert him from nearer and more dangerous Attempts and by her Generals and the Forces she sent over she wasted and consumed the Forces of the CLANS and great Irish Lords and by degrees brought the Wild and Barbarous Irish from the former way of living more like Beasts than Men in Woods and Mountains to the living in Populous and well-govern'd Towns and Villages She taught them to leave off their barbarous cruel Customs and to live soberly and according to Law to forsake their wild ways of Diet and Cloathing and live more Civilly and like the English The Northern Province of Ulster was the first that Rebelled the Scots and the Islanders in great Numbers pouring into that Province whereupon Shan O Neale in the year 1563. took up Arms against his Sovereign instead of sending to her for Assistance to drive out these Foreign Enemies He was first Reduced by the Earl of Sussex and forced to come into England to beg Pardon of the Queen The next year he broke out again and was reduced by Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy and in 1565. he perished in a drunken Fray by the Macdonnels to whom he fled for Succour and Refuge This Shan O Neale was so wicked and debauched a Villain in all his Actions that all men approved of the Revenge Macdonnel took of so false and perfidious a man that had done many Wrongs to them and their Families as well as to the English The Macdonnels were Scots and of the number of the Islanders that had setled in this Province of Ulster This Execution hapned the 2d of June 1567. Mr. Cox writes their Names MACCONEL In the year 1564. there hapned a Quarrel between the Earls of Ormond and Desmond which came to a Battel between them at Affane in the County of Waterford The next year they went over into England together to implead each other before the Queen who of the two was most inclined to favour Desmond In 1566. they returned and Desmond took the Field with Two thousand men to join Shan O Neale as was pretended but in truth to Revenge his Quarrels on the Earl of Ormond who defeated him and all his Forces near Drumelin and in the close of that year the Lord Deputy Sidney took Desmond Prisoner and at Limerick tried him for High-Treason and he was found Guilty and committed to Prison and his Brother John was Knighted and made Earl of Desmond This Quarrel was at first a personal private Feud between these Two Potent Families but in the year 1568. some Laws having passed in a Parliament which displeased the Great Men they took up the pretence of Religion to draw in the People and the Pope entred into it and the King of Spain was solicited to send Forces by the Earl of Desmond's younger Brother Titular Bishop of Cashil Thereupon the Lord Deputy began the War this very year and defeated Two thousand of their men near Kilkenny with the loss of one single man The Earl of Ormond was then in England and went into Ireland to reclaim his own Brothers who joined with Desmond in this Revolt which was designed to subvert the Government and clear the Countrey of all English Men and English Laws In the year 1569. Pope Pius Quintus Excommunicated the Queen and deprived her of all her Dominions and
this 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
Defamer of others to be drawn into Troubles by the means of one Somervil a mad Papist his Father-in-Law and one Hall a Popish Priest and being found guilty of Treason he his Wife Somervil and the Priest were all sentenced to die Somervil hanged himself in Prison Adern was executed and Hall the Author and Procurer of all this Mischief was preserved by the Intercession of Leicester This was by all men looked upon a Spectacle of great Compassion He laid Snares for many of the Nobility ruining the Reputation of some of them endangering the Lives of others and some Noble Families he utterly extinguished He impiously and sacrilegiously invaded the Revenues of the Church and brought some of the Bishops into Danger and Dis-favour He incensed the Queen against the Lord Archbishop Grindal a Prelate of great Integrity and Honesty by his Calumnies and Slanders This Grave and Religious Prelate was as Mr. Cambden saith first made Bishop of London then Archbishop of York and afterwards of Canterbury and for many years enjoyed the Favour of the Queen till by the crafty Insinuations of Leicester she was set against him upon a pretence and slanderous Report That he was a Favourer of the Conventicles of the turbulent Puritan Preachers and of their Preachments but in truth because he would not patiently dissemble the Disorders of one Julio an Italian Physician and a Favourite of Leicester's who had Married another man's Wife for which the good Prelate stoutly prosecuted him though Leicester appeared for the Criminal The best of Princes after all the Care and prudent Foresight that Mortality is capable of are yet sometimes deceived in the choice of their Servants Leicester having married the Countess Dowager of Essex who was a Widow when his first Lady died and having no Children of his own was easily perswaded by his Wife to recommend Robert Devereux the young Earl of Essex her Son to the Queen as one fit to serve her Majesty and by this he opened the way to that great man and brought him with good advantage into the Court and into Business Nor would this Nobleman afterwards refuse to acknowledge That all the Authority and Favour he had acquired with the Queen was owing in a great measure to the Assistance his Step-Father had at first given him When he had some time served as a Volunteer first under his own Father in Ireland and after in other places he was made General of the Horse and Field-Marshal under the Earl of Leicester when in the year 1585 he went General of the English Forces in the Low Countries In this Expedition this Noble Gentleman behaved himself with that Courage Bravery Moderation and Prudence that he won the Love and Esteem of the whole Army and by that Reputation he became very Popular which afterwards was the occasion of his Ruin The truth was he for Honesty Valour Liberality and Sincerity was equal to the best of the Nobility of his time but in Prudence and Discretion he was inferior to many He for a long time enjoyed the Favour of the Queen which his goodness prompted him freely to employ to the doing good and to the relief of the indigent and oppressed so that all his Greatness seemed only to be lodged in him as Water in a Cistern for the good of others He was not observed to be addicted to any Vice but that of Missing and Luxury but as to all his other Appetites he had them in a tolerable subjection to his Reason In the year 1587 he was made Master of the Horse In 1590 he was sent into France with an English Army to assist Henry the IVth In 1596 he was made Earl Marshal of England and after that Master of the Ordnance the same year In the year 1597 he was Admiral of the second Squadron of that Fleet which was sent against Cadiz In 1599 he was made Lord Deputy of Irelâ—…nd with more ample power than had been given to any of his Predecessors and a good Army This Expedition was the occasion of the Ruin of this Great Man his Army being wasted without any considerable Advantage Cambden attributes this to the Discontent of the Earl of Essex Because Sir Robert Cecil was made Master of the Wards which so netled him who desired to engross all hâ—…s Mistress's Favours that he left Ireland without leave and returned to England where he perished in his Discontent and Folly in the year 1600. The Queen was in her own Temper a Person of an extraordinary Piety and Goodness and without any exception yet her Virtue was scarce able to secure her from being made infamous and unhappy by the Wickedness of the Earl of Leicester she in the beginning of her Reign relying too much upon his Counsel and as it were committing her self and her Kingdoms to his Industry and Care to the neglect of the rest of the Nobility who hated this Minister Whilst the rest of the Peers withdrew from Danger or stood as it were at a gaze in a stupid amazement or servilely and patiently complied with him But Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex and Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold to the Queen and President of the North agoodly Gentleman of a Brave and Noble Nature constant to his Friends and Servants and the best Soldier the Queen then had would not so tamely yield to Leicester there being in his Nature as well as Morals a perfect Antipathy to the other so that the Court for a long time stood divided between them and they kept Spies upon each other's actions The Queen did what she could to reconcile them but it was utterly impossible they were equal in Power and Estate but so differing from each other in their Designs and Interests and so unwilling on both sides to yield that nothing but Death could determine this mortal Feud between them This Noble Martial Earl died in the year 1583. He would often remonstrate That Leicester's Covetousness and his other Vices were intolerable that he had more Authority with the Queen than all the rest of the Nobility that he disposed of all the Rewards of Virtue and Industry and all the rest were forced to truckle under and serve him that his Pride Laziness Luxury and dissolute Manners were not to be born and there was hardly a good man in the Nation who was not in his heart convinced of the truth of all this and did not wish to see this ill man humbled The truth is Sussex was the honester man and the better Soldier Leicester the more accomplished Courtier and the deeper Politician not for the general Good but his own partitular Profit Sir William Cecil was a Person of great Learning singular Judgment and admirable Moderation and Prudence unto which is justly attributed very much of the Prosperity which England for so many years enjoyed under this most auspieious Government He was made Secretary of State the 5th of Edâ—… the 6th 1551. His opposition to the Exclusion of