have a reverend ambition to be tried and approved currant This I doe the more confidently affirm because it will be confessed by all men that this one mans example and personall respect did not onely encourage Learning and Honour in the Schooles but brought the affection and true use thereof both into the Court and Camp Nay more even many Gentlemen excellently learned amongst us will not deny but that they affected to row and steer their course in his wake Besides which honour of unequall nature and education his very waies in the world did generally adde reputation to his Prince and Country by restoring amongst us the ancient Majestie of noble and true dealing As a manly wisdome that can no more be weighed down by any effeminate craft than Hercules could be overcome by that contemptible Army of Dwarfs This was it which I profess I loved dearly in him and still shall be glad to honour in the great men of this time I mean that his heart and tongue went both one way and so with every one that went with the Truth as knowing no other kindred partie or end Above all he made the Religion he professed the firm Basis of his life For thls was his judgement as he often told me that our true-heartednesse to the Reformed Religion in the beginning brought Peace Safetie and Freedome to us concluding that the wisest and best way was that of the famous William Prince of Orange who never divided the consideration of Estate from the cause of Religion nor gave that sound party occasion to be jealous or distracted upon any apparance of safety whatsoever prudently resolving that to temporize with the Enemies of our Faith was but as among Sea-guls a strife not to keep upright but aloft upon the top of every billow Which false-heartednesse to God and man would in the end find it self forsaken of both as Sir Philip conceived For to this active spirit of his all depths of the Devill proved but shallow fords he piercing into mens counsels and ends not by their words oathes or complements all barren in that age but by fathoming their hearts and powers by their deeds and found no wisdome where he found no courage nor courage without wisdome nor either without honesty and truth With which solid and active reaches of his I am perswaded he would have found or made a way through all the traverses even of the most weak and irregular times But it pleased God in this decrepit age of the world not to restore the image of her ancient vigour in him otherwise than as in a lightning before death Neither am I for my part so much in love with this life nor believe so little in a better to come as to complain of God for taking him and such like exorbitant worthyness from us fit as it were by an Ostracisme to be divided and not incorporated with our corruptions yet for the sincere affection I bear to my Prince and Country my prayer to God is that this Worth and Way may not fatally be buried with him in respect that both before his time and since experience hath published the usuall discipline of greatnes to have been tender of it self onely making honour a triumph or rather trophy of desire set up in the eyes of Mankind either to be worshiped as Idols or else as Rebels to perish under her glorious oppressions Notwithstanding when the pride of flesh and power of favour shall cease in these by death or disgrace what then hath time to register or fame to publish in these great mens names that will not be offensive or infectious to others What Pen without blotting can write the story of their deeds Or what Herald blaze their Arms without a blemish And as for their counsels and projects when they come once to light shall they not live as noysome and loathsomely above ground as their Authors carkasses lie in the grave So as the return of such greatnes to the world and themselves can be but private reproach publique ill example and a fatall scorn to the Government they live in Sir Philip Sidney is none of this number for the greatness which he affected was built upon true Worth esteeming Fame more than Riches and Noble actions far above Nobility it self CHAP. IV. ANd although he never was Magistrate nor possessed of any fit stage for eminence to act upon wherby there is small latitude left for comparing him with those deceased Worthies that to this day live un-envied in story Yet can I probably say that if any supreme Magistracie or employment might have shewed forth this Gentlemans Worth the World should have found him neither a mixt Lysander with unactive goodness to have corrupted indifferent Citizens nor yet like that gallant Libertine Sylla with a tyrannizing hand and ill example to have ordered the dissolute people of Rome much less with that unexperienced Themistocles to have refused in the seat of Justice to deale equally between friends and strangers So that as we say the abstract name of goodness is great and generally currant her nature hard to imitate and diversly worshipped according to Zones complexions or education admired by her enemies yet ill followed by her friends So I may well say that this Gentlemans large yet uniform disposition was every where praised greater in himself than in the world yet greater there in fame and honour than many of his superiors reverenced by forrain Nations in one form of his own in another easily censured hardly imitated and therefore no received Standard at home because his industry judgement and affections perchance seemed too great for the cautious wisdomes of little Monarchies to be safe in Notwithstanding whosoever will be pleased indifferently to weigh his life actions intentions and death shall find he had so sweetly yoaked fame and conscience together in a large heart as inequality of worth or place in him could not have been other than humble obedience even to a petty Tyrant of Sicily Besides this ingenuitie of his nature did spread it self so freely abroad as who lives that can say he ever did him harm whereas there be many living that may thankfully acknowledge he did them good Neither was this in him a private but a publique affection his chief ends being not Friends Wife Children or himself but above all things the honour of his Maker and service of his Prince or Country Now though his short life and private fortune were as I sayd no proper stages to act any greatness of good or evill upon yet are there even from these little centers of his lines to be drawn not Astronomicall or imaginary but reall lineaments but such as infancy is of mansestate out of which nature often sparkleth brighter rayes in some than ordinarily appear in the ripeness of many others For proof wherof I will pass from the testimonie of brave mens words to his own deeds What lights of sounder wisdome can we ascribe to our greatest men of affairs than
not fear to suffer any thing there which would not prove a kind of Trophy to him So that howsoever he seemed to stand alone yet he stood upright kept his access to her Majesty as before a liberall conversation with the French reverenced amongst the worthiest of them for himselfe and born in too strong a fortification of nature for the less worthy to abbord either with question familiarity or scorn In this freedome even while the greatest spirits and Estates seemed hood-winkt or blind and the inferior sort of men made captive by hope fear ignorance did he enjoy the freedome of his thoughts with all recreations worthy of them And in this freedome of heart being one day at Tennis a Peer of this Realm born great greater by alliance and superlative in the Princes favour abruptly came into the Tennis-Court and speaking out of these three paramount authorities he forgot to entreat that which he could not legally command When by the encounter of a steady object finding unrespectiveness in himself though a great Lord not respected by this Princely spirit he grew to expostulate more roughly The returns of which stile comming still from an understanding heart that knew what was due to it self and what it ought to others seemed through the mists of my Lords passions swoln with the winde of his faction then reigning to provoke in yeelding Whereby the lesse amazement or confusion of thoughts he stirred up in Sir Philip the more shadowes this great Lords own mind was possessed with till at last with rage which is ever ill-disciplin'd he commands them to depart the Court To this Sir Philip temperately answers that if his Lordship had been pleased to express desire in milder Characters perchance he might have led out those that he should now find would not be driven out with any scourge of fury This answer like a Bellows blowing up the sparks of excess already kindled made my Lord scornfully call Sir Philip by the name of Puppy In which progress of heat as the tempest grew more and more vehement within so did their hearts breath out their perturbations in a more loud and shrill accent The French Commissioners unfortunately had that day audience in those private Galleries whose windows looked into the Tennis-Court They instantly drew all to this tumult every sort of quarrels sorting well with their humors especially this Which Sir Philip perceiving and rising with inward strength by the prospect of a mighty faction against him asked my Lord with a loud voice that which he heard clearly enough before Who like an Echo that still multiplies by reflexions repeated this Epithet of Puppy the second time Sir Philip resolving in one answer to conclude both the attentive hearers and passionate actor gave my Lord a Lie impossible as he averred to be retorted in respect all the world knows Puppies are gotten by Dogs and Children by men Hereupon those glorious inequalities of Fortune in his Lordship were put to a kinde of pause by a precious inequality of nature in this Gentleman So that they both stood silent a while like a dumb shew in a Tragedy till Sir Philip sensible of his own wrong the forrain and factious spirits that attended and yet even in this question between him and his superior tender to his Countries honour with some words of sharp accent led the way abruptly out of the Tennis-Court as if so unexpected an accident were not fit to be decided any farther in that place Whereof the great Lord making another sense continues his play without any advantage of reputation as by the standard of humours in those times it was conceived A day Sr Philip remains in suspense when hearing nothing of or from the Lord he sends a Gentleman of worth to awake him out of his trance wherein the French would assuredly think any pause if not death yet a lethargy of true honour in both This stirred a resolution in his Lordship to send Sir Philip a Challenge Notwithstanding these thoughts in the great Lord wandred so long between glory anger and inequality of state as the Lords of her Majesties Counsell took notice of the differences commanded peace and laboured a reconciliation between them But needlesly in one respect and bootlesly in another The great Lord being as it should seem either not hasty to adventure many inequalities against one or inwardly satisfied with the progress of his own Acts Sir Philip on the other side confident he neither had nor would lose or let fall any thing of his right Which her Majesties Counsell quickly perceiving recommended this work to her self The Queen who saw that by the loss or disgrace of either she could gain nothing presently undertakes Sir Philip and like an excellent Monarch lays before him the difference in degree between Earls and Gentlemen the respect inferiors ought to their superiors and the necessity in Princes to maintain their own creations as degrees descending between the peoples licentiousness and the anoynted Soveraignty of Crowns how the Gentlemans neglect of the Nobility taught the Peasant to insult upon both Whereunto Sir Philip with such reverence as became him replyed First that place was never intended for privilege to wrong witness her self who how Soveraign soever she were by Throne Birth Education and Nature yet was she content to cast her own affections into the same moulds her Subjects did and govern all her rights by their Laws Again he besought her Majesty to consider that although he were a great Lord by birth alliance and grace yet hee was no Lord over him and therfore the difference of degrees between free men could not challenge any other homage than precedency And by her Fathers Act to make a Princely wisdom become the more familiar he did instance the Government of K. Henry the eighth who gave the Gentry free and safe appeal to his feet against the oppression of the Grandees and found it wisdome by the stronger corporation in number to keep down the greater in power inferring else that if they should unite the over-grown might be tempted by still coveting more to fall as the Angels did by affecting equality with their Maker This constant tenor of truth he took upon him which as a chief duty in all creatures both to themselves the soveraignty above them protected this Gentleman though he obeyed not from the displeasure of his Soveraign Wherein he left an authentical president to after ages that howsoever tyrants allow of no scope stamp or standard but their own will yet wth Princes there is a latitude for subjects to reserve native legall freedom by paying hūble tribute in manner though not in matter to them CHAP. VII THE next step which he intendded into the world was an expedition of his own projecting wherein he fashioned the whole body with purpose to become head of it himself I mean the last employment but one of Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies Which journey as the scope of it was
while yet shall he be sure as I said to multiply his spirituall honors and inlarge that Kingdom by these works of Supererogation And by joyning with his fellow Princes in a contribution by way of accompt or countenance to pay these great Armies be sure to sit rent-free under his and their own vines as absolute spirituall and temporall Princes ought to doe From which saith he this conclusion will probably follow that the undertaking of this Antonie single I mean France would prove a begetting of brave occasions jointly to disturb this Spanish Ottoman in all his waies of crafty or forcible conquests Especially since Queen Elizabeth the standard of this conjunction would infallibly incline to unite with the better part and by a suddain changing of Mars his Imperious Ensignes into a well ballanced treaty of universall Peace restore and keep the world within her old equilibrium or bounds And the rather because her long custom in governing would quickly have made her discern that it had been impossible by force or any human wisdom to have qualified these over-grown Combinations of Spain but onely by a countermining of party with party and a distracting of exorbitant desires by casting a gray-headed cloud of fear over them thereby manifesting the well disguised yokes of bondage under which our Modern Conquerors would craftily entice the Nown-adjective-natured Princes and subjects of this time to submit their necks A map as it pleased her to say of his secrets in which she confessed herself to be the more ripe because under the like false Ensignes though perchance better masked she had seen Philip the second after the same measure or with little difference to Henry the third of France a principall fellow-member in that earthly founded though heavenly seeming Church of Rome when he redelivered Amiers Abbeville c. together with that fouldier-like passage made by the Duke of Parma through France to the relief of Paris yet whether this provident Philip did frame these specious charities of a conqueror Augustus-like aspiring to live after death greater than his successor or providently foreseeing that the divers humors in succeeding Princes would prove unable to maintain such green usurpations in the heart of a Kingdom competitor with his seven-headed Hydra kept together onely by a constant and unnaturall wheel of fortune till some new child of hers like Henry the fourth should take his turn in restoring all unjust combinations or encrochments or lastly whether like a true cutter of Cumine seedes he did not craftily lay these hypocritall sacrifices upon the Altar of death as peace-offerings from pride to the temple of fear as smoaks dying of a diseased conscience choked up with innocent bloud of all which perplexed pedigrees I know not what to determine otherwise than that these Tyrannicall enchrochments doe carry the images of Hell and her thunder-workers in their own breasts as fortune doth misfortunes in that wind-blown vast and various womb of hers Or if this should seem of too high a nature or too many chargeable parts then whether to begin again where we left and by the example of Drake a mean born subject to the Crown of England invade possess â—nhabite some well chosen havens in Peru Mexico or both were not to strike at the root assail him where he is weakest yet gathers his chiefest strength to make himself Monarch over all the Western Climes supplyes being as easie to us as to him we having both winds and seas indifferently open between us CHAP. X. UPon due consideration of which particulars he fore-seeing that each of the former required greater resolution union and expense than the naturality diffidence and quiet complexion of the Princes then reigning could well bear and besides the freedome of choyce to bee taken away or at the least obstructed by fatall mists of ignorance or factious counsells reigning among the Ministers of Kings he resolved from the grounds of his former intended voiage with Sir Francis Drake that the only credible means left was to assail him by invasion or incursion as occasion fell out in some part of that rich and desert West-Indian Mine First because it is an observation among the wisest that as no man is a Prophet in his own Countrey so all men may get honour much cheaper far off than at home and at sea more easily than at land Secondly in respect he discovered the Spanish conquests in those remote parts so much noised throughout the world to be indeed like their Jesuits Miracles which comming far were multiplied by Fame and Art to keep other Nation sin wonder and blind worship Thirdly out of confident beliefe that their inhumane cruelties had so dispeopled displeased those countreys that as he was sure to find no great power to withstand him so might he well hope the Reliques of those oppressed Cimerons would joyfully take Arms with any forrainer to redeem their liberty and revenge their parents bloud Fourthly by reason the scale of distance between Spain America was so great as it infallibly assured Sir Philip he should find leasure enough to land fortifie and become Master of the field before any succour could come thither to interrupt him Fiftly the pride delicacy and security of the Spaniard which made him live without Discipline and trust more to the greatness of his name abroad than any strength order courage or munition at home Sixtly Sir Philip prophecying what the pedigrees of Princes did warrant I mean the happy conjunction of of Scotland to these populous Realms England Ireland foresaw that if this multitude of people were not studiously husbanded and disposed they would rather diminish than add any strength to this Monarchy Which danger he conjectured could only by this designe of forrain imploiment or the peaceable harvest of manufactures at home be safely prevented The seventh and a chief motive indeed was that no other action could be less subject to emulation of Court less straining to the present humors of State more concurring with expectation and voice of time nor wherein there was greater possibility of improving merit wealth friends Lastly he did as all undertakers must doe believe that there is ever good intelligence between chance hazard and so left some things not summed up before hand by exact minutes But rather thought good to venture upon the cast of a Rubicon Dy either to stop his springs of gold and so drie up that torrent which carried his subduing Armies every where or else by the wakefull providence of threatned neighbors force him to waft home that conquering Metall with infinite charge and notwithstanding unwarranted from enriching those enemies whom he principally studied to suppress by it To confirm which opinion he foresaw how this racked vanity of the Spanish government intending to work a change in the free course of nature had interdicted all manufacture traffick or vent by sea or land between the natives of America all nations else Spain excepted And
enjoy not a deserved but free given peace under his narrow vine with this assurance that whensoever she desired to have prisoners over severely intreated she would not forget to commit the custody of them to his charge Againe for the next object looking backward upon her sisters Raigne she observes Religion to have been changed Persecution like an ill weed suddenly grown up to the highest The mercy of the infinite perscribed by abridgment of time and adding torments to the death of his creatures salvation published in many more Creeds then she was taught to beleeve A double Supremacy in one Kingdome Rome become Emperour of the Clergy and by bewitching the better halfe of man I meane the soule challenging both over Clergy and Laity the stile of the Great God Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium This view brought forth in her a vow like that of the holy Kings in the Old Testament viz. that she would neither hope nor seeke for rest in the mortall traffique of this world till she had repaired the precipitate ruines of our Saviours Militant Church through all her Dominions and as she hoped in the rest of the World by her example Upon which Princelike resolution this She-David of ours ventured to undertake the great Goliath among the Philistins abroad I mean Spain and the Pope despiseth their multitudes not of men but of Hosts scornfully rejecteth that Holy Fathers wind-blowne superstitions and takes the almost solitary truth for her Leading-Star Yet tears she not the Lyons jawes in sunder at once but moderately begins with her own Changlings gives the Bishops a proper motion but bounded the Nobility time to reforme themselves with inward and outward Councell revives her Brothers Lawes for establishing of the Churches doctrine and discipline but moderates their severity of proceeding gives frailty and sect time to reforme at home and in the mean season supplyes the Prince of Conde with men and money as chief among the Protestants in France gathers and revives the scattered hosts of Israel at the worst takes New-Haven perchance with hope of redeeming Callice to the end her axle-trees might once againe lie upon both shores as her right did refuseth marriage reformes and redeemes Queen Maries vanities who first glorying in the Spanish seed publisheth that she was with childe and instantly offers up that Royall supposed Issue of hers together with the absolute Government of all her Natives to the mixt Tyranny of Rome and Castile In which endlesse path of servitude the Noune adjective nature of this superstitious Princesse proceeded yet a degree further striving to confirme that double bondage of people and Posterity by Act of Parliament Where on the other side the Spanish King beholding these remisse homages of frailty with the unthankfull and insatiable eyes of ambition apprehends these petty sacrifices as fit strawes sticks or feathers to be pull'd out of faint wings for the building up and adorning of a Conquerours nest And under this Tyrannicall Crisis takes freedome to exhaust her treasure to his owne ends breakes our league with France and in that breach shakes the sacred foundation of the rest winnes St Quintins while we lost Callice Contrary to all which thoughtbound Councels of her sister Maries Queen Elizabeth as I said not yet out of danger of her Romish subjects at home threatned with their mighty faction and party abroad pester'd besides with want of money and many binding Lawes of her sisters making yet like a Palme under all these burdens she raiseth her selfe Prince-like and upon notice of her Agents disgrace abroad his servants being put into the Inquisition by the Spaniard her Merchants surprized in America contrary to the league between Charles the fifth and Henry the eighth which gave free traffique In omnibus singulis Regnis Dominiis Insulis notwithstanding that Astronomicall or rather biaced division of the world by the Popes lines which contrary to the nature of all lines only keep latitude for the advantage of Spain She I say upon these insolencies receives the Hollander and protects him from persecution of the Duke of Alva settles these poore Refugees in Norwich Colchester Sandwich Maidstone and South-Hampton Yet againe when this faith distinguishing Duke appealed to her selfe she binding her heart for better or worse to the words of her Contract summons these afflicted strangers to depart Their number was great their time short and yet their weather-beaten soules so sensible of long continued oppressions in their liberties and consciences as by the opportunity of this Ostracisme they in their passage surprized Brill Flushing and diverse other Towns expulsing the Spaniards and by this brave example taught and proclaimed a way of freedome to all well affected Princes and Provinces that were opprest Wherein it may please the Reader to observe that Henry the third of France being one in the same League and belike upon change of heart which ever brings forth new questions demanding whether mutuall defence against all extended to the cause of Religion was presently answered by her that she both treated and concluded in the same sense and if it were required at her hands would performe every branch of it to her uttermost The French King hereupon makes war with the Protestants Monsieur his brother secretly protects them by Casimire Againe about that time at the request of the Spanish King she guards his Navy into Flanders where it being lost and she requested by the same King to lend him her owne Ships for recovery of the Maritime Townes fallen from him this blessed Lady both denyes this crafty request of a Conqueror and withall providently refuseth any of his ships to be harboured in her Ports Yet in honour of her ancient League with the House of Burgundy she publisheth the like inhibition to her beloved and safe Neighbours the Netherlands And instantly with a strong judgment in ballancing of forraigne Princes perswades the King of Spain to make peace with the Hollanders and on the other side disswades those distressed Hollanders from joyning with France As I conceive thinking that Kingdome manumised from us by time might through the conjunction of the Holland shipping and Mariners with their disciplin'd Land-Armies of horse and foot prove more dangerous enemies either by way of invasion or incursion as I said once before then that Kings glorious Standard borne among his barbed horse and light foot had hitherto done either in our entised undertakings or abandoned retraits Besides it is worthy of reverence in this Queen that she never was afraid or ashamed to averre the quarrell of Religion for a ground of her friends or enemies And though in the charity of a Christian Prince even in the danger of a growing faction at home she was content to let devout conscience live quietly in her Realmes yet when they began to practise disunion in Church as their Jesuited spirits naturally affect to doe Then to shew that she was as well servant to God as by him King over Peoples she
and support them in it together with the former recited particulars howsoever improperly dispersed or bundled up together yet are in their natures of so rare a wisdome as I beleeve they will still be more and more admired and justly in that excellent Princesse even many Ages after her death Thus have I by the Readers patience given that Aegyptian and Roman Tragedy a much more honourable sepulture then it could ever have deserved especially in making their memories to attend upon my Soveraignes herse without any other hope of being then to wait upon her life and death as their Maker did who hath ever since been dying to all those glories of Life which he formerly enjoyed under the blessed and blessing presence of this unmatchable Queen and woman Now if any man shall demand why I did not rather leave unto the world a complete history of her Life then this short memoriall in such scatter'd and undisgested minutes let him receive this answer from a dead man because I am confident no flesh breathing by seeing what is done shall have occasion of asking that question whilest I am living Presently after the death of my most gracious Queen and Mistress the false spirits and apparitions of idle griefe haunted me exceedingly and made all things seeme either greater or lesse then they were so that the farther I went the more discomfortable I found those new resolutions of time to my decayed and disproportioned abilities yet fearing to be cursed with the Figg-tree if I bore no fruit I rouzed up my thoughts upon an ancient axiome of Wise men Si quicquid offendit relinquimus citò inerti otio torpebit vita and upon a second review of the world called to mind the many duties I ought to that matchlesse Soveraigne of mine with a resolution to write her life in this manner First seriously to have begun with the uniting of the Red and White Roses in the marriage of Hen the seventh In the like manner to have run over Henry the eighths time untill his severall rents in the Church with a purpose to have demurr'd more seriously upon the sudden change in his Sonne Edward the sixth from superstition to the establishment of Gods Ancient Catholique and Primitive Church those cobwebs of re-conversion in Queen Maryes dayes I had no intent to meddle with but only by pre-occupation to shew that Princes captived in Nature can seldome keep any thing free in their Governments but as soyles manured to bring forth ill weeds apace must live to see Schisme arise in the Church wearing out the reall branches of immortall truth to weave in the thin leaves of mortall superstition and to behold in the State all their fairest industries spring and fade together like Ferne-seed Lastly I intended with such spirits as Age had left me to revive my self in her memory under whom I was bred Now in this course because I knew that as the liberality of Kings did help to cover many errours so truth in a story would make good many other defects in the writer I adventured to move the Secretary that I might have his favour to peruse all obsolete Records of the Councell chest from those times downe as near to these as he in his wisdome should think fit hee first friendly required my end in it which I as freely delivered him as I have now done to you Against her memory he of all men had no reason to keep a strict hand and where to bestow a Queen Elizabeths servant with lesse disadvantage to himselfe it seems readily appeared not so that my abrupt motion tooke hold of his present Counsell For he liberally granted my request and appointed me that day three weeks to come for his warrant which I did and then found in shew a more familiar and gracefull aspect then before he descending to question me why I would dreame out my time in writing a story being as like to rise in this time as any man he knew Then in a more serious and friendly manner examining me how I could cleerly deliver many things done in that time which might perchance be construed to the prejudice of this I shortly made answer that I conceived an Historian was bound to tell nothing but the truth but to tell all truths were both justly to wrong and offend not only Princes and States but to blemish and stir up against himselfe the frailty and tendernesse not only of particular men but of many Families with the spirit of an Athenian Timon And therefore shewed my selfe so far from being discouraged with that objection as I took upon me freely to adventure all my own goods in this Ship which was to be of my owne building Immediately this Noble Secretary as it seems moved but not removed with those selfenesse of my opinion seriously assured me that upon second thoughts he durst not presume to let the Councell-chest lie open to any man living without his Majesties knowledge and approbation With this supersedeas I humbly took my leave at the first sight assuring my selfe this last project of his would necessarily require sheet after sheet to be viewed which I had no confidence in my own powers to abide the hazard of and herein it may please the Reader to beleeve me the rather by these Pamphlets which having slept out my own time if they happen to be seene hereafter shall at their own perill rise upon the stage when I am not Besides in the same proposition I further saw that the many Judgements which those Embryoes of mine must probably have past through would have brought forth such a world of alterations as in the end the worke it selfe would have proved a story of other mens writing wity my name only to put to it and so a worship of time not a voluntary homage of duty Farther I cannot justifie these little sparkes unworthy of her and unfit for me so that I must conclude with this ingenuous Confession that it grieves me to know I shall as far as this abrupt Apology extends live and dye upon equall tearmes with a Queene and Creature so many waies unequall nay infinitely superiour to me both in Nature and Fortune CAP. XVIII NOw to return to the Tragedies remaining my purpose in them was not with the Ancient to exemplifie the disastrous miseries of mans life where Order Lawes Doctrine and Authority are unable to protect Innocency from the exorbitant wickednesse of power and so out of that melancholike Vision stir horrour or murmur against Divine Providence nor yet with the Moderne to point out Gods revenging aspect upon every particular sin to the despaire or confusion of mortality but rather to trace out the high waies of ambitious Governours and to shew in the practice that the more audacity advantage and good successe such Soveraignties have the more they hasten to their owne desolation and ruine So that to this abstract end finding all little instruments in discovery of great bodies to be seldome without errours I
he shewed in his youth and first employment when he was sent by the late Queen of famous memory to condole the death of Maximilian and congratulate the succession of Rodolph to the Empire For under the shaddow of this complement between Princes which sorted better with his youth than his spirit Did he not to improve that journey and make it a reall service to the Empire For under the shadow of this complement between Princes which sorted better with his youth than his spirit did he not to improve that journey and make it a real service to his Soveraign procure an Article to be added to his Instructions which gave him scope as he passed to salute such German Princes as were interested in the cause of our Religion or their own native liberty And though to negotiate with that long-breathed Nation proves commonly a work in steel where many stroaks hardly leave any print yet did this Master Genius quickly stir up their cautious and slow judgements to be sensible of the danger which threatned them hourely by this fatall conjunction of Rome's undermining superstitions with the commanding forces of Spain And when he had once awaked that confident Nation to look up he as easily made manifest unto them that neither their inland seat vast multitude confused strength wealth nor hollow-sounding Fame could secure their Dominions from the ambition of this brave aspiring Empire howsoever by the like helps they had formerly bounded the same Roman and Austrian supremacies The reasons he alleged were because the manner of their conjunction was not like the ancient undertakers who made open war by Proclamation but craftily from the infusion of Rome to enter first by invisible traffique of souls filling peoples minds with apparitions of holines specious Rites Saints Miracles institutions of new Orders reformations of old blessings of Catholiques cursings of Heretiques Thunder bolts of Excommunication under the authority of their Mother Church And when by these shadows they had gotten possession of the weak discouraged the strong divided the doubtful and finely lulled inferior powers asleep as the ancient Romans were wont to tame forrain nations with the name Socij then to follow on with the Spanish less spirituall but more forcible Engines viz. practice confederacy faction money treaties leagues of trassique alliance by marriages charge of rebellion war and all other acts of advantagious power Lastly he recalled to their memories how by this brotherhood in evill like Simeon and Levi Rome and Spain had spilt so much bloud as they were justly become the terror of all Governments and could now be withstood or ballanced by no other means than a general league in Religion Constantly and truely affirming that to associate by an uniform bond of conscience for the protection as I said of Religion and Liberty would prove a more solid union and symbolize far better against their Tyrannies than any Factious combination in policy league of state or other traffique of Civill or Martial humors possibly could do To this end did that undertaking spirit lay or at least revive the foundation of a league between us and the German Princes which continues firme to this day The defensive part whereof hath hitherto helped to suport the ruines of our Church abroad and diverted her enemies from the ancient ways of hostility unto their Conclave and modern undermining Arts So that if the offensive part thereof had been as well prosecuted in that true path which this young Genius trod out to us both the passage for other Princes over the Alps would have been by this time more easie than Hanibal's was and besides the first sound of that Drum might happily have reconciled those petty dividing Schismes which reign amongst us not as sprung from any difference of religious Faith but misty Opinion and accordingly moulded first upon the Desks of busie idle Lecturers then blown abroad to our disadvantage by a swarm of Popish Instruments rather Jesuits than Christians and to their ends most dangerously over-spreading the world for want of a confident Moderator This I say was the first prize which did enfranchise this Master Spirit into the mysteries and affairs of State CHAP. V. THe next doubtfull Stage hee had to act upon howsoever it may seem private was grounded upon a publique and specious proposition of marriage between the late famous Queen and the Duke of Aniou With which Current although he saw the great and wise men of the time suddainly carryed down and every one fishing to catch the Queens humor in it yet when he considered the difference of years person education state and religion between them and then called to minde the success of our former alliances with the French he found many reasons to make question whether it would prove Poetical or reall on their part And if reall yet whether the ballance swayed not unequally by adding much to them and little to his Soveraign The Dukes greatness being onely name and possibility and both these either to wither or be maintained at her cost Her state again in hand and though Royally sufficient to satisfie that Queens Princely and moderate desires or expences yet perchance inferior to bear out those mixt designes into which his ambition or necessities might entise or draw her Besides the marriage of K. Philip to Q. Mary her sister was yet so fresh in memory with the many inconveniences of it as by comparing and paralleling these together he found credible instances to conclude neither of these forrain alliances could prove safe for this Kingdom Because in her marriage with Spain though both Princes continuing under the obedience of the Roman Church neither their consciences nor their peoples could suffer any fear of tumult or imputation by change of faith Yet was the winning of St. Quintins with the loss of Calice and the carrying away of our money to forrain ends odious universally the Spanish pride incompatible their advantagious delayes suspicious and their short reign here felt to be a kinde of exhausting tax upon the whole Nation Besides he discerned how this great Monarch countenanced with our Forces by sea and land might and did use this addition of her strength to transform his Low-Countrey Dukedomes fall'n to him by descent into the nature of a soveraign conquest and so by conjoyning their Dominion and Forces by Sea to his large Empires and Armies upon the Mayn would probably enforce all absolute Princes to acknowledg subjection to him before their time And for our Kingdome besides that this King then meant to use it as a forge to fashion all his soveraign designes in had he not except some bely him a fore-running hand in the change of Religion after King Edwards death And had he not even in that change so mastered us in our own Church by his Chaplain and Conclave of Rome that both these carried all their courses byaced to his ends as to an elder brother who had more abundant degrees of wealth and honour to return