the Prince of Conde and his Party being bound not to come to any Terms of Peace with their Enemies without the Privity and Approbation of the Queen and that for the Security of the Moneys and Forces that her Majesty should supply them with they should put into her hands the Town and Port of New Haven or Havre de Grace to be garrisoned by English Souldiers and commanded by any Person of Quality her Majesty should authorize Presently after the Conclusion of this Agreement she caused a Manifest to be published in which she declared how that having preferred the Peace of Christendom before her particular Interests she had relinquished her Claim to the Town of Calais for the term of eight years when as all other Princes were restored to their lost Estates by that Treaty that for the same Reasons she had preserved the Scots from being made Vassals to the French without retaining any part of that Kingdom in her own Possession after the Service was performed that with the like sence of Commiseration she had taken notice how much the Queen Mother of France and the young King were awed and shackled by the Guisian Faction who in their Name and under the Pretext of their Authority endeavoured to extirpate the Professors of the Reformed Religion In pursuance of which Design those bloody minded Papists had in less than five Months time caused above an hundred thousand French Hugonots to be massacred and butchered that with the like Injustice and Violence they treated such of her Majesties Subjects as traded into the Ports of that Kingdom causing their Goods and Merchandize to be seized themselves imprisoned and barbarously murdered and for no other Crime than that they were Protestants and therefore in consideration of what 's aforesaid Her Majesty thought her self obliged to endeavour the rescuing the French King and his Mother out of the hands of so dangerous a Faction by aiding such of the French Subjects as preferred the Service of their Sovereign and the good of their Countrey before all other respects whatsoever for preserving the Reformed Religion from an Universal Destruction and the maintaining her own Subjects and Dominions in Peace and Safety She not only published this Manifesto to acquaint the whole World with the reasons of her taking up Arms on this Occasion but she also commanded her Ambassadour to give a more particular Account of it to the King of Spain whom she looked upon as the Principal Patron of the Guisian League She likewise caused her Ministers and Agents with the Princes of Germany to sollicit them to aid and assist their Brother Protestants And then she her self fell to supplying the Hugonots with all things necessary to a War sending them Ships Arms and Men both for the scowring the Seas and securing the Land The Forces she sent amounting to 6000 Men under the Command of the Lord Ambrose Dudley the Eldest Son then living of the late Duke of Northunberland The Papists apprehending that the Queen by these Courses would lay the axe to the Root of their Religion laid a Conspiracy against her Life for which the Countess of Lenox Grand daughter to Henry the Seventh by his eldest daughter Margaret Queen of Scotland was confined with the Earl her Husband to her House and Arthur Pole Grand-child of Margaret Countess of Salisbury by Geofry her third Son the younger Brother unto Reginald Pole the late Cardinal Legate was Apprehended and Arraigned as also his Brother in Law Geofry Fortescue and were condemned to die but confessing the Conspiracy and being of the Blood Royal they were reprieved by the Queen The Lady Katherine Grey Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk and Grand Daughter to another Sister of King Henry the Eighth was sent to the Tower with her Husband the Earl of Hertford for marrying without the Queens Consent and were detained there several Years and their Marriage declared by the Archbishop of Canterbury to be an undue and unlawful Carnal Copulation with her and that for such their Excess both he and she to be punished About the same time was Published an Elegant and Acute Discourse called The Apology of the Church of England written Originally in Latin by the truly Learned Bishop Jewel and Translated immediately into English Dutch Italian Spanish French and Greek and was highly approved of by all Pious Learned and Judicious Men. Now the Practices of the Papists and the danger the Queen and State were in by their means obliged the Queen to call a Parliament which being Assembled at Westminster the first Act that passed was for assurance of the Queens Royal Power over all Estates and Subjects within our Dominions And Enacted that the Oath of Supremacy should be Administred unto all Persons for the better discovery of such as were Popishly affected several of that Party having lately busy'd themselves by inquiring into the length and shortness of her Majesties Life by Conjurations and other Diabolical Arts and thereupon had caused some dark and doubtful Prophecies to be spread abroad for which reason there passed two other Statutes for suppressing the like dangerous Practices by which her Majesties Person might be endangered the People stirred up to Rebellion or the Peace disturbed By which and other Acts for the strengthning of the Navy and the continual breeding of a Seminary of expert Mariners the Queen was so well provided and secured against the Machinations and Conspiracies of the Pope and his Adherents as to lie under no apprehensions of their bloody rage and malice During this Session of Parliament it was declared by the Bishops and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation To be a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayer in the Church or to Administer the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood by the People To confirm which Declaration it was Enacted That the Bishops of Hereford St. Davids Bangor Llandaff and St. Asaph should take care amongst them for Translating the whole Bible with the Common Prayer Book into the Welch or Brittish Tongue on pain of forfeiting Forty Pound apiece in default thereof And to encourage them thereunto it was ordered that one Book of either sort being so Translated and Imprinted should be provided and brought to euery Cathedral or Parish Church as also for all Parish Churches and Chappels of ease where the said Tongue is commonly used the Minister to pay one half the Price and the Parishioners the other Care was likewise taken for the Translating the Book of Homilies being looked upon as a necessary part of the publick Liturgy by reason of the Rubrick at the end of the Nicene Creed This Parliament likewise congratulated her Majesty for the happiness of the Times for Religion Reformed Peace restored England with Scotland freed from the Foreign Enemy Mony refined the Navy strengthned Warlike Ammunition provided both for Sea and Land and for the Laudable Enterprize in France for the securing of England and
Circumstances to heart and being grown extraordinary Corpulent he died of a Virulent Inflammation in his Leg in the beginning of the Year 1547. He was succeeded by Prince Edward his Son though not fully ten years old of whose Person the Earl of Hartford his Unkle was made Governour and Protector of the Kingdom until he should have attained the Age of Eighteen years and as such was proclaimed in all Parts of London It was under his happy Government that the English gained a great Victory over the Scots whilst they were demanding with Sword in hand the performance of a Treaty touching a Match between King Edward and Mary Queen of Scotland the severe Law of the Siâ— Articles and others were repealed that were made by Henry the Eighth against the Protestants those for abolishing the Pope's Authority are confirmed the Mass is abrogated Images are taken out of Churches the Books of both Testaments printed in English Divine Service celebrated in the same Tongue and both kinds ministred in the Sacraments At which the Romanists being inraged they put in practise all their Arts for the making a stop to such fair beginnings caused Dissention to be sowed amongst the Nobility and thereby the loss of several considerable Places both in France and Scotland promoted Tumults Factions debasing of Money and all other things that might stir up the People to Rebellion procured the Protector to be accused condemned and beheaded for Felony and at length removed the King himself by an untimely Death whether by Poyson or otherwise is uncertain apprehending and hating him for his extraordinary Virtues which much surpassed what could have been expected from his tender years During these sad Occurrences the Duke of Northumberland being â—ound by the Papists to be the fittest Instrument for the effecting their Designs as being of their own Religion under a Protestant Mask they made Use of him for the bringing about their Ends by sowing Distraction in the Nation by setting the Protector and his Brother Thomas Seymour at variance which he effected through a Female Emulation between the Dutchess of Somerset the Protector 's Wife and the Queen Dowager the Wife of Thomas And amongst other Articles of High Treason that were laid to Thomas his charge was that of intending to seize the King and of taking the Lady Elizabeth the King's Sister to Wife But she being wholly ignorant of this business and freeing her self from all suspicion and advancing towards a mature Age she was not onely extremely beloved by the King her Brother who never call'd her by any other Name than his sweet Sister Temperance but likewise by the Nobility and the whole Nation in general King Edward by the Practices of the Duke of Northumberland having declared the Lady Jane Gray for his Successor she was immediately after his Decease publickly proclaimed Queen of England and for the maintaining her in that Degree pretensions were put forward as first the Invalidity of the Lady Mary's and Elizabeth's Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament which Acts of the Lady Mary's and Lady Elizabeth's Illegitimation were never duely repealed Notwithstanding that the King their Father had by the same Act declared that they should succeed in order after Edward the Sixth in case he failed of Issue Secondly It was pretended that these two Sisters being but of half Blood to the Deceased King admitting them to have been born in lawful Wedlock were not in a capacity by the Common Law to be Heirs unto him or to succeed in any part of that Inheritance which came un-unto him by his Father Now the Lady Jane's Mother being the Lady Frances Daughter and one of the Co-heirs of Charles Brandon the late Duke of Suffolk by Mary his Wife Queen Dowager to Lewis the Twelfth of France and youngest Daughter to King Henry the Seventh Grand-father to King Edward now deceased Now I say the Lady Frances her Mother might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her yet she received no injury because she was willing to pass by all her personal Claims for the Preferment of her Daughter It was also given out that Henry the Eighth by his last Will and Testament conveyed the Title of the Crown to the Lady Jane Gray and moreover Politick Reasons and Pretexts were used as that there was an unavoidable danger of reducing this Kingdom under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome in case either of the King 's two Sisters should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise of themselves revoke the Bishop of Rome's Authority and subject the English to a Popish Yoke But through the extraordinary Affection the Nobility and Commons had for the Daughters of King Henry the 8th this great Storm was dispersed within the space of twenty dayes to the fatal End of the Duke of Northumberland and the Lady Jane and the Lady Mary was proclaimed Queen throughout all England And at her coming to London with an Army the Lady Elizabeth met her with five hundred Horse notwithstanding the offers that had been made her by the Duke of a vast Sum of money and certain Lands if she would resign her Title to the Crown lest she should fail her Sister 's and her own Cause which was then in hand Queen Mary caused in the first Parliament that she held all those Acts to be repealed that had been made against the Marriage of Queen Katharine her Mother and King Henry the 8th and the Marriage was judged to be agreeable to the Laws of God and to all intents valid and available The same Form also of Religion and Service of God and Administration of the Sacraments which had been in use at the Death of Henry the 8th were re-established however without any acknowledgment or mention at all of the Pope's Authority notwithstanding all the Efforts of the Queen and Cardinal Pool for the Parliament were very unwilling to admit and acknowledge the Authority of the Bishop of Rome which was now shaken off Neither would they suffer that the Queen should lay down the Title of Supream Head of the Church of England unto which most of the Nobility Bishops and Commons had sworn to Henry the 8th his Heirs and Successors But the Queen was very desirous to lay down this Title as believing that her Pretensions to the Crown had no better Foundation than the Authority of the Bishop of Rome who had maintained her Cause after that her father had procured her to be declared Illegitimate And indeed at this time the apprehensions of the English were so great of Popery and of being inslaved by it's means and by the Match that was concluded with Phillip to the Yoke of Spain as that it caused some to break out into Rebellion as Wyat and others But notwithstanding the Papists had got their will by procuring after much opposition the Roman
Religion to be established in the Kingdom by authority of Parliament and those Acts to be repealed that had been made against the See of Rome in the time of Henry the 8th and Edward the sixth yet there being no Issue to be expected from the Queen seeing she was fourty Years old Weak and Infirm they stood in fear of the Lady Elizabeth who had gained the hearts of all the Nation by her Loyal and Prudent Conduct being the Admiration of her Age both for her Beauty and the Qualities of her Mind and was so indefatigable in Study that before she had attained to the Age of Seventeen Years she had acquired to Perfection both Greek Latin and other ancient Languages and French Italian and other Modern Tongues and had likewise gained all other Accomplishments that are necessary to the composing a Perfect Princess Thus being looked upon as a Miracle of Learning and Prudence as well by Foreigners as the English the Papists were sensible how much it was their Interest to remove out of the way a Princess who seemed threatning the Fall of their Superstitions here in England they used all their Arts to dispose Queen Mary to take away her Life which the Queen refused to do notwithstanding they would have perswaded her that she was obliged to do every thing though never so unjust that was requisite and necessary for the promoting and settling the Catholick Religion And Sir Thomas Wyat Sir Peter Carew and others having stirred up some Commotions the Papists most maliciously set Rumours on Foot that the Lady Elizabeth did countenance and was privy to those Tumults and that she was to be marryed to the Earl of Devonshire Hereupon they caused her to be put into Prison and notwithstanding they would have forced several of the Tumultuaries by Torture to have declared her Accessory to their Rising yet the Rack was not able to make them wrong her Innocence and such as had seemingly accused her in hopes of Advantage cleared her at the time of their Execution But the Papists having got that Princess into Prison they were so far from putting an End to their Persecutions notwithstanding her Innocence that they used her with all the Barbarity imaginable Insomuch that the French and Danish Kings thought it convenient to comfort her by making her great Offers Promises of doing all that lay in their Power in her Behalf But this did but the more inflame the Rage of her Popish Enemies who were resolved to take away her Life either by accusing her of High Treason or of Heresie Hereupon they forced her to hear Divine Service after their Superstitious manner and to go likewise to Confession yet Cardinal Pool Bonner and others of the Bishops were not satisfied with this severe and cruel Treatment but declared that it was requisite she should dye for the Security of the Catholick Religion insomuch that this harsh Usage moved the Spamard himself to pitty and King Philip Queen Mary's Husband interceeded in her Favour and admiring her extraordinary Virtues would have marryed her to his Son Charles or as others say designed her for himself maugre the different Principles of Religion And for this Reason he broke off the Proposals that were made for the marrying her to Emanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy However he was not able to gain her for his Son finding that the People of England would never permit that the next Heir of the Crown should be sent out of the Kingdom In the mean time Queen Mary's Hatred daily increasing against her Sister Elizabeth this Lady's Ruine must have been certain had not it pleased God to divert the thoughts of it by the War that Queen Mary declared against France in favour of her Husband Philip. During this War and the Scots Excursions into England Calice and several other considerable Places being lost and the Queen finding her self neglected laid all these things so to heart and having lain languishing under a Tympany and six Months Fever which then raged over all the Land she departed this Life on the 17th of November 1558. having reigned five Years and four Months During her Reign there are said to have perished by the Flames five Bishops twenty one Divines eight Gentlemen eighty four Artificers one hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers twenty six Wives twenty Widows nine Virgins two Boyes and two Infants the one springing out of the Mothers Womb as she was at the Stake and most inhumanely flung into the Fire in the very Birth Besides several others that were whippe◠to death perished in Prisons and others that were condemned for their Faith and lay ready for Execution if they had not been delivered by the seasonable Death of Queen Mary and the auspicious Entrance of Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth the onely Child then living of King Henry the Eighth succeeded her Sister in the Throne on the 17th of November 1558. And a Parliament having been convened some time before Queen Mary's Death after her Dissolution had been for some hours concealed the News thereof was carried to the Lords then sitting in the House of Peers who after a short Debate amongst themselves sent a Message to the Speaker of the House of Commons desiring him and all the Members of that House to come immediately to them And they being come Heath Arch-bishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England signified unto them that the Lord had been pleased to take to his Mercy the late Queen Mary that by Right of Succession the Crown did belong to the Princess Elizabeth and that therefore they were desired to concurr in the proclaiming the new Queen with all possible Expedition which being unanimously agreed to by the House of Commons she was incontinently proclaimed Queen of England France and Ireland Defendress of the Faith in the Palace-yard o◠Westminster in the presence of the Lords and Commons and presently after in Cheap-side in the presence of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Principal Citizens with great Acclamations and extraordinary joy of the People It was not long before some of the Lords brought her the News of her Sisters Death with the General acknowledgment of her just Title to the Crown Whereupon she prepared to remove from Hatfield where she had been under Consinement and set forward with a splen◠did and Royal Train for London being met all along upon the way by the Nobles Bishops and crowds of others to a◠whom she made so affable a Reception as confirmed the general Opinion of h◠benign Disposition The first-Publick Testimony she gave of her Discretion after her coming 〈…〉 the Crown being then twenty five 〈…〉 old was the Choice she made of a Council picking out such of Queen Mary's Council as were well known to be able men and such as were firm Pursuers of the True Interests of the Nation adding such others as might moderate and temper them for the Protestant Religion She likewise caused new Commissions and Instructions to be sent to the several Ambassadors as resided
in the Courts of the various Princes and States but more particularly her Minister at the Court of Spain was ordered to represent unto that King how sensible she was of the Humanities she had received from him in the time of her Persecution and Troubles Instructions were likewise dispatched to Sir Edw. Harne the English Agent at the Court of Rome to acquaint the Pope with Queen Mary's Death and her succeeding upon the Throne with a desire that they might mutually receive all good Offices from one another But the Pope's Answer was in the usual rigorous Stile of that Court That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succed being illegitimate that he could not contradict the Declaration of Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third that it was a great Boldness to assume the Name and Government of it without him yet being desirous to shew a fatherly Affection if she will renounce her Pretensions and refer her self wholly to his free Dispositions he will do whatsoever may be done with the Honour of the Apostolick See But the Queen having made him this Complement did not think of having any Answer nor was she much concerned when she had In the mean time King Philip having had notice of Queen Mary his Wife's Death he caused his Ambassador the Count of Feria to propose a Match between Queen Elizabeth and himself promising to procure a Dispensation from the Court of Rome These offers put the Queen into great perplexity as thinking it but an ill return to reject a Prince who had done her such Kindnesses during her Troubles And the French King was no less concerned fearing lest this Kingdom being again united to the Spaniard his Dominions must at length have buckled under so great a Power Wherefore he used all his Endeavours to put a Stop to the Dispensation at the Court of Rome and to all the other Places that might be made towards this Match elsewhere But he might have spared himself these Troubles for Queen Elizabeth never designed to enter into any such Marriage well knowing she would thereby have acknowledged her self to have been born in unlawful Wedlock and likewise considering that the Marriage of a Woman with her deceased Sister's Husband is prohibited by Sacred Authority as well as the Marriage of a man with his Brother's Widow and therefore unlawful notwithstanding the Pope's Dispensation wherefore she putteth off King Philip by degrees and with all the Civility and Circumstance imaginable Now many who were imprisoned upon the Account of Religion were set at Liberty at which time a merry Gentleman of the Court petitioned her in Favour of the Evangelists who had been so long imprisoned in a Latin Translation that they might be set at Liberty and walk abroad as formerly in the English Tongue To whom she immediately replyed in this manner That he should first endeavour to know the Minds of the Prisoners who possibly desired no such Liberty as was demanded Now the Queen being extreamly desirous of promoting the Protestant Religion she consulted with her most trusty Counsellors how that Religion might be established and the Popish abolished causing all Dangers to be well poised that might arise on this occasion and the Means and Expedients that might be used for the preventing and avoiding them Hereupon she put into the Principal Courts of Judicature and Offices of Trust such Persons as were well known to be of the Protestant Religion or inclined to it and did the same in the Commission of the Peace in every County The Dangers that might be expected from abroad were either from the Bishop of Rome by his Excommunication and exposing the Kingdom to any Invasion or from the French King who in such a Juncture might have broke off the Treaty of Peace at Cambray and make War upon the English in Favour of the Queen of Scots not only as Enemies but likewise as they are pleased to call the Protestants as Hereticks and might have procured Scotland to have done the same being at that time at his Devotion or from the Irish a People extreamly bigotted to Popery and always very ready to break out into a Rebellion Now as for the Thunder-bolts of Rome they were looked upon as things not at all to be dreaded but was resolved that in case the French made any offers of a Peace they were to be accepted if they did not then offers were to be made to them by reason that such a Peace would also comprehend Scotland but however to stick close to and give all manner of Aid and Countenance to those of the Reformed Religion both in France and Scotland that the Garrisons in Ireland and upon the Borders of Scotland should be better manned and fortified and that the Treaties with the House of Burgundy should be confirmed and friendship continued with the Spaniard And now having provided against all Mischances that might happen from abroad she proceeded to do all that might conduce towards the advancement and setling of the Protestant Religion at home by ordering that none should be chosen into any Colledges of both Universities but Protestants and that all Roman Catholick Presidents Heads and Masters should be put out and removed both from thence and all other Schools of the Land and for the curbing the rash zeal of both Parties she caused two Proclamations to be published by one of which it was commanded That no man of what Perswasion soever he was in Points of Religion should be suffered from thence forward to preach in publick but only such as should be licensed by her Authority and that all such as were so licensed or appointed should forbear preaching upon any Point which was matter of Controversie and might conduce rather towards the exasperating than the calming of mens Passions Which Proclamation was observed with all the care and strictness imaginable By the other Proclamation it was ordered That no Man of what Quality or Degree soever should presume to alter any thing in the state of Religion or innovate in any of the Rites and Ceremonies thereunto belonging but that all such Rites and Ceremonies should be observed in all Parish Churches of the Kingdom as were then used and retained in her Majesties Chappel until â—ome further Order should be taken in it Only it was permitted and withal required That the Litany the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English Tongue and the Epistle and the Gospel at the time of the High Mass should be said in English which was accordingly performed in all the Churches of the Kingdom She likewise ordered the Divine who officiated in her Chappel not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament for the abolishing the Popish Superstitious manner of adoring it which she could not endure should be done in her Sight as being wholly contrary to her Judgment and Conscience And then she proceeded to the reviewing and correcting of the former Liturgy
for his Interest in the Netherlands that it should be in the Hands of the English than possessed by the French On the contrary the French maintained that Calice alone was not sufficient to satisfie the Damages the English had done them in helping the Spaniards to take their Towns many places in Brittany having been burn'd by the English Fleet their Ships taken their Trade interrupted and vast Sums of Money spent in hindring an Invasion of the English But the Spaniard in the mean while having discovered Queen Elizabeth's Aversion to a Match with him the Paces she had made towards the introducing the Reformed Religion and her Resolution to treat with the French without Communication first had with him he grew faint and fell off from promoting the English Pretensions which being perceived by Queen Elizabeth and fearing that she should be abandoned if she continued any longer in her demands upon that Point or else preferring Publick Good before Private Interest she came at length to this Agreement That the French King should peaceably enjoy for the Term of eight years the Town of Calice with the Appurtenances and sixteen great Pieces of Ordnance and that when that term was expired he should restore the same with the Town to Queen Elizabeth or otherwise should pay unto the Queen the Sum of five hundred thousand Crowns In Consequence of which Accommodation Peace was proclaimed on the 17th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the Most Christian King on the other as likewise between her and the King Dauphin with his Wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The People were however dissatisfied with this Peace in regard that Calice was not restored and laid the blame thereof upon the Bishops and other Papists But the French King lived not long to enjoy the Benefit thereof he being killed at a Turnament in Paris by the Count de Montgomery and though his eldest Son and Successor Francis caused the Queen of Scots his Wife to assume the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a Royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was accordingly performed in St. Paul's Church in a most Solemn manner The Parliament being now to be dissolved the House of Commons made an humble Address unto her in which they most earnestly besought her that for securing the Peace of the Kingdom and the Satisfaction of all her good and loving Subjects she would think of marrying without particularizing to her any one man but leaving to her the Choice of the Person Whereto she made Answer That she was obliged to them for their good Affections and took their Application to her to be well intended and the rather because it contained no Limitation of Time or Person which had it done she should have disliked it very much and have looked upon it as a very great Presumption That she had long since made choice of the State of Life wherein she then lived and hoped that God would give her Strength and Constancy to go thorough with it that if she had been inclined to have changed that Course she neither wanted many Invitations to it in the Reign of her Brother nor many strong Impulsions in the time of her Sister Moreover says she to satisfie you I have already joyned my self in Marriage to a Husband namely the Kingdom of England and behold continued she which I marvel you have forgotten the Pledge of this my Marriage and my Wedlock with my Kingdom and thereupon took the Ring off her Finger wherewith at her Coronation she had in a set Form of Words given her self in Marriage to her Kingdom And then making a Pause And do not said she upbraid me with miserable lack of Children for every one of you and as many as are Englishmen are Children and Kinsmen to me of whom if God deprive me not which God forbid I cannot without injury be accounted Barren And then having promised she would take a Husband in case the good of the State should so require she licensed them to depart to their several Businesses The Queen Coming through the City in Triumpâ— The Return of the Gospell The Poolling down burning of Popish Images Shortly after which came the Duke of Finland as Ambassador from the King of Sweden to propose a Marriage between Her Majesty and Prince Ericus that King 's Eldest Son and this Ambassadour having been magnificently treated by the Queen was at length dismissed with the same Success as all the rest who before and after came upon that Errand And now the Emperour and the Catholick Princes interceeded with the Queen by several Letters that such Bishops as were displaced might meet with a kind Usage and that the Papists might be allowed Churches by themselves in Cities Whereto she made Answer Although those Popish Bishops have insolently and openly repugned against the Laws and Quiet of the Realm and do now obstinately reject that Doctrine which most part of themselves under Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had of their own Accord with Heart and Hand publickly in their Sermons and Writings taught unto others when they themselves were not private Men but publick Magistrates yet would she for so great Princes Sakes deal favourably with them though not without Offence to her own Subjects But grant them Churches to celebrate their Divine Offices in apart by themselves she cannot with the Safety of the Common-wealth and without wrong to her own Honour and Conscience Neither is there any Cause why she should grant them seeing England embraceth no new and strange Doctrine but the same which Christ hath commanded the Primitive and Catholick Church hath received and the Ancient Fathers have with one Voice and Mind approved And to allow Churches with contrary Rites and Ceremonies besides that it openly repugneth against the Laws established by Authority of Parliament were nothing else but to sow Religion out of Religion to distract good Men's Minds to cherish factious Men's Humours disturb Religion and Common-wealth and mingle Divine and Humane things Which were a thing indeed evil in Example worst of all to her own good Subjects hurtful and to themselves to whom it is granted neither greatly Commodious nor yet at all safe She was therefore determined out of her Natural Clemency and especially at their request to be willing to heal the private Insolency of a few by much Connivance yet so as she might not encourage their obstinate minds by Indulgence The Spaniard having lost all hopes of a Match between Queen Elizabeth and himself and fearing lest the Crown of England might happen to be joyned to the Scepter of France he perswaded the Emperour Ferdinand to propose one of his Sons for a Husband to Queen Elizabeth which accordingly he did by an Ambassadour whom he sent to that purpose but all to the same effect as the rest that had been before him In the mean time those of the Reformed
all the French Forces should immediately depart out of Scotland except sixty men only to bâ— left in Dunbar and as many in the Fo 〈…〉 of Nachkeeth that they should be transported for their greater Security in English Bottoms that all matters of Religio 〈…〉 should be referred to the following Parliament that an Act of Oblivion should be passed for the Indemnity of all who ha 〈…〉 borne Arms on either side that a general Bond of Love and Amitâ— should bâ— made betwixt the Lords and their 〈…〉 râ—nts of both Religions And 〈…〉 amongst many other Particulars That n 〈…〉 ther the Queen of Scots nor the French King should from thence forward 〈…〉 the Titles and Arms of England 〈…〉 Articles being signed for both Kin 〈…〉 the French 〈…〉 Scotland 〈…〉 English Army being returned home was thereupon disbanded Shortly after which the Earls of Morton and Glencarn were sent by the Congregation to pay their most 〈…〉 mble Thanks and Acknowledgments to â—er Majesty for her ready and successful Assistance and to implore the Continuation of her Favour and Protection in case they should be invaded by the French or any other Enemies Whereof having received gracious Assurances and being 〈…〉 obly entertained and bountifully rewarded with Gifts and Presents they returned with such Joy and Satisfaction to â—he Congregation that for these Reasons and for the further engaging her Protection they obliged themselves by their Subscription to embrace the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England which for a time remained the only Form of Worship retained in the Kirke of Scotland After which they caused a Parliament to be called in Pursuance of the Articles of the Pacification from which no Person w 〈…〉 ed who had any Right of Suff 〈…〉 ose Authority three Acts pa 〈…〉 g wholly to the promoting and establishing of the Reformation The first was for the abolishing the Pope's Jurisdiction and Authority within that Realm the second For the annulling all Statutes made in former Times for maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition and the third for the Punishments of the Sayers and Hearers of Mass. And now let us return to England where the Earl of Arrain being recommended by the Protestants of Scotland for a Husband to Queen Elizabeth by that means to have united the two Crowns this Match was handsomly rejected by her and with great Commendation of the Person The like Address was made by the King of Denmark in Favour of Adolph Duke of Holstein a Prince who had gained great Honours by the Wars and who came himself over for that purpose but was dismissed by the Queen with the Honour of the Garter and a yearly Pension whereby she bound him for ever to her Interests At home Sir William Pickering the Earl of Arundel and Robert Dudley the Duke of Northumberland's younger S 〈…〉 statter'd themselves with the hopes 〈…〉 taining unto the Honour of being her Husband In the mean time the Lord Vicount Montacute the Queens Ambassador in Spain represents to that King the Necessity of the Scotish War endeavours to free the Scots from all Aspersions of Rebellion proving though a zealous Catholick that the Religion that was now introduced into England was wholly consonant to the Sacred Scriptures and the four first General Councils and demanded that the League of Burgundy might be renewed Whereto that King replyed That the confirming of the League was in no wise necessary bemoaneth the Change of Religion in England is troubled at the Expedition into Scotland sendeth back the Order of the Garter and taketh unkindly some Repulses in things of small Moment and though he gave some necessary Cautions as to Clauses to be inserted in the Treaty of Edenborough and for a while opposed the French Practiâ—â— at Rome who endeavoured to proâ—â—â—rt Queen Elizabeth to be excommunicated yet his Ministers incensing him 〈…〉 more and more against the Engl 〈…〉 Affronts were offered to the Queens Ambassador at his Court and he is likewise said to have then endeavoured to perswade the new elected Pope to thunder out his Bulls of Excommunication against her Majesty But the Court of Rome being sensible how little she valued those empty Crackers instead of complying with the Spaniard sent to her the Abbot Vincentio Papalia with secret Instructions and fawning Letters whereof you have here an Abstract To our most dear Daughter Elizabeth Queen of England OUR most dear Daughter in Christ greeting and Apostolical Benediction How greatly We do desire according as our Pastoral Office requireth to take care of your Salvation and to provide as well for your Honour as the Establishment of your Kingdom both God the Searcher of our Hearts knoweth and you your self may understand by the Instructions which we have given to this Our beloved Son Vincentio Papalia Abbot of St. Saviour a man known unto you and of Us well approved to be by him imparted unto You. We do therefore most Dear Daughter exhort and admonish your Highness again That rejecting bad Councellors â—â—â— love not you but themselves and serve their own Deâ—â—â—s You would take the Fear of God to counsel and acknowledging the time of your Visitation oâ—ey Our Fatherly Admonitions and wholsome Advices and promise to your self all things concerning Us which you shall desire of Us not onely for the Salvation of your Soul but also for the establishing and confirming of your Royal Dignity according to the Authority Place and Function committed to Us by God who if you return into the Bosoâ— of the Church as We wish and hope you will are ready to receive you with the same Love Honour and Rejoycing wherewith that Father in the Gospel received his Son who returned unto him although our Joy shall be so much the greater than his in that he rejoyced for the Salvation of one onely Son but You drawing with you all the people of England shall not only by your own Salvation but also by the Salvation of the whole Nation replenish Us and all our Brethren in General whom God willing you should hear shortly to be congregated in an Oecumenical and General Council for abolishing of Heresies and the whole Church with joy and gladness Yea you shall also glad Heaven it self and purchase â—y somemorable a Fact admirable Glory to your Name and much more renowned than that Crown you wear But of this matter the same Vincentio shall treat with you more at large and shall declare unto you our Fatherly affection whom we pray your Highness that you will graciously receive diligently hear and give the same Credit to his Speech which you would do to Our Self Given at Rome at Saint Peters c. The 1.5 day of May 1560. In our first year Notwithstanding all this Cajoslery Queen Elizabeth kept firm to her Motto viz. Always the same insomuch that the Pope was deceived in his hopes The proposals that the Pope is said to have designed to have made by this Abbot were That he would
thirtieth part of the Livings that were liable to the Benevolence and the twentieth part of those that were not By which means that Work was so hastned and furthered that in a short time it was compleated and finished In the mean time great Preparations were making for the opening and holding of the Council of Trent to which the Pope endeavoured to procure that Divines might be sent from England To which end he dispatched to the Queen a Nuncio who being come into the Low Countries stayed there in hopes of procuring leave to be admitted into England for that it was provided by an ancient Statute that the Pope's Nuncio should not come into this Realm without Leave first obtained But the Queen having absolutely refused to admit the Nuncio most of the Princes of Christendom endeavoured to perswade her by then Letters to refer her self in matters of Religion to the Occumenical Council of Trent Whereto she made Answer That she was very desirous of an Occumenical Council but she would not send Deputies to a Popish Council that she had nothing to do with the Bishop of Rome whose Authority was expelled England by Act of Parliament and that it did not belong to the Pope but to the Emperour to call Councils nor could nor would she acknowledge any greater Authority in him than in any other Bishop Much about this time the Queen of Scots being sollicited by the Popish Party to return into that Kingdom and being grown weary of France since the Death of the late King her Husband she caused Queen Elizabeth to be desired to grant her free passage thither pretending that she could not ratifie the Treaty of Edinborough without the Advice of the Nobility of Scotland But Queen Elizabeth suspecting that some dangerous Practises were contriving against England for the preventing them not only thought fit to deny her her Request but to send Sir Thomas Randolph into Scotland to exhort the Nobility to mutual Amity and to keep firm to the Promises he had made her and he found them and the Congregation so well resolved to adhere to her that she was under no Apprehensions from the Scottish Queen or her Party However it was judged safe to intercept her if possible in her passage thither To which end a Squadron of Men of War was fitted out though under other Pretexts yet the Queen of Scots her self by the favour of a great Fog escaped unperceived by the English and landed safe in Scotland though some of the Ships that attended her in that Voyage were taken and brought into England That Queen being now in Scotland sends an Envoy with Letters to Queen Elizabeth wherein she expressed a great deal of Love and Kindness to her as her dearest Friend and Sister and desired that all true and sincere Friendship and Correspondence might be maintained between them Queen Elizabeth receiving Letters at the same time to the same effect from most of the Nobility of that Kingdom But this was not the whole Errand of this Envoy for the Queen of Scots did likewise by him demand to be declared Heir Apparent to this Kingdom as being she said the surest way to continue Amity and Friendship between the two Crowns Whereto the Queen could not be prevailed with to make any other Answer than that she would do nothing to the Prejudice of her Cousin of Scotland's Title leaving the rest to be considered of at a Personal Conference that was to be held at York shortly after which Interview was however broken off by Popish Contrivances lest it might be a means towards the creating in the Queen of Scots an inclination to the Reformed Religion And now finding that tho' she had made all the fair offers imaginable to the Spaniard and treated the Guises with all possible Kindness and Honour yet her Ministers at the Courts of Spain and France instead of meeting with fair Returns and Civilities received affronts upon all Occasions wherefore though she had found her Treasure all exhausted yet she began to make all imaginable Warlike preparations for the security of her self and Subjects And amongst other her Provisions for that purpose having caused a many Pieces of great Ordnance of Iron and Brass to be cast God favouring all she undertook caused a most rich Vein of rich and Native Brass to be discovered at the same time as was likewise the Stone called Lapis Calaminaris first found out in England being very necessary for Brass Works Her Majesty caused likewise Gun-powder to be made here at home being the first that had been made in England the English before having been obliged to beg hard and pay dear for it to Foreigners She also caused the several Garisons belonging to the Kingdom to be better strengthened with new Works Men and Fortifications She likewise increased the Pay of the Souldiers and took Care to provide for those that had been maimed in the Service of the Land She added to and provided her Fleet with all manner of Necessaries making it the best Navy that ever belonged to Brittain insomuch that all Foreigners did truly term her The Restorer of the Glory of Shipping and the Queen of the North Sea She caused all manner of People to furnish themselves with Arms and to use Martial Discipline and Exercise She gave all manner of Encouragement to Husbandry and Tillage by permitting the Transportation of Grain And by a Proclamation she prohibited the Merchants from supplying the Emperour of Russia with Ammunition against the Polanderâ— and caused the Officers of her Exchequer to pay duely the Pensions to such Religious Men as had been cast out of Abbeys She revoked the Commissions of the Purveyors both for the Garrisons and Fleet and designed to have done the same with those of her Household She augmented the Stipends of the Judges And though she was extreamly liberal and bountiful to desert yet she took Care not to alienate the Domain In the mean time the Civil War broke forth in France the Faction and Family of the Guises aiming at that Crown they were sensible that they should never compass their Designs as long as the Hugonots were in Being wherefore they used all manner of means to extirpate those Protestants insomuch that they were forced to take Arms both in Defence of their Sovereign and themselves Now Queen Elizabeth well knowing the Practises of the House of Guise to advance the Interests and Pretensions of the Queen of Scots she supplyed the Protestants of that Kingdom with Money Corn and Ammunition for the Service of the French King and for the defending the Protestant Religion and hindring the Dukedom of Normandy from being possessed by the Guises who might from thence with more Ease have executed their Designs upon England She obliged her self to aid the Prince of Conde and his Associates who headed the Protestants with her Forces both by Land and Sea for the taking in of such Castles Towns and Ports as were possessed by the Faction of the House of Guise
of the young French King and the recovering of Calice they granted the Clergy one Subsidy and the Laity another with two Fifteens and Tenths During these Occurrences at home the Prince of Conde was intercepted and taken Prisoner in that memorable Battel of Dreux as was likewise Sir Nicholas Throgmorton who shortly after paying his Ransome was set at Liberty But the Admiral Chastillon Commanding both the English and French Forces had beetter Success by taking in of Caen and other considerable Places which so startled those of the Guisian Faction that they agreed unto an Edict of Pacification by which the French Princes were restored to their Kings favour Conde lured with hopes of the Lieutenancy General of France and a Marriage with the Queen of Scots the Hugonots allowed the free exercise of their Religion and all things setled for the present to their full satisfaction And having thus agreed among themselves and treacherously abandoned the English they join their Forces and contrive how to drive them out of New-haven in case they would not evacuate it upon demand Now sometime before this agreement the Hostages for Calice endeavoured to make their escape with Ribald a Famous Pilot who had been sent secretly into England for that purpose but were discovered and seized just as they were ready to take shipping The Queen having secret notice of the French designs upon New-haven offered to exchange it for Calice Which being refused War was Proclaimed on both sides And such an extraordinary great Fleet of the English scoured the Seas as not only shut up the French in their Havens but the Spaniards likewise and their Pyracies upon them being very great the Queen caused her Ambassadour to make Excuses at the Court of Spain and restrained them by Proclamation In the mean time New-haven being close Besieged and hard pressed by the French and the Pestilence raging horribly in the Town the English were forced to capitulate and render up that Place hoping that by leaving it they should escape the Plague but instead thereof they brought it with them into England where it sorely afflicted the whole Kingdom and especially the City of London where there dyed of it Twenty one Thousand one Hundred and thirty Persons The Fathers at Trent were very much displeased with Queen Elizabeth both for assisting the French Hugonots against their King and passing the Statute for Punishing all those who countenanced and maintained the Popes Authority within her Dominions which so incensed the Pope that he sent a Commission to those Fathers to proceed to an Excommunication of the Queen of England But the Emperour being by his Ministers sed with hopes of a Marriage betwixt the Queen and his Son the Arch-Duke Charles he by Letters to the Pope and his Legates disswaded them from proceeding to such Extremities and caused the Pope to revoke the Commission he had sent to his Legates in Trent Shortly after which that Council broke up but were so far from having re-united the Church that on the contrary the Breach was become greater and the Discords inreconcilable In the mean time the Cardinal of Lorrain fearing without any Reason a Match between Queen Elizabeth and Charles of Austria to divert it proposeth the said Charles for a Husband to his Neece the Queen of Scots who imparting this Business to Queen Elizabeth she advised her to marry but not the Arch-Duke and recommended to her for a Husband Robert Dudley and promised her That if she would marry him She should by Authority of Parliament be declared her Sister or Daughter and Heir of England in case she should dyeâ— without Issue But assoon as the Queen Mother and her Uncles in France had notice hereof they disswaded her from it promising if she would reject it and persist in the French Amity they would pay her her Dowry Money and lured the Scots with hopes of confirming their ancient Liberties and granting them new ones And though the Queen of Scots took all imaginable Care to gain the Love of her Subjects and keep them at Peace yet they insulted her frequently nor was she able to suppress the Commotions The Spaniard now grew daily more enraged against the English for that his Ambassador here had been confined to his House and subjected to Examinations and publick Reprehensions for that the English Privateers had invested the French upon the Coast of Spain and intended to set forth a Voyage to the West Indies And the King of Spain manifested his Displeasure by causing Proclamation to be made in Antwerp and other places though under Pretext of the Pestilence being in England that no English Ship with Cloaths should come into any part of the Low Countries causing the Goods of English men to be confiscated upon very light Causes and by new Edicts certain Merchandise were forbidden to be transported the Passage through the Low Country Provinces with Horses Salt Peter and Gunpowder out of Germany and Italy was forbidden Whereupon and at the earnest Suit of the Merchant-Adventurers the Queen prohibited the Transporting of Wool unwrought and the Mart or Staple of Cloaths or English Merchandizes was removed to Emden upon the River Ems in Friezland The Apprehension that these and other Circumstances gave the Queen of the Councils of Spain made her the more willingly hearken to a Peace with France which was concluded upon these Terms which were as advantageous as the Juncture would afford That neither Party should invade the other The one shall not aid any that invade the other Private Mens Facts shall bind themselves only Commerce shall be free Traytors and Rebels shall not be received Letters of Reprisal shall not be granted Injuries shall be buried in Oblivion Reservation of Rights and Titles also Actions Demands and Claims which they have or pretend to have one against the other respectively shall remain to them safe and whole and in like manner Defences and Exceptions shall be reserved A certain Sum of Money shall be repayed to Queen Elizabeth at times prefixed Upon the Payment of six hundred and twenty thousand Crowns the Hostages shall be delivered out of England and Throckmorton shall return free into his Country after Confirmation of the League Which Treaty being ratifyed on both sides the French King was invested with the Order of the Garter Being now at Peace with France and in fair-seeming Terms with the King of Stain she resolved to take the Diversion of a Progress in the Course of which she made a visit to Cambridge where she was received with all the Respect Ceremony and Acclamation imaginable and to her own as well as their extraordinary satisfaction and the like Honour she did to Oxford being attended with the same Circumstances Don Alvarze a Quadra Bishop of Aquila and Spanish Ambassadour here a Man zealously addicted to Popery had fed the Papists here with hopes of having the Romish Superstitions again restored in England and had been a Grand Promoter of the Distrusts and Dissatisfactions that were
Authority of Parliament To which Propositions the Queen of Scots replyed with a Proviso referring the fuller Answer to the Bishop of Ross her Ambassadour in England and to some other Delegates who afterwards granting some of the Propositions and rejecting others the Treaty came to nothing and things remained in the same state as they were in before Onely Queen Elizabeth as Head of all Britain by her Authority prorogued the Parliament of Scotland Whilst things were in this posture the Pope supplied the English Rebells and Fugitives with Monies and Philip of Spain contracted a Marriage with Anne of Austria Daughter to the Emperour Maximilian his own Neece by his Sister and she being to go by Sea from Zealand into Spain Queen Elizabeth to shew the Love and Respect she had for the House of Austria sent Sir Charles Howard with the Navy Royal to Convoy her through the British Sea And now Queen Elizabeth having compleated the Twelfth year of her Reign which some Wizzards had flattered the Papists that it would be her last the People out of their great Affection and Loyalty to her Majesty celebrated the 17th of November with all the Pomp Joy and Thanksgiving imaginable which was not only continued upon that day during her Life but even to this very day In Ireland a new Rebellion was contrived by the Earl of Thoumond and his Adherents which was disappointed when it was just ready to break out merely by the Earl's Suspicions of his being discovered whereupon he fled into France and confessing his Crimes and showing himself very penitent to the Queen's Ambassador there this Minister procured him his pardon and the Restitution of his Estate Soon after which Queen Elizabeth made a very magnificent Entry into the City of London for to go see the new Burse which Sir Thomas Gresham had newly built and in a solemn manner nam'd it the Royal Exchange with Sound of Trumpets and by the Voice of an Herald Shortly after which she created Sir William Cecyl Baron of Burghley There was at this time in England Delegates from the King of Scots of whom Queen Elizabeth having demanded that they should explain the Reasons they had for deposing their Queen whereupon they exhibited so insolent a Writing that the Queen could not read it without Indignation and told them That she did not see that they had any just Cause to treat their Queen after that manner and therefore desired they would immediately think of some means to allay the Dissentions of that Kingdom Hereupon several Propositions were again made them for the setting the Queen of Scots at Liberty which being rejected by the Scottish Delegates and Norfolk beginning a new his Practices in favour of that Queen and she her self corresponding and caballing with the Enemies of the Crown of England whereto they were both excited by Ridolpho the Pope's Agent that Queen had many of her Servants taken from her and she her self put under a stricter Confinement and a watching Eye was kept over the Duke to whom the Pope had promised great Assistance both of Money and Men in case he would raise a Rebellion assuring him That the King of Spain would aid him with four thousand Horse and six thousand Foot and that he had already deposited a hundred thousand Crowns and that he would be at all the Charge of the War But whilst these things were acting in England the Queen of Scots Party was very much oppressed in Scotland several of her principal Adherents being put to Death and their strongest Holds taken in In France was the Marriage now solemnized between Charles the Ninth the French King and Elizabeth of Austria Daughter to the Emperour Maximilian to Congratulate which the Lord Buckhurst was sent into France by Queen Elizabeth and was there received with all the Honours and Pomp imaginable and possibly the more in respect of a Motion that the French Court designed to make in favour of a Match between the Duke of Anjou and the Queen of England After the Lord Buckhurst had performed his Commission he returned home with great Presents and with one Cavalcantio a Florentine who had attended him in his Embassy This Cavalcantio being a prudent Person was entrusted by the Queen Mother of France to make a motion of this Match to Queen Elizabeth Which he accordingly performed and the Queen seemed to listen favourably to the Proposal for by this Match there should be added to the Kingdom of England the Dukedoms of Anjou Bourbon Avern and possibly the Kingdom of France it self Whereupon a Treaty was held in which the French proposed three Articles one concerning the Coronation of the Duke another concerning the joint Administration of the Kingdom a third concerning a toleration of his Religion whereto it was replyed that the two first Articles might in some sort be composed but hardly the third for though a contrary Religion might be tolerated between Subjects of the same Kingdom yet between a Wife and her Husband it seemed very incongruous and inconvenient however the matter was brought at length to this Conclusion that if the Duke would afford his presence with the Queen at Divine Service and not refuse to hear and learn the Doctrine of the Church of England he should not be compelled to use the English Rites but at his pleasure use the Roman not being expressly against the Word of God But they could not accommodate these Niceties insomuch that the Treaty was quite broak off after it had continued almost a Year But during these Occurrences it happened at Kinnaston in Herefordshire the ground was seen to open and certain Rocks with a piece of Ground removed and went forwards four days together carrying along great Trees and Sheep-Coats some with sixty Sheep in them and overthrew Rimnalstone Chappel the Depth of the whole where it first broke out is thirty Foot and the bredth of the Breach sixteen Yards also High-ways were removed near an hundred Yards with Trees and Hedg-rows and the like And now the Papists were plotting and contriving new Attempts against the Queen but they were all frustrated by the goodness of God and the Prudence of the Queen and the Loyalty and Zeal of her Ministers and Protestant Subjects Amongst others of those Devillish Instruments of Popery was the Bishop of Ross the Queen of Scots Ambassador who made it his whole Business to excite and stir up People to Rebellion He had laid several Plots for seizing Queen Elizabeth and freeing the Queen of Scots but they all failed him in the Execution But notwithstanding that Bishop had received so many checks for these Practices of his yet he continuing them to that degree as not only to pervert the Subjects from their Loyalty but even to Designs against the Queen's Life the Privy Council after mature Deliberation in the Business notwithstanding his Character thought fit he should be sent and kept close Prisoner in the Tower which was accordingly done as likewise with the Duke of Norfolk
Religion also Which the Queen answering in the Affirmative he immediately began to prepare for War against the Protestants and Alanzon being engaged in the adverse Party there was no Talk of a Match for a long time During these Occurrences Requesens the Spanish Governour of the Low Countries finding how much his Predecessors neglect of Marine Affairs was prejudicial to his Master's Interests he made his Request to Queen Elizabeth that he might take up Ships and Marriners for his Majesties Service That the English Fugitives in the Low Countries might serve the King of Spain against the Hollanders and have free Access to the Ports of England and that the Dutch who were Rebells against the King of Spain might be banished England But for several Reasons she thought not fit to grant any of these Particulars yet to preserve inviolate the old Burgundian League she put out a Proclamation wherein she commanded that the Ships of the Dutch that were made ready should not go forth of the Haven nor yet the Dutch who had taken up Arms against the King of Spain enter into the Ports of England and by Name the Prince of Orange and fifty other of the principal of that Faction In Return of which Favour the English Seminary at Doway was dissolved and the Earl of Westmerland and other English Fugitives were Banished the Dominions of the King of Spain In the mean time the Prince of Orange and the Confederated States finding their Forces too small to oppose the King of Spain they consulted to whose Protection they might most securely betake themselves The French they saw then engaged in a Civil War the Princes of Germany were loath to part with their Money could seldom agree amongst themselves and were not altogether of a mind with them in Religion whereupon knowing none more powerful nor capable of protecting them than England they sent an Honorable Embassy of several Persons to the Queen offering her the Soveraignty of Holland and Zealand forasmuch as she was descended from the Earls of Holland by Philippa Wife of Edward the Third Daughter of William of Bavaria Count of Hannonia and Holland by whose other Sister the Hereditary Right of those Provinces came to the King of Spain Of this Offer the Queen took time to consider and after mature deliberation she made answer after that she had thanked them for their good Intentions towards her that she held nothing more glorious than Justice that as she could not with the safety of her Honour and Conscience receive those Provinces into her Protection much less assume them into her Possession yet she would use her endeavours with the King of Spain that a good Peace might be concluded Shortly after Requesens dying the States of the several Provinces took upon them the ancient Administration of the Government which the King of Spain was fain to Confirm unto them till such time as John of Austria was arrived whom he designed for a Successor to Requesens In the mean time the Queen by her Ministers endeavoured to compose Matters in those Countries but the minds of the Factions were so exasperated against one another that all her efforts in that kind proved Abortive Yet he continued to intercede with the King of Spain in their behalf and the Ambassador she sent for this purpose to that Court finding that that King's Ministers would not admit in the Queens Title the Attribute of Defender of the Faith he demanded it with that Courage and Prudence that he thereby gained the favour of the King of Spain himself who desired him that the Queen might know nothing of this Dispute and gave severe Command that the Title should be admitted About this time there happened some disorders upon the Borders of Scotland which having been favoured by the Ministers of the Regent Queen Elizabeth would in no wise be satisfied until the Regent himself came into England to make his Submissions to the Earl of Huntingdon the English Commissioner Much about the same time the Earl of Essex received a great affront for amidst his great Exploits and Victory in Ireland through the Practises of his Enemies at Court He was of a sudden recalled home and ordered to resign his Authority in Ulster But Leicester being jealous of his Presence at Court caused him to be sent back thither with the empty Title of Earl Marshal of Ireland for grief whereof he fell into a Bloody Flux and ended his days in grievous Torments but not without suspicion of Poyson by the Earl of Leicester's means for that he had marryed his Widdow immediately after his Death In the mean time the Confusions increased in the Low Countries which the Queen endeavoured very much to remedy and though the States had offered themselves to the French yet she sent them twenty Thousand Pounds Sterling upon Condition they should neither call in the French into the Low Countries nor change their Prince nor their Religion nor refuse a Peace in case it were offered by Don John of Austria upon reasonable Conditions And that Governour being now arrived Queen Elizabeth sent a Person of Quality to congratulate his coming thither and to offer him her assistance if the States called in the French into the Low-Countries The Seas being now extreamly infested with Pyrates the Queen caused several Men of War to put forth to scoure them which they did to that purpose as to take Two Hundred of them and to put them in Prisons all along the Coast. She likewise caused the Zelanders to make Restitution and Satisfaction of the English Goods they had taken and confiscated And now all the World courting the Prosperity of England and the prudent Conduct of it's Queen the Portugals requested that the Commerce might be restored that had been now for some time prohibited between the two Nations and the Conditions which they offered and were accepted were as much or more to the English as their Advantage About the same time Martin Forbisher undertook a Voyage for the discovery of the Northern passage to Cathaia but his and that which was undertaken two years after for the same purpose proved in vain And now a great Friend and Ally of Queen Elizabeth's the Emperour Maximilian being dead she sent Sir Philip Sidney to his Son Rodolphus to condole his Fathers Death and congratulate his Succession causing the same Offices to be done with the surviving Son of the then newly deceased Electoâ— Palatine In Ireland fresh Rebellions breaking out about this time the prudent Conduct of the Queen and her Ministers was such that all those Commotions were suddenly suppressed and that Nation brought to a greater Subjection than it had ever been before but her Ministers proceeding to lay new Taxes she gave Order for the moderating them â—aying that she would have her Subjects shorne not devoured But the Papists still continuing their Practices against her Majesty had perswaded Don John of Austria to endeavour the Escape of the Queen of Scots which when he should
have procured he was to have marryed her and thereupon have demanded as well England as Scotland in Right of his Wife But this Plot and all the Contrivances to bring it about being discovered by the Prince of Orange to Queen Elizabeth she thereupon entred into a Defensive League with the States of the Low Countries After which some Forces were sent over thither with whom flocked several Volunteers of Quality Casimir the Elector Palatine's Son came likewise thither with an Army of German Horse and Foot at the Queen's Charges These Forces were unexpectedly attacqued by Don John at the Head of a great and experienc'd Army assisted by the Prince of Parma and other the best Commanders of the Spanish Monarchy and though they had expected a certain Victory yet after an obstinate Fight they were compelled to retreat but rallying again they thought to have surprized the English and Scottish Volunteers but were again repulsed by them and the English and Scots were so fiery in this Engagement that casting away their Garments by reason of the hot Weather they fought in their Shirts which they made fast about them Before this Action Don John had sent to Queen Elizabeth to complain of disobedience in the States The Spaniard himself having done the same and likewise the French-man of his Hugonot Subjects Thus sate this Queen as an Heroical Princess and Umpire between the Spaniards the French and the States insomuch that it was true what one hath Written that France and Spain were the Scales in the ballance of Europe and England the Beam to turn them either way For whom she assisted did ever play the Master Now though Embassadours come from the Queen of England the Emperour and the French King into the Low Countries with Proposals of Peace yet their Negotiation proved to no purpose for that Don John refused to admit the Protestant Religion and the Prince of Orange refused to return into Holland But shortly after Don John Dyed in the flower of his Age some say of the Pestilence others of grief both for his being out of favour with the Spanish King and for that his Ambition had been disappointed first of the Kingdom of Tunis and afterwards of that of England In Scotland began again new Commotions for the People having conceived a great Aversion against the Lord Morton the Regent the Nobility unanimously resolved to transfer the Administration of the Government upon the King though then but Twelve years old appointing him a Council of twelve of the Principal Lords three of whom were to attend him a Month by course Hereupon the King sent an Ambassador to Queen Elisabeth who was dismissed with satisfaction in most of the Points he came about but the Lord Morton not being able to brook the Disgrace of being put from the Regency taketh the Administration of all Affairs to himself which so provoked the Nobility of that Kingdom that they raised a great Army and were ready to fight him and his Forces when through the Intercession of Sir Robert Bowes the English Ambassador things were accommodated for the present And now the King of Spain and the Pope conspire the utter Ruine as they imagined of Queen Elizabeth having taken all the necessary Measures for an Invasion of England and Ireland But Don Sebastian King of Portugal being to Head this Enterprize was killed in the memorable Battel wherein three Kings were slain in Africa whereupon the King of Spain's Thoughts and Forces were wholly taken up how to secure the Kingdom of Portugal to himself In the mean time the Duke of Alanzon renews his Suit to the Queen sending over several French Lords to sollicit in his behalf and amongst the rest one Simier who had the Reputation of a great Courtier and one who understood the Art of Love better than any one Person of his time and indeed he seemed to have made such Advances in his Negotiation as made several of the other Pretenders jealous and caused the Earl of Leicester to report that this French-man crept into the Queens Affections by Love Potions and unlawful Arts for which and other Speeches and his being married to the Earl of Essex his Widow he was confined to the Castle of Greenwich and had it not been for the Earl of Sussex though his greatest Adversary he had been committed to the Tower But this course so provoked the Earl of Leicester and there were such suspicions of a Design of murdering Simier that the Queen put out a Proclamation commanding that no Person should offer Injury to the Ambassador or any of his Servants Yet it happening at that time that the Queen going in her Barge with Simier and some English Noblemen to Greenwich a young Fellow shooting off a Musket shot one of the Rowers in the Barge through the Arm with a Bullet for which he was immediately carried to the Gallows yet upon Solemn Protestation that he did it unwillingly and with no ill intent he was let go and pardoned And notwithstanding all that was suggested to the Queen yet she was so far from suspecting her Subjects that she frequently said She would not believe any thing against them which a Mother would not believe against her Children Within a few days after which Accident the Duke of Alanzon himself came incognito into England and unexpected by the Queen with whom having had some private Conferences he returned back to France and within a Month or two after his Departure the Queen appointed Commissioners to treat with Simier concerning the Articles of the Marriage The King of Spain having constituted the Prince of Parma Governour of the Low Countries Qu. Elizabeth supplyeth the States with a great Sum of Money for which William Davison brought into England the ancient pretious Habiliments of the Family of Burgundy and their costly Vessels laid to Pawn by Matthew of Austria and the States And about this time Sir William Drury succeeded in the Deputiship of Ireland to Sir Henry Sidney who had been eleven years Deputy of Ireland at several times And Casimir Son to the Elector Palatine of the Rhine came into England and after he had been magnificentlâ— entertained he was made Knight of the Garter and dismissed with a yearly Pension And the Queen having procured of the Grand Seignieur a full Liberty for her Subjects to-trade in all the Territories of Turkey a Company of Turkey Merchants was first set up about that time who carried on a great and most advantagious Trade in the several Parts of his vast Dominions Hereupon followed the Death of Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in whose place succeeded Sir Thomas Bromley with the Title of Lord Chancellor of England And now broke out new Rebellions in Ireland the Natives thereof being thereunto stirred up by the Pope and his Adherents During which Sir William Drury dying Arthur Lord Gray was made Deputy in his stead And now the Pope having bestowed the Kingdom of Ireland upon the King of Spain for
England should be agreed upon and Delegates nominated to that purpose During these Transactions new Rebellions broke forth in Ireland the Mutineers calling into their aid the Hebridian Scots who together with the Irish were utterly defeated by the English above three thousand of them being all except fourscore killed upon the Place Which Victory was famous and advantageous both for the present and future times for hereby the name of the Mac-Williams in Connaught was utterly extinct and the insolent Attempts of the Scottish Islanders absolutely crushed About this time the States of the Low Countries being brought very low and unable to secure themselves any longer against the ruine that was threatned them by the vast power of the Spaniards they implored Queen Elizabeth's Protection and offered her the sovereignty of their Provinces which for the present after much debate in her Council she refused but was willing to supply them with four Thousand Souldiers in case the Town of Sluce with the Ordnance belonging to it were delivered to her for caution But afterwards upon their farther representations of the sad condition they were reduced to and commiserating the doleful estate of so great a Branch of the reformed Religion she at last resolves to take them into her Protection promising to supply them with five Thousand Foot and a Thousand Horse under a sufficient General and paying them during the War upon condition that they should by way of Pledge deliver to her Flushing the Fort of Ramekin and the Brill And her Majesty immediately caused to be put forth a large Declaration in justification of â—his her Conduct And thereupon that the War might not be brought to her own Doors by the King of Spain she sent Sir Francis Drake Admiral of her Fleet and Christopher Carlile General of her Land Forces into America with a Fleet of Twenty one ships wherein were two Thousand three Hundred Volunteers and Saylors for to make a Division thereby who after they had taken and plundered several places in those parts of the World and lost seven hundred of their men most of whom dyed of the Calenture they returned home with a Booty valued at six Thousand Pounds sterling and two hundred and forty of the Enemies great Brass and Iron Guns and with Tobacco being the first time it was brought into England During these Transactions in America John Davies with two ships set forth at the Charges of the Citizens of London first discovered and found a passage by the Northern parts of America to the East Indies About this time the Earl of Leicester was sent by the Queen as General of her Forces into Holland being accompanied by the Earl of Essex and several Persons of Quality with a choice Band of five hundred Gentlemen The Earl of Leicester's Reception was attended with all the Pomp and Magnificence imaginable And at his Arrival at the Hague the chief Government and absolute Authority over the confederated Provinces was committed to him by Instrument in Writing by the States General with the Title of Governour and Captain General of Holland Zeland the United and the confederated Provinces Which he accepted of and also the Title of excellency All which severely displeased the Queen and she made both him and the States sensible of her anger by her Letters to them desiring the latter to devest Leicester of that absolute Authority they had devolved upon him The States let the Queen know how much they were grieved for having incurred her displeasure by having devolved that Authority upon the Earl without her Previty and desire her to be pacifyed considering the necessity they were in so do Upon these Letters and those of Leicester's that were Written with all the Submission Respect and Repentance imaginable the Queen was reconciled and satisfyed But Leicester's Arbitrary way of Government imposing new Customes upon Merchandizes and introducing Martial Laws quickly raised an Aversion to him in the People His first Warlike Exploit was the undertaking to Relieve Grave a Town in Brabant then besieged by the Prince of Parma but notwithstanding all the great Efforts of the English the Town was at length taken through the Cowardice of the Governour who was thereupon executed After which the Prince of Parma laid Siege unto Venlo in Guelderland where one Roger Williams a Welchman performed great Service yet the Spaniards took that Town also while the Earl of Leicester was beating the Spaniard out of the Betou a River Island lying between the Rhine and the Waul and near the Tolhuis built a strong Sconce After which the Lord Willoughby Governour of Bergen-op-zoom cut off the Enemies Convoys and took away their Provisions And Sir Philip Sidney with Maurice the Prince of Orange's Son took in Axill a Town in Flanders and Doesburgh was likewise besieged and taken by the Earl of Leicester But in a Rencounter before Zutphen was the renowned Sir Philip Sidney slain being the greatest Ornament of the Age he lived in he was honoured with an Epitaph by the King of Scotland and both Universities celebrated his Memory with Elegies and his Funerals were solemniz'd with great Ceremony in St. Paul's Church in London The Earl of Leicester laid siege to Zutphen but the Winter Season being far advanced he was forced to quit the farther Prosecution of it leaving it only blocked up and returned to the Hague where the States entertained him with Complaints of his Conduct and the ill Circumstances he had thereby brought them into whereupon he took away the Jurisdiction of the States Council and Presidents of the Provinces and then returned into England About this time was concluded the League of strict Amity between the Queen of England and the King of Scotland being chiefly designed for the maintenance of the Reformed Religion Shortly after the Conclusion of which League was discovered a new dangerous Conspiracy against the Queen one John Savage having been perswaded by some Popish Priests that it was a meritorious Work to take away the Lives of excommunicated Princes Hereupon was a Combination made of English Catholicks and Correspondence held with the Queen of Scots the Pope the Guises the Spaniard and the other Enemies of the Queen and the Protestant Religion but was first discovered by one of the Plotters themselves and confessed by the rest both before and at their Executions whereupon long Debates and Consultations were held what was to be done with the Queen of Scots and at length those Voices prevailed that were for the bringing her to her Tryal insomuch that the Queen was perswaded to sign a Patent for the constituting the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the principal Officers of the Crown the chief Nobility of the Kingdom and the Privy Counsel her Commissioners to hear and try that Queens Cause But the Queen of Scots for some time refused to plead as being an absolute Princess and therefore exempted from any Jurisdiction But at length consenting she was charged with having been privy to all the fore-mentioned Conspiracies consenting
Alanzon the French King's youngest Brother which though rejected by her by reason he was scarce seventeen years old and the Queen now past eight and thirty yet Alanzon did not cease prosecuting the Suit In the mean time the Queen fell sick of the Small Pox but recovered again before that it was known abroad that she was so attending the Affairs of Government taking Care to suppress several fresh Rebellions in Ireland and sending a new Colony thither She also repaid with Thanks the Money she had borrowed of her Subjects and put forth two Proclamations by one of which she commanded the Noble-men to observe the Law in keeping Retainers by the other she restrained Informers who under the pretence of discovering Crown-Lands concealed by private Persons sacrilegiously seized upon the Lands of Parish Churches and Alms-Houses piously endowed by the Queens Ancestors And she likewise gained a great deal of Love and Honor by two Acts of Justice the one That she satisfyed the English Merchants out of the Goods that were detained belonging to the Dutch and restored the rest to the Duke of Alva and made a full Transaction with the Merchants of Genoua for the Money intercepted the other That she free'd England at this time of the Debts which her Father and her Brother had contracted in Foreign parts and were encreased by yearly Interest and caused the Obligations of the City of London which had been so often renewed to be given in to the great Satisfaction of the Citizens The Spanish Conduct in the Low Countries having not met with that Success that was expected on the contrary several of their Towns being lost all the Provinces ready for a Revolt and the Fleet they had sent to the Relief of the English Catholicks vanquished by the Zelanders and the Duke of Alva finding how disadvantageous the cutting off Commerce with the English had been to his Masters Subjects he began to treat the English with more Kindness and thereupon the Commerce was again laid open which had been for some Years prohibited between the English and Dutch for two years which term being expired the English removed their Trade to the Confederated States In the mean time comes over a French Ambassadour to complain of the assistance that the Queen gave to the Hugonots of that Kingdom to Request her Majesty to be Godmother to the French King's Daughter and to use all manner of Offices toward the promoting a Match between the Queen and Duke of Alanzon Whereupon her Majesty sent the Earl of Worcester into France with a Present of a Font of Massy Gold and to stand as her Deputy at the Solemnity of the Christening And now the French use all their efforts for the advancing of this Match desiring that the Duke of Alanzon might have leave to come over which after much importunity she consented to upon condition that he should not take it for any Disgrace should he return without obtaining his Suit And that he should first procure a Peace in France and do something in favour of the Protestants of that Kingdom Whereupon a Peace was concluded and the Hugonots allowed the Exercise of their Religion in certain Places And the Duke of Anjou being elected King of Poland and resolving to go by Sea thither the French desired that he might have free Passage through the British Ocean which the Queen not only willingly granted but made Offer of a Fleet for the convoying him thither There having been no Regent in Scotland ever since the Earl of Marre's Death James Douglas Earl of Morton was now made Regent by the Procurement of Queen Elizabeth and was continued and maintained by the Authority and Power of Queen Elizabeth maugre all the Practices of the Papists and the French against him This Regent enacted many profitable Laws for the Defence of Religion against Papists and Hereticks in the King's Name But the Protection and keeping of the King's Person he confirmed to Alexander Ereskin Earl of Marre to whom the Custody of the Kings in their tender years belongeth by a particular Priviledge though he were in his Minority And now the Regent meeting with some Opposition through the Practices of the French he implored Aid of Queen Elizabeth which she granting him he therewith overcame his and the Kingdom 's Enemies and brought that Realm into a very setled and quiet Posture About this time the Bishop of Rosse was let out of Prison but expelled England and being abroad he continued his Sollicitations to the Pope and all Catholick Princes in favour of the Queen of Scots his Mistress from all whom he received fair Promises but no Performances And indeed he had lost the main support of his Hopes in the Duke of Alva who about that time was recall'd from his Government of the Low Countreys both for that he was grown too Great and that the People there had a Mortal Aversion for his Person by reason of his Cruelty He was succeeded by Requesens a man of a milder Spirit minding his own not concerning himself with either English or Scottish Affairs but endeavoured to oblige Queen Elizabeth by all manner of good Offices Now again broke out several new Rebellions in Ireland but were suppressed by the care and Industry of the Queen's Ministers and Officers there But they had raised a desire in Walter Devereux Earl of Essex to go against them which being opposed by Sir William Fitz-Williams Deputy of Ireland an Expedient was found out by the Queen by appointing Essex to take a Patent of the Deputy which having accordingly done he went into Ireland with some Forces but not meeting with the Success he had promised himself he long sollicited and at length obtained leave to return home In the mean time the King of Navarre and the Duke of Alanzon a Pretender to the Queen being suspected by the Queen Mother of France of some Designs against her Authority were put under Confinement whereupon Queen Elizabeth sent an Envoy to sollicit their Reconciliation and Liberty But now Charles the French King dying he was succeeded by his Brother Henry the Third who having left the Throne of Poland and being returned into his own Countrey my Lord North was sent Ambassador to congratulate his Arrival and Inauguration into his Kingdom who in return sent a Person with the same Character hither but whose chief Errand was to make strong Intercessions in the King 's and Queen Mothers name in Favour of the Match between her Majesty and the Duke of Alanzon But notwithstanding all the Kindness that passed between these two Courts and that the League of Blois was now again confirmed and ratifyed by both Crowns yet the French continued their Practices in Scotland in favour of the Queen of Scots endeavoured to have got that King over into France contrived how to deprive Morton the Regent of his Authority and the French King having demanded by Letters whether the mutual Defence mentioned in the League was intended to comprehend the Case of