that the Matter of Religion should be contained therein To which Smith replied That that could not be and that no general Words could contain it if the Party that was bound would say that it was against his Conscience or he meant it not To which the King said That he would write to the Queen his Sister with his own Hand what he meant as to that and that he would as well defend her even in that Cause as if it were exprest in Words and that which he said he would keep tho' he dyed for it But this King was a great Dissembler which our Ambassador probably knew well enough but gave him this discreet Answer That for him he thought no less and he was sure the Queen his Mistress took him to be a faithful Prince and constant to his Words as any was Living But when they spake of Treaties they were not made in Words nor in such Letters missive but after another Authentical sort Sworn and Sealed Without which he could not he said for his part take it substantially and orderly done And besides that the Treaty was not Personal but Perpetual for him and his Successors And when the Queen-Mother would have shuffled off this and some other Articles saying That when Mareshal Montmorancy should be sent over into England from the French King to the Queen and the Earl of Leicester should come to that Court from the said Queen to see the League sworn by each Prince then all things should be done as the Queen should desire Smith answered That he knew the Fashion of Leagues And that it must be agreed upon between the Commissioners that no Words be altered then Subscribed with the Hands of both the Parties the French Commissioners delivering the Part Signed with their Hands to those of England and the Commissioners of England next to them Then the Prince causeth it to be made under the Great Seal of the Realm and so to be delivered to each others Ambassador And that he that came to see it Sworn to might make a new League if the Princes would but to alter that that was made he could not For the Princes were bound to Ratify and Swear to that on which the Commissioners were agreed And that it were not Wisdom as he added to send such Personages as they spake of to an uncertain League And he might consider that Queen Elizabeth his Mistress would not do it This Conference happened March the 1st 1571. After much Pains this Article and another about the Scotch Queen was agreed and Queen Elizabeth was only to give her consent to finish this happy and advantageous League And to excite the Queen hereunto Sir Thomas with Halsingham did freely give her advice to this Tenor That it was for the Assurance of her Person and Crown as she was a Prince lawful and natural and had a Crown Imperial And that she did it so by her Laws as God's Laws and Hers willed it to be done That foreign Princes that were her Friends would and must take it well and that such as were not would rather laugh at her and be glad of it if she did it not and when they should see Time take occasion to endanger her Majesty thereby The Queen soon after signified her Consent And so in the Month of April ensuing at Blois the League was concluded and signed the 18th or 19th Day Which according as Smith and his Collegue did conceive should be with as great Assurance and Defence of the Queen as ever was or could be the two Realms being so near and ready to defend her if it were required And in case Spain should threaten or shew ill Offices as it had of late done against the Queen's Safety it would be afraid hereafter so to do seeing such a Wall adjoyned as Smith wrote Which he therefore hoped would be the best League that ever was made with France or any other Nation for her Majesty's Surety His good Conceit he had of this League did further appear by what he wrote in another Letter soon after to the Lord Burghley That now it could not be said That her Majesty was altogether alone having so good a Defence of so Noble Couragious and so faithful a Prince of his Word but herein our Ambassador was mistaken in his Man none being so false of his Word and treacherous as he all covered over with most artificial Dissimulation and so near a Neighbour provided for and bespoken beforehand against any need Partly that and partly the Trouble in Flanders which he trusted God had provided to deliver his poor Servants there from the Antichristian Tyranny should make her Highness enjoy more quietly both England and Ireland and a better Neighbour of Scotland When Monsieur De Foix came to him and his Collegue with the Draught of the whole League in French which before was in Latin and the Matters that past Pro and Con which he said was that the King might understand it and had made a new Preface Smith did not much stick at it And acquainting the Secretary Cecil now Lord Burghley with it he opened to him the Reason of it I am old said he I love not much Talk and would fain be dispatched honestly homeward So the Effect be there indeed and our Queen not deceived I care for no more that done Smith loved to do his Business well and soundly and yet to knit it up with Brevity and Expedition Thus again when the French Deputy urged much in this Treaty the Scotch Queen that she might be sent safe home to her Country a thing which the English Ambassadors had order not to deal in by no means he began to amplify upon that in a long Oration But at the Conclusion Smith told him in short For all your Reason you must pardon me I know you are a good Rhetorician and you have Rhetorical Ornaments at will to make and so have I on the contrary side if I would bestow my Time in that sort We are the Queen's Majesty's Servants and we have shewed our Reasons so good that no Man could deny that we should not agree unto it While Smith was in this Country he was forced to follow the Court from Place to Place but it being Winter pinched him sore At Tholouse it almost cost him his Life and had made an End of him had it not been for Strong Waters which he used for his Stomach Morning and Evening At Blois where he remained after Candlemas he endured the greatest Cold that ever he felt and most continual And notwithstanding the Cordial Waters he used he was scarce able to resist the extream Cold of the Weather there being for thirty Days together continual Frost and Snow Neither was there Wood plenty nor good Chimneys for Fire And in his Bed-chamber he could make no Fire at all In this Embassy the League being concluded the Queen-Mother one Day in March Anno exeunte in the King's Garden at Blois
generally afterwards received a late Learned Professor of that Language in Basil named Witstein made an Oration in that University lately Printed to confute it and to revive the old exploded Sounds And as he was thus useful to Learning in the University so he was also to Religion He was bred up in the Protestant Doctrine a pretty rare matter in those Times and he never flinched from it All his Kindred of his Father's side were neither Neutrals nor Papists as he wrote somewhere of himself all enclining to the Truth and Gospel Old and Young and so known and noted This he wrote to some because certain Backbiters in King Edward's Days had charged him to have been a Neutral The Reason whereof seemed to be because he did not run so fast in the Reformation under that King as some Hot-spurs would have him who knew not what the matter meant For he was publickly known to be a Protestant in the time of King Hâ—nry VIII living then in Cambridge and being there in place of Eminence when the Bishop of Winchester the Chancellor of that University was severe towards those that professed the Gospel and threatned Fire and Faggot-bearing Smith publickly defended them and opposed those rigorous Methods and staved off many And this he did before all Cambridge and all the Justices of Peace in the Shire and saved many and so continued He stood up and pleaded for the Professors and Profession of the Gospel publickly both in the University before all the Learned Men and not only so but in the Convocation before all the Bishops and in the Parliament-House before the Lords and Commons as he writ in Vindication of himself And being a Man of Reputation among them the University made use of him once as their Messenger and Advocate to the Court to address to Queen Katharine Par to whom he brought their Letters beseeching her Intercession to the King on their behalf being now as they apprehended in imminent Jeopardy For the Parliament in the 37th that is that last Year of that King's Reign had given him all the Colleges in the Kingdom whereat the University was sore afraid Dr. Smith repaired to that good Queen entreating her to prevail with his Majesty that not withstanding the late Act they might enjoy their Possessions as before And she did as she was a true Lover and Patroness of Learning and Religion effectually apply to the King and had her Request in that behalf granted and to that purport she wrote her Letters to the University of which Smith was also the Bringer wherein she called him their Discreet and Learned Advocate and having admonish them that she would have their University to be an University of Divine Philosophy as well as of Natural or Moral she let them understand that she had according to their Desire attempted her Lord the King's Majesty for the stay of their Possessions And That notwithstanding his Majesty's Property and Interest through the Consent of the High Court of Parliament his Highness was such a Patron of good Learning that he would rather add and erect new occasion therefore than confound those their Colleges So that Learning might hereafter ascribe her very Original whole Conservation and sure Stay to our Sovereign Lord as she expressed her self In his publick Academical Performances he acquitted himself with wonderful Applause and Admiration of all the Hearers And at a Commencement which happened as near as I can guess this Year being now the King's Professor both his Disputations and his Determinations were such that Haddon as good Judge in a Letter to Dr. Cox giving him some Account of that Commencement told him That had he been there he would have heard another Socrates and that he caught the forward Disputants as it were in a Net with his Questions and that he concluded the profound Causes of Philosophy with great Gravity and deep Knowledge Dr. Smith's Places and Preserments in Cambridge and elsewhere as they brought him in tolerably fair Incomes so they together with his Eminent Vertue and Learning reconciled him great Respect For he had the Lecture in the Civil Law bâ—ing the King's Professor in that Science for which he received 40 l. per Annum He was Chancellor to the Bishop of Ely which was worth to him 50 l. per Annum Besides he had a Benefice viz. of Leverington in Cambridgeshire which came to the Value of 36 l. per Annum So that his Preferments amounted to 120 l. a Year and upwards And such a good Husband he was that he made some Purchases before and some soon after his leaving the University as we shall hear by and by And this was the Port he lived in before his leaving of Cambridge He kept Three Servants and Three Guns and Three Winter Geldings And this stood him in 30 l. per Annum together with his own Board CHAP. IV. Smith is removed into the Protector 's Family His Preferments under King Edward Made Secretary Goes an Embassie Doctor Smith was often at King Henry's Court and taken notice of by that King and was growing so dear to him as to be received in Place and Office under him had he lived a little longer But soon after K. Henry's Death he was removed from Cambridge into the Duke of Somerset's Family where he was employed in Matters of State by that Great Man the Uncle and Governour of the King and Protector of his Realms Into whose Family were received many other very Learned and Pious Men. Long he had not been here but the University earnestly address'd to him to stand their Friend in some certain weighty Matter wherein not any single Cause of theirs was in hazard but themselves and their All. Which without Question was the Danger the University was in upon the Bill in Agitation in the Parliament-House for giving the King the Chauntries Hospitals Fraternities and Colleges which last Word took in the Societies of the Universities At which they look'd about them and made all the Friends they could at Court to save themselves And as they applied now to Cheke so to Smith also in this elegant Latin Epistle which was drawn up by the exquisite Pen of Ascham their Orator wherein may be observed what a general Opinion there went of his compleat Learning Si tu is es Clarissime SMITHE in quem Academia haec Cantabrigiensis universas vires suas universa Victatis jura enercuecrit si tiki uni omnia Doctrinae sâ—ae genera omnia Reipub. Ornamenta licentissimè contulerit si fructura gloriae suae in te uno jactaverit si spem Salutis suae in â—â—â—otissimùm reposuèrit Age ergo mente-ic cogitatione tua complectere quid tu vicisson illi debes quid illa quid Literae quid Respublica quid Deus ipse pro tantis Vietatis officiis quibus sic Dignitas tua efflorescit justissime requirit Academia nil debet tibi imo omnia sua
this so great a Fear What Act or Doing is there but Men and Women have dyed in it Mâ—â—y of Feavors more of Surfeits some of Cold some of overmuch Heat a great number of sorrow not a few of Gladness some in Talking some in Sneezing some in Gasping some ailing nothing but making them ready in the Morning What would you make of this but that Death is ready at al Times anâ— Hours to us that are Mortal K Henry the First who for his Surname was called The â—air Clerk or Learned Man dyed of eating of a Lamprey His Prince and eldest Son and his fair Daughter were both drowned in the Sea What shall never King eat Lampreys again Nor the Daughters nor Sons of Kings come in Ships or Boats for that Cause How often do you see that they shun it for all that except the Weather be tempestuous K. William Rufus was slain with an Arrow in hunting Shall Kings therefore give over all pastime or let no Man bear Bows while they be in Hunting How many do you see yearly drowned in the Thames And who forsaketh notwithstanding to row in a Barge or Wherry How many thousand of Children be born every day in one Place or other How many Hundreds think you in the City of London and in the Shire of Essex in a Month And if two dy in a year in Childbed it is a great Mervail And yet even they commonly dy of some Fear or some Fright or some Ague or some other Cause than the very Birth going before So that it is not Ten but a Hundred or a Thousand to one that the Woman shall escape who travaileth with Child And yet they do not amiss to commit themselves to God and to require his Aid at all such good and natural Works And they have the more Comfort as I think when they be in pain But to make this so perillous a Case and so fearful a Matter and so dangerous a Battel I do assure you I se no Cause And because you reckoned up so many Diseases whereunto natural Men and Women be subject And therefore you would be loth this also should be added You shall see how much contrary I am to you I think that bringing forth of Children doth not only preserve Women from many Diseases and other Inconveniences but it doth also clear their Bodies amend the Colour prolong their Youth If I should bring unto you th' authority and Reasons of Physic therefore altho it be easy to do yet would you ask me who the Devil made me a Physician And you would say yoa had no leisure to look over and try those Books which you may easily look and se the Conclusion Mark in the Court and in all other places where ye go Look what Ladies and Gentlewomen be most fruitful and have most Children if they look not for their Age moâ— youngly best coloured and be cleareâ—t 〈◊〉 Diseases Mark again them which be 〈◊〉 after they pass once Fourty or Fourty five years and toward Fifty if they look not withered yea either Red or Tawny coloured and older than they be by a great way I could bring you ready Examples not far hence where be three Sisters marryed Theldest hath Ten or Twelve Children the middlemost but one or two and the youngest had never a one who being best kept and most at Ease yet theldeit Sister being Ten years elder looketh Twenty years younger than the youngest And thâ—â—â—dlemost according to the Rate 〈◊〉 Children And I could name â—â—â—ugh to you in the Court and in 〈◊〉 and whensoever you wil I wiâ—â—â—hew you them But I would have you Mr. Agamus to mark this that I say And if you find my Sayings true then never be in that Heresy that you be in But rather think that for the Queens Majesties own Person and the Preservation of her Body Health Colour Beauty Grace and Youth it is an Hundred times better for her Highness to Mary and to have Children than to live sole Now let us come to the Grief of Mind For this was another piece whereby ye crept so into us that no Husband pleased you neither Stranger nor English neither whom her Highness would please nor whom she would not please And ye thought there would be no long Agreement Seing no Man nor Woman doth always agree with himself much less he can agree with another And hereupon ye builded your mervelous Forces and Castles What Inconveniences come with Disaggrements What Grief of the Graunting What Hatred of the Denying What Danger of the Dissension And you helped your self stoutly with the Histories of Queens and Noblewomen who have been greatly troubled vexed and brought to Extremities 〈◊〉 â—hose means I wil venture with you wheâ—â— begun and there joine with you where yâ—â— think your self strongest Can never Man â—â—ree long with himself Mary so much the â—â—tter say I. We do not think al one of thingâ— when we be Children and when we be Men nor when we be young Men and when we be old Mary we be the wiser For as Wisdom cometh Error goeth away Folly and Wisdom cannot agree That which to Childishness and Folly of Youth appeareth good to gray Age appeareth Lightnes and nothing worth Were it not better that this Dissension and Debate in our selves were at the first but that God would so train us up that we might se how we did profit Have we not after a little Wisdom cometh to us this Debate in our selves every day The Appetite draweth one way and Reason another Th' one would run at randome th' other holdeth back What do good Fathers to their Children but provide for them a Dissenter a Schoolmaster who should by godly Perswasion yea and sometimes Rebukes keep them from that which they most desire Doth not two Eyes se better than one Do not the contrary Opinions declared open the better the Truth Why doth else the Judge hear both Parties before he give Sentence And wherefore be Counsillors but because they be not always of the same Affection that the Prince is And by this Dissenting is the best way found out For even as when in a heap of Sand or Mould there is espied a bright thing like Mettal by sifting of it and washing it will come to a neerer Guess and by farther Travail be tryed whether it be Gold or no So when a thing glistereth and appeareth gay the same being sifted in Consultation among divers Judgments at the last doth so come to the strong Water or Ramentation or to the Test til it appeareth in his Clearness how it is to be reputed Or els Copper may sometimes be taken for Gold and a vain thing that wil consume like Brimstone may be praised for good Mettal And I pray you who shall more carefully look to or more faithfully counsil or be more circumspectly fearful for the managing of her Highness Affaires than an Husband should do Or who can more amiably more frankly more certainly or more secretly
He could not be so good as his Father was for so much as Cyrus had left such a Son to rule after him as Cambyses Servants told him he was and Cambyses thought himself to be But Cambyses himself had not yet gotten any Child This Fable of Crasus as Herodotus saith so tickled Cambyses that he escaped therby and told the Truth Why say you no more had Q. Mary and Child Mary Sir I do not compare the Queens Highness to Q. Mary but yet I wil say that Queen Mary did what lay in her more for that purpose than Q. Elizabeth doth And I would She would as wel in that as in al other Things pass Q. Mary It al be wel now as you say it is We have Peace we have Plenty We have Quiet at home Friendship abroad What should we desire more As we have great Cause to give Almighty God Thanks for it and to rejoyce and Congratulate with the Queens Highnes for that So have we the more Cause â—o fear the greater Occasion to foresee the â—â—ster Warning to provide that this Estate might continue Except we shal be no wiser than the Grashoppers to whom because they did not provide in Summer wherewithal to live but applied al their Time to Singing and Dauncing the Ants did say when Winter came and their Need appeared that they must weep and repent then without Remedy We al rejoyce in the Queens highnes and have great Cause God prospereth al things in her Highnes hands above al Expectation and almost more than we can desire Because the Weather is so fair shal we not look for a Storm Because this is a Summer shal we think that Winter wil never come If we do se only that is present if we have no regard what shal come after If we had no consideration as wel for our Prosperities as for our selves We are not worthy to be called Men but Beasts Who whether of Reason or no. I know not but certainly of a certain Instinct of Nature seem to have a care and hoard up store for the time to come Wherefore if we have cause to like in her Majesty those Princely and Heroical Gifts which Nature hath bestowed on her Highnes That goodly Personage and Stature resembling her Father so noble a Prince and so wel beloved to the Realm If her Beauty doth not only please us but bring al other in Admiration that se her If th'excellency of Wit the great Understanding that Knowledg of so many Tongues the Dexterity of Entertaining and the Gravity in Communication and al other the Princely and Heroical Vertues which be so clear and resplendent in her Majesty do ravish us in Admiration of her Highnes Except we should do as the Grashoppers do content our selves with the Time present and look no further what can we do but wish pray desire and long for the Propagation and Continuation of the same among us Like as we do with Flowers which we like with Apples and other Fruit which do please us above al others we desire to have more of the same kind set in our Garden and more of the same Fruit grafted in our Orchyard that our Posterity may take pleasure in them as wel as we This is so natural so goodly and so reasonable that methinks it was but a strange Question of you to ask What we lacked And if I could cal this Realm of Eâ—gâ—aâ—d to speak what it lacked and what Fault it found I dare say it would not only wish but expotulaâ—e and accuse her Highnes and say Did not I bring thee up O Queen Did not I nourish thee Hath not God in thy Youth saved thee from so many Dangers From Prison from Punishment from Death because thou mightest reign and rule my People in the Fear of God and the Knowledg of his Son And that thou mightest once again bring in the Light of the Gospel and cast off the Romish Yoke and keep the Race of the Mixed Rose which brought again the amiable Peace â—ong exiled from among my Children by the Striving of the two Roses And wilt thou now as much as lyeth in thee let it be extinct What if thy Noble Father had lived Sole as thou doest What if that good Lady thy Mother had don so Should I not have lacked thee in whom I have now such Joy and Comfort as I never had the like in any Prince Remember what is the Nature Property and Duty of that Sex and Kind of which thou art Is it not to bring forth young Babes to nourish them in their tender Age to have that Carefulnes Motherly-Love and Tendernes over them which no Man can have And why do I not se one in thy Armes whom thou mightest kiss and embrace and play withal of thine own Which after thee should rule and govern this Realm and be the Staff of thine old Age and mine This thou owest to the Noble King thy Father This to the Wife Prince thy Grandfather This to al thy Auncesters This thou doest to me And if this be the Property and th' end wherunto Women were first ordained to bring forth Children and to propagate the Name of their Stock and Family why wilt thou O Queen having so many high and excellent Vertues stain them al with this Wickednes degenerate from this Nature What meaneth St. Paul when he saith of Women That they shal be saved by the bearing of Children if they tary in the Faith And what wilt thou O Queen deny it always Why should the wife and couragious Prince thy Father put away the Superstitioâ—s Nuns if now his Daughter should take their Property and as it were their Order upon her Defer stil and stil And how long wil it be Time goeth away Age draweth on Youth flyeth Opportunity is spent And wilt thou not se the bringing up of thy Jewel of that Tresure of the Realm Wilt thou not se him trained up in such Vertue and Nourture as thy self was Shal I tary so long for it til Age shal drive thee away and so leave that thy Jewel and mine to be brought up by the wide World What I like in thee that do I desire to se in the Prince that should succeed thee And who can be better School-master Nurse Bringer-up of him than my ELIZABETH can be the Mother of my Infant And such a Mother as in a King of most Power no Realm can desire more Princely and Heroical Vertues And for the Pain thou shalt have again this most plesant Recompence that as thou shalt wax old so shalt thou se thy self wax as it were young again in him Now I am sure would England say Thou wouldest wish with al thy Heart for the Love that I know thou dost bear me thy Country not to leave after thee a Child to Govern me but either a man of perfect Age or at the least a young â—an very neâ—r such Time as Princes shoulâ— take the Government themselves And how is that possible it
yet had I rather overburthen my self than leave my Country undefended or to see my Country-men so much disgraced Our Question is Whether if it please the Queens Majesty to Marry it were better that her Majesty took an English man or a Stranger Here you come with your fine and logical Distinction and bring in the Causes Essential and Accidental of Marriage as tho' we were in a School of Dunsery and not in a Discourse of Pleasure where we would seek out the Truth without any Fraud or Circumvention I pray you either mince not the matter so finely or else go not so lightly away with every piece before it be either granted to you or else fully proved And first to the three Essentials which you make I will never grant that the English man and the Stranger be equal For even for the first I mean getting of Children if you ask mine Opinion altho' after Marriage by the Law of God whosoever the Father be the Prince or Child which is gotten shall be most rightful Heir of England and an English man yet it must needs be better an hundredfold that our Prince be a mere English man as well by the Father as by the Queen his Mother than half English which shall have any part of Strangers Bloud in him We laugh at this and you think that I speak now of the Honour and of the Affection which I have to our Country above other No I speak not of Affection but as great Causes move me For I would the Prince of this Realm should be wholly English and that no other Realm had any Duty to claim of him but that he should think this his whole and only Country and natural Soil So shall he never set by others Countries but by this So shall he not prefer sickle Strangers to his trusty Subjects So shall he ever covet to adorn magnifie and exalt this Realm and drive away no Part of his Love from it to another Whereas if he should have to his Father a Stranger it cannot be but he must have a natural Mind and Affection to this his Father's Country and his elder Country and either as much or more than to England Of which thing this Realm already hath had Proof enough The Danes enjoyed once this Realm too long Of which altho' some of them were born here yet so long as the Danes Blood was in them they could never but favour the poor and barren Realm of Denmark more than the rich Country of England The Normans after wan and possessed the Realm So long as ever the Memory of their Blood remained the first most and so less and less as by little and little they grew to be English What did they Keep down the English Nation Magnifie the Normans the rich Abbies and Priories they gave to their Normans the Chief Holds the Noble Seignories the best Bishopricks and all Yea they went so low as to the Parsonages and Vicarages if one were better to the Puâ—se than another that a Norman had Poor English men were glad to take their Leavings And so much was our Nation kept under that we were glad to dissemble our Tongue and learn theirs Whereupon came the Proverb Iack would be a Gentleman if he could speak French But as the Norman Bloud and Tongue â—anished away so by little and little Thanks be to God this Mischief began to cease and the Princes by Process of Time made mere English merely favoured this our Nation And is not this a good Cause think you why I should wish the Queens Highness Husband to be of our Country and the Prince her Majesty's Son to be a mere English man For as we have seen by these and other Proofs in Time past if the Prince should be a Frenchman he would favour the French if an Italian the Italians if a Dane or a Swedener he would also favour his Country and Country-men And is not the whole at least the greatest part of the Love which we English men should require of him to be derived thither And you may be assured as the People see the Prince part his Love so will they part theirs Which Love I would have and wish always to be whole intire and perfect in both That there should not arise a Seditious Person to say Non est nobis Pars in David nec Hareditas in filio Jesse Unusquisque ad Tentorium O Israel As for the second which is the Avoiding of Adultery and Fornication it lyeth more in the Gift of God and the Godliness of the Mind of the Married Person than in the Quality of his or her Make. But will not evil Examples think you do much And I pray you what Nation is there where Matrimony is so indifferently of each and so godly of both kept as in England The Italians be so jealous that almost every private man there doth not think himself sure of his Wife except he keep her close in a Mew as here in England men keep their Hawks Again he for his part taketh so much Liberty that to resort to Courtezans to describe his Loves and Pastimes with others besides his Wife so it be in fine Rhythme and wittily contrived Verse he taketh rather an Honour than a Dishonour Do you think her Majesty brought up in English Manner can like this suspicion against the Wife Or this Licentious Liberty of the Husband And yet if her Grace should take an Italian this is the Manner of his Country The French man in jealousie is not so much nor doth so streightly as in prison keep hiâ— Wife as doth the Italian Mary for his own Liberty he will give the Italian no place Their own French Books do shew no lessâ— and whoso is conversant with them 〈◊〉 understand the same And if her Majesty should Marry a French man think you he would not have some great piece of his Country Manners The Scots be in so natural League wiâ—â— France that he is no true Scot unless he speak and do French-like The Spaniard will rule and standeth all up on Honour For other Liberty of such Pastime he will give place to none but go afar as any yet he will do Penance peradventure in Lent or at Easter and whip himsâ—lâ— then in a Visor naked supposing to make God and his Wife amends by it as he thinketh and to salve his fond Conscience But for our English Manners I dare say we esteem iâ— mâ—re honourable and more Godly not with such Untroth to oâ—fend our Wives than first to take Liberty and then to make so mad Amends The Dutch men and the Dane and all such Countries as draw in Language and Conditions towards them with the great Love which they have to Drink do shadow the other Vice and either may so excuse them that they did it overcome with Drink or else indeed for two much pleasure in the one care less for the other But what excuse is that with Vice to elâ—de Vice Or else what
these lusâ—y and couragious Knights Strangers Kings or Kings Sons to be their Husbands Men of another Countrey Language and Behaviour than theirs I would not wish her Majesty but her Highness's Enemies such Aid Help Honour Riches and Contentation of Mind as those Noble Women had of those Marriages by the Description of the Poets Therefore Sophonisba wife to Syphax was worthy Praise as a wise and stout Lady who was content to put her self into the hands of Masinissa For so much as he was a Numidian born in the same Country of Africa that she was But rather than she would come into the Power and Hand of the Romans being to her Strangers the chose with a Draught of Poison to rid her self both from her Life and from her Care Well I had rather in this Matter Bene ominari And therefore I will bring no more Examples out of Histories as ye know well enough I can of the Successes of such Marriages But well I wot our Country by all Likelihood rather desireth that her Highness had one of this Realm than a Stranger It is not long ago Once there was a Stir for that Matter that cost a good Sort of Gentlemâ—ns Lives Do I forget think you what argument of Authority you used against my Friend here Mr. Spitewedd Do you then remember the Motion of our Speaker and the â—equest of the Commons House what they did and could have moved then and how they ran all one way like the Hounds after the Hare High and Low Knights and Esquires Citizens and â—argesses â—eeâ— as were of the Privy Council and others far and near Whom preferred they I pray you then if they should have had their Wish The Stranger or the English man And think you they did not consider her Majesty's Honour as well as you Do you suppose that they knew not as well what was Disparagement as you Whose Judgments if you would have to be esteemed so much as appears in your Argument you would and as I think you will even now Subscribe unto this Matter is concluded and your Disparagement is gone And where you said that the Marriage within the Realm should bring in Envy Strife Contention and Debate and for to prove the same you shew forth the Marriage that King Edward IV. made with the Lady Katharine Grey wherein followed such Dissension Cruelty Murther and Destruction of the Young Prince and his Brother the sequel I grant Mary if you do consider the Matter well ye do alledge Non Causam tanquam Causam As for the Stomach and Grief of the Earl of Warwick against the King I think indeed that Marriage was the Cause Not because the Queen was an English Woman but because the King having sent the Earl as his Ambassadour to conclude a Marriage for him Which the King did afterward refuse to accomplish And this the Earl thought not only to touch the Kings Honour but also his and fought therefore the Revenging Which he would as well have done and he had the same Cause if he had concluded it in England and after the King refused it So that it was not the Place or Person but the breaking of the Promise and disavouching of his Ambassage and the touching of the Earls Honour herein that made the strife between the Earl and the King For the rest for the Beheading of the Earl Rivers and others the Marriage was not the Cause but the Devilish Ambition of the Duke of Glâ—cester and the Duke of Buckingham Which may appear by the sequel For the one rested not till he had the Crown nor the other till he lost his Head And I pray you what Kin was the Lord Hastings to the Queen And yet he lost his Head even then King Henry VI. Married in France And did not that Marriage make Dissension enough in England And for all that the Queen was a French Woman was not her Husband and her Son by the Desire of the Crown which the Duke of York had both bereaved of their Crown and Lives So that you see that neither Marriage within the Realm maketh these Mischiefs nor yet the Marriages without can let them but Wisdom Foresight and good Governance and chiefly the Aid and Grace of God But it is a great thing to be considered the Riches Power and Strength which shall be by Marriage of a Foreign Prince as well for the Establishment and well keeping of her Highness against Insurrections and Conspiracies which might chance here within the Realm and for Invasions War Battle to be made by or against Princes abroad and without the Realm And here you seem to triumph as tho' all were yours and as tho' it were a thing clear and without all Controversie But I pray you let us weigh this Matter Do you think so much Riches and so much strength gotten unto the Realm when she shall Marry a Foreign Prince Do you praise so much Queen Mary for Marrying King Philip Indeed he is a Prince as you say as great in Birth and Possession as any Christian Prince is at this day But what was England the better for his Marriage We kept Calais above Two Hundred and odd Years in the French Ground in despight of all the French Kings which have been since that Time in all the Civil Wars and the most pernicious Dissension that ever was either in King Henry IV. Henry VI. Richard III. or King Henry VII their times And in King Henry VIII his Time we wan also Boloign and Boloignois And did the Encrease of Strength in his Marriage make us to lose in this Time I do assure you for my Part I never saw nor I think if I should have lived this Five Hundred Years heretofore past I should not have seen at any time England weaker in Strength Men Money and Riches than it was in the Time when we wrote King Philip and Queen Mary King and Queen of so many Kingdoms Dukedoms Marchionats and Countries c. For all those jolly Titles our Hearts our Joy our Comfort was gone As much Affectionate as you note me to be to my Country and Countrymen I assure you I was then ashamed of both They went to the Musters with Kerchiefs on their Heads They went to the Wars hanging down their Looks They came from thence as men dismayed and forelorn They went about their Matters as men amazed that wist not where to begin or end And what marvel was it as my Friend Mr. Agamus saith Here was nothing but Fining Heading Hanging Quartering and Burning Taxing Levying and Pulling down of Bulwarks at home and beggering and loosing our Strong Holds abroad A few Priests men in White Rochets ruled all Who with setting up of Six foot Roods and rebuilding of Rood-lofts thought to make all Cock-sure And is this the surety we shall look for the Defence we shall find the Aid we shall hope of if the Queen's Majesty take a Foreign Prince to her Husband And what Decay came at that Time
or Love-alien makes his Oration in Answer to Agamus for the Queen's Marriage Then the same Philoxenus enters into another Speech fortified with divers Arguments for the Queen 's Marrying with a Stranger Then spake Axenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Homefriend for the Queen 's Marrying an English-man In all these Discourses sir Thomas Smith layeth down what Reasons could be made use of in savour of the Argument insisted on adorned also with handsom Eloquence and furnished with proper Examples out of History ancient and modern In the last and chief Discourse of all Smith seems to intend himself the Speaker under the Name of Axenius I shall exemplifie these Orations for the Readers pleasure and satisfaction And the rather because they have many things relating to publick Affairs not long before happening in the Realm under the Reigns of King Henry King Edward and Queen Mary But if I should place them here it would too much interrupt the Course of the History therefore they are reserved for the Appendix where the Reader shall find them CHAP. VIII Sir Thomas's Embassies to France The Principle Queen Elizabeth went by at her first coming to the Crown was to displace as few as she might of the Old Ministers of State Whereby it came to pass that many of those that were her Sisters Servants remained so to her Therefore tho' she parted with Queen Mary's two Secretaries Bourn and Boxal strong Papists who came in the rooms of Cecil and Smith yet she kept Secretary Petre still and replaced Cecil And intending to retain only two Principal Secretaries for the future there was no room for our Smith But he was not to be laid aside His Abilities were too well known And therefore the Queen resolved to make use of him for a time in her Business with foreign Princes till the might prefer him in her own Court. Thus not to mention that he seemeth to be dispatched abroad into France in the Year 1559. together with 〈◊〉 Bishop of Ely the Lord Hâ—â—rard and Dr. Wolten when a Peace was concluded with that Crown and there resided in the Year 1502. he was thought a sâ—t Person to be employed in the Embassy to France Of whom Cambden in his History takes no notice tho' he doth of the Embassage He received his last Instructions in September and a Declaration written in French and Sir Tho. Gresham the Queen's Merchant gave him Credit The Matter of the Embassy was to urge the Restitution of Calais and to keep the Correspondence with the Protestant Prince of Conde that in case of a Breach with France he might be Assistant to the English against that Crown Sir Thomas made some stay at Calais waiting for the coming of Sir Nicolas Throgmortâ—â— the Queen's Ambassador then in France that they might repair to the French Court together But he mâ—de a Delay at Orleans upon some By â—nds to the Prejudice of the Queen's Affairs So â—ir Thomas at last set forward himself towards the Court where more good was to be done with his Presence than otherwise â—ut as for Thrâ—gmorton's Abode at Orleans done perhaps to discredit or impede the success of Smith's Embassy and so he seemed to take it as did others also Secretary Cecil wrote to Smith that he took it to be upon such reasonable Causes as he had alledged tho' other Folks were not so well perswaded And he wished him safe at home to answer his own Doings Where as that good Secretary wrote he should not lack his Friendship for divers Respects But this was the beginning of no good understanding between Thrâ—gmorton and Smith tho' both joint Ambassadors in France for the Queen The Queen's Council wrote their Letters to him in October wherein they shewed him what passed between the French-Ambassador and them and how a matter of Treason of the Poles practiced by the French and Spanish Ambassadors had been of late discovered Which altho' it were a Matter of no great Moment to be feared Yet thereby was made apparent how truly the Queen and her Council judged of the House of Gaise And that so he might as he saw Cause take advantage thereby to maintain the former Reasons published by her Majesty for justification of her Doings in sending Forces into France As the Secretary wrote to this Ambassador But to look a little back Smith's great Profession was when he came into France to be a Peace mover As soon as he had Audience of the King and Queen he wrote the Council a full Account therof to their great satisfaction And the Secretary wrote to him that they all allowed of his Zeal to procure Peace and of his Diligence in so ample a manner as by his Writing had appeared The Cardinal of Fâ—rrâ—â—ra the Pope's Legate being then at Court Smith had much conference with him But for this he had not escaped a Reprimand from the Court had not some of his good Friends interceded Of this Cecil gave him notice in these Words in the Month of November But to write plainly and friendly unto you as I would you should if our places were changed the most here have misliked that you have treated with the Legate and seem willing that you should have been reprimanded therefore But therein I and others unto your good meaning have so tempered the Cause as thereof you shall hear no otherwise except it be by me and some others your private good Friends For that as he added there were among them in England divers very scrupulous of dealing with the Popes Ministers And therefore he advised the Ambassador to forbear the Cardinal in these Affairs and to use other Courtesy to him as he should see cause for the State of Ferrara as the Ambassador had well made the Distinction to himself The Secretary also now advised him to beware of one Monsieur de Serre saying that he was very Fine and Nimble in all his Practiques In our Ambassadors last Dispatch he wrote to the Queen and therein took the Liberty to give her certain good Counsel which Letter she took in good part and ordered the Secretary to thank him for it and willed him also to warn the Ambassador of the Cardinal of Ferrara and likewise to let all the Favourers of the Prince of Conde manifestly understand that without his Consent the Ambassador would not enter into any Treaty with France Smith in this Embassy had but ill Entertainment in France for he went over in a Year wherein he met with three Evils Plague intestine War and Famine Whereof the next Year the Plague came over into England The intestine War was pretty well ceased but the Famine that is the Dearth of Provision remained and encreased there more and more February 1. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton JointAmbassador with Smith came over into England to the Queen leaving Smith alone in France and nine days after he sent over his Man to the Court with Letters And so
Correspondence That he for his part thought it always the best way so to deal for that though playing under Board served sometimes the Jugglers yet we saw by proof in friendship it lasted not but brought inconvenience When the Prince of Conde and the Admiral as was hinted before had made a separate Peace with the French King and Newhaven was surrendred to the French by the English and Sir Nich. Throgmorton remained a prisoner to that King Smith's great Business now being the month of September was to get the said Ambassador set at Liberty and to get the Money lent in March last to the said Prince and Admiral which was 300000 Crowns repaid and withal to put them in mind of their Promises made to the Queen The Secretary told him That he should gain great Good-will to recover the said Throgmorton and he thought whatever small Colour or Pretence they had for his Confinement that much Labour must obtain him And Good Master Smith added he employ all your Credit and assay the Protestants there to do somewhat like to their Promises I marvel what Answer the Prince and the the Admiral can make for the Money lent them Tho' Smith himself was now confined at Paris as a Prisoner as he had been Aug. 30. at Melun the French King being then in Normandy yet while he was thus confined he was sent for Sept. 11. to the Court at Corboil But soon after that is Sept. 13. he had Liberty granted but not further than the City of Paris The Grant of his full Liberty followed on the 17th And so had the Queen confined the French Ambassador but in no worse place than Sir Tho. Smith's own Lodgings at Etoir In November our Ambassador was drawing to a Peace with the French Orders having been sent him to Conclude it The Dealing was to be very private that is to say Smith alone with one single Person on the French side But yet he had so much Experience of the Misreports and false Relations which the French abounded with that he was afraid to deal alone thinking that if some others were present they might serve for Witnesses if occasion should be of what passed on his part This Scruple he communicated to his Friend the Secretary who told him very well That altho he might well be fearful to deal alone yet in dealing also with one alone he could incur no peril of being misreported For that Equity would save them both that one should not convinco another Here let us make a little Halt before we go on in our Relation of Sir Thomas Smith's Managery of his publick Charge And we shall take notice of some Matters of a more private Nature which fell out to him or wherein he was concerned while he was here in France He had some cause to be jealous how this his Negotiation was taken at Court and was very desirous to know what his Friends here thought of him And therefore to his intimate Friend Doctor Haddon Master of the Requests he signified his Desire to be informed herein by him to which Haddon answered That Smith knew that he was not acquainted with the secret Counsels of the Court but that those who in his Judgment were the most intelligent among their Friends attributed much to his Wisdom and Moderation and specially Cecil their common Friend who always made Honorable and Friendly mention of him Cicero could not correct Cato as he confessed himself he might lightly mend him and fashion him but Haddon could neither correct Smith nor mend him But he would be the Author of this Piece of Advice to him that he should be his own Counsellor and that he should transact Causes with himself and not be led away by the Blasts of Reports or the Storms arising from Fears not to pursue those Purposes that he believed would tend most to the benefit and right Administration of the State Let who 's will be Flamnsinius added he I would have you to be Q. Fabius and I hope you will be so erentius Varro's Fame flies through all Common-wealths but the most happy Memory of Paulus Aemylius is cel brated even in his most unhappy Death for we cannot do any thing but may chance to fail sometimes and where things are wisely foreseen they ought to have a just Praise however some Accident may turn them to disadvantage and he advised him to have that of old Ennius in his memory Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem And the mind said he cannot remain steddy in publick Causes nor Counsels consist together unless there be a Constancy in our Doings accompanying He acknowledged Smith's Condition in this respect was somewhat hard and that he received the Laws of his Embassy from others and managed the Affairs of the State by Prescriptions laid down to him Yet as you may said he interpose your self and be not silent when you perceive any thing that may turn to the help and benefit of us your Countrymen at home He went on in his Counsels to his Friend He bad him abandon all Converse with loose Women for they blunted the Edge of the Mind and afforded nothing but sudden Mischiefs of Body and Soul That he should not be too much disturbed at the Offences the Passions and the Mistakes of others as becoming neither his Prudence nor Learning nor manner of Life For the various Inclinations and thoughts of Men have ever produced such Waves and high Tydes in humane Life and will do so to the end In which if we proceed with Reason as much as we can we shall be upheld with the Conscience of our good Deeds Nor shall the hasty Gusts of Fortune move a mind founded in Wisdom Then he remembred him of his own former excellent Discourses concerning Patience and Fortitude and of the Praise of the Mind of Man And he asked him to what end they tended being uttered by him with so much moving Eloquence What said he only to lie hid in the Schools where he once spake them Or to be enclosed within the Walls of Cambridge Or may they not shew themselves abroad and be seen in the Sun and be brought forth into Act Will they not accompany you in France if need be For my part I should not much esteem these Arts in which I know you are excellently instructed unless they be now present with you when you have most need of them nor should I think you wise at all if in these difficult times you be absent from your self when you ought especially to be present These were the brave Philosophical Arguments that one Scholar entertained the other with CHAP. IX Osorius his Letter to the Queen and Dr. Haddon's Answer Difference between Smith and Throgmorton the Queen 's joint Ambassadors Smith and Cecil Friends BEsides publick Matters the Secretary held a more private Correspondency with our Ambassador as occasion happened concerning Learning and Religion and according to his Order Smith procured and sent
have taken up their Seat in him And thus we see Smith re-enstated again in that Place which four and twenty Years ago he enjoyed under King Edward Smith now being Secretary and Walsingham Resident in the French Court and the matter of the Match for Duke D'Alenson and the Queen transacted earnestly this Year the main of this Matter went through Smith's Hands And thus it stood The French King and Queen-Mother and the Duke and that Court were extreamly eager for it and so was the English Nation too supposing it the best way for the Security of her Majesty and her Crown But the Queen her self was but cold in the Matter And when an Interview was moved between her and the Duke she refused to yield to it upon some Scruples Whereat Secretary Smith to set it forward that it might not be suspended on such a Point devised that the Duke should come over hither without the Ceremony of an Invitation For as he wrote to Walsingham in August he was sorry so good a Matter should upon so nice a Point be deferred Adding That one might say that the Lover would do little if he would not take pains once to see his Love but she must first say Yea before he saw her or she him Twenty Ways said he might be devised why he might come over and be welcome and possibly do more in an Hour than he might in two Years otherwise Cupido ille qui vincit omnia in oculos insidet ex oculis ejaculatur in oculos utriusque videndo non solum ut ait Poeta Faemina virum sed Vir faeminam What Force I pray you can Hear-say and I think and I trust do in comparison of that cum Praesens praesentem tuctur alloquitur furore forsitan amoris ductus amplectitur And saith to himself and openly that she may hear Tenâ—ne te mea an etiamnum somno volunt Faeminae videri cogi ad id quod maximè cupiunt If we be cold it is our Part Besides the Person the Sex requires it Why are you cold Is it not a Young Man's part to be Bold Couragious and to adventure If he should have a Repulse he should have but Honorificam Repulsam The worst that can be said of him is but a Phaeton Quam si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit Ausis Adding that so far as he could perceive this was the only Anchor this the Dye to be cast for us Or else nothing was to be lookt for but still and continual Dalliance and Doubtfulness so far as he could see Thus in his Royal Mistresses and the Nations Behalf he could talk and direct like a Master of Love This Device and Counsel I suppose was hinted to the French Court And it was not long but Duke D'Alenson accordingly came over to make his Address to the Queen The Parisian Massacre happening in August so treacherous and so inhumane that all the World stood amazed at it Secretary Smith abhorred and wrote his Thoughts of it in this following Letter to Walsingham then Ambassador there Sir this Accident in France seemeth to us so strange and beyond all Expectation that we cannot tell what to say to it And the Excuse tam Exilis so slender or fraudulent namely That the Hugonots had intended to have made some dangerous Disturbances in the Kingdom and therefore the King was forced to do this for his own safety that we wot not what to think of it The Matter appears all manner of ways so lamentable the King so suddenly and in one Day to have dispoiled himself and his Realm of so many notable Captains so many brave Soldiers so wise and so valiant Men as if they were unguilty of that which is laid unto them it is most pitiful If they were guilty Cur Mandati Causa damnati sunt ac caesi In such sudden and extream Dealings Cito sed sera Poenitentia solet sequi If it were sudden and not of long Time premeditated before And if so the worse and more infamous Thus you see what privately any Man may think of this Fact I am glad yet that in these Tumults and bloody Proscriptions you did Escape and the young Gentlemen that be there with you and that the King had so great Care and Pity of our Nation so lately with strait Amity Confederate with him Yet we hear say that he that was sent by my Lord Chamberlain to be School-master to young Wharton bâ—ing come the Day before was then slain Alas he was acquainted with no body nor could be partaker of any evil Dâ—â—ling How fearful and careful the Mothers and Parents be here of such young Gentlemen as be there you may easily guess by my Lady Lane who prayeth very earnestly that her Son may be sâ—nt home with as much speed as may be And if my Lady your Wife with your Daughter and the rest with such as may be spared were sent away home until this Rage and Tempest were somewhat appeased you shall be the quieter and disburthened of much of your Care You would not think how much we are desirous to hear what End these Troubles will have whether it rangeth further into all France or die and will cease here at Paris Our Merchants be afraid now to go into France And who can blame them Who would where such Liberty is given to Soldiers and where Nec Pietas nec Iustitia doth refrain and keep back the unruly Malice and Sword of the raging Popular Monsieur La Mote is somewhat spoken to in this Matter And now the Vintage as you know is at hand but our Traffick into Roan and other Places in France is almost laid down with this new Fear It grieveth no Man in England so much as me And indeed I have in some respect the greatest Cause I suppose because he was the great maker of the League between that King and the Queen and did so assure the Qâ—een of the Ingrity Truth and Honour of the said King Fare you well From Woodstock the 12th of September 1572. Your always assured Tho. Smith POSTSCRIPT I Most heartily thank you for the Book of the past Troubles in France But alas who shall now write worthily of the Treasons and Cruelties more barbarous than over the Scythians used And in the same Month when upon some Treachery feared to be acted upon Walsingham he was sent for home for some Time and Tidings being brought of the Massacres upon the Protestants at Roan and other Places as well as at Paris thus did this good Man express his Detestation of these Practices The cruel Murthers of Roan are now long ago written unto us when we thought all had been done And by the same Letters was written unto us that Diep was kept close and the same Executions of the true Christians lookt for there but as then not executed Howbeit Sigoigne did warrant all our English Men to be out of danger and not to be afraid But what
than Christs saying who willed us to enter in at the streight Gate where few go in and to leave the easy way where there be many gon and going before which bringeth eternal Destruction But I think this Part enough proved till I hear the contrary of you The next that I promised you to take in hand was that to the Prince her self this is the best First either all the Women in the World do wonderfully dissemble or els bringing forth of Children besides the often Irksomeness Loathsomeness of Meats Appetite of strange Meats Morfew and other such Troubles that they have al the Time from the Conception to the Childbirth they be in such Danger of Death as at no time Men be more For we se by common Order they are wont to take the Communion to take their leave of the Church and prepare themselves even to it as Persons that were neither Alive nor Dead but betwixt both And al I am sure do not dissemble For I pray you what number of Women every houre even in their Travail or shortly after be dispatched and sent from their Childbed to their Burial Not only poor Folks Wives in whom Negligence or Poverty might have some excuse but Countesses Dutchesses Empresses and Queens Farther Examples we need not seek than the Mother of our late K. Edward Q. Iane and of the Q. Dowager Katharin Parr I can compare the danger of Childbed to nothing more aptly than to a foughten Battail save that there is this Difference that in foughten Battails the Prince by thold Examples as one saith of Pyrrhus provide for themselves out of the Foreward and most Danger But in this whatsoever Estate they be Queen or Empress she must fight with Death Hand to Hand There is no Champion to stand betwixt or to bestride them when they are down or to take the Stroke into their Bodies to defend them as hath been done before this by faithful Esquires to the safety of their Prince And if the faithful Friends of David after he was at one time by chance in great Hazzard in a certain foughten Battail would not suffer him in Person to come no more into Battail lest peradventure as they said the Light of Israel should be quenched How should I think that I should have so much regard to the Queens Persons as they had to Davids if I should not also with and desire yea and counsil too that her Grace should never enter into that Danger and Battail wherein she her self hand to hand and without Aid must Fight with Death himself a more perillous Fight than is any set Battail And if her Majesly be fruitful as there is no Cause to think the contrary then if she escape one she must within one year or a little more prepare for the next and so still be within the Danger of that Extremity which I do tremble to think upon Wel may I think as a great learned Man altho merrily writeth that unless God had given a certain notable Quantity of Foolishness and Forgetfulness to al Women after once they had assayed the Pains and Travails and Danger of Childbirth they would never company with Men again For altho Souldiers who put their Life to sale for mony do not fear to continue war and skirmishes and will adventure at the Capitains Commandment hardily upon the Spear-point to win or loose And altho some Warlike Princes as Alexander and Iulius Caesar thought themselves never so wel as when they had sowen one War upon another and were courageously in the Field themselves yet can it not be denyed but it had been more safty to their Persons to have lived quietly and justly at home with their own and made Peace with their Neighbours Nor tho they dyed at home amongst their Friends th one by Surfeit thother by Conspiracy yet can it not be understanded by the common Intendment but that they were in more Danger in the Battail and so the Success we must leave to Destyny and Gods Judgments What is by the common Course of Causes thereof we may conclude as far as natural Reason and Mans wisdom will go Wherefore in my Mind the Queens Highness Person by course of Nature being subject as al Mortal Mens and Womens â—e to Feavers Plurisies to Pestilence to the Sweat and infinite other sorts of Sicknesses and Diseases which the Physicians can descâ—ibe from the which whensoever it pleaseth God to send them as I pray God long to keep her from them no mans Power can rescue her methinks willingly and wittingly to bring in one other which shall be as dangerous as any one or al those it is not the part of him that professeth a Care of her Highness Person Hitherto I have spoken of her Person but as touching the Body nevertheles by her Person I mean all such Things as touch her privatly and altho it is now hard to make a separation of this but that which toucheth her Person should also touch al the whole Realm yet because I speak amongst you whom I know to be both Learned and Wise ye will I dare say take what I mean by the Order of my Talk Let us grant that her Majesty doth Marry if he be a Subject then she should seem to disparage her self For what shall she do other than that which is found fault with in certain Dutchesses and Countesses which have married with those which were their Servants If she marry a Stranger then must he needs by Gods Laws be her Head and where she was highest before now she hath made one higher than her self If she study to please him then is she in Subjection of him If she mind not to please him why should she then marry him And this is the best But if there should arise any Dissension betwixt her Majesty and her Husband and Part-takings who should rule as there hath been ere this in other Countreys what a Misery shall her Majesty bring her self unto from so great a Felicity To what a Disquietnes from so great a Quietness Now al dependeth upon her only Wil and Pleasure She only commandeth and it is done She saith the Word and every one obeyeth Then is no Grace to be looked for but at her Husbands hands only Then there shall be two to sue unto tho not equal yet such as each of other would not like well to have a Nay So that their Requests one of another shall be as it were Commandments of th one to thother So that if the good and loving Wife loth to displease her Husband and the loving Husband his Wife when one of them shall ask and require of the other that which thother would not gladly do if it be not done who is displeased ye perceive And if it be done who is aggrieved ye se. And so much the more as th one desireth in his or her mind to have it don thother in his or her mind that it should not be done so much the more Grief the Granting
of Lyons their General being an Hart. First I do not see that every Prince maketh his War himself there in Presence nor that every one of them is that Lyon which they speak of And if it be in a Country where Peace may be had and the Realm so well Walled in as ours is by the Sea I cannot perceive but a good Prince may do more good in well-ordering this Câ—mmon-wealth at Home than seeking moâ—â— Conquests Abroad The Romans doubted whether Numa did less good to Rome with keeping it in Peace forty years than Romulus the first Founder did with maintaining so many VVars and Conquests And Augustus was rather a Father of the Country when the Civil VVars ended when he kept Peace with all Nations and Govern'd well the Empire than he himself was in his Proscriptions being Triumvir or in his Civil VVars against Antonius and did then more good to Rome in shutting of Ianus his Temple than did Iulius Caesar in his VVars against the old Pompey yea or else in his long Wars against France And have not Queens been Warriors What was Semiramis and Zenobia Maud the Empress and the late Queen Margaret Amula Suenta that we spake of before was reported to be the VVarrior in the Victory which her unkind Husband Theodotus got over Theobertus King of Mettes and the Burâ—undians and Almains For her VVisdom not their Manliness did it as appears by his vile Cowardliness after her Death But if Queens make Peace and keep the Realm flourishing in good Order and Quiet and overcome their own and their Under-governors Affections of Robbing and Oppressing the poor Subjects they make a Greater and more Commendable Conquest than ever Sylla or Marius Pompeius or Caesar did yea or Carolus the last Emperor of Rome in taking the French King or winning Tunis and Goleta And if VVars should happen to come why may not the Queen make and maintain her Wars as well by a General of her appointing sought out by her Wisdom as all other Princes commonly do And Plutarchus doth well note that Augustus himself had small advantage in all Wars wherein he had the Conduct himself as himself also was in great danger but those which he did manage by Legats and Generals all did prosper well and fortunately with him But of Wars we have spoken enough wherein it is no more need that the Prince should be in Presence than it is that all the Senate of Venice now or the Senate of Rome in times past should always have been in Presence and Person in their Wars For it is their Wit and Policy their Fore-seeing and VVisdom as well in maintaining of the War as in chusing of their Captain that obtaineth the Victory And I pray you did not th' one Conquer as much and doth not th' other keep as well their Conquest as ever Alexander and his Successors did Then it may appear it is not the Presence but the Wisdom of the Prince the Manly Look but the Sober Discretion the Beard but the Chearful Heart that bringeth the Victory and keepeth the Land conquested And this I say may as well be in a Queen as in a King in a Wise and Discreet Lady unmarried as in any Husband she shall take unto her One thing must I needs say if it be chargeable for a Realm to maintain one Prince or King it must needs be more chargeable for a Realm to maintain two If they cry out of the Takers for the taking for one House or Train for two they shall have more cause And do you think that whensoever the Queens Majesty shall take an Husband the Court can be unaugmented I am sure Reason Order and Experience sheweth the contrary Well if the greater Train bring the more Expences the more Officers do require the more Charge the greater Family doth consume the larger Provision of Victuals And if the Realm as Reason it is must bear all these and yet all things done as well now as it shall be then I cannot but conclude even of Husbanding but as good Husbands do that the Affairs of the Realm being as well done th' one way as th' other the best cheap must appear the best way Which is as ye see that the Queens Majesty should remain as she doth now still Sole and unmarried neither intangle her self with a Husband either strange or born in the Realm I have now passed over my three Parts not so fully as one of you would do who have their Tongues and Wits so ready so fine and so eloquent But after my rude and homely mâ—nner I have declared unto 〈◊〉 that simple sole Life and Virginity doth please God better and is better esteemed and an higher Vertue than Marriage And as it is more Heroical so more comely for a Queen which is a Monarch and a Soveraign Prince born I have also proved that for her Person it is most sure and less dangerous for her Mind more quiet and less doubtful and lastly you see I lack no Reasons to shew that it is better and more commodious for the Realm Why then should this Opinion be counted either wicked or strange or unreasonable And with this he held his Peace and none of the other were hasty to answer Whether it were because they did Meditate and Record with themselves what he had said or what and how they should confute him or no I know not but I perceive that they looked not for such an Oration At the last the Fourth brake Silence who save that he would gladly have the Queens Majesty marry for the rest he was indifferent And he as you know if I should tell you his Name hath not his Tongue ready for he stuttereth stammereth and if he be moved uneth he can bring forth a right Word And commonly those Men be of the greatest Heart and Courage and testy with it as the Greeks call them It appeared that he was moved with this Oration For with much ado he brought out his Words The effect whereof was this Mary quoth he this is a Tale indeed and Arguments well picked out You may well be called Mr. Agamus or Misogamos Surnamed in right English Wedspite or Spitewed For I never heard Man speak so despitefully against Wedding and Marriage of the Queens Majesty in my Life I think you be one of St. Frauncis or St. Benets Scholars I would to God my Tongue would serve me but half so well as yours I would ask no help to answer you But now seeing my Tongue will not follow I shall desire these Two to take my part Who altho' within themselves they be not of one Opinion yet with me against you they agree And seeing they can do it well enough my Stuttering and Stammering should be but superfluous Then quod the one of the other if you be so ready to Christen and Name the Child belike as soon as I have told the Tale you will be my Godfather and give me a Name Nay saith he I can
men wherein I must needs confess that there is a Disparagement for that these Men were not Noble by Birth and therefore not meet to Match with such Noble Women But for the Queens Majesty to Marry one of her Noblemen is no disparagement at all Neither is the Comparison like And in this case ye do make me to marvel at you and to doubt what you do think of the Nobility of this Realm of England as tho' they are not as Noble as the Nobility is of other Realms Is not a Duke of England an Earl a Baron and their Sons as much to be counted Noble as they be in other Realms That I think you cannot deny How then should the Queens Majesty be more disparaged Marrying here one of that Degree than there For mâ—thinks you do so speak that if her Highness Married a Duke or a Nobleman of another Realm then it were no Disparagement Which if you grant then either grant this also or shew the Diversity Ye will say because here they be all her Highness Subjects So surely they be But her Subjects be of divers Sorts and Dâ—grees Whereof the Nobility is as the Right Arm of the Prince the Glory and Beauty of the Realm the Root and Nursery of her Highness Stock and Family Off-springs of Kings and Queens of England and whom her Highness and all her Progenitors calleth always in her Letters and Writings and common Talk Cousins Which word Cousins betokeneth that in mingling of that Bloud there can be no disparagement And so much as you would seem in your Talk to embase that Order and Estate so much you must needs appear â—to abase and contemn the Queens Majesty's own Bloud to whom they be and always have been accounted Allied and as Cousins And is it a Disparagement for the Queen of England to Marry an Englâ—sh man Why more than to the King of England to Marry an English woman The Authority is all one And as well is the English woman a Subject to the Crown as the English man Do you think that King Henry VIII her Majesty's Father was disparaged when he Married her Highness Mother or Queen Iane or Queen Katharine Par And that he was always disparaged save once when he Married his Brothers Wife which was a Stranger And think you that all the rest of the Kings of England of whom a great number Married their own Subjects were Disparaged Methinks this is a strange and unnatural Opinion If it be an Honour to be a Kings Wife or a Queens Husband not only to the Person but also to the Region out of the which they come no Country may justlier crave that Honour nor to none the Prince doth more justly owe that Love than to her own Country where she was born and where she is Queen And if ye would be loth to suffer and would spâ—nd your Blood rather than this Realm should be Tributary or Subject to any other yea you would not gladly see that any foreign Prince should do so much here or be so much set by here and have so much Power as your Natural Prince and Queen And if you may justly call that a Dispâ—ragement when this Realm which is the Head of Nations round about is put under the Girdle of another Who maketh more Dispaâ—agement I pray you the foreign Prince to be the Queens Husband or the English Subject But you are of the Opinion as I perceive that Eraâ—mus speaketh of that thinketh it not comely for a Kings Daughter to be coupled but with a King or a Kings Son To whom he answereth as well as if he had studied this oâ—r Case This is private mens Affâ—ction saith he from which Princes ought to flee as fast as they may If the Marry saith he to one who is not of such Power as the or her Father what is that to the Purpose if that he be for the Realm more expâ—dient It is more â—onour to the Prince to neglect that foreign Dignity of the Marriage than to prefer her Womanly Affection to the Profit of the Realm So far is that great learned and wise man from your Opinion that he calleth the Marriage with Strangers Uneven Marriages and as a man would say Disparagements when he saith there lacketh both that Love and Dearness which the common Country Likeness of Body and Mind doth bring and that Natural and traâ— and uncounterfeit Affection which those Marriages have which are made between them that have all one Country He saith also as I have said before that hardly the Country acknowledge them that are born oâ— those uneven Marriages for their own or that those that are so born cannot with all their Hearts love their Country but as their Blouds be mingled out of divers Countries so their Love is but as it were half dealed and parted in twain And did noâ— this man think you as a Prophet declare that thing which we did see of late in Qâ—eâ—n Mary Did not her vehement Love towâ—rd Spain and Spaniards dâ—clare that she was bâ—â— half English as it were in Affection so thâ—â— mingled Bloud in her Nature could not â—idâ— it self And if the Case standeth so and 〈◊〉 be so much to be looâ—t unto as ye will have it better it were for her Highness and more honourable as it may appear evidâ—ntly to make one of her Noblemen by that means equal to a foreign Prince who shall alwayâ— be ready to obey and Honour her than to take a foreign Prince from abroad who shall look to command and be her Superior And because that Poetry is reckoned of a great learned man to be the eldest Philosoâ—â—y for long before the Philosophy of Thales and Socrates began most Ancient Writers called Poets by fained examples or else by Deeds done described like Fables did instruct men and cause the witty Reader in them to see the good success and happy Fortune of Well-doings and the evil Success and Inconveniences which follow of Evil-doings that so we might have as it were shewed before our Eyes what to follow and what to eschew â—â—t us weigh and consider what they write of this Matter and what Examples they make of those Heroical and Noble Women who forsaking their own Country men fell into the Love of Strangers How good how true how Loving I pray you were your Strangers to them Was not that lâ—sâ—y and valiant Warriour Iason soon gotten and most unkindly and uncourteously did forsake Mâ—dea of Colches who not onely saved his Life but for his Love lost her Country and to save her Lovers Life did abandon the Lives of her Father and Brother How long was Theseus of Athens kind to Arâ—adne King Mâ—nâ—s's Daughter who saved his Life else to have been destroyed in the Labyrinth How true was Dâ—mophon to Phillis of Thracia Hercules to Omphale of Lydia or Aâ—nâ—â—s to Dido of Carthâ—ge All these Queens or Queens Daughters who contemning the Noblemen of their own Country as unequal unto them chose
were beheaded poor men were spoiled both one and th' other stain in battel or murthered at home Now this King prevailed now th' other No man sure of his Prince no man of his Goods no man of his Life A King to day to morrow a Prisoner Now hold the Sceptre and shortly after fly privily the Realm And when this fel upon the Head how sped the Body think you Those two Blades of Lyonel and Iohn of Gaunt never rested pursuing th' one th' other til the Red Rose was almost razed out and the White made al bloudy And as it were Eteocles and â—â—lyâ—ices they ceased not til they had filled their Country ful of bloudy Streams They set the Father against the Son the Brother against the Brother the Unkle flew the Nephew and was slain himself So Bloud pursued and ensued Bloud til al the Realm was brought to great Confusion It is no marvail tho' they lost France when they could not keep England And England in the latter end of K. Henry VI. was almost a very Chaos Parishes decayed Churches fel down Townes were desolate plowed Fields waxed Groves Pastures were made Woods Almost half England by Civil War slain and they which remained not sure but in Moates and Castles or lying in Routs and Heaps together When those two Roses by the Reliques and last store of the Whole were joyned in the amiable Knot of Mariage then the Strife ended and England began as it were to be inhabited again Men left Moates and Castles and builded abroad pleasant Houses And thus it hath continued from K. Henry VII hitherto Save that in this Time a few Broyls of the Stirred Sea which could not so soon be calmed by Martin Swarte Perkin Warbeck and Simond out of Ireland were somewhat renewed but they were Trifles to the rest Sith which Time not containing yet fourscore years you se how England is repeopled the Pastures clothed the Desarts inhabited the Rents of Lands encreased the Houses replenished the Woods so wasted that now we begin to complain for want of them and our Encrease is tedious to our selves which find fault with the Fruits of Peace because we know not the Cause of the Success nor the Commodities therof But as if al the World should return to the old Chaos it were the greatest mischief that Heart could invent Tongue speak Pen express or Wit indite So if this should come to our Country of England we for our parts shal feel this I speak of and as it were the particular Judgment of the Day of Doom And it standeth but on a tickle and frail Ground if God wil so plague our Country whether the Red and White Rose shal strive again together or whether the branches of the mixed Rose shal cleave asunder and strive within themselves which is neerer the Root Oh! Lord God let me not live to se that day And you my Friend do you in this Company speak of Saving of Mony to let the saving of this Trouble from the Realm of England With this he held his peace and seemed indeed very much troubled And no man said a word even a good pretty space 〈◊〉 at the last the Stammerer that I told you of whom they called after al that night Mr. Godfather stutting after this maner said this in effect By the Lord I believe you have told as good a Tale as ever I heard I am now glad I have an Excuse by my Tongue for I should not have don it so wel For both in Peace and War and al times you have proved that it is best for her Grace and most to her Comfort and Quiet to have an Husband Mary I thought long for this Last Part of the Necessity of a Prince of her Highnes Body And because you pass it over so with Silence I had thought to have put you in mind of that thing but now I wil not say more of it For I se it troubleth you as it doth us al. Now Sir you have said so much for me as I would wish and I thank you For the rest as I said I am indifferent If you have any thing to speak for an Alien who be so tender unto you and whom you do always prefer before us English Men speak on a Gods Name and let this Gentleman provide wel to aunswer you For I perceive ye wil do wel enough both III. Philoxenius or Love-alien his second Oration for the Queens Marying with a Stranger IN good Faith quoth Love-alien now I have spoken for you so long I am in a maner weary when I should speak for my self And yet this was not out of the Way for me so to do but in maner necessary For it standeth not with order of Disputation as to my remembrance Aristotle writeth that I should go about to prove Quale sit before I have proved Quod sit Therfore it had been superfluous for me to describe what maner of Husband I thought most meet for the Queens Highnes if it were not first proved by reason that it were convenient that her Majesty should have one For if her Grace be fully determined and perswaded by Mr. Agamus Spiteweds Reasons then to reason whether a Stranger or an English-man were more to be wished is clean superfluous For it is cut off by this one stroke Her Majesty wil have none Wel here among this Company for Disputation sake I wil stand so wel in my own Conceit that I take Mr Agamus his Opinion thorowly confuted And let us put the Case that is aggreed upon That best it were for her Majesty to Mary then standeth it in Consultation farther of the maner and Condition of her Husband Wherin may be made many Questions as whether a Young Man or a more elderly whether a Batchelor or a Widower an English-man or a Stranger a great Prince or a King or a mean Personage as in al such where divers be offered of sundry Qualities wherof the Choise and Election is to be taken and because both I am weary and there hath yet but one of these Questions been moved amongst us I shal speak but of that Branch only Whether an English-man or a Stranger is to be perferred Wherin because I have already declared my Opinion which Part I mind to take it resteth that I should also declare the Reasons which moved me to think as I have said and here I intend to begin The very true godly and essential Causes of Matrimony if I may use that Term be three The getting of Children without the Offence of God The natural Remedy to resist the Temptation of the Devil moving us to Fornication or Adultery And the Comfort Pleasure and Help which th' one hath of th' other in al private Affairs and in Governing the House and Family This last the Philosophers which knew not the right Law of God make the first the chief and the whole Cause For as for the Second I mean Fornication they esteemed it not And the first
they thought they might amend when they would by Adoption either of their own Bastards or other Folks lawful Children with the Consent of their Parents For al these Three this our Question doth not vary For either the Stranger or the English-man seemeth indifferent therunto and I make no Difference in them Then there be other Causes which be incident and as I might cal them Accidental as Honor Power and Riches Having first God and those three Causes which I called Essential of Matrimony principally in our Eyes these Things ought in this Consultation to have the highest Place And because I take al you here to be no Children and in this which I have said to be in the same Opinion that I am I wil make no further Proeme but go to and confer these together in the two Persons which you have brought in to be weighed here as in a Pair of Ballances that is the Stranger and the English-man And I say if the Queens Majesty have respect to Advancement and Honor can that be in Mariage of any within the Realm who being but her Subjects be they never so high shal be under her highnes a great Distance So for that purpose it shal not be Advancement but Disparagement Wherin I must commend the late Q. Mary who having more regard to her Honor than to her Age to th'advauncement therof than to any other Plesure which she could long have took to her Husband K. Philip Charles th' Emperours Son the greatest Prince of Birth and Possessions in al Christendom Wherby she gat the Sovereignty over so many Kingdoms Dukedoms Marchionates Earldoms Baronies Countries and so forth that it would be more than an Hours Work to reherse them and to be the greatest Estate of a Woman in al Christendom And if it be honorable to a Prince to Conquer one Kingdom with Dint of the Sword with making of War with Spoiling Burning Wasting Death Destruction Fire and Sword Man slaughter and Effusion of Christian Blood how much more honorable ought it to be accounted to obtain and get not one but a great fort of Kingdoms and Dominions not with Violence and Oppression but with Amity and Love and that most godly sweet and pleasant Knot of Mariage So Mary the Daughter and Heir of Charles the hardy Duke of Burgundy by Marying her self to Maximilian Son to Fredericus of Austriche then Emperor hath made her Progeny the House of Burgundy to enjoy so many Realms and Seignories in Boheme in Hungary in Spain in Sicily in Naples and Italy in the High and Low Country of Germany and neer it went to have enjoyed also England and Ireland So Mary the Scottish Queen that liveth now if the Enterprize had had Success and she had had by her Husband any Son She should have left a double King I mean in France a King as wel as of Scotland and 〈◊〉 them both the greater King by her Purchase than else he should have been by his Mothers Inheritance So Claudia the Daughter of the Duke of Britain by Mariage with the French King hath made her Sons and Off-Spring not only Dukes of Britain but Kings and Possessors of al France when her Auncesters heretofore had much ado always to keep their own being but only Dukes of Britain much less could conquer or adjoyne to their Dutchy any thing of the rest of the Realm of France Now if Honor is to be desired and if it be a Glory to be made from a Baroness a Countess and from a Countess a Marchioness or Dutchess and from a Dutchess a Queen why is it not also as wel to be from a Queen an Empress or from a Queen of one Kingdom a Queen of two or three and so the more Honorable and the more to be sought and desired To the Encrease of which Honor if Men do apply and study themselves sometimes by Sword and sometimes by Mariage to attain why should not a Queen desire to do as wel as they especially by the better more sure and more amiable way Which thing ye see can be don either by no ways or by no ways better than by Mariage And this I have to say of Honor. Now I come to Power or Strength Which standeth in two Things Either for a Prince to keep his own Realm quiet from Rebellion or to make that the foreign Prince being Ambitious or desirous of War neither may dare invade him or els if the Prince be so minded to conquer and recover such Things which of old by Titles and just Reasons remain to be claimed The which the Prince heretofore either for lack of Power or Mony for shortnes of Time Civil Dissension their own Sloth or any Cause whatsoever it be hath omitted or foreslowed For these remain stil as Causes unto Princes when they be weary of Ease or desirous of Honor or when other just Occasion is offered to exercise themselves and their Subjects For any of those if her Majesty mary within the Realm what hath She gained All her own Subjects were her own before all their Powers are Hers already Not one Man hath She for the Mariage more than She had before Wheras if She mary a foreign Prince if he be an Emperor al the Empire is hers to aid her and her Husband at al Events If she mary a King likewise al his Kingdom if she marry a Duke Earl or Prince al his Vassals Kinsfolks Allies and Friends are united to her Realm and be taken al for Brethren to allow Strength and Aid both Offensive and Defensive as Occasion and Necessity shal serve For who can offend the Wife but he must offend the Husband also So that her Majesties Power must needs be encreased by so much as the Power of her Husband doth extend either by Authority Title Blood Alliance Friendship or Affinity Then if Princes be glad whensoever they invade or be invaded to ally themselves with the Princes their Neighbours manytimes by costly Leagues and much Suite and Entreaty of Ambassadors if that may be don by one final Act as chusing such a puissant Prince to her Husband as we would most desire to be our Friend or Aid in Necessity either of Defence or Invasion why should not I think that it were better for the Queens Majesty to take such an one wherby she may be backed and strengthened and her Power as it were double and treble than to take one by whom she shal have no more Power Help Aid nor Succour brought unto her than she had before And it is to be feared that she shal rather have less For when Envy naturally kindleth amongst Equals if the Queen take one of her higher and stronger Nobility all the rest it wil be doubted wil envy his Felicity and tho in Words they speak him fair yet in Heart hardly wil they love him For they shal be as Rivals and Candidati for one Office where commonly he that hath obtained if of the inferior sort al the rest shal