day sent him a Countermand but he then acquainted her Majesty that the Commission was already made and pass'd the Seal at which the Queen appear'd angry and blam'd him for his haste And indeed he had Communicated the business to several of the Council and perswaded them who were apt enough to believe what they desired that the Queen Commanded that it should be put in Execution without delay And so having obtain'd such Warrant and Commission they without her Majesties privity sent down one Beal with Authority directed to the Earls of Shrewsbury Kent Darby and others to see her Executed Which was perform'd accordingly The Manner and Circumstances whereof the Reader may find in the ensuing Narrative She was put to Death the 18th of February 1587. in the Six and fortieth year of her Age and 18th of her Confinement her Body being Honourably Buried in the Cathedeal of Peterborough and from thence afterwards removed by her Son King Jame's and laid under a Royal Monument in King Henry the Seventh's Chappel at Westminster Variously was this Action censur'd and I shall only say That though the Physick was violent and extraordinary yet it wrought a Cure and preserv'd the Body-politick from those Domestick Paroxisms of Treason and Rebellion that before daily disturb'd and endanger'd it for we do not find after that any or at least very few Conspiracies carried on against the Queens Life or the Government though she lived afterwards between 14 and 15 years For the Spanish Invasion though it happened two years after was not only a thing Foreign but Contriv'd and Design'd before the Queen of Scots Death And as for the Proceedings against the Earl of Arundel the Crimes for which he was prosecuted had their Rise likewise in precedent times For first having been questioned and confined to his House and then set at Liberty he attempted to fly beyond Sea and therefore was Committed to the Tower not only for the same but likewise for Harbouring Priests and Corresponding with Allen and Parsons the Jesuits was fined 10000 Marks and afterwards continuing his Disloyal practises was for the Reasons in the following Papers specified Condemned though by the Queens mercy Reprieved and dyed naturally in the Tower in the year 1595. Two things further I must Remark 1. What a strange Bias and almost prodigious Influence Popery has even on the best dispositions prevailing so far with this unfortunate Earl that even contrary to Nature it self and yet bate but his Religion he is Represented as a good-Natur'd man He rejoyced with hopes of the Ruine of his Countrey 2ly That if you look over the Lists of the Lords Commissionated in these Transactions you will find them to be of great and ancient Houses and though some of their Families have almost ever since been of the Roman perswasion yet they were then so well satisfied with the Proceedings that we meet not with One Voice pronouncing a Not Guilty in all the three Tryals History is one of the best Tutors of Policy whereby the Ingenious will easily perceive how far former Occurrences hold parallel with or may be considered in relation to Modern Affairs THE Reader may be pleas'd to correct the Errata's p. 2. instead of 1588. the year of the Marriage of the Queen of Scots should be 1558. And in other places the Names Gray for Grey Perian for Periam and some other literal mistakes and faults by the Context may easily be rectified or pardoned The whole Discourse of the Duke of Norfolks Arraignement the 17th day of January Anno 1571. in the 14th year of the Raign of our Soveraigne Lady Queen Elizabeth c. FIrst the O yes was made by Littleton a Serjeant at Arms and then Proclamation Cryer Lo. Steward was made as followeth viz. My Lords grace the Queens Majesties Commissioner High Steward of England doth Charge every man to keep silence and hear the Queens Majesties Commission Read The same Commission was read by Mr. Sands Clarke of the Crown of the Kings Bench the Test whereof was the 14th day of February Anno Elizabethoe Sands Reg. 14th then was a large White Rod delivered to my Lord Steward by Garter Principal King at Armes who held the same a while Lo. Steward Garter Norris Serjeant at Armes Call of the Court. and after delivered it to Mr. Norris the Great Vsher who held the same all the time of the Arraignement Then was called Thomas Edwards Serjeant at Armes and willed to return his Writ which being returned was read Then was called all the Earls Vicounts and Barons summoned to appear there that day and every one to answer to their Names the Earls and Lords that sate there that day were these following viz. Earles Vicount Lords 1. Reginald Gray Earl of Kent 2. William Somerset Earl of Worcester 3. Thomas Ratlife Earl of Sussex 4. Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington 5. Ambrose Dudly Earl of Warwick 6. Francis Russel Earl of Bedford 7. William Herbert Earl of Penbroke 8. Robert Dudly Earl of Leicester 9. Edward Seymor Earl of Hartford 10. Walter Devereux Vicount Hereford 11. Edward Fynes Lord Clinton 12. William Howard Lord of Effingham 13. William Cecil Lord Burleigh 14. Arthur Gray Lord Wilton 15. James Blunt Lord Mountjoy 16. William Lord Sands 17. Thomas Lord Wentworth 18. William Lord Borrough 19. Lewis Lord Mordant 20. John Pawlet Lord S. John 21. Robert Lord Rich. 22. Roger Lord North. 23. Edward Lord Chandois 24. Oliver Lord S. John of Bletsoe 25. Thomas Sackvile Lord Buckhurst 26. Lord De-La-Ware Nine Earls One Vicount and Sixteen Lords in all Twenty Six Then was Robert Catlin Chief Justice of England Commanded to return his Precept upon the peril should follow thereof which was returned and read Then was called the Lieutenant of the Tower to return his Lieutenant Duke Precept and to bring forth his Prisoner Thomas Duke of Norfolke Then was the Duke brought to the Bar being held between Sir Owin Hopton on the right hand and Sir Peter Carew on the left hand And next unto Sir Peter stood one holding the Axe of the Tower with the Edge from Axe of the Tower the Duke The Duke immediately at his comming to the Bar viewed all the Lords both on the Right hand and on the left hand of the Lord Steward Then the Lieutenant delivered in the Precept which was Read And then was Proclamation made that every man should keep silence And Mr. Sands spake to the Prisoner in this manner Thomas Duke of Norfolke Proclamation Sands late of Hemming Hall in the County of Norfolke hold up thy Hand which done he Read the Indictment the Effect whereof was That the 26th day of September in the 11th year of the Queens Majesties Reign and before and after he did Traiterously compact and imagine to deprive and destroy and to put to Death our Sovereign Lady the Queen and to raise Rebellion to subvert the Common-Wealth and so stir up Forraigners to invade the
procure the Estates of Scotland to confirm them by publick Authority 7. The King himself also should ratifie them by Oath and by writing 8. And that Hostages should be given But these Consultations proved Abortive the Scots rejecting them and besides Queen Elizabeth had notice that Holt an English Jesuit was sesecretly sent into Scotland not without the Scottish Queens privity as was suggested to use means there for an Invasion of England And indeed the Queen of Scots was too much addicted to and influenced by the Jesuites and their Councils who as they made use of her name to colour their traiterous designs against Queen Elizabeth and therefore gave out as if they had acted out of pure zeal to the Family of the Stuarts as many of them will boast to this very day yet 't is plain that in all these stirs they really minded nothing but their own Interest for when they met with so many disappointments in their Plots to bring the said Scottish Queen before her time to the English Crown and withal despaired of turning her Son King James to their Religion they presently began to start variety of new Titles witness Parsons alias Doleman's Book of Succession and other Pamphlets by them flung abroad about those times Nay 't is more than suspected that as they egg'd on the Scottish Queen to ill practises against Queen Elizabeth so when they had done imitating their Father the Devil who first tempts and then accuses they betray'd her too by making a secret discovery of those very Conspiracies in which they themselves had engag'd her and so were treacherously instrumental to hasten her death hoping to take off Queen Elizabeth and put by King James and play a new Game more for their advantage with some other Pretender as will more fully appear by and by But to return in the mean time to our History King James being as you heard in little better Condition than that of a Prisoner to Earl Gowry and his Confederates or at least esteeming himself as such on a sudden with a small Company conveyed himself to the Castle of St. Andrews being then about 18 years of Age to whom several of the Nobility with armed Troops repaired and then he began to exercise his Royal Authority of himself and declared in a great Assembly of the States the Force before upon him to have been traiterously imposed yet thought it most safe not to proceed with Rigour against his Surprizers only advising them to depart the Court and promised them pardon if they would ask it within a time limited which they declining fled some into England and others into other parts only Gowry attempting a new Conspiracy soon after lost his life It was now the year 1584. And in England divers lewd Books were spread by the Jesuits and other Popish Factors asserting that Princes Excommunicated as Queen Elizabeth for sometime before had been by the Pope were not to have any Allegiance paid unto them but ought to be deposed c. These Seeds soon ripen'd into rank fruits of Treason and Rebellion and had so far intoxicated one Sommervile a Popish Gentleman that coming privately to Court and full of rage against all Protestants he with his drawn Sword assaulted several persons and being apprehended declared like a stout Roman Champion that he would murder the Queen with his own hands whereupon he and one Arden an ancient Warwick-shire Gentleman his Father in Law were executed but Hall a Priest that excited them to this madness got a Reprieve Likewise one Throgmorton eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester was discovered by intercepted Letters directed to the Queen of Scots to have entertain'd Treasonable correspondencies with Popish Princes beyond the Seas and chiefly with the Guises who had resolv'd to invade England and free the Queen of Scots And for raising of money to carry on the work here one Paget under the counterfeit name of Mope was sent into Sussex where the Forreiners were first to Land and to facilitate their purposes he had prepar'd two Catalogues found in his Chests one of the names and descriptions of all the Ports of England the other of the Nobilitry and Gentry that favoured the Romish Religion and that he had communicated all this to Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador then in England whereupon he was condemned and though he had twice confess'd the fact yet like our Modern Popish Traitors at the Gallows he stoutly deny'd all and would needs be thought to dye as innocent as the child unborn However Mendoza having thus violated and forfeited the Priviledg of an Ambassador was commanded forthwith to depart with shame at which the Spanish Court being dissatisfied the Queen sent over Sir William Wade to justify the Action But the King of Spain not admitting him into his presence but slightingly putting him off to his Ministers he in disdain refus'd to communicate it at all and so returned home unheard whereby a greater animosity arose between the two Crowns Nor were the Popish party less busy in fomenting disturbances in Ireland where Dr. Saunders that had wrote several Pestilent Books having drawn in the Earl of Desmond to Rebellion and finding him defeated and his Head sent into England died miserably of famine as he roamed up and down the Mountains guilty and desperate as Cain fearing each man he met would deservedly slay him Likewise about the same time Providence was pleas'd in a wonderful manner to make a discovery of some other practises in agitation against Queen Elizabeth for one Creighton a Scottish Jesuit sailing in a small Vessel from the Low-Countries to Scotland certain Sea-rovers of Holland which then was revolted and at enmity with the rest of the Subjects of the Spanish King happening to come up with them took the said Ship and though the Jesuit to conceal his Instructions and mischievous errand tore several of his Papers to pieces and flung them over-board yet the wind miraculously as he himself confest afterwards drove them back again and cast them upon the Deck which the Hollanders perceiving and imagining that they might be of consequence gather'd them up carefully and sent them to England where by the great skill and industry of Sir William Wade they were so join'd together again that the Contents were legible and the Conspiracies on foot detected The good Subjects of England finding their Country in this danger from abroad and the life of their Queen whereon the safety of their Religion and Liberties did seem at that juncture wholly under God to depend daily attempted by various Plots and Machinations at home all carried on by Papists out of a prospect of a Popish Successor did think fit of their own accord solemnly to oblige themselves each to other for her safety and to revenge her death on any that should occasion it which agreement they call'd an Association and was entred into by abundance of persons of all ranks and conditions throughout the Nation The Tenor whereof was
tending to the hurt of her Majesties Royal Person by any person or with the privity of any person that shall or may pretend Title to the Crown of this Realm THAT then by her Majesties Commission under her Great Seal the Lords and other of her Highnesses Privy Council and such other Lords of Parliament to be named by her Majesty as with the said Privy Council shall come up to the number of four and twenty at the least having with them for their assistance in that behalf such of the Judges of the Courts of Record at Westminster as her Highness shall for that purpose assign and appoint or the more part of the same Council Lords and Judges shall by vertue of the Act have Authority to Examine all and every the offences aforesaid and all circumstances thereof and thereupon to give sentence or judgment as upon good proof the matter shall appear unto them And that after such sentence or judgment given and declaration thereof made and published by her Majesties Proclamation under the Great Seal of England all persons against whom such sentence or judgment shall be so given and published shall be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or to pretend to have or claim the Crown of this Realm or of any her Majesties Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that thereupon all her Highnesses Subjects shall and may lawfully by vertue of this Act and her Majesties direction in that behalf by all forcible and possible means pursue to death every such wicked person by whom or by whose means assent or privity any such Invasion or Rebellion shall be in form aforesaid denounced to have been made or such wicked act attempted or other thing compassed or imagined against her Majesties Person and all their Aiders Comforters and Abettors And if any such detestable act shall be executed against her Highness most Royal Person whereby her Majesties Life shall be taken away which God of his great mercy forbid that then every such person by or for whom any such Act shall be executed and their Issues being any wise assenting or privy to the same shall by vertue of this Act be excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or pretend to have or claim the said Crown of this Realm or any other her Highnesses Dominions any former Law or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that all the Subjects of this Realm and all other her Majesties Dominions shall and may lawfully by vertue of this Act by all forceable and possible means pursue to the death every such wicked person by whom or by whose means any such detestable fact shall be in form hereafter expressed denounced to have been committed and also their Issues being any assenting or privy to the same and all their aiders comforters and abettors in that behalf And to the end that the intention of this Law may be effectually executed if her Majesties Life be taken away by any violent or unnatural means which God defend Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the Lords and others which shall be of her Majesties Privy-Council at the time of such her decease or the more part of the same Council joyning unto them for their assistance Five other Earls and Seven other Lords of Parliament at the least foreseeing that none of the said Earls Lords or Council be known to be persons that may make any Title to the Crown those persons which were Chief Justices of either Bench Master of the Rolls and Chief Baron of the Exchequer at the time of her Majesties death or in default of the said Justices Master of the Rolls and Chief Baron some other of those which were Justices of some of the Courts of Records at Westminster at the time of her Highnesses decease to supply their places or any Four and Twenty or more of them whereof Eight to be Lords of the Parliament not being of the Privy-Council shall to the uttermost of their power and skill examine the cause and maner of such her Majesties death and what persons shall be any way Guilty thereof and all circumstances concerning the same according to the true meaning of this Act and thereupon shall by open Proclamation publish the same and without any delay by all forceable and possible means prosecute to death all their Alders and Abettors and for the doing thereof and for the withstanding and suppressing all such power and force as shall be any way levied or stirred in disturbance of the due execution of this Law shall by vertue of this Act have power and authority not only to raise and use such Forces as shall in that behalf be needful and convenient but also to use all other means and things possible and necessary for the maintenance of the same Forces and prosecution of the said Offenders and if any such Power and Force shall be levied and stirred in disturbance of the due execution of this Law by any person that shall or may pretend any Title to the Crown of this Realm whereby this Law may not in all things be fully executed according to the effect and true meaning of the same that then every such person shall by vertue of this Act be therefore excluded and disabled for ever to have or claim or to pretend to have or claim the Crown of this Realm or of any other Her Highnesses Dominions any former Law or Statute whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every the Subjects of all her Majesties Realms and Dominions shall to the uttermost of their power aid and assist the said Council and all other the Lords and other persons to be adjoyned to them for assistance as is aforesaid in all things to be done and executed according to the effect and intention of this Law and that no Subject of this Realm shall in any wise be impeached in Body Land or Goods at any time hereafter for any thing to be done or executed according to the Tenor hereof any Law or Statute heretofore made to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And whereas of late many of her Majesties good and faithful Subjects have in the Name of God and with the Testimonies of good Consciences by one uniform manner of writing under their hands and Seals and by their several Oaths voluntarily taken joyned themselves together in one Bond and Association to withstand and revenge to the uttermost all such malicious actions and attempts against her Majesties most Royal Person Now for the full explaining of all such Ambiguities and Questions as otherwise might happen to grow by reason of any Sinister or wrong Construction or Interpretation to be made or inferred of or upon the words or meaning thereof Be it declared and enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament that the same Association and every Article and Sentence therein contained as
tempt God than to hope in him Hereupon Babington and the rest were sought after and having in vain endeavour'd to abscond were apprehended and upon a fair Tryal and their own Confessions condemned and executed Hereupon Queen Elizabeth being much exasperated against the Queen of Scots caused her Cabinets and Papers to be seized wherein many Letters were found and Copies of Letters both to and from Strangers and also from divers Noblemen of England which Queen Elizabeth prudently dissembled and buried in silence As for Gifford who made the discovery he was soon after sent into France under the notion of Banishment Now that this Gifford might be set on work by the Jesuits is very suspitious for 't is very unlikely that he who first labour'd to perswade Savage of the lawfulness and merit of murdering of Queen Elizabeth and came over on purpose to remind him of that Vow should all on a sudden have so tender a Conscience or so much love forsooth to his Prince and Country as of his own accord to discover the Intrigue had he not a secret design to manage thereby which is more probable because 't is plain they were now grown out of hope of restoring their Religion either by the Queen of Scots or her Son and therefore began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imploy'd one of their Society into England as is affirmed by Pasquier a French Author to draw off the Gentry from her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into these dangerous counsels which brought her to her end and at the same time lest the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirred them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde Nay the Queen of Scots her self was not unacquainted with their designs to set up the Spaniard for amongst other things we find she one time used these words When I being in Prison and languished with care without hope of Liberty and there was not any more hope left for ever bringing to pass these things which very many expected of me in my sickness and declining age many thought it fit that the Succession of the Realm of England should be established in the Spaniard or in a Catholick English man and a Book was brought to prove the Right of the Spaniard which being not admitted by me I offended many History of the Life and Death of Mary Steuart Queen of Scotland dedicated to her Son King James p. 400. But leaving this Conjecture to the Judicious Reader however it was design'd the event proved Funerous to the Scottish Queen for her Secretaries being examined about the Papers found in her Closet of their own accord acknowledged that these in her Name were of their hand-writings but Indited by her in French that she receiv'd Letters from Babington and that they wrote back by her commandment the Answers there found Hereupon the English Queen after some debate resolved to proceed against her upon the before recited Act of 26th of Eliz. But when it was said That according to the Formalities of Law she ought to be Tried at the Assizes by a Country Jury and to hold up her hand at the Bar Queen Elizabeth would by no means hear thereof judging it very unbecoming her Royal Quality and therefore chose rather to issue forth a Commission to divers Noblemen and chief Personages of the Realm together with the Judges c. who met at Fodringhay-Castle in Northamptonshire where she was then kept on the 11th of October 1586. and proceeded as in the subsequent Papers is related And afterwards viz. the 25th of the same Month in the Star-Chamber at Westminster to which time and place the Commissioners had adjourn'd themselves the sentence against her was pronounc'd and confirm'd with the Seals and Subscriptions of the Commissioners Whereupon both the King of Scots and the French King speedily sent their Ambassadors to intercede on her behalf with Queen Elizabeth using all perswasive Arguments that natural affection in the one and likeness of Condition and ancient friendship in the other could suggest But when the loud voice of necessity of State seem'd to drown all their Reasons the French Ambassador l' Aubespine resolves to prevent Blood with Blood and to save the Queen of Scots life contrives to take away Queen Elizabeths and deals with one Mr. Stafford whose Mother was of the Bed-Chamber to Queen Elizabeth about it who having not an heart to act such a Villany himself recommended one Moody a desperate Russian taken out of the Common Goal who for money undertook it But then they could not agree in the manner Moody propounded Poyson or to lay a Bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed and suddenly fire it so that the Treason of that kind against King James was not altogether a new invention but the Devil had long before inspired some bloody Papists with the notion but Trap the French Ambassadors Secretary liked neither of there Expedients but would have her kill'd as the Prince of Orange was late before who was shot into the Body with three Bullets by one Balthazar Gerard a Burgundian instigated thereunto by the Jesuits But whilst they were thâ—â— consulting Stafford discovers all whereupon Moody and Trap were apprehended and confest the whole Contrivance This fresh and dangerous Plot much startled Queen Elizabeth who perceiv'd that her own Life could not be safe if she did not proceed to execute the Sentence upon the Scottish Queen For from the prospect of her succeeding to the Crown the Popish Conspirators laid the foundation of all their Trayterous practises Yet never did Clemency and good nature more bravely resist the charms of Interest and dread of danger than in the noble breast of our Queen for how extreamly loth she was to consent to the death of the Queen of Scots appears by the several Applications made by the Parliament to move her thereunto As first at Richmond on the 12th of Nov. Serjeant Puckering Speaker of the House of Commons did in the name of that House represent unto her Majesty the divers apparent and imminent dangers that might grow to her Royal person and to her Realm from the Scottish Queen and her Adherents if remedy were not provided which he delivered as follows First touching the danger of her Majesties Person Both this Scotish Queen and her Favourers do think her to have Right not only to succeed but to enjoy your Crown in possession and therefore as she is a most Impatient Competitor so will she not spare any means whatsoever that may bereave us of your Majesty the only impediment that she enjoyeth not her desire 2. She is obdurate in malice against your Royal Person notwithstanding you have shewed her all favour and mercy as well in preserving her Kingdom as saving her life and salving her honour And therefore there is no place for mercy since there is no hope she will desist from most wicked attempts the rather
Ireland c. To our trusty and well-beloved Cousins George Earl of Sbrewsbury Earl Marshal of England Henry Earl of Kent Henry Earl of Darby George Earl of Comberland and Henry Earl of Pembrook greeting c. Whereas sithence the Sentence given by you and others of our Council Nobility and Judges against the Queen of Scots by the name of Mary the Daughter of James the 5th late King of Scots commonly called the Queen of Scots and Dowager of France as to you is well known All the States in the last Parliament assembled did not only deliberately by great advice allow and approve the same Sentence as just and honourable but also with all humbleness and earnestness possible at sundry times require solicit and press us to direct such further execution against her Person as they did adjudg her to have daily deserved adding thereunto that the forbearing thereof was and would be daily certain and undoubted danger not only unto our own life but also unto themselves their posterity and the publick estate of this Realm as well for the Cause of the Gospel and true Religion of Christ as for the Peace of the whole Realm whereupon we did although the same were with some delay of time publish the same sentence by our Proclamation yet hitherto have forborn to give direction for the further satisfaction of the aforesaid most earnest requests made by our said States of our Parliament whereby we do daily understand by all sorts of our loving subjects both of our Nobility and Councel and also of the wisest greatest and best devoted of all Subjects of inferiour degrees how greatly and deeply from the bottom of their hearts they are grieved and afflicted with daily yea hourly fears of our life and thereby consequently with a dreadful doubt and expectation of the ruin of the present happy and godly estate of this Realm if we should forbear the further final execution as it is deserved and neglect their general and continual requests prayers counsels and advices and thereupon contrary to our natural disposition in such case being overcome with the evident weight of their counsels and their daily intercessions importing such a necessity as appeareth directly tending to the safety not only of our self but also to the weal of our whole Realm We have condescended to suffer Justice to take place and for the execution thereof upon the special trusty experience and confidence which we have of your loyalties faithfulness and love both toward our Person and the safety thereof and also to your native Countries whereof you are most noble and principal members we do will and by Warrant hereof do Authorize you as soon as you shall have time convenient to repair to our Castle of Fotheringhay where the said Queen of Scots is in custody of our right trusty and faithful servant and Councellor Sir Amias Paulet Knight and then taking her into your charge to cause by your Commandment execution to be done upon her Person in the presence of your selves and the aforesaid Sir Amias Paulet and of such other Officers of Justice as you shall command to attend upon you for that purpose and the same to be done in such manner and form and at such time and place and by such persons as to five four or three of you shall be thought by your discretions convenient notwithstanding any Law Statute or Ordinance to the contrary And these our Letters Patents sealed with our great Seal of England shall be to you and every of you and to all persons that shall be present or that shall be by you commanded to do any thing appertaining to the aforesaid execution a full sufficient Warrant and discharge for ever And further we are also pleased and contented and hereby we do will command and authorise our Chancellor of England at the requests of you all and every of you the duplicate of our Letters Patents to be to all purposes made dated and sealed with our great Seal of England as these presents now are In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Yeoven at our Mannor of Greenwich the 1st day of February in the 29th year of our Reign First After she was brought down by the Sheriff to the place prepared in the Hall for that purpose by the commandment of the Earls of Shrewsbury Octavo die Feb. 1586. and Kent her Majesties Commission aforesaid was openly read Then according to a direction given to Dr. Fletcher Dean of Peterborough he was willed to use some short and pithy Speech which might tend to admonish her of the nearness of her end and the only means of salvation in Christ Jesus As soon as he began to speak she interrupted him saying she was a Catholick and that it was but a folly being so resolutely determined as she was to move her otherwise and that our prayers could do her little good On Wednesday the 8th of February 1586. there assembled at the Castle of Fotheringhay the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent with divers Knights The Assembly of the Lords at the death of the Queen of Scots and Gentlemen Justices of Peace in the Counties there and about Eight of the Clock the Earls and the Sheriff of the Shire went up to the Scottish Queen whom they found praying on her knees with her Gentlewomen and men and the Sheriff remembring her the time was at hand she rose up and said she was ready then was she led by the arms from her Chamber unto the Chamber of Presence where with many exhortations to fear God and live in obedience kissing her women and giving her hand to her men to kiss praying them all not to sorrow but to rejoice and pray for her she was brought down the Stairs by two Souldiers and being below and looking back she said she was evil attended and besought the Lords that she might for womanhood sake have two of her women to wait upon her they said they were only withheld for that it was feared by their passionate crying they would much disquiet her spirit and disturb the execution then she said I will promise for them they will do neither so two whom she willed were brought in to her Then she spake much to Melin her man and charged him as he would answer before God to deliver her Speeches and Messages to her Son in such sort as she did deliver them All which tended to will him to govern wisely and in the fear of God to take heed to whom he betook his chiefest trust and not to give occasions to be evil thought on by the Queen of England her good Sister And to certifie him she died a true Scot true French and true Catholick And about 10 of the Clock she was brought into the great Hall where in the midst of the Hall and against the Chimney in which was a great fire was a Scaffold set up of two Foot high and Twelve Foot broad having two Steps to come up
as follows FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath ordained Kings Queens and Princes to have Dominion and Rule over all their Subjects and to preserve them in the possession and observation of the true Christian Religion according to his holy word and commandment And in like sort That all Subjects should love fear and obey their Soveraign Princes being Kings or Queens to the utmost of their power at all times to withstand pursue and suppress all manner of persons that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the honour state or persons of their Soveraigns Therefore we whose Names are or shall be subscribed to this Writing being natural-born subjects of this Realm of England and having so Gracious a Lady our Soveraign Elizabeth by the Ordinance of God our most rightful Queen Reigning over us these many years with great felicity to our inestimable comfort And finding lately by divers Depositions Confessions and sundry Advertisements out of Foreign parts from credible persons well known to her Majesties Council and to divers others that for the furtherance and advancement of some pretended Title to the Crown it hath been manifested that the Life of our Gracious Soveraign Queene Elizabeth hath been most dangerously designed against to the peril of her person if Almighty God her perpetual Defender of his mercy had not revealed and withstood the same By whose life we and all other her Majesties true and loyal subjects do enjoy all inestimable benefit of peace in this Land DO for the Reasons and Causes before alledged not only acknowledg our selves most justly bound with our Lives and Goods for her defence and in her safety to persecute suppress and withstand all such Intenders and all other her Enemies of what Nation Condition or Degree whatsoever they shall be or by what Council or Title they shall pretend to be her Enemies or to attempt any harm upon her person but do further think it our bounden duties for the great benefit of peace wealth and Godly Government we have more plentifully received these many years under her Majesties Government than any of our forefathers have done in any longer time of any other Progenitors Kings of this Realm to declare and by this writing make manifest our bounden Duties to our Soveraign Lady for her safety And to that end WE and every of us first calling to witness the Name of Almighty God do voluntarily and most willingly bind our selves every one of us to the other jointly and severally in the Band of one firm and loyal Society and do hereby vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God That with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants we and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joint and particular forces during our lives withstand pursue and offend as well by force of Arms as by all other means of revenge all manner of persons of whatsoever state they shall be and their Abettors that shall attempt any act or counsel or consent to any thing that shall tend to the harm of her Majesties Royal Person and will never desist from all manner of forcible pursuit against such persons to the utter extermination of them their Counsellors Aiders and Abetters And that any such wicked attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand or procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Fitle to come to this Crown by the untimely death of her Majesty so wickedly procured which God of his mercy forbid may be avenged We do not only bind our selves both jointly and severally never to allow accept or favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestable Act shall be attempted or committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Civil State But do also further vow and protest as we are most bound and that in the presence of the eternal and everlasting God to prosecute such person or persons to death with our joint and particular forces and to act the utmost revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and done for their utter overthrow and extirpation And to the better corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association we do also testifie by this writing that we do confirm the contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the Holy Evangelists with this express condition That no one of us shall for any respect of person or causes or for fear or reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the prosecution thereof during our lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjur'd persons and as publick enemies to God our Queen and to our Native Country to which punishment and pains we do voluntarily submit our selves and every of us without benefit of any colour and pretence In witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter to this Society and Association Which Association though entred into voluntarily and by persons in their private capacities was so far from offending Queen Elizabeth and the Ministers of State in those times or being lookt upon as seditious that in the next Parliament the same was confirm'd and establisht by Law as follows Anno 27 Eliz. An Act for provision to be made for the security of the Queens Majesties most Royal person and the continuance of the Realm in Peace FOrasmuch as the good felicity and comfort of the whole Estate of this Realm consisteth only next under God in the surety and preservation of the Queens most Excellent Majesty and for that it hath manifestly appeared that sundry wicked Plots and means have of late been devised and laid as well in foreign parts beyond the Seas as also within this Realm to the great endangering of her Highness most Royal Person and to the utter ruin of the whole Commonweal if by Gods merciful Providence the same had not been revealed Therefore for the preventing of such great perils as might hereafter otherwise grow by the like detestable and devilish practises at the humble suit and earnest petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same Parliament Be it Enacted and Ordained If at any time after the end of this present Session of Parliament any open Invasion or Rebellion shall be bad or made into or within any of her Majesties Realms or Dominions or any act attempted tending to the hurt of her Majesties most Royal Person by or for any person that shall or may pretend Title to the Crown of this Realm after Her Majesties decease or if any thing that he compassed or imagined