24th of February 1599 600 The English Army was then 1200 Horse and 14000 Foot and the General finding the Irish Strength was in their Fastnesses he resolved to ruin them by small flying Parties placed in Garisons and this way accordingly destroyed them without redress and they began to talk of submitting which was not regarded because all the world saw there was no Truth Faith or Honour in this barbarous and false Enemy From thenceforward many that begged for Pardon were denied it if they did not bring in the Heads of their Fellow-Traytors or do some other considerable service to purchase it which they seldom failed of attempting and were very often taken by their own Party in the Fact and hanged The War went vigorously on and the Rebels were generally beaten in all places till the 23d of September 1601. when the Spaniards landed at Kingsale and the English immediately sat down before it yet the Spaniards tho beaten in every Sally defended the Town to the 24th of December when there was a general Battel between Tyrone and all the Rebels on the one side and so many of the English as could be spared out of the Trenches Tyrone was beaten out of the Field and he lost 1200 of his men 800 wounded and the English lost only one Cornet and six Soldiers The Spaniards knew nothing of the Battel and made no Sally till it was over tho the Fight was within one Mile of Kingsale but then they sallied twice to no purpose whereupon the 31st of December the Spaniards capitulated and delivered up the Town After this the War went on so successfully against these Rebels and they were reduced to such Necessities that the Parents eat their Children and three Children roasted the flesh of their dead Mother and lived upon it twenty days so that this exceeded the Famine of Jerusalem The 30th of March 1602. Tyrone submitted to Mercy at Melifont begging to be received upon his Knees Thus ended this most dangerous Rebellion that ever was made in Ireland before that time about a week after the Death of the Queen and before it was known It had never risen to that height but for the over-great penuriousness of the Queen for which she afterwards paid very dear and had not the happiness to see the Traytor Tyrone at her foot before her Death but however she was sufficiently revenged of all her Enemies by the Ruin Famine Deaths and Plagues that fell upon them Heaven favouring her Cause and blasting all their Undertakings against her It is very observable that the main pretence of this Rebellion was the Preservation of the Roman-Catholick Religion yet there was then never any Law passed in this Kingdom against it nor any Prosecution made of those that professed it but they had a perfect Liberty of Conscience to embrace which of the Religions they pleased only the Church-Preferments and Revenues were put into the hands of the Protestant Clergy and the Tythes paid to them and the Government was generally put into the hands of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry but so that they were mixed and they of the other Religion being more in number were commonly returned on all Juries So that Liberty of Conscience will not keep a divided Kingdom always quiet but there have ever been men to be found who are as uneasie when they cannot persecute others as when they themselves are persecuted The Charge of this War from the first of October 1598. to the first of April 1603. amounted to Eleven hundred ninety eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen Pounds Nineteen Shillings and One Peny as Mr. Cox assures us from whence he inferreth how justly the Irish had for feited the Estates were taken from them and how reasonable it will ever be for the English in Ireland to contribute freely to the maintaining of a good Army for the preserving that Kingdom in Peace In her time the English Nation was at its highest pitch of Honour Wealth and Reputation The Queen was also in the greatest esteem that was possible with all the Neighbour Nations because she had delivered Scotland from the hated Dominion of the French and she had after this succoured and supported the Netherlands when their Affairs were most desperate she had sent vast Treasures into France to support Henry the IVth against the Holy League and the King of Spain and when after all Ireland had been stirr'd up against her and had made almost a general Revolt under the Command of a false and treacherous Traytor she had the good fortune to reduce that Kingdom by the Prosperity of her Arms and the Valour of her Subjects Spain was in her time terrible to all the other Nations in Europe till her Navies afflicted and ruined that Kingdom by burning their Fleets and Naval Stores at the Groyne and Cadiz Her Fame spread it self to the most distant parts of Europe and the Muscovites and Turks who were only known by report to the English before her happy times sent Ambassies to her to beg her Friendship and settle Commerce and Trade with her The King of Morocco and Fez in Barbary in Africa sent also an Ambassy to her so that her Subjects had the pleasure of smiling at the half-naked Moors and the Russ who were loaded with Furs after the manner of their Countrey The Hollander French Poles Germans Danes and Swedes and all the other Nations about her begged her Friendship in times of Peace her Assistance and Protection in times of War and on every occasion testified their sense of her Favours and their Gratitude for the good offices she had done them She laboured always to unite those Princes who were her Friends and Allies by Marriages and other such methods if any Controversie or Difference at any time arose between them she sent her Letters and her Ambassadors to both the Parties to compose them and they on the other side did for the most part acquiesce in her Judgment and yield to her Authority If in any part of her Dominions the Countrey hapned to become desolate and ill peopl'd she took particular care to send Colonies thither to supply that defect She brought her meanest Subjects from an idle poor and beggarly way of living to the practice of good and useful Trades many of which were brought into England in her time by the banished and persecuted Netherlanders to the great benefit and advantage of this Kingdom She made the Naval Glory of England equal to its Military or Land-Service and Reputation The Bounds of her Fame were not confined to England but extended to the utmost parts of the earth and the farthest Recesses of the Ocean for her Subjects in her time passed the Liâ—…e and filled all the corners of the habitable world with the fame of this most Celebrated Queen There was no place in the wide and remotest Ocean but her Subjects sailed thither with their Merchandize to enrich their Countrey The English Fleets
but to confirm the Inventions of men or rather of Satan not for the reforming the Lives and Manners of men but to defend the Pretended Dignity of the See of Rome and the vast and boundless Authority of the Pope That it was not intendâ—…d for the Purging the Christian Flock but for the Establishing and Confirming their inveterate Errors Tho the Pope had had these sharp Replies from the German Protestant Princes and the Guise's and Spanish Faction had represented to him That it would be an undervaluing of his Power and Person to send a Nuncio to England where he would certainly be rejected yet Pius IV. would not be discouraged but said He would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard that whatsoever was done to gain Souls to Christ did beseem that See And accordingly he sent Abbot Martiningo to the Queen who came as far as Flanders and there he met with her Commands not to cross the Seas but at his Peril and altho the King of Spain and the Emperor of Germany did earnestly intreat he might be heard yet the Queen stood her ground and replied That she could not treat with the Bishop of Rome whose Authority was for ever excluded out of England by Act of Parliament Nay she would give the Pope's Nuncio no other Answer but a flat Denial tho she gave this reason to the French and Spaniards to give them some satisfaction For she well perceived this Remedy did not tend to the healing the Wounds of the Church but to the making them incurable and the Event justified her Conduct In the mean time the Queen clearly foresaw that the Restoring the Protestants to their Native Countrey and their former Stations would disoblige all the Popish Nobility of England who tho for the present they suppressed their Resentment yet when occasion was offered they would not fail to do her the utmost Mischief that was in their Power The only noise of the coming of a Nuncio from the Pope encouraged many to break the Laws made against the Pope and his Authority with great boldness and they spread false Reports abroad That the Queen was going to change her Religion and alter the Government of the Realm to dispose the Protestants to join with the Papists in a Rebellion to her Ruin She saw also that at length she should be involved in a Foreign War and that the Pope would fulminate against her all which Dangers the Greatness of her Soul despised She also changed her Privy-Council into which she chose Protestants of famed Prudence and Moderation and she openly and avowedly broke the Power and lessened the Authority of her Popish Nobility and Gentry The Pope having at this time sent a Legate into Ireland who had joined himself to some desperate Traytors then in Rebellion against her and endeavouring to deprive her of all Right and Title to that Kingdom Some others of that Persuasion were found also to have practised with the Devil by Conjurations Charms and casting Figures to be informed of the Length and Continuance of her 〈◊〉 but Heaven would not and Hell could not help them The Affairs of the Church being thus setled she applied her mind to restore the Civil State of England to its Ancient Strength and Happiness it having been strangely shaken by the Factions and Divisions in the Three Reigns that preceded hers To this purpose she passed many Acts of Parliament and other State-Orders for her own Security and the Welfare of her Subjects She made some new Additions to the old Laws for the better Administration of her Civil Government for the Promoting the common Interest of her Subjects or for the Regu lating her Parliaments She enriched her Kingdom also and whereas she found a great part of the current Money of England adulterared and mixed with Brass she reduced it all to the old Standard and made it good STERLING She furnished all her Havens Sea-Ports Cities and Frontier places with Garisons Forts Castles Cannon Ball Gun powder and Provisions She took care to have her own Gunpowder made in England which before had been fetch'd in from abroad She cast great quantities of Brass and Iron Ordnance after she had discovered a plentiful Mine of Brass at KESWICK in Cumberland She fortified BERWICK anew and caused all the Frontier places towards Scotland to be repaired and placed Garisons of good Soldiers in them Tho she was upon better terms with the Scots than any of her Ancestors for many Ages had been especially after they embraced the Reformed Religion yet she would not so wholly rely on their good affections as to neglect a timely provision for her own Security And when all these great Designs had brought a Debt upon the Crown she chose rather to sell a part of her Crown-Lands to pay it than be over-burthensome to her People She ordered also the Debts contracted by her Father and Brother but neglected by her Sister to be paid She provided a great Magazine and furnished her Kingdom with plentiful Stores of Arms and Ammunition and all sorts of Warlike Provisions that she might always have at hand whatever was needful to secure her against the sudden Insults of her Foreign Enemies or any Insurrections which might be raised at home She caused her Forces to be often drawn out viewed and mustered and with Honours and other Rewards she recompenced those that in this kind had deserved well of her by which she much encouraged her Soldiers and Sea-men She encreased her Fleet and built many large Men of War and furnished her Naval Stores with whatever was needful and she encreased the Wages of her Mariners and Seamen and appointed a Guard of Ships to ride always in the Downs for the Security of the British Seas and carefully scoured the Seas by her Men of War and purged them from Pyrates and Sea-Robbers so that in all her time the Seas were secure safe and open Dr. Heylin in his History of the Reformation acquaints us that she began these Preparations in the year 1560. Ahd that holding it a safer Maxim in the Schools of Policy not to Admit than to endeavour by strong hand to Expel an Enemy she entertained the fortunate thoughts of Walling her Kingdom round about with a puissant Navy for ouâ—… Merchants had already encreased their Shipping by managing some part of that Wealthy Trade which formerly had been Monopolized by the Hanse-Towns or Easterlings And thereupon she resolved not to be wanting to her self in Building Ships of such Burthen and so fit for Service as might enable her in a short time not only to Protect her Merchants but to Command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great Loss and almost to his total Ruin in the last Twenty years of her Glorious Government At the same time by her Proclamation dated November 15. 1560. she commanded all the Easterling Flemish and Spanish Moneys to be brought into the Mint
Kingdom with an intire Reliance upon her Majesties most unquestionable good affections towards her not doubting but her Majesty would assist her and that by her Example and Encouragement others would be won over to her I do most earnestly therefore said she beseech you That I may presently be admitted to come to you because I am now in great Distress as I will more at large inform you when you shall please so far to have Compassion on me God grant your Majesty a long and an happy Life and me that Patience and Consolation which I â—…ope to obtain from him by your seasonable Assistance Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Knolles and some others to the Queen of the Scots to comfort her and promised her all that Protection and Assistance which the Equity of her Cause would allow but she would not suffer her to come to her And she ordered her to be removed to Carlisle which was a place of greatâ—…r Safety to her than that she was at present in where the Scots might perhaps surprize her Upon this the Queen of the Scots wrote a Third Letter to the Queen and sent it by the Lord Herris desiring that she might be suffered to come before her Majesty to propose the Injuries which had been done to her by her Subjects and to answer the accusations they did pretend to bring against her That it was most equitable and just that Queen Elizabeth should admit her who was her Nearest Kinswoman and was now an Exile into her presence and hear what she had to say for her self and restore her to her Kingdom which she had most unjustly been deprived of by those who had been most justly banished for their Treasons against her and wâ—…re Pardoned and Restored upon your Majesty's Intercession with me to my own Râ—… as now it plainly appeareth said she if your Majesty d th not prevent it Wherefore I once more Conjure your Majesty either to Admit me into your Presence and to Assist me or otherwise to suffer me forthwith to go out of England to seek help elsewhere and that you would not detain me as a Captive and a Prisoner any longer in the Castle of Carlisle because I came freely into England trusting in your many kind Letters Messages and the Pledges of an Honourable Reception This Letter wrought very much upon the heart of the Queen and she could not but pity the desolate and deplorable Estate of so near a Relation who being by Force of Arms taken by her own Subjects had been thrust from a Throne into a Prison brought into the utmost danger of her Life Condemned without being heard and was deprived of a Kingdom and had now fled to her out of a Confidence of her Assistance and was now at last willing and desirous that the Queen of England should be her Judge and when she had heard both her and her Subjects pronounce what Sentence she thought fit and just Princes are certainly the most unhappy part of Mankind because they are frequently reduced to those straits that they can scarce tell which way to turn them Sin or Misery Ruin or Dishonour surround and encompass them so that there is no possibility of avoiding both at once Had Queen Elizabeth dismissed the Queen of Scots she would without doubt have found enough who would have entertained her as an Instrument and Pretence to ruin both England and Scotland too If she detained her in England it was feared that her Wheedling Humour Youth and Beauty and her stout Attachment to the Popish Religion would draw in many of the English to take her part as long as she was considered as the nexâ—… Heir of the Crown after the Queen then Reigning and this would very much endanger the Peace of England Foreign Ambassadors would have Orders from their Masters when her Case was once known to espouse her Interest and promote her Affairs and a part of the Scots would certainly endeavour to restore her and suppress the Opposite Party when they had so fair a Prospect of making their own Fortunes into the bargain The Faith of those that were trusted with the keeping this Precious Depositum was not to be relied on and if-she should happen to dye by a Natural Death the Queen must expect to be defamed and slandered as the Murtherer of her So that the Queen saw that every day new and unforeseen Difficulties grew upon her If she were suffered to go into France it was feared the House of Guise which was related to her by her Mother might renew their old Pretences in her Right to England and again set on foot her former Claim of this Throne and might win many over to assist her either on the score of her Religion or the Probability of her Right or lastly merely out of a mad desire of changing the present Government which is never so easie or sweet as to please all That the parting with her would put an end to the League and Friendship between England and Scotland which was then considered as a thing of the greatest use that could possibly be conceived to England and it was to be feared if by her means the Popish part of Scotland prevailed against the Protestant the League with France would be renewed and this would be so much the more mischievous to England now because heretofore we had the Friendship of the House of Burgundy to balance that of Scotland but the Estates of that Family being all at this time united in the Person of Philip II. King of Spain England had not one Ally near it which could be relied on but the Scots If she were resetled in Scotland it was to be feared that those of the English Faction would be ruined and those of the French would be alone intrusted with all the Power The young Prince would be exposed to Dangers the Religion which was now well Established there would be changed the French and other Foreigners would be invited thither and entertained and Ireland would be more infested by the Highland-Scots than heretofore and Queen Mary her self would be in danger of losing her Life amongst her own Subjects Hereupon the far greatest part of the Council of England were of an Opinion That she ought to be detained here as a Prisoner of War till she had given sufficient satisfaction for her assuming the Title of the Crown of England and answered for the Death of the Lord Darnly who was a Subject of England For this the Countess of Lenox had furnished them with a Pretence by her coming to the Queen and with Tears in her eyes demanding Justice in her own and her Husbands name and had also besought the Queen That Mary Queen of the Scots might be Arraigned for the Death of her Son To whom the Queen had calmly and wisely answered That the Countess ought not to bring so grievous an Accusation or charge so black a Crime as this was upon a Princess so nearly related to
and sets down without any Truth the Imprisonments Tortures Punishments and Ignominies of the Papists He impudently writes That the Publick Places and Streets were washed with their Innocent Blood that the Priests were tormented the Matrons slain the Layicks hurried away to Death and Tortures forgetting or dissembling that in the short Five years Reign of Queen Mary there were more innocent Protestants burnt alive without Mercy than suffered in all the Forty four Years of that of Queen Elizabeth tho convicted of the greatest Crimes and executed upon the most Just and Legal Prosecutions viz. For disturbing the Peace of the Nation by Insurrections Tumults and Rebellions for entring into Conspiracies joining with Foreign Enemies or abetting and concealing Domestick Treasons and Traitors or for endeavouring to Murder the Queen The Moderation and Justice of the Queen has covered these passionate and false Scriblers with Infamy and Contempt and it were lost labour to endeavour to refute them Nor ought George Cone a Scot to be passed over in silence who in his History of the Life of Mary Queen of the Scots has persecuted the Memory of Queen Elizabeth with a rapid Fury He faith impudently That she was born in an Incestuous Marriage and got the Possession of England by Force which Expressions were the effects of a Flattering Affection to the Interest of the Popish Party and of Aversion for that of the Protestants These Treatments induced the Queen to be very severe against all Libels and Verses penned to the end to blacken the Reputation of any man which she forbad any to read or divulge and she ordered them to be burnt And she extended this her Severity to all Rumors and Reports that were spread abroad underhand for fear her People should by these means be excited to Rebellions or Seditions Whilst her Forces in Ireland under the Command of the Lord Montjoy were struggling hard with Tyrone for the Reduction of Ulster and Tyrone was reduced to a necessity of submitting himself to her which would have ended in the quieting of that Kingdom the Queen was involved in an uncurable and grievous Disease arising from the Greatness of her Age She spent many Nights sadly and restlesly without any sleep in much Anxiety and troublesome Cares her Stomach being wholly weakned and decayed loathed all sorts of Diet till at last the Anguish of her Troubled and Afflicted mind made her despair of a Recovery so that she despised the Counsels of her Physicians and became exasperated and stubbornly resolved against all Medecines The most powerful and considerable of her Friends who waited upon her night and day and did all they could to consolate and please her when they saw the muttering Discontents of her Physicians and considered seriously the uncertainty of the Event which might follow this Sickness of Body and Mind and the Imbecility of human Nature they became anxious and most earnestly besought her That she would curb this Disturbance and Grief of her mind that she would for the present not fill her mind with the Arguments of Learned men against the Fears of Death tho they had the shew of Wisdom that she would consult her own Reason and endeavour the Preservation of her Life and the Recovery of her former Health That she would not encrease her Danger by Despondency or her Distemper by her Obstinacy against all Medicines but that she would be pleased to yield to the Perswasions of her Physicians and follow their Advices Eat and endeavour to overcome her inward grief with Patience Lastly That she would be pleased to value and endeavour to preserve her own Life and deliver her Loyal and Faithful Servants Nobility and Subjects from that Anxiety and Sorrow that now oppressed them She made no other Answer to all this Wise and Loyal Advice but That she was full satiated with this present Life and now desired nothing more than to be translated to a state of Immortality and to make her escape out of this dark and disordered state of human Affairs That Death which many so much abhorred was only the payment of a Debt due to Nature and that our Spirits were of right to be restored to God from whom they came Thus her Body by slow degrees consumed away and she became very Lean Weak and Faint Yet after all her Mind was more afflicted than her Body She was night and day troubled with a sorrowful Remembrance of the late executed Earl of Essex The Grief of her Mind was encreased by the Necessity of her Affairs which compell'd her to yield to Tyrone not only his Life and Liberty and the Pardon of his Rebellions and Perfidy but a great part of his Estate which she esteemed a kind of rewarding him for his Treasons and Perjuries Her Sorrows were every day increased and made more insupportable by the Melancholy Humour which then abounded in her Blood and the restlessness of her Mind so that all her Strength being exhausted and her Mind which was filled with Indignation contributing more and more to the Disease she seemed to decline apace by the Weakness which augmented every day yet she bore this her last Sickness with a wonderful Constancy and Patience which alone deserved very great Commendation When some of the principal Nobility of England the Lord Admiral the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and one of the Secretaries of State in the Name and by the Order of the Privy Council told her Majesty That it was their humble Request That she would if not for her own sake yet for the good of her People throw off that load of Grief which oppressed her and lay aside the Resolution of dying That if she should happen to dye by the course of Nature in the present Circumstances of Affairs it would bring Ruin upon England That they had no hopes of any Prosperity after her Death unless the Certainty of the Succession were fixed by her If she should leave this to be determined after her Death in that flagrant desire men had of obtaining the Sovereignty there might many ill things be done and suffered which would augment the Sorrows of her People for the loss of so good a Prince Therefore they most earnestly and with one Voice and united Tears and Sighs intreated her That in her present Circumstances she would take care of the Common Safety of her People after her Death and that she would be pleased to remember That so many of the Lives of her Subjects would be exposed to the utmost hazard if she died without Naming her Successor To which she lovingly and modestly replied That if she died of this sickness the Kingdom would not want a Defender but would be in the same state of quiet Nottingham the Lord Admiral replied Whom do your Majesty mean She looking thereupon steadily on all that were then present said I mean James King Of Scotland my Dearest Kinsman and the Right Heir to Henry the VIIth This cheared all that were
Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists A plentiful Supply given to the Queen She dischargeth a part of it 158 A Digression concerning Parry 160 The Queen's Severity towards the Conspirators 163 The second Civil War in France 165 The third in which the Queen sends great Supplies of Men and Money 167 A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience 169 The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without success The true Causes of these Civil Wars 170 The Queen preserved the Protestants of France 171 The beginning of the Countrey-Wars 172 Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and recalled 172 The King of Spain enraged at it 174 The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government there 176 Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison 177 The rest of the Cities petition for a General Assembly of the States 178 The Designs of Spain discovered to the rest of the Nobility 179 Which at first only terrified and divided them 181 A Bloody Persecution against the Protestants in the Netherlands 182 The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Flanders The Council of Blood 185 Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized and after them vast Numbers of meaner people 187 The Protestants of France and the Queen of England alarmed at these Proceedings 188 The Subjects of the Low Countries fly into England 189 The Conduct of King Philip considered The Reasons why Queen Elizabeth opposed the Spaniards 191 The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of England 193 The King of Spain complains of the Queen for harbouring the Netherland Pyrates 194 They seize the Sea-Ports of Holland and Zealand The Queen of England undertakes the Protection of this oppressed People 197 The French Affairs during her time 201 A Private League between France and Spain against the Protestants 203 The Duke of Guise made Head of this League against his Sovereign 204 An Account of the House of Guise 205 The Reasons why Henry III. was to be deposed and Henry IV. excluded 207 The Queen Mother of France dieth of Grief Queen Elizabeth assists Henry IV. with Men and Money 209 Spain invaded by the English 211 The Actions of Robert Earl of Essex 212 The Affairs of Ireland during her Reign 216 Ulster the first Province that rebelled 218 A Quarrel between Ormond and Desmond 219 The Pope and King of Spain Interested in the Wars of Ireland 221 The Difficulty of administring Justice and Mercy seasonably 224 Sr. Jo. Perrot Lord Deputy of Ireland New Colonies sent into Munster The Irish complain of the English 226 And they of the Deputy 227 William's Character 228 The College of Dublin finished The English Colonies keep Ireland quiet for some time Part of the Spanish Armado Shipwrackt on the Coast of Ireland 229 The Rise of Hugh Oneale Earl of Tyrone 232 He aspires to be King of Ulster Tyrone made a County which occasioned that Rebellion 233 Sir William Russell Lord Deputy of Ireland under whom it began 234 Sir John Norris sent into Ireland 235 The Irish made very Expert in the use of Arms. Tho. Lord Burroughs made Deputy The Council of Ireland represent the Irish War as an Universal Rebellion of the whole Nation 241 Tyrone beats the English 243 He treats with Spain and England at the same time 244 The Earl of Essex sent Deputy The Lord Montjoy sent Deputy 246 No Irish pardoned but what merited the favour by some Signal Service 247 The Spaniards land at Kingsale The Irish reduced to eat man's Flesh 248 Religion causlesly made the Pretence of this Irish War Liberty of Conscience considered 249 The great Reputation of England in Queen Elizabeth's time 250 Sir Drake's Original and Story 253 The Story of John Oxenham 256 Drake's two Voyages into America 258 The Story of Mr. Tho. Cavendish 263 Philip King of Spam highly inc◅nsed against the English 265 The Invincible Armado Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England The Condition of the Spanish Fleet when the English left it 273 The King of Spain bears his Loss with much patience and prudence 275 The English and Hollanders glorify God for the Victory over the Spaniards at Sea 277 The Queen declares a War against Spain 278 The English Expeditions against that Kingdom A rare Example of Martial Valour Complaints made of the Depredations of the English at Sea 285 The Hanse Towns very clamorous against the English 287 The Trade of England prohibited in Germany 288 The Queen seizes the Still-yard 289 Poland continues a Trade with England 291 The Queen ends a War between the Russ and Swedes ibid. Her Laws for the enriching her Subjects Her Severity to those she imployed when found faulty 292 The Liberty of the Theatre restrained 297 The Calamities that happened in her times 298 Her kindness to her good Magistrates 299 Her tender care of the Church 300 Her Stature and Personal Accomplishments 301 She was concerned in her old Age for the decay of her Beauty She loved Flattery because it raised a good opinion of her in her Subjects but Crafty men made ill uses of it 303 She loved good Preachers 307 She loved Religion but hated Faction 308 Her Devotion in publick She exposed her Life for the Safety of the Church 309 She humoured and caressed the body of the People 310 Parliaments frequently held 312 Her Maxims concerning Peace and War 314 She would never arm the meanest of the People All honours carefully and sparingly bestowed in her time 315 Her Justice and Severity towards Offenders which made her beloved 317 Her Justice in other Instances 322 She was sparing in her Personal Expences but magnificent in her Publick 323 She was too sparing in her Rewards She shewed a great respect to the memory of the meanest Soldier that perished in her Service 327 The Praises of Henry VII who was her Example 329 Her Bounty to some Great Men 330 The manner of her bestowing Honours 333 The choice of her Servants Officers and Ministers 335 Her kindness to the Bishops and Church-men 337 Her Principal Favourites and Statesmen 338 Her Habit 339 Her Furniture 341 Her Dyet in publick and private 342 The Splendor and Divertisements of her Court 344 Her private way of living 346 Her Summer Progresses and her Carriage towards the People 348 She spent the Winter in London 350 Her Diet in Summer and Winter 352 Her Diversions and Private Conversation 353 She was subject to violent Anger 's 355 Her Sevērity to the Queen of Scots To Leicester 358 To Hatton 360 The Provocations she met with many and great 361 The Character of Sanders and others who defamed her 363 Her last Sickness 367 he spent the last moments of her life in Devotion 371 Her last Words and Death 373 The Sorrow for her Death at Home and Abroad 374 LICENS'D November 10. 1692. THE CHARACTER OF Queen ELIZABETH ELIZABETH Queen of England was born
at Greenwich the 7th of September 1533. Her Father was Henry the VIIIth Her Mother was the Lady Anna Boleyn the Daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn a Knight of great Estate and Esteem After She came to wear the Royal Crown of England She had a particular Affection for Greenwich that Pleasant Seat upon the Thames as for the place of Her Nativity and upon that account amongst many others She preferr'd Her Palace there before all Her other Country Seats near London as in truth it enjoys one of the Noblest Prospects in the World and an healthful and a pleasing Air. From Her very Cradle She was exposed to the Hazards and Hardships of an unkind Fortune Anna Boleyn Her Mother upon the Death of Queen Catherine in the Year 1535. the 8th of January was Arraigned for Treason and in 1536. being Sentenced was freed by Death from a bloody Marriage the 19th of May. The Inveterate Malice of the Popish Clergy having ever since pursued this Match with their Reproaches as unlawful and void because Queen Catherine his first Wife was then still living and very much inraged at it tho' to no purpose Hereupon soon after a Parliament was summoned which began the 8th of June In which the Issue of both the King 's former Marriages was declared Illegitimate and for ever excluded from claiming the Inheritance of the Crown as the King 's Lawful Heirs by Lineal Descent and the Attainder of Queen Ann and her Complices was Confirmed So that by Authority of Parliament She stood wholly incapacitated as to the wearing the Crown of England Her only Support in the mean time under all these Injuries and Afflictions was the Goodness of God The King Her Father observing in Her a Noble Presence of Mind a good Memory great Apprehension an Excellent Nature and good Dispositions towards Piety and Vertue caused Her to be diligently educated and brought up in Learning and taught whatever was suitable to Her Birth and Age. Her Tutoress was the Lady Champernon a Person of great Worth who formed this great Wit from Her Infancy and improved Her Native Modesty with wise Counsels and a Liberal and Sage Advice Thus Her Natural Parts were in progress of time polished and improved by the knowledge of many of the best and most useful Arts That when She came to Reign which was even then supposed She might manage Her Affairs with a steady hand happily and regularly Administer Justice and shew Mercy cure Her Anger and govern prudently all Her other Passions and Affections The King Her Father the day after Her Mother was beheaded married the Lady Jane Seymour and this New Queen what from the sweetness of Her Disposition and out of compliance with the King who loved Her very much was as kind to Her as if She had been Her Mother There is still extant two Letters written by this Young Princess to Her the one in Italian and the other in English in a fair Hand the same She wrote all the rest of Her Life when She was not full Four years of Age. The English Letter is Page 209 printed in the First Part of Dr. Burnet's History of the Reformation and bears date in July 1537. This Ripe and Flourishing Infancy was a good Omen that the next Stage of Her Life would be most Excellent and accordingly before She was 17 years of Age She had made a very great progress in all the Liberal Sciences so easily did She apprehend and firmly retain whatever She was taught The Learned Mr. Roger Ashcam a man born and bred for that Age which was to refine the Greek and Latin to a Politeness and raise them to an Eloquence was Her Tutor for the Latin Tongue and by his Industry and Diligence he directed Her so well that from Cicero Pliny and Livy She became the Mistress of an Even Beautiful pure unmixed and truly Princely Stile which She could speak with Elegance and Facility As She became thus Eloquent and was well furnished with Knowledge by the means of this Tongue so upon all Occasions She was ready afterwards to express Her Love and Esteem for the Latin Tongue She became so perfect in it that she spoke it with all the Advantages of Eloquence so that some of Her Extemporary Orations were deservedly approved by both the Universities and they too are consigned to Eternity and left a lasting Impression on the minds of them that heard them though few of them are now extant but however there is one preserved and published by Mr. Fuller in his History of Cambridge Page 138. In this Tongue She did not make it Her business whilst She was reading the best Latin Authors to furnish Her Memory with Grammatical Observations or a plenty of high sounding Words or Elegant Phrases which might help to exalt her Reputation for Learning or adorn Her Stile But She treasured up those Precepts very carefully which were useful for the government of Her Life or for the managing Her Private Affairs or those of the State well and wisely To this end She read Livy's History Tacitus his Annals the Acts of Tiberius the Emperor and all Seneca's Works By all which She at last furnished Her Judgment with the best Remedies against all the Attacks of Fortune With an equal Industry She read over all the best of the Greek Orators and Historians with the Assistance of Mr. Ashcam She read Isocrates Aeschinis and Demosthenes She was curious not only to understand the Propriety of the Greek Idiom and the Sense of the Author but pried into the Antiquities that occurr'd the Causes they managed the Decrees of the People the Customs of the Grâ—…cians and the Manners of that Famous City of Athens till She throughly understood them She caused Sir John Fortescue a great Master in the Greek and Latin Tongue to read to Her Thucidides Xenophon and Polybins and after them Euripides Aeschines and Sophocles And to reward him for this Service She afterwards made him Master of her Wardrove and Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer And She would afterwards say that Fortescue for Integrity and Walsingham for Subtilty out-did Her Expectation no wonder then that he was ever of Her Privy Council She had afterwards a great Love for Sir Henry Savil a Gentleman of various and great Learning who afterwards composed many noble Volumes and arose to Honout purely by his Learnning In Her reading She did not only aim to understand Her Author and observe the softness of the Attick and the sweetness of the Greek Tongue which may serve for Ostentation But She mado many Observations for the Tempering of Manners The Sanctity of Justice and the allaying Humane Passions that nothing might be done by Her Angrily Proudly Injuriously and beyond the Rules of Civility There was not one remarkable Story or Expression in all the Works of Thucidides and Xenophon pertaining to the Governmene of Life or Manners or to the ordering Publick Affairs but She had it by heart She
was as great an Admirer of Philosophy as of Eloquence by which She attained the Knowledg of many excellent Things and that civil Prudence or Policy which is so absolutely necessary for all Princes And besides all that civil Prudence and the Knowledge of Governing by which the Publick Utility is acquired and improved She drew from the Ancient and most Noble Philosophers all those Precepts that they have set down for the gaining Moral Prudence and Vertue For Her greatest Care was spent in the Cultivating these two beautiful Parts of Philosophy I will omit the common Philosophers of whose Learning and Doctrine She was a great Lover The Divine Plato that illustrious Light of Greece was made more Noble by the Hands of this Heroick Princess Aristotle the Prince of the Philosophers the acute Master of Alexander the Great was read by Her She was throughly acquainted with Xenophon's Cyrus a Piece not writ with the Truth of an Historian but to represent the lively Image of a Just and Moderate Prince accomplished with all those Endowments which the Great Soerates had set sorth for the living well and happily Being thus prepared by Philosophy she was by the Learned Dr. Grindal Professor of Divinity initiated in Theology which above all other Sciences teacheth the Worship of God Pure Religion and the Knowledge of Heavenly Happiness and by these disposeth men to Justice Modesty Clemency Magnanimity and Humanity She chearfully and readily embraced a genuine and true Theology free from fictitious Legends and the Popish Superstitions which she afterwards made more venerable by an holy and pious Life without any Ostentation And being of a Great Wit and a Strong Memory She drew from the Annals of all Nations and People the Actions of the Greatest Princes and an innumerable number of their Fights and most Illustrious Victories She would frequently set before Her the Monuments of Her Predeccssors the â—…riumphs and incredible Victories obtained by the English at Cressy Poictiers Agincourt or Blagni and at Vernevil against the French with a vast effusion of their blood and she would frequently say These Victories were owing more to the Assistances of Heaven than the Arms of her Ancestors Besides the French Italian and English Tongues which She spake freely She well understood most of the common Languages now spoken in Europe but as to these Three I have mentioned it was hard to say which she knew best Of this there were many witnesses when She answered the Imperial Ambassador in Italian the French in French and the Sweden in Latin Sharply Prudently Pertinently Elegantly and Politely without any time taken to consider of it She gave de Ronsard a French Poet a Diamond of great Value as a Testimony of Her approving his elegant and splendid Poems in that Tongue She understood Musick very well and could Sing Dance and Play on the Lute with a composed Motion of Body attended with a Countenance Habit and Gesture which became a Queen She was a great Lover of Consorts when Voices were mixed with Instruments of Musick and at such times She would be strangely Facetious and Pleasant She spent Her times of Leisure and Diversion with the greatest Pleasure that was possible to Her Self and those about Her Yet after all Her Virtues procured Her more Honour and Esteem in all Nations than all these Ornaments of Industry Learning and Ingenuity though they appeared in Her to an higher and more illustrious degree than ever was found in any other Lady and were attended also with the greatest Sagacity and Judgment For there was not any Person in Her Times that exceeded Her in Chastity Piety Justice and Magnanimity Now I have shortly shown the Beginnings and Progress of Her Virtues and the Means and Degrees by which She attained to them It will be pleasant to shew how she brought them into Act under the Reign of Her Brother EDWARD the VIth who by the Consent of the Three Estates in Parliament abolished the Popish Religion and introduced the Reformed She having then attained to great degrees of Piety Eloquence and Learning went on in the commendable Improvement of all those Perfections She had received from the Bounty of Nature or Fortune She rendred Her Royal Extraction more illustrious by the Assistances She took every day from Books and when She had spent the time She had assigned to Polite Learning She betook Her self every day to the more severe Studies of Religion with a vigorous and lively Affection She read over Melancthâ—…n's Common-Places and gained very much by an exact and acurate Perusal of the Sacred Scriptures There were innumerable Sentences in the New Testament and the Oracles of the Prophets which She had treasured up in Her Memory and which She would afterwards upon occasion mention and She attended the Offices of Religion and Piety with great Devotion and Care She often addressed Her devoutest Prayers to God and implored his Assistance for the obtaining a Chast Heart a Pure and Unspotted Life and a Steady and Constant Soul The Wills of the Subjects of England were then divided and their Opinions distracted in the matters of Religion and She then shewed to mankind the true and salutary Doctrine not so much by Words as by a holy Life and good Actions She attentively heard the Sermons of the Clergy not only to please Her self with their Oratory but admitted them into the most intimate Recesses of Her heart with an incredible satisfaction and She joined devoutly and constantly in the Liturgy and Prayers of the Church The Death of Edward the VIth Her beloved Brother in his Childhood in the very Blossom of a promising Spring tho he was snatched away from Her by an immature Fate to the damage of his Countrey yet it gave no stop or affright to Her Piety but She consolated Her self with the Immortal Glory he had acquired in the short time he lived â—…o him succeeded MARY Her Sister who always adhered stifly to the old way of Worship and the Ceremonies and Superstitions of the Church of Rome even when they were abolished by Acts of Parliament and having now got the Crown made it Her greatest Design not only to restore the Pomp and Splendor of it as before but also to compel all her Subjects to submit to it by Force Threats Banishment and most Baâ—…barous Deaths and Cruelties To this purpose also she called over Cardinal Reginald Pool a Person of rare Learning and of a very Innocent Life and Conversation and which is rarely to be found in the men of that Persuasion of a great Proâ—…ity Candor and Sweetness of Temper The Popish Religion being thus restored there were New Bishops and New Preachers sought for to recommend it to the Nation and the Honest Innocent Religious Good men who had set the Crown upon Her Head upon Her Promise to Protect the Religion which She found Established were oppressed by the Fury of their Enemies which spread it self over the whole Kingdom of
the Queen was dead and that the Princess Elizabeth was the indisputed Heir to the Crown of whose Right and Title none could make any Question and therefore the Lords intended to Proclaim her Queen and desired their Concurrence which was joyfully entertained by them and they all cried God save Queen Elizabeth long and happily may she reign She being thus advanced to the Throne not only by her own undoubted Right and the Providence of God but by the Confent and with the Approbation of all the Three Estates then Assembled in Parliament which I think never before hapned to any of our Princes besides her she was received by the whole Nation with incredible Transports of Joy and Affection and the loudest Acclamations they could make men highly valuing the Innocence of her former Life and commiserating the hardships she had suffered in the former Reign to the hazard of her Life When God had thus brought this Queen to the Throne of her Ancestors of a sudden the course of things and the current of affairs took a new bias the heavy Tempests and Misfortunes that attended England weâ—e instantly blown over and a serene and prosperous course of things succeeded in their place Thus in a moment she was not only freed from the Miseries of an Imprisonment but adorned with the highest degree of Honour and Power and this Lady with a Masculine or rather Heroick Soul which was worthy to have governed the Empire of the World for almost Forty five years after managed the Royal Scepter of England and was the Arbitrator prescribing the Conditions of Peace and War to all the Princes of Christendom with a Greatness of Mind and a Wisdom that became so high a Station This Virtue which was almost Divine joined with so admirable a Prudence renders her worthy of the Applause and Honour of all mankind Thus one may see and admire the great force and power of Time and the wonderful Changes of Human Affairs and how useful it is to arrive at Prosperity by the Waves of Adversity Whilst she was in her private Station she was perpetually under the fear and danger of Death but by the Goodness of God she escaped all the Insults of Adverse Fortune her Innocence procured her Safety that made way for her Liberty so her Soveraignty was acknowledged and from her prudent Management of that Royal Station she gained an â—…ndless Glory and an Immortal Name Thus attaining the Possession of a Kingdom with Glory and the Publick Safety and the Good Will of her Subjects she on all occasions shewed the Greatness and Brightness of her Wit and Soul That she had well studied and digested the best Arts and had had an excellent Education and wise Instruction the good Effects of which were now made known by her wise promoting the Good and Safety of her People In the beginning of her Reign she found the Nation at home filled with Divisions and Heart-burnings by reason of the contrary methods used in the two preceding Reigns Abroad she had never an Ally she could trust to all was in War or an uncertain and unsteady Peace The Spanish Government was bâ—…come odious here and the English called their Assected Gravity Pride and Insolence The French had equally incensed us by the late Surprize of Calais The Tâ—…easury was at the lowest Ebb and our Bulwark which our ncestors had preserved Two hundred and ten years was taken from us in one weeks time in the beginning of January in this year The New Queen proposed to herself the common Safety and Welfare of her People and pursued it with the utmost Care and Asfection She was then Twenty five years of Age and something more when the Royal Diadem of England descended to her and she began the difficult work of raising the low and calamitous state of England and redressing those Grievances which the opposite Interests and Designs of the former times had brought upon this Nation She was not only ripe and sit for Government but she had by this time acquired a strange and unusual degree of Civil Prudence She knew the Publick or Royal Laws of England not only by reading them in Books but also by the great Reflection she had made on our History and on what had happened in her own times and by her Conversation with great men and the application she had ever made of her Mind to whatever was worth regarding The 14th of January after her Sister's Death 1558 9 she was Crowned with the Ancient and Usual Ceremonies when her People gave her fresh Instances of their Loyalty and Affection by crowding in unusual Numbers to see and partake in the Joy of this Solemnity And she having observed that her Sister by the sullenness of her Behaviour had much disobliged the People frequently looked on them with a chearful and pleasing Countenance and returned the Respects they paid her with great sweetness She took the Ancient and Usual Coronation-Oath That she would govern her Kingdom according to the Ancient and Laudable Laws and Customs of England which she observed more willingly than most of her Predecesfors had before her and this gained her both the Love and Reverence of her People At first she cherished in her Roman Catholick Subjects a belief she would Imbrace that Religion they prosessed She changed nothing in the Publick Service or the Administration of the Sacraments that she might not enrage her Papists and give them a pretence for Separation before she had well Established herself The Kingdom of England was then very unsetled and had received great Damages both at home and abroad the French had wrested from us the strong Town of Bologne in the Year 1546. before the death of Henry the VIII â—h and Calais in the beginning of this Year The Sea was full of Privateers and there was scarce any thing to be trusted to In this Disorder of Affairs she wisely thought That the only way to settle and preserve the Nation from Imminent Ruine was to chuse wise and upright Men to manage the Publick Affairs She declined the use of Rash and overbold Men who have commonly brought mischief on the States that have trusted to them Being weary of the Popish Ceremonies and their Conversation she retired for some time to one of her Country Houses as it were for Diversion and Pleasure but in truth that she might with the greater Leisure and Secrecy consider of the Methods she should take for the removing the Dangers which threatned her Kingdom for the Preservation of its Peace for the Abating the Power of the Popish Party and the setling that Religion here which she believed was most for the Glory of God as being most agreeable to the Sacred â—…criptures The Men that she most relied on in this great and difficult Work were William Lord Parre of Kendal Marquess of Northampton whom she had restored to his Honours Francis Russel Earl of Bedsord Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
of England and Sir William Cecil Prime Secretary of State all of them men of great Prudence and Courage who had with much difficulty escaped the Marian Tempest These were the Chief Managers of her Secret Councels and acquainted with her most private Thoughts and Designs for the good and safety of her People and were all of them Protestants The Popish Nobility and great Men were either contented with a Vote in the Privy Council in which many of them still sat and others of them refusing however to be any otherwise concerned or foreseeing the Change that was intended had withdrawn themselves altogether and deserted their former Stations Of these she relied mostly on the Council of Cecil and Bacon who were closely united each to other and both equally in her Favour and were besides men of great Judgment They were also her Chief Ministers and most trusted by her for their Integrity and Industry Having throughly consider'd the state of the Nation she resolved at first to promote a Peace abroad and that she might gain her point in this with the greater case she used some Dissimulation Philip the II d King of Spain had lost the possession of England by the death of Queen Mary and to recover it had begun a Treaty of Marriage with Queen Elizabeth which she declined with much civility and modesty so that he still insisted upon it for some time and she was not willing wholly to undeceive him till she saw an end of the Treaty of Cambray Francis the Eldest Son of Henry the II d King of France having married Mary Steward Queen of the Scots and the next Heir after her of the Crown of England the French were forming a Design against her and made a kind of Claim of the Crown for the Dauphiness The Queen feared the King of Spain the moâ—…t of the two as being a Prince of deep Designs and formidable to all his Neighbours on the score of his vast Dominions and was resolved as time and opportunity should serve to abate his Power and cross his Designs She was as much offended with the King of France for the ravishing Calais from us and for assuming the Arms of England to hers and the Nation 's Dishonour yet she resolved to make a Peace with him as soon as she could Thus this Heroick Lady which had tried both Adverse and Prosperous Fortune being by Nature endowed with a strange Sagacity and Prudence which is very rarely to be found in that Sex and which she had also much improved by the Afflictons she had suffered by her wise Counsels soon brought this almost Shipwrack'd Vessel to a sase Port and governed it all her days with much ease and Peace by which she gave the World a noble Specimen of her Virtue Justice and Prudence She discovered all the Inclinations Forces Leagues and Counsels of her Neighbouring States She laid aside all her Feminine Indignation and would not suffer her most intimate Affections to have any place or consideration with her when she was to consult the Peace and secure the safety of her People Of which this may serve for a clear Proof From the beginning of her Reign she had established this as a Maxim That the King of Spain was the most formidable Enemy the English then had but then because that Nation was strong rich and powerful she seemingly paid for some time a great respect to the King of Spain that he and the French King might not join against her and she also sent an Ambassador to renew the Amity between her and the House of Austria Yet considering that it was necessary that she should in a short time have a War with Spain and that part of his Dominions lay near her and that others were more remote and very rich and fruitful so that they would well pay her Subjects for the pains and danger of attacking them She upon the whole concluded That it was her Interest to enter into a Treaty of Peace and Amity with the King of France and accordingly she kindly received his Ambassadors who were sent hither to renew the Peace She put out a Proclamation to forbid all her Subjects the offering any violence or wrong to the French that were then in England that she might prevent their enraging the Foreign Nations against her or her Subjects And in the Castle of Cambray she by her Ambassadors concluded a League with France upon Condition That the Town of Calais and all that belonged to it should after eight years be restored to the English and if the same was not done that the French King should pay to her at the exâ—…iration of the said Term 50000 Crowns and give Hostages of the Children of Noble Families for the persormance of the said Condition in the mean time and the assurance of an Oath that they would punctually and truly keep the said Agreement When this Peace came to be discovered by a Proclamation in London and all the Sea-port Towns almost all the good men of England were inwardly offended at it and they whispered their Discontents in all places Yet I cannot but think the Queen in this League how much soever it was spoken against did rather consult her own Honour and Reputation and the safety and welfare of her People than trust to the Faith of the King of Francâ—… as to the restitution of Calais The Hostages indeed fled away and the French broke their Faith as it was to be thought they would when they were to restore Calais but then the Advantages which England then gained by that seasonable Peace abundantly overbalanced the Damages sustained by the disappointment When the time was expired for the restitution of Caâ—…ais the English Ambassadors in the Court of France endeavoured to make that Nation appear odious and detestable to all Mankind because they had fraudulently departed from the Terms of the League so solemnly made at Cambray and afterwards sworn to by that King But Monsieur de l'Hospital Sieur de Vitry Chancellor of France a Learned and a Cunning Lawyer replied That Calais was lost by a War and regained by another That the Promise of restoring it was a Necessity imposed upon the French by the Iniquity of the Times which had enforced tâ—…em to yield so far to the English for the safety of their State but that in truth the English had as much right to Paris as they had to Calais and might with as good justice demand the first as the last Yet after all this Wise man never endeavoured to clear his Nation from the Guilt and Infamy of Fraud and Perjury which was a Task above his strength In all Revolutions and Changes the Queen always in the first place took care to secure the True Worship of God and the safety of all her Subjects When therefore she had thus secured her Peace abroad or at least had gained a Cessation of War till she might take breath and recover her strength and was now
to take the Stamp of her Royal Authority or otherwise not to pass for current Money in her Kingdom which had a strange effect and enriched both her and her People She invited all sorts of Artificers into England and by proposing to them good terms and great Privileges she repeopled the almost-desolate City of NORWICH and the Towns of COLCHESTER and MAIDSTON She encreased the Inhabitants of many of her other Ancient Towns and she by her Laws reduced the Inhabitants of the Countrey-Villages from Laziness and Beggary to Labour and Husbandry so that there was no part of her Kingdom but was cultivated and improved to the best advantage When she was to settle any thing relating to her Revenues her Treasury or the Administration of justice she admitted none to advise her but men of good Knowledge and Experience in those Affairs If she considered of any Military Concerns she always call'd to her Assistance the old Experienc'd Commanders which had spent much time in Camps She was as careful to give a good and a prudent Dispatch of Publick Transactions and the great Affairs of private men Ambassies the Petitions of her Subjects the Requests of her Allies and Confederates and all matters concerning Commerce and Trade with Foreigners She took the opportunity of the times and her Subjects Affections to her to curb the Luxury of Youth all immoderate Expences and waste in Cloathes and other Furniture and by severe Laws carefully put in Execution She reduced her People to the Ancient Thrift when they were declining towards Effeminacy and over-great Expences which are ever the fore-runners of Poverty and the Causes of great Calamities and Revolutions in all those States they have prevailed in She went on to consider and provide whatever was recommended to her as useful to any part of her State carefully viewing the Conveniencies and the Inconveniencies that were annexed to every Change And whatever was at last found useful and profitable to the Body of her People was setled by the Authority of her Council or Parliament as the case required She procured the Repeal of all those Laws which were either unprofitable or unjust and she brought others which were out of use into esteem again and amended the defects that were found in them It was a Maxim with her That Equitable Laws and Equal Justice are the two sure and lasting Foundations of a State She was as much reverenced and feared on the account of her Justice Tâ—…mperance and Continence as on that of her Royal Authority and Majesty She favoured the Protestant Bishops and the Commons of England as a means to curb the Insolence of the Nobility She would never gratifie any great Ambitious man with the grant of any thing which might inflame his Avarice or make him arrogant She had a true value and a good esteem for all men of illustrious Parts and of good Learning and she preferr'd such men to all Employments and rewarded their Virtue with Honours When the meaner people at any time crowded about her Coach with great desire to see and salute her with loud Shouts and fervent Prayers for her Prosperity and long and happy Reign over them she would ever return their Loyal Zeal with much Courtship and Civility so that some said she was too Theatrical in her Carriage towards them but as by her Meekness Clemency Lenity Justice and the setling good Laws and exact Justice she had won their hearts so by this Condescention and Flattery she fixed their Affections so that they would have willingly sacrificed all they had to her Service and Safety She exercised a moral Friendship and Familiarity with many private persons and ever reserved in her sole disposal all the Rewards of Virtue and good Service She would never suffer any Immunities or Privileges Benefices Church-Livings Governments or the Rights of her Kingdom to be openly sold. She advanced her Friends Kinsmen and Relations with great Kindness and Affection and no less Moderation and Prudence She made Sir Henry Cary Lord Hâ—…nsdon who was her Cousin-German and she gave him Riches Employments and Attendance suitable to that Station She advanced William Lord Howard of Effingham on the score of his being related to her and of his good Deserts to be Lord Chamberlain of England of her own free motion without any solicitation from themselves or others She preserved the Family of Seymour which was ruin'd by the Attainder of Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset Uncle and Lord Protector of King Edward VI in the year 1552. and in the first year of her Reign she restored Edward his Son to the degree of Earl of Hertford She restored also several of the Nobility whose Families had been ruined by her Sister and put them into the same condition they were before She Attainted no man in all her Reign by Act of Parliament No man ever could perceive that the least remainders of any Offence were left in her mind but when she could most easily have revenged her self she always chose rather to forget the Injury so that every man presently promised himself a better Fortune for the future If there was any Quarrel between any of the great Nobility she presently made it her business to reconcile them each to other and she would on such occasions exhort them not to suffer any Enmity to settle between their Families that they should not involve their Children and educate them in the Dissentions of their Families and a desire of Revenge That they should cut off those Feuds that had descended to them from the Contests of their Ancestors and with an invincible Courage repress the Foreign Fury of their Enemies abroad but with one heart and one mouth provide for the Safety and Security of their Native Countrey at home As she took this care to put an end to the Dissentions of her Nobilty so she was no less careful to root up those evil Customs which had crept into the Nation in the former Reigns and tended apparently to the Ruin of it some of these she corrected and others she totally abolished She rescinded all Sales that were made for the cheating Creditors she dealt very severely with all those that were found guilty of any Frauds or Cheats in the Management of the Publick Revenues or the purveyance for her Court which she was wont to call Harpies which fouled and ravaged all they could come at and she discouraged as much as was possible all the tricks and corruptions of the Courts of Justice She encreased the Wages and Salaries of the Judges and that they might the better be enabled and encouraged to go their Circuits and administer Justice to her people she allowed them Travelling-Money and Purveyance The effect of this prudent Administration was the enriching her and her Subjects attended with great Glory and a willing obedience from those under her happy Government The Countrey was rarely well Tilled and improved The Subject quiet and rich and her Councils
and Parliaments honoured and reverenced In short all those Perfections which separately have made so many Great Men admired met in this one Lady viz. Civil Prudence for the Government of a State the knowledge of Equity and Laws and an exact Skill of managing a Kingdom and the Publick Affairs of it Her Goverment was not like that of most other Women turbulent and insolent but was grateful to her Subjects pleasing to the People acceptable to the Nobility and Gentry equal and just to her Allies and admired by the Neighbour Nations She has been celebrated not only in her own times but in all that have since followed and will be to the end of the world on the account of these Divine Virtues and Deserts For she was truly accounted the Parent of her â—…eople a Prince by her Nobles and the Patroness of true Piety and Religion by the Protestant Nations about her Nor was there ever any Prince that was equally esteemed and loved by the Nobility and Commonalty too of his own Kingdom as Queen ELIZABETH was by hers If she happened at any time to be sick or ever so little disordered in her health her Nobility would be so alarmed at it that they would willingly never stir from her to eat or drink or take any care of themselves and all degrees of people would fly in vast Numbers to the Churches and with Tears and the most devout Prayers beg her Life and Health and the Continuance of her Government over them till God heard their Petitions and restored her to her Health Nor was this an enjoined and formal Devotion but it was as hearty and as earnest as that which is made for the nearest and dearest Relations And when they had obtained their desire the Joy and the Gratitude they expressed shewed they took her Preservation and Life for a Publick and an Universal Blessing When in the beginning of her Reign she had first taken care to reform and settle Religion and after that to redress and restore the Civil State or Government of England which had been brought by the Calamities of the foregoing Reigns not only into a deplorable but almost into a desperate condition but now were by her Authority Prudence and Moderation with the Assistance of her Council brought to the state of Tranquility Order and Equity she designed the Fears of England which before oppress'd the Nation in relation to Foreign Dangers as well as Domestick expired When her first Parliament had setled the Succession and Religion their next care was for the Marriage of the Queen and the providing for future times and accordingly the Commons by common consent resolved to Address to the Queen fearing though without just cause That she should Marry a Foreign Prince and thereby bring the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion into the same dangers they had been exposed to in the former Reign They therefore represented the Affections of the Nation to her and said If they could hope she might be Immortal they would rest satisfied but that being a vain Imagination they earnestly besought her to chuse such an Husband as might make her self and the Nation happy and by the Blessing of God bring such Issue as might Reign after her Death which they prayed God might be very late To this she replied That tho the Subject they came about was not acceptable to her yet it was a great satisfaction to her to see how zealous they and her other Subjects were for her Welfare and that she bâ—…lieved they desired it for her's and the Nation 's Good And as to the changing my present state said she and Marrying which you so earnestly desire I would do I have long since peâ—…suaded my self That I was brought into the world by the special Providence of God that I might in the first place think and do what tended most to his Glory Therefore I have chosen that state of Life which is the freest from human cares that so I might be at leisure only to attend the Service of God And if it had been possible for the Marriage of a Potent Prince to have allured me or the Fears of Death to have affrighted me from this Resolution I might have been long since engaged in the Honourable State of Matrimony and these were my thoughts when I was â—…et a Subject But now when all the Cares which attend the Governing of a Kingdom are come upon me it would appear a very inconsiderate and imprudent thing in me to add to them the Cares of a Married State In truth said she I am already married if 〈◊〉 else will satisfie you to the Kingdom of ENGLAND See what I wonder you could forget the Pledge of my Marriage and betrothing to the Nation And stretching out her hand she shewed them on one of the Fingers of her Right Hand the Gold Ring had been put upon it according to the Custom at her Coronation And after a short pause she thus went on And I desire you would not look upon me as Childless and on that account weak and defenceless for you and all other English-men are my Children and Kinsmen and if God doth not deprive me of you as I hope he will not there can be no reason why I should be thought Childless Yet I cannot but commend you for this That you have not prescribed or appointed who should be my Husband for this would have been a very great Affront to a Sovereign Prince as I am and very misbecoming you who are my Subjects born But if ever it should please the Divine Majesty to incline me to change my Condition I promise you I will never do any thing that shall tend to the Damage of the State but will to the utmost of my power take such an Husband as shall take as much Care of the Kingdom as I do But then if I should continue in my present State of Life I do not doubt but that God will so direct mine and your Counsels that there shall be no doubt of my Successor who may be more beneficial to the Kingdom than one born of me for it is often observed That the Children of the Best Princes do degenerate from the Virtues of their Parents And as for me it will be the best Memorial and the greatest Honour I can wish to leave behind me to have this Inscription after my Death upon my Tomb HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN And she concluded That she took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her Thanks for the Care the Commons had of her By this means it came to pass that many Noblemen of great Estate and Power especially such as enjoyed the Blessings of Nature and Fortune Beauty and Wealth united together conceived an almost certain hopes that they should win their Maiden Queen and were by her Arts carried on in that expectation But on the contrary tho she lived in a Royal
Equals insolent to his Inferiors ungrateful to his Friends and pernicious to his Enemies and in a word intolerable to all but the Queen She made him first Master of her Horse and after Earl of Leicester for the Sufferings of his Ancestors both in her Father's and Sister's Reign But the common people who very rarely penetrate into the Thoughts of Princes ascribed all his Power and good Fortune to his Wit and Carriage which was formed by Nature and Art to the alluring of the softer Sex he being of a very taking Behaviour and an excellent Dancer so that one of the bâ—…st Dances of that Age was called by his Name The Leicester Dance When he found the Tide of Fortune flowing according to his Ambitious Wishes his heart was too much lifted up and being sometimes confounded by the Number of his Attendants and those that waited upon and visited him he would forget their Names and call them by that of other men He oftâ—…n changed his Cloathes and affected Gallantry to an Excess He put himsels forward and took up the distant Employments of Peace and War in exclusion of others who had more Experience especially in War and were Nobly born He was continually plodding to find the Studies Abilities Forces and Dispositions of other men and so great was his Application and Parts that he rarely miscarried in his Enquiries He would terrifie and sometimes destroy his Enemies and allure his Friends by the shews of Rewards He by his Interest advanced his Dependants Kindred and Relations to Honours and Employments And when he found his opportunity he as craftily sold his Mistress's Favours and the Employments he had taken from others He did the same by the Livings of the Church but then he took Bonds and other Securities to avoid the Penalties of Simony Yet there were few for a great while called to the Council-Table or admitted to Titles of Honour but by his Commendation and Procurement so that he seemed not so much to be the Queen 's particular Favourite as her Partner in the Royal Power and he was accordingly courted and revered by the rest of the Nobility The Queen made him Earl of Leicester in the year 1564. she gave him also a considerable Estate out of the Crown Lands and advanced him from Master of the Horse to Lord Steward of her Houshold She had made Ambrose Dudley his eldest Brother then living for John the eldest of them died a Prisoner in the Reign of Queen Mary without Issue about two years before Earl of Warwick and enriched him with the Grant of a plentiful Estate to bear the Charge of that Honour much of which being made up out of the Estates that had been forfeited to the Crown this and the sudden Rise of these two Brothers who had not done any considerable Service to the Nation that was known either in Peace or War made them envied and hated not only by the Nobility and Courtiers but by the Populace And Leicester encreased the Aversion of all men by his licentious and expensive way of living and by his Rapins which he craftily made upon many he in other Instances perverted the Laws and invaded the last Wills and Testaments of the Dead He ruined many of his Neighbours by cunning and tedious Law-Suits to get their Estates which lay convenient for him In the mean time he gave himself up intirely to the exercise of a most wicked and univerfal Luxury and brought into England from Foreign Countreys many new and unheard-of Pleasures and invented new kinds of Dishes to gratifie his Gluttony He would drink dissolved Pearls and Amber to excite his Lust and had so accustomed himself to the scents of Musk and Civet that when he went General into the Low-Countries he could not live without them so that in short he very much exceeded the Intemperance of all former times and made an accursed addition to the ruining-disorders of men His Example corrupted many of the younger Nobility also who being prone to Luxury very easily imitated his Vices and thought that the height of human Happiness was in Pleasures and therefore wholly neglecting the Care and Improvement of their Minds spent all their Time Money and Thoughts on the Dressing themselves after the French Fashion and pleasing their Senses Who can conceive the Poverty that followed these immense Expences And the bold Adventures these impoverished Gallants were forced upon to supply their Wants Desperation and Effeminacy making them outragious to the Ruin of the State Certainly there is nothing that is more destructive to a Nation and consequently more to be avoided than the Feasts and Riots of a prodigal Apicius or the Luxury and Banquets of a profuse 〈◊〉 Thus was Fitz-Alan the last â—…arl of Arundel and Edward de Vere Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Oxford the Baron of Windfor and many rich Knights and Gentlemen who might have been the Ornaments of their Countrey by his ill Example and Conversation drawn into great Expences Chargeable Feasts Balls and Interludes and an excessive Gallantry the common Attendants of too much Ease and Plenty by which they much wasted their Estates and impoverished their Families and their Bodies also were much softned and unmann'd by their Excesses and Sloth and the generous Inclinations and Faculties of their Souls stifled and weakned by the Charms of Pleasures There are some who think that the crafty Earl of Leicester designed this debauching the Prime Nobility of England when he entred upon this way of living that he might by it render them weak and contemptible But however it is most certain the great influence he had upon the Queen and his being the Prime Minister of State and acquainted with all her Counsels and Intentions made him extremely hated by all the rest He had by his cunning and crafty Projects and Counsels engrossed all the Rewards of Virtue Riches Honours Attendants and the first Place of Minister of State and he managed them and lived without any Religion towards God or Fidelity to men making it his great design to cover all things with Luxury Cruelty and Rapines With whom did he continue in a constant Friendship What good man did not find him an Enemy He was to the utmost degree ungrateful to all his Friends and if any of his Enemies had at any time a little too freely expressed their Resentments against his Dishonesty Wickedness Injuries Power or Perfidy as he gave men too frequent occasions to reflect on them he seldom failed to cause them to be treacherously murdered Many fell in his time saith a Great Man of that Age who saw not the hand that pull'd them down and as many died that knew not their own disease He would not trust his Familiars above one year but either Transported them to Foreign Services or wafted them to another world In the year 1583 he caused one Mr. Edward Adern a Generous but Imprudent and Rash Gentleman a zealous Roman-Catholick and a great
Queen Mary preserved him in her fair Esteem tho he was of a differing Religion In the first of Queen Elizabeth he was again call'd to the Council-Table In the 3d. year of her Reign he was made Master of the Wards and in the 14th Anno 1572. he was made Lord Treasurer of England upon the Death of William Lord Paâ—…let havingthe 25th of February of the preceding year obtained his Patentof Baron Lord Burleigh so that he was the first Peer of this Illustrious House though his Father and Grandfather had enjoyed good Employments under Henry the 8th In all the Contests between Sussex and Leicester this Great Man stood Neuter and would engage in neither of the Parties which made him the Head of a Third and enabled him to serve himself of both the other in whose ways he laid many rubs Others were raised to balance Factions he to support a Kingdom as he was the best Statesman in that Age so he was constantly on the watch for the Safety of his Mistress and her Kingdoms Leicester was the Cunningest man of the Age but Cecil the Wisest the Stoutest and being without Guile or Pride made it his business to baffle all Leicester's Projects for thâ—… Marriage of the Queen and the enslaving the Nation He and Sussex threw themselves once at the Feet of the Queen and presumed to tell her That all her good subjects were concern'd to see the Danger and Dishonour Dudley had brought upon her That he had transgressed all the bounds of a Subject and very much exceeded the Crimes of Northumberland his Father That he had bragg'd of Marrying her That this was a Dishonour to her Majesty and would bring Mischief on her Kingdoms for her Subjects would never endure the Soveraignty of an unchaste and wicked man And they advised her to put a stop to the Jealousies of her People and to consult her own Honour and the Safety of her Friends They represented to her very warmly the Dignity Power and Wealth of a Foreign Match and recommended to her Charles Arch-Duke of Austria second Son of Ferdinand the Emperor and Brother of Maximilian II. as a Prince worthy of her Affections These Discourses of these Great Men made a very deep Impression on the mind of the Queen and thereupon this Noble Earl was sent in the year 1567 to carry the George to Maximilian II. Emperor of Germany and had Commission at the same time to treat of this Marriage which he endeavoured to effect with all his Power though the Earl of Leicester opposed it The Gallantry of his Behaviour and the Splendor of his Equipage and Retinue gain'd him a Familiarity from the Emperor and a Reverence from the Arch-Duke a Respect from the People and his Mistress a kindness in that Court which stood her in great stead against the Attempts of the King of Spain and Pope of Rome which perhaps was all that was designed by the Treaty for it is said the Lord North who went with him had Orders under hand to oppose all his Negotiations as he did and by a few fond Scruples disappointed and at last defeated the whole Design It is supposed by some this Obstruction was procured by Leicester to secure his own Greatness When this Great but Ill Man had struggled many years with the opposite Parties which arose one after another against him in the Court and found himself sinking in the Favour of the Queen by his private Marrying the Countess of Essex during the Life of his first Wife fearing the Divine Justice the Change of the Times and the great Numbers of men he had exasperated against him he in the year 1585 obtained a Commission of the Queen for Levying 500 men to be sent into Holland and Zealand and was after that by another constituted Lieutenant and Captain-General of the whole Army designed for the Service of the United Provinces against the Spaniard whither he went the same year he had no good Success in this Expedition and the next year the Hollanders made loud and dreadful Complaints against him for mis-spending their Money and ill-managing their Affairs whereupon he was re-called and the Complaint following him hither he told the Queen That she having sent him thither with Honour he hoped she would not receive him back with Disgrace and that whom she had raised from the Dust she would not bury alive Thereupon he left the Court and the 4th of Septembâ—…r 1588 he died at Cornbury-Park in Oxfordshire Thus died this Favourite having in one year in the Wars lost all that Reputation and Favour he had acquired in so many years in the Court. Peregrine Lord Willoughby a Noble Gentleman a good Soldier and a Virtuous Man who was one of the Commanders under the Earl of Leicester succeeded him as General of the English Forces in the Netherlands He had more Experience more Courage and also more Success than his Predecessor so that he was stiled the Queen's first Sword-man and a great Master of the Military Art by the Historians of those times He did the States of Holland great Service by his brave Defence of Bergen ap Zoom against the Prince of Parma in the year 1588 But for all that he had some of the Fate of his Predecessor which fell to his lot for he was complained of by the Hollanders as well tho not so justly as Leicester but his Innocence clear'd him In the year 1589 he was sent General of 4000 men in aid of the King of Navarre into France and he died in the year 1601. The Queen in all the time of her Reign took care to Establish her Government by the Counsel Virtue and Fidelity of many Wise and Learned Men who spent their whole time in promoting the Publick Welfare and Peace of her Kingdoms Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State was one of the greatest of these and an Ornament to her Court and Council He so sedulously attended the execution of the Office committed to him and took his Measures for the Safety of her Person and Kingdoms and the Security of the Protestant Religion with that Prudence and Caution that it was scarce possible any thing should happen which his Care and Industry had not foreseen or his Spies discovered to him before-hand His Maxim was Knowledge is never too dear and accordingly he spent his whole Income and Time in her Service and died in the year 1590 so poor that the Queen gave his Daughter her Portion The Queen has been heard to say That his Diligence and Sagacity exceeded her Expectation The Lord Burleigh was made Lord Treasurer of England by her because he was the Cato of his Time a man well versed in the Affairs of the Treasury and a Provident and Careful Manager of them He would insinuate to the Queen That the Treasury was not her own Money but committed to her Care for the Safety of her People and therefore it was not to be spent in useless
March with the English Army for England where he was rewarded for this Service with the Government of Berwick which he did not long enjoy for he died the 14th of December 1562. This War saith Mr. Cambden preserved all Britain from Ruin restored the Scots to their Ancient Liberty and setled the Peace and enlarged the Reputation of the English Nation so that from thenceforward during all her happy Reign she had no reason to apprehend any danger from Scotland the Protestants of that Nation esteeming the Queen their Patroness and Deliverer and the English acknowledging she had laid a sure foundation for their future Security Thus she delivered Scotland from those Foreigners who designed by Violence and Force to suppress not only the Protestant Religion but their Civil Rights and Liberties also and to bring upon that Free Nation an intolerable French Slavery Of this the Scots were then so extremely sensible saith my Author who was of that Nation That they being delivered by her means from Foreign Servitnde they thereupon subscribed to a League to maintain the Protestant Religion and to use the English Worship and Rites After this a Civil War arose in France and the Queen sent Supplies under the Earl of Warwick in 1562. to the Prince of Conde the Count de Rohan and Coligny the Defenders of the Protestant Religion and of the Liberties of that Kingdom To these Forces when the Protestants themselves opposed thâ—…m she sent afterwards Additional Forces and great Sums of Money At this time the French Protestants put Havre de Grace into her hands as a Cautionary Town and it was Garison'd with English Soldiers but so soon as their Fear of the Popish Party was a little abated by a Peace granted to them which yet waâ—… of no duration they joined with their Popish Countreymen to drive out their Benefactors and with equal Violence endeavoured to reduce the Town under the Crown of France again The Earl of Warwick seeing his men consumed by a War without and a Plaâ—…ue within the Town and no Relief to be expected in due time he thereupon began a Treaty with the Enemy and the 28th of July 1563. the Articles of Surrender were signed the next day there came a Fleet of 60 Sail of English Ships into the Haven on which the Garison was Transported into England And the Protestants of France had the chief hand in the driving them out as all sides acknowledge The Death of Francis II. King of France the 5th of December 1560. when he had Reigned but Seventeen Months put an end to all the French Ambitious Designs of Conquering England and Reducing Scotland and to the Fears of both these Kingdoms on that score Mary Queen of Scotland being thus deprived of her Beloved Husband soon grew weary of that Kingdom and getting a small Number of Ships together for that purpose she went on board at Calais the 14th of August and she landed at Leith the 20th of the same month in the year 1561 being attended by many of the Nobility and some great Ladies of both the French and Scots Nation Not long after the Queen of England having opposed this Princess's designs of Marrying Charles Archduke of Austria and rather recommending to her choice the Lord James Darnley Eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox and the next Heir after her of the Crowns of England and Scotland so that this Match would undoubtedly secure her Title to England too after the Death of Queen Elizabeth whereupon she married him at Edinburgh in the year 1565 and the next year after James their only Son was born to the great Joy of both the Nations for he was then thought one of the Pillars of Christendom the Ornament of his Native Countrey and Family and all men presaged That he would one day become the King of Great Britain as it came afterwards to pass by the wonderful good Providence of God This Marriage was attended with a Catastrophe and Tragick Event which is grievous to the thoughts and scarce possible to be enough lamented Mary Stewart the Relict of Francis II. King of France and the Immediate Heiress and Lawful Queen of Scotland and the Presumptive Heir of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Mother of James VI. soon after became a Lamentable Example of the Unsteadiness of Human Affairs The Lord Darnley her Husband having out of Jealousie ordered the Murther of one David Rixio the Queen's Secretary was afterwards himself Poisoned first and then Murdered at Edinburgh in the year 1567 The effect of which was the Deposing the Queen her self who was suspected to have an hand in it and the Imprisoning her in a Castle in the Lake of Locklevin where she was forced to subscribe a Resignation of the Crown and Government of Scotland in the year 1568. The Queen by the Providence of God escaped afterwards out of this Restraint the 2d of May and raised some Forces to recover her Crown again which were intirely routed and dispersed by the Forces of the Regent of Scotland So that having nothing more to trust to in that Kingdom she took shipping with intention to pass into France but being by stress of Weather or the Treachery of those that carried her brought into England she was landed at Warkinton in Cumberland the 17th of the same Month and not long after committed Prisoner to the Castle of Carlisle so that being driven from her Native Countrey by her own Subjects she found an uneasie and cruel Restraint where she expected a Refuge and a Sanctuary The Laws of Hospitality and that Kindness which Nature teacheth all men to use towards those that are of the same Lineage and Blood not being able to protect her against the Jealousie of a Rival Queen When Mary Queen of the Scots saw her self reduced to this Calamitous Condition forsaken of all her Subjects and Servants and forced to flee in one day about Sixty Miles and then not thinking her self secure till passing to Sea she was thrown upon the English shore She wrote a Letter to the Queen of England before she left Scotland and sent it by one Beton and she gave him a Diamond which the Queen had sent her before this as a Pledge of her Friendship she also ordered him to tell the Queen That she intended to leave Scotland and to come into England and did most earnestly beseech her to send her such Help and Assistance as was necessary in case the Scots should persist in the same Methods of Oppression Queen Elizabeth assured this Gentleman That she would shew the Queen of Scots all that Affection that she could possibly expect from a Sister Before this Gentleman could get back again she left Scotland contrary to the Advice of all her Friends and came into England and as soon as she was on shore she sent the Queen a Second Letter in French in the Conclusion of which she tells the Queen of England That she was come into her
the Crown which yet could not be proved by certain Evidence That the times were unjust and wicked and Malice was blinded with Prejudice and made no scruple to charge the most Innocent with horrid Crimes â—…hat however there was an All-seeing Justice which attended at the Throne of God which was the best Avenger of all secret Villanies It will appear by all this what Difficulties there were on all hands in this great Affair and that the Queen was not acted only by a spirit of Jealousie and Revenge for what was past or out of a Personal and Selfish Humour oppressed this Banished Queen without considering all things with great application of mind The Lord Herris who attended the Court for the Queen of Scots was not idle in the mean time but earnestly sollicited Queen Elizabeth That she would not rashly believe any Accusation which should be brought against a Sovereign Queen till she had been heard and that the Meeting of the States of Scotland should not be precipitated by the Earl of Murray the Prime Regent to the Prejudice of the Deposed Queen and the Ruin of all her Loyal and Good Subjects The Queen of England accordingly did interpose her Authority with Murray as to the lattter of these but the Regent went on for all that Assembled the States of Scotland and attainted several of those that had taken Arms for the Queen and seized their Estates and Houses The Queen of England being highly incensed upon this sent Sir Walter Mildmay to the Regent to tell him from her That she could not sit still and see the Sacred Power of Princes be brought into Contempt amongst their Subjects and be trodden under foot at the Will and Pleasure of Factious men That altho they had forgot all that Duty and Respect which they owed to their Queen yet she for her part could not forger the Affection and Compassion her Piety obliged her to shew to a Sister and a Neighbour Queen That therefore Murray should either come to her himself or send some able men who might answer the Complaints of the Queen of Scots against the Regent and his Partakers and shew the Causes for which they had Abdicated Deposed the Queen which if they did not forthwith do she would dismiss the Queen of Scots and lend her all her Forces in order to the resettling her in her Kingdom And at the same time she admonished them not to sell the Queen's Jewels and Wardrobe tho the States had given him leave to do it The Earl of Murray accordingly and some other of the Nobility came into England and the case of the Queen of Scots was heard at York by several of the Lords of the English Council but could be brought to no Issue by reason of the cross Interests and the mutual Fears on all sides Tho the Queen of England to the last declared That she detested the Insolence of the Scots in her soul who had presumed to Abdicate their Queen But then when the Duke of Norfolk thought it reasonable that Murray should be stayed in England and be prosecuted for the Death of the Lord Darnley which the Queen of Scots said she would prove against him tho this was approved by the Earls of Arundel Sussex Leicester and Clinton afterwards Earl of Lincoâ—…n yet the Queen was very angry at the Motion and openly said The Queen of Scots would never want an Advocate as long as the Duke of Norfolk lived So that upon the whole it is strongly probable she durst not dismiss or restore the Queen of Scots for fear it should involve both England and Scotland in Wars and Calamities which would have very much endangered the utter Ruin of both the Nations but then she was desirous as much as was possible to keep the Example from spreading to the Damage of other Princes and the Endangering other States in other Circumstances as much as it tended now to their Preservation Many have endeavoured to blacken this Act of the Queen's and others to defend and excuse it but for my part I think the Character God gave of King David may be applied to Queen Elizabeth here David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite And what if upon the whole the Queen of the Scots is to be excepted only in our Instance This Reflection will appear so much the more reasonable if we take into Consideration her Death too The Queen of Scots had been now a Prisoner in England almost XVIII Years when the Queen of England was prevailed upon by the earnest Solicitation of many of the Peers and Commons of England who fell down upon their Knees humbly requesting her Majesty as Melvil expresseth it to have Compassion upon their unsure Estate albeit she should slight her own Alledging That her Life was in hazard by the Practices of the Queen of Scotland and their Lives and Fortunes also Now as it was possible for the English to have kept all those ill men from her which might put the Queen of Scotland upon such Practices so it was utterly unreasonable that Queen Elizabeth should expect the Queen of Scots would desist from endeavouring by all the ways that were possible to recover her Liberty and her Kingdom tho with the Death of her Oppressor But by this time the King of Scotland her Son was become a man and he would have secured the Peace and Possession of that Kingdom and the Queen of Scots was now XLIV Years of Age and so not so likely if she had escaped to have been Courted or to have wrought her any great Mischief in the world as she might have done in her Younger years besides by this time the States of Holland had pretty well establishtd themselves to balance the Spaniards but then the House of Guise was then in its greatest Pride and the King of Spain was preparing his Invincible Armado which came two years after and these two may seem to have been the real Motives to it But whatever they were the thing cannot be justified neither ought it and Queen Elizabeth seems to own as much by her ruining Davison the Secretary to conceal her own fault tho in truth it made it much worse When the Queen of Scots was brought before the Lords that were to Try her for her Life she declined their Jurisdiction as well she might and alledged she was a Sovereign Queen to which the Chancellor the Lord Hatton replied You are accused but not condemned You say you are a Queen be it so if you are innocent you wrong your Reputation in avoiding Tryal You protest your self Innocent the Queen feareth the contrary not without grief and shame To examine your Innocence are these Honourable Prudent and upright Commissioners sent Glad will they be with all their hearts if they may return and
of Supremacy And finding that the Iesuits and Secular Priests were under the Mask and Pretence of Religion the Spies and Partisans of Philip II. King of Spain and the Emissaries and Promoters of the Papal Tyranny and Disorder and that their greatest business was to pervert her Subjects and to entice them to commit the most unnatural and horrid Crimes she banished them for ever from her Kingdoms and Territories and made it Treason for them to return and Felony for any of her Subjects knowing them to be such to entertain conceal or harbor them This which was designed by the Queen and the Government to cure or rather to prevent their Treachery and Malice by keeping them at a distance inflamed their rage against her so that concealing themselves under the Habits and Dresses of Lay men and sometimes under the Disguise of Mechanick and mean Trades and Employments they lay as it were in ambush expecting and ready to catch at any opportunity that offered it self to murther her In the year 1578. which was the 12th year of her Reign and the very year when the Popish Schism began several of the Popish Priests fled over into Flanders where Philip II. had already prepared for them a College at Doway and here they put themselves under the Government of one William Alan a Divine of Oxford who having obtained a large Pension from the Pope opened here a School for Rebellion and Treason To the end say they that as the Papal Priests in England are by time extinguished there might always be a new Race to supply their Places and sow the Seeds of the Roman Religion in England and therefore they called these Places Seminaries and those that were educated in them Seminary Priests The first of these Seminary Priests sent over were Robert Parson and Edmund Campion in the year 1580. Parson was a Somersetfhire man of a furious and hot Temper and of an ungenteel behaviour Campian was a Londoner well bred sweet and elegant and both of them had been bred up in the University of Oxford and had profess'd the Protestant Religion These men upon their coming over into England appeared sometimes in a Military Habit sometimes in the Dress of a Gentleman and at others in the Habits of the Clergy and sometimes like Paritors and frequented the Country Houses and Seats of the Popish Nobility and Gentry Parson was so hot with them for the deposing of the Queen that some of them were strongly inclined to deliver him up into the Hands of the Magistrates Campian made it more his business to pervert the People by his Writings to the Popish Religion but his Reign was not long for in the year 1581. he was taken and executed for High-Treason The Queen had before this put out a Proclamation to give these men a caution before-hand That seeing they had put off all that Love which they owed to their Countrey and the Allegiance which was due to her they should yet behave themselves prudently and modestly and not irritate her Justice any farther against them for she was now resolved not to be cruel to her self and her good Subjects any longer by sparing such Miscreants as she had found them to be So that how severely soever they were used they had the lessâ—…ason to complain because she had fairly before-hand told them what she meant to do and what usage they might expect at her hands In the year 1583. Francis Throgmorton the eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel and others of the Popish Religion conspired to deliver the Queen of Scots out of her Confinement Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip his Son Earl of Arundel were suspected and confined to their own Houses and some others were suspected and difficultly delivered themselves For about this time the outragious Malice of the Popish Party against the Queen broke out to that degree that they printed Books to exhorâ—… the Queens Servants to serve her as Judith did Holofernes The Author of which was never fully discovered but iâ—… was suspected that it was written by Gregory Martin of Oxford but Carter a Printer that printed it was hanged Throgmâ—… had the same Fate but Paget and Charles Arundel left the Nation and went into France Stafford the Queen's Ambassador desired they might be sent out of France which was denied because the Queen had at the same time entertained the Count de Montgomery and had then with her Sagner an Advocate of Berne an Ambassador for the King of Navar who was endeavouring to promote a War in France In the year 1585. William Parry a Welshman by Birth and of a very mean Extraction meanly learned in the Civil Law but proud and gallant beyond his Means being chosen a Member of the Lower-House declaimed very furiously against a Bill then proposed in Parliament against the Jesuits averring tâ—…at it was a cruel bloody desperate Bill and would be destructive to the Kingdom of England Being desired to shew his Reasons for what he said he refused to answer before any other than the Privy Council whereupon he was commitâ—…ed and afterwards upon his submission readmitted into the House but was afterwards accused by Edmund Nevil the Heir Male of the House of Westmorland to have a Design against the Life of the Queen which he confessed afterwards in the Tower upon which he was tryed and executed In the year 1586. J. Ballard a Ruffling Priest of the College of Reims came over to embroil the Nation and made his visit to most of the Popish Nobility and Gentry in England and Scotland being every where accompanied by one Mand who was a Spy employed by Sir F. Walsingham This Silken Priest came into England about Easter and contracted a great acquaintance and friendship with Mr. Anth. Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman of good Birth and Estate of great Wit and Learned above his years but being a great Zealot for the Romish Religion he about a year before this without the Queen's leave went into France and there was first debauched as to his Loyalty by Morgan an Agent for the Scotchmen in that Court Ballard informed this Gentleman that the Queen of England would not live long because there was one Savage come over to assassinate her This Project did not please Babington so he formed a new Design in which were Edward Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Sarisbury of the County of Denbigh Charles Tilney one of the Gentlemen Pensioners that waited upon the Queen and the only hope of his Family but reconciled to the Church of Rome under-hand by this Ballard Chidick Tichburn of the County of Southampton Edward Abington Son of the Queen's Cosserer Robert Grage of Surry John Traverse John Charnock of Lancaster John Jones whose Father had been Master of the Wardrobe to Queen Mary Savaâ—…e and one Barnwell of a Noble 〈◊〉 Family Henry Dun a Clerk in
minds of his Subjects to enslave the Innocent and the Guilty And altho he made Religion his Pretence yet Ambition and Worldly Greatness and the subduing his own People and all his Neighbours was the Real Motive at the bottom I conclude therefore That he was a Tyrant and a Perfidious Man and his Subjects that revolted from him upon such horrid Provocations and after they had done all that was possible to bring him to better courses were no Rebels I cannot here but observe how frequently and passionately of late the Hollanders were called Rebels and Traytors here by a sort of men who were going to act upon us all the ill things the Spaniards did there but wanting Numbers they were forced to go slowly on and had great thoughts of heart that our Doctrine of Non-Resistance might fail them when they stood most in need of it to bind up our hands till they should cut our Throats and therefore they declaimed furiously against these Hollanders to fright us into the snare But certainly the man must be very silly that would at all regard the being called a Rebel by the Roman-Catholicks or part with all that is valuable to avoid that Reproach from such men of all others But to return from this Digression concerning the Cause of this War The Queen seeing her Neighbours in the Netherlands thus oppressed by the Savage Tyranny of the Duke De Alva and so injuriously exhausted by his Arbitrary and Illegal Exactions Prosecutions and Murthers and all the other Calamities of an unjust War and the distressed Inhabitants of these Provinces flocking in great numbers into her Kingdom to shelter themselves from the Affronts Assassinations Pride and Cruelty of this Enemy and Executioner with all they could bring away with them she opened her Ports to receive them and with great compassion heard their bitter Complaints whilst they deplored the Miseries of their Country and begged her Protection pursuant to the Treaties and Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy She always expressed a great regard for those Nations and Countries that lay near hers and were by Leagues united to her and she was the more afflicted for this People because fhe saw the extirpating the Protestant Religion was made the Pretence of one of the most flagrant Injuries that was ever offered to a Free People And therefore she was the more easily induced to deliver these her nearest Allies out of the Jaws of this Pyratc and Enemy of Mankind and to curb the Insolence of these Spanish Forccs that from all quarters were poured in upon these miserable Countries to enslave and destroy them She thought there was nothing in this world which so well became the Majesty of a Prince and tended more to her Reputation and Glory than the taking Arms against such men as these and in the Defence of such Supplicants to deliver them at once from the most intolerable Dangers and from Slavery It is very probable she would for a longer time have dissembled the Injuries the King of Spain had done to her and her Subjects if he would have mitigated his Rigors in the Low Countries but seeing that was not to be hoped for she resolved to put a stop to his Rage by Force and for the Glory of God and the common Safety of the Protestant Interest to assist the Netherlanders with Men Money Arms Ammunition and whatever else was necessary to keep them out of the hands of their Oppressors She neither feared the Greatness of Philip the IId nor the Threats of France nor the Secret and Treacherous Machinations and Plots of her own Popish Subjects at home nor the Hazards Expences or Calamities of a very dangerous and lasting War abroad with the Richest and most Potent Princes in her Times but putting her sole Trust and Confidence in the Providence and Protection of God she chearfully and undauntedly entred the Lists with these men that her Neighbours and Friends Confederates and Allies might enjoy their Ancient Liberties and Privileges their beloved Countrey their Estates and Fortunes and the Liberty of their Consciences and live happily She thought no Labour no Danger no Expence too great to be hazarded to obtain so great a Blessing for them but went through all that stood in her way with Courage Equinimity Fidelity and Constancy By which she acquired an Immortal Glory and is still esteemed the Deliverer and Preserver of this People and in truth of the whole Protestant Interest in Christendom The Kings of France and Spain in the mean time threatned to expel her out of her Kingdoms and promoted Rebellions in England and Ireland to that end against her but there happened such dreadful Civil Wars in both their Kingdoms that they were very much disabled from prosecuting these Designs to the degree they intended And she for her part was not wanting but sent her Forces both into France and Flanders to find these two Monarchs work at home and by kindling Fires in their Kingdoms prevented their laying her own in Ashes Thus at the same time she delivered Britain from the fear of a War with France and Flanders and whilst she protected her Oppressed Neighbours she preserved her own Subjects from an intolerable Foreign Servitude Thus she preserved England for ever from the Danger of a Spanish Invasion and Conquest upon which they were then bent and slew vast numbers of their best Commanders and Forces both by Sea and Land France for the first Thirty Years of her Reign was perpetually involved either in an actual Civil War within its own bowels or enjoyed an uneasie and a suspected Peace so that this Kingdom was never so quiet as to be able to look abroad and give any disturbance to its Neighbours The Protestant Party was strong and numerous and every day grew greater and was headed by the Princes of the Royal Family of the House of Bourbon And the Popish Party on the other side was the far greater Party and was headed by the Royal Family that was in Possession of the Crown of France So that Henry II. and Francis II. Charles IX and Henry III. his Sons who were all successively Kings of France one after the other did all that was possible by Wit and Policy Force Perfidy Wars Massacres Breach of Faith and Surprizes to extirpate this Party and when all was done the End of Seven Civil Wars one after another was a Toloration and the End of every Toleration but the last was a Civil War began by the Popish Party upon the Principle That no Faith was to be kept with Hereticks which Maxim was so often alledged either by way of Excuse or by way of Incitement or Justification that nothing but the Weakness of the Protestant Party could possibly have induced them to accept a Security which had been so often forfeited and which they were certain would last no longer than till the Popish Party were in a condition to break it And yet the keeping of the Seventh that
sixty Years the Right of it fell to Henry King of Navarre of the House of Bourbon but he was suspected by all his Popish Subjects stoutly resisted by all that were in the League against his Predecessor and Excommunicated by the Pope and sorely laid at by the King of Spain who dreaded nothing so much as the seeing France in the hand of a Valiant Wise Protestant Prince now his Invincible Armado was returned back srom England with Shame Ignominy and Contempt and such a Loss as Spain was never able since to recover The Queen-Mother of France who had been the principal Incendiary when she saw the Duke of Guise fall in the Assembly of Bloise and her only Son in the utmost danger of being Murdered or Deposed she died with the mere apprehension of the Calamities she had brought upon her own head and Family before her Son was slain And as for Henry the IVth the new King of France he saw things in that Disorder and Confusion that he was forced to raise his Camp and retreat from Paris into Normandy from whence he sent to Queen Elizabeth for Succors of Men Money and Ammunition The Queen presently sent Peregrine Lord Willoughby who had signalized his Valour in the Netherlands with Four thousand Men and Two and twenty thousand Pounds of English Money in Gold which was a Sum which Henry the IVth owned he had never before seen together in Gold at once Henry had beat the Leaguers before these men arrived contrary to the expectation of all the World and being thus reinforced from England he pursued his Victory to the Gates of Paris and was in a fair way to have taken the City but that he did not think it possible and he was besides unwilling to run the hazard of seeing the Capital City of France plundered by his own Army This tenderness of his at length brought him under the necessity of changing his Religion to gain the Crown of France In the year 1590. the King of Spain sent Forces to take possession of Bretagne a Province of France pretending a Title to it for himself and some of the English Courtiers advised Queen Elizabeth not to concern her self any farther in the Affairs of that Kingdom to her great impoverishing and no advantage telling her Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy used to say It would be better for all the Neighbour Nations to have France under Twenty Kings than One To which she as stoutly replied The Evening of the last Day the Crown of France should see would be fatal to England And the next year she sent a Fleet and Three thousand Land-men to secure that Province out of the hands of the Spaniards This small Number of men being commanded by Sir John Norris a person of great Experience and Conduct preserved that Province not only from the Dominion but in a good degree also from the Rapines and Cruelties of the Spaniards She spent in Three years in these French Affairs besides the Gold she sent to Henry the IVth into Normandy 226058 Crowns of French Money yet she did not burthen her Subjects to pay it but got it together by her Thrifty Management This Queen was wholly intent upon the humbling the Pride of Spain and at the same time she opposed his Greatness and curb'd his Ambitious Designs in France and the Netherlands she sent a potent Fleet and an Army into Spain in the year 1589 to revenge the Invasion of the preceeding year and to settle Anthony a Bastard in the Kingdom of Portugal which was then in the Possession of Philip the IId King of Spain The Army consisted of Eleven thousand Men and there went in the Fleet Fifteen hundred Sea-men The Army was commanded by Sir John Norris and the Fleet by Sir Francis Drake They first landed at the Groyne in Galicia without any Opposition and the next day they took the Lower-Town by Scalado but not without the loss of a great many men And here they found a vast Magazine of Gunpowder and Maritime Stores which was brought hither for another Expedition against England In this Expedition Robert Earl of Essex gave proofs of his Martial Inclinations for he stole away from Court without the Queen's Leave she being unwilling to venture any of her principal Nobility in so dangerous an Undertaking as this seemed then to be but this brisk young Gentleman on the contrary despising the soft Pleasures of a Court greedily embraced this opportunity of Revenging the Wrongs of his Countrey and set Sail after the Fleet in a single Ship and he had the good fortune to fall into the English Fleet after they had left the Groyne and were going to attack Lisbon wherein they had not the same success by reason their Forces were too small and the Fleet was kept at too great a distance to relieve the Army which was forced to march about Sixty Miles by Land but however they took the Towns of Paniche and Chascais and brought out of Spain One hundred Great Guns and about Sixty Ships sent by the Hanse Towns in Germany loaded with Corn which went round about Scotland and Ireland by the Vergivian Ocean to avoid being intercepted by the English the Queen having before warned those Cities That if they sent any Provisions or Ammunition into Spain she would treat them as Enemies Besides all these they brought back with them a very rich Prey in Housholdstuff Money and Plate which they gathered in that Kingdom but the most considerable advantage was the intercepting all the Stores which had been gathered for a second Expedition against England the Design of which was after this laid aside and the discovering the Weakness of the Spaniards when they were set upon at their own doors so that after this time the English despised this before so formidable Enemy they having with so small an Army marched so many Miles and taken so many places in two of the best peopled Provinces of that Kingdom In the year 1591. Robert Earl of Essex was sent into Normandy with Four thousand English to Assist Henry the IVth in the Reduction of Roan where before that City he lost his Brother Walter who was â—…ain by a Musquet This was so far from terrifying this Noble Earl that it was with wonder observed by the French that he exposed his own person the more freely that he might take all opportunities to revenge his Death After this in the year 1596. the Queen sent him her General again into Spain the Fleet which consisted of One hundred and fifty Ships being partly English and partly Dutch was commanded by Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England and the Land-Forces which were about Seven thousand and three hundred men were to be commanded by Essex and Howard as Joynt-Generals Essex having the Precedence on Shore and Howard at Sea They came before Cadiz the 20th of June but did not attempt to Land while the 22d and then they took
there were those in Ireland who had conferred with the Rebels and had sent into England the Rebels Defamations against him and others of her Governors By which passage the Deputy slily taxed Sir John Norris as one that had done nothing worthy of his former Military Reputation but thought to work upon the good nature of the Ulster Clowns by his Courtship and Flattery which tended rather to the making them more insolent This carriage of the General 's was the occasion of fierce Contests and Quarrels between him and the Deputy and the effect of it was that not only the Heads of the Clans in Ulster but those also in Connanght and Leinster took Arms and revolted from the Crown of England The Deputy seeing things by their Divisions brought to so desperate an estate resolved to get rid of the Government and by his Letters humbly besought the Queen a good General might be sent in his place In this doubtful time Sir John Norris as earnestly desired to be Deputy and that his Brother who was fitter for the Labours of the War might be made President of Munster But he obtained neither of his Requests The Council of England was divided for some time between the Lord Burroughs and the Earl of Essex but the latter joining with the former it was carried for him and he had both the Supreme Civil and Military Power put into his hands The 15th of May 1597. Thomas Lord Burroughs arrived at Dublin with a Commission to be Lord Deputy of Ireland With the Supreme Authority he presently commanded Norris to his Presidency of Munster which with the disappointment of the Deputy's Place broke his heart Johnstonius saith The reason of this was because Norris was a person of more Experience in the War and of greater Fame than Burroughs So that when he came to Dublin Norris was no way pleased with the change for that he dreaded the fiery Temper of that Lord with whom he had formerly had some quarrels which he would now have willingly sacrificed to the Welfare of his Countrey But the Deputy was of an Implacable Temper and commanded him into Munster upon the peril of his life not permitting Norris to see him This Great and Stout Man could not bear the Affront but he that had run through so many Perils in the Field in the Netherlands France and Portugal he that had despised the Rages of the Duke d' Alva in Holland and put a stop to the Victories of the Duke of Parma fell under this and expired in the Arms of his Brother Thus he became a wonderful Instance of humane frailty as well as of Martial Courage being rather pitied than approved because his Management in Ireland was much inferior to what he had done elsewhere and short of what was expected from him The Lord Lieutenant died in November following yet in that short time he beat the Irish in Ulster and recovered the Fort of Blackwater and Garison'd it with English Sir Thomas Norris was nominated for his Successor but he was melancholy and would not accept it his Brother the General being just then dead also Thereupon the Archbishop of Dublin and Sir Robert Gardiner Lord Chief Justice were sworn the 15th of November when the Council concluded their Account of the State of the Kingdom That it was an universal Irish Rebellion to shake off all English Government In August this year Tyrone had the good fortune to rout Marshal Bagnal his mortal Enemy in a Wood half a mile beyond Armagh where the Marshal 13 Captains and 1500 English Soldiers were slain The Irish by this Defeat got Arms Victual Ammunition and Reputation and the Fort of Blackwater so that the English were reduced from an Offensive to a Defensive War This nettled the Queen and she sent to Ormond who was Lieutenant-General to clear the Army of all the Irish and she sent 2000 Foot and 100 Horse to recruit the Army Tyrone sent after this 4000 Kerns into Munster and the President not being able to resist them by reason his Forces were small that whole Province rebelled also in October 1598. and began to Kill Rob and Ravage the English without Measure or Mercy Thus the Rebellion grew to that height that it became terrible to the Queen Tyrone in the mean time sent submissive Letters to the Earl of Ormond and promised the Spaniards that he would accept no Conditions from the English magnifying his Victories beyond all reason and truth So that now the Courtiers in England began to consider as Mr. Cambden observes That by long use it was grown to a destructive custom in Ireland That Rebels and Traytors might with the Money they had gotten from the spoiled English by Pillage and Villany procure for themselves Protection and Pardon The Queen was well inclined to have sent the Lord Montjoy into Ireland but the Earl of Essex pretended to it and he was chosen Others say the Council put him upon it that he might put an end to the Troubles of Ireland which had been encreased by the Contentions between the Commanders that were employed before and also by the deaths of Sir John Norris and that of the Lord Deputy as well as by the Defeat of Marshal Bagnal That the Lords cried up the Valour of the Earl of Essex to the skies and affirmed that there was not in England any General who could undertake the Reduction of so far-spread a Rebellion with that Prudence Diligence and Courage they might expect from him Thus he was sent thither by the perfidious Commendations of his Enemies against the opinion of his real and true Friends that they that put him upon it might when he was there find an opportunity to ruin him The Earl on the other side was anxious and unresolved what to do for as he feared the Fate of his Father who perished in that Kingdom so he could not tell how to oppose his own Destiny and accepted of an Employment which no other durst pretend to purely to comply with the good opinion of the whole Privy Council which loaded him with Praises on this occasion tho in his heart he misdoubted the Event The Queen also sent him away thither with great Testimonies of her Affection to him commending him excessively for preferring her Service before his own Safety but then this was the last good day that unfortunate Earl ever saw He landed there the 15th of April 1599. with 13000 Horse and 16000 Foot which were made up 20000. there being more than that number in Arms against the Queen But with all these Forces he did nothing worthy of his former Reputation or of his Army And that Winter he went out of Ireland in a Discontent without the Queen's Leave and returned unexpectedly to the Court which proved his Ruin Tyrone grew insolent hereupon and profess'd publickly he would recover the Liberty of Religion and his Countrey Charles Lord Montjoy was thereupon sent Lord Deputy who landed the
few days above a hundred Leagues to the South and here one of the Ships being separated returned back again through these Streights into England After this Drake took St. Jago in Chili and plundered it and here he got a Prize with 400 pound of pure Gold Arriving at Turapassa he found 13 Bars of Massy Silver of the value of CCCCM Ducats which was left on the ground by some Spaniards who were asleep by it he took the Silver and never waked the Keepers of it From thence he pass'd to the Port of Arica in which he found three Ships without one man in them but there was 57 Wedges of Silver each of 20 pound weight and some other Merchandize which he took Arriving at Lima he found twelve Ships but all the Mariners were on shore and yet in them he had a great quantity of Silk and a Chest of Minted Silver which shews how secure from Pyrates this Coast had to this time been Nor in truth till this time had any other than the Spaniards ever sailed upon this Sea except Oxenham In his journey to Panama he took a Barque without any resistance that afforded him 80 pound weight of Gold The first of March he took a Ship called the Cacofoga which had on board 80 pound weight of Gold and 13 Chests of Minted Money and as much Silver as balasted his own Ship the Master of this Ship told him That his Ship Drake's should henceforth be call'd the Cacofoga and the Spanish Ship the Cacoplata Being thus wonderfully enriched and as he thought sufficiently avenged on the Spaniards for the Loss he had sustained in his first Attempt upon Vera Crnz he began to consider of his return and not thinking the passage by the Streights of Magellan safe as in truth it was beset by the Orders of Francis Duke of Toledo then Viceroy of Peru he directed his Course Northward to the height of 42 Degrees of North Latitude to seek a paslage but finding nothing but snow and defolate shores he returned to 38 degrees and Wintered there calling the Countrey New Albion and here the naked people chofe him for their King and by their ignorance shewed him plainly the Spaniards had never been so far that way In the Month of November he set sail for the Molucca Islands the 9th of January his Ship stuck 27 hours upon a Rock but by the blessing of God came off it by a side-wind which seem'd to be sent of purpose to save this Hero From thence he passed to the Jsland of Java in the East Indies and so to the Cape of Good Hope which had never been seen before by any English-man and Watering at the Rio Grande in Africa he arrived in England the 3d. of November 1580. having in this time gone round the Globe of the Earth The People of England received him with great Triumph and a Publick Joy and the Queen as a Reward of the good Service he had done her against the Spaniards Knighted him and caused the Ship he had sailed in to be laid up at Deptford Mr. Gage our Countrey-man who lived some years in the Spanish Territories in America assures us his Memory is preserved there by the Spaniards who to this day saith he admire this Expedition and teach their Children to fear even his Name After this the Queen often made him one of her Admirals and he being grown exceeding rich took diligent care to put out a greater Fleet and openly assaulted the Island of St. Jago and took St. Domingo and Carthagena and some others in the West Indies being sent by the Queen with 21 Ships and 2300 men in the year 1585. The Towns they took in this Expedition were either so poor that there was nothing of Silver or Gold to be found in them or they had had such previous notice of the coming of the English that they had sent a way all that was valuable yet St. Domingo and Carthagena were forced to redeem themselves from Fire by Money the first gave Twenty five thousand Ducats and the latter One hundred and ten thousand which was presently divided amongst the Mariners and Seamen The Spaniards more regretted the loss of their ships great numbers being burnt and this hastned the Invasion designed upon England which was undertaken in the year 1588. which miscarrying the Spanish Greatness dwindled into nothing and after the Queen's Death they were glad to send to King James the First her Successor to beg a Peace in the first year of his Reign so the Honour of Reducing Spain was hers and that of setling Peace after a War that had lasted so long his The Riches and Fame Sir Francis Drake had acquired in these Maritime Expeditions encouraged Mr. Thomas Cavendish a Gentleman of Trimely in the County of Suffolk to pursue the same methods for the raising his Fortunes and with them the Reputation and Glory of the English Nation The 21st of July 1586. he set out from Plimouth with three ships the biggest of which was but 120 Tuns and 123 Seamen with Provisions for two years With this small Fleet he passed the Streights of Magellan and sailed up to the Coast of New Spain in the Mar del Zur and took 19 of the Spanish Merchant ships and burnt two or three of their Towns and then sailing to the Philippine Islands the Molucca's and the Cape of Good Hope he staid some time in St. Helens and the 9th of September 1588. he returned to Plymouth he having been the second man of this Nation that went round the Globe of the Earth with no less Honour tho he returned with less Spoils than the first Adventurer The Queen entertained him at Greenwich and bestowed upon him many Marks of her Favour and gave him some considerable Rewards Sir Martin Forbisher or Frobisher Sir John Hawkins Davis Jackman Jenkenson and Sir Walter Rawleigh and many others of the English employed their time in searching out the remotest parts of the world at the same time to very good effect there having been great Trades driven ever since by the Dutch and English by the means of their Discoveries Mr. Richard Hackluit who lived in these times took a particular care to collect and publish the Journals of all these Voyages by which he desâ—…rved very well of this Nation and it is a great pity that his Works are become so scarce and so little known and that no man has since pursued the same method these Discourses being of great use for all Mariners and serving very much for the enlarging and clearing the Geography of the World Philip King of Spain being highly incensed by the ruin of so many of his Towns and the losses he had sustained by Drake's Expeditions gave Order that all the English Sea-men that should after this be taken in America should be treated like Pyrates and the Enemies of mankind And all the Merchant Ships that fell into his hands were seized and the Merchants imprisoned tho there
Dyet of that Kingdom That the Hanse Towns of Germany might still have enjoyed their Ancient Privileges in England if they would have been contented to use them as Favours granted by our Princes and not have pretended they were their Right That as there was reason for the granting them when they were given so there was all the reason in the world they should be suspended restrained or quite taken away when the Reason ceased upon which they were granted that this had been done in Denmark Sweden and England in the Reigns of Edward the VIth and Queen Mary That the Hanse Towns had been made so rich by the Favour of Princes that they had been heretofore terrible even to their Benefactors that it became the King of Poland rather to favour her who was a Prince than to patronize the insatiable Avarice of the Merchants who when they were become very rich were too apt insolently to lift up themselves against Princes That the Queen was contented they should carry Corn and all other Merchandize to Spain except Ammunition and Warlike Stores for Sea or Land though it was lawful and the Practice of all Nations to intercept all those Provsions that were sent to an Enemy She had better success here than in Germany and setled her Subjects Trade in the Baltick so effectually that the Hanse Towns were never after in a condition to dispute the Trade of the English Thus the Queen by her Authority and Prudence mastered the Obstinacy of the Hanse Towns and forced them to sue for their Goods in her Court of Admiralty and to trade with her Subjects upon equal terms in all places and she so divided and broke their Power that they were never since able to contest with any Prince much less with her or her Successors Notwithstanding which the Kings of England have always religiously continued the same Privileges to the Hanse Towns though the tide of the Trade be long since wholly turn'd the English now carrying all that Trade to their own doors and much more than ever they received from them And I my self saith the late Earl of Carlisle was present in Council when Charles the IId after his Happy Restauration ratified the said Privileges She also by her Authority in the Year 1595. composed a War which had depended many years between the King of Sweden and the Emperor of Russia who had a greater respect for her than for any other Prince in Christendom her Subjects having opened a way by the White Sea and the Bay of Arch-angel to trade by Sea with him in the Year 1554. which was then and has ever since been of vast advantage to that remote barbarous and poor Kingdom The Subjects of which have not only been enriched but civilized and learned many mechanick Arts which they did not unsterstand before of us and those people we and the Hollanders have sent thither Her whole care was not imployed in defending her People from the violence of her foreign Enemies and the Frauds and Arts of the Neighbour Traders by Sea but she took effectual care at the same time in her Parliaments to promote excellent and useful Laws for the Restraint of excessive Dvmestick Expences and the regulating the Lives of her Subjects as will appear by the Printed Statutes of her time To this end she necessitated the meaner of her Subjects by sharp Laws as sharply executed to a modest and frugal way of living both as to their Diet and Habits She curbed and discountenanced the Luxury and expensive folly of the English Youth and Nobility both by her private Advices and her publick Laws and she prescribed them Rules for their Furniture Families and Retinues She had observed the Purveyers for her Court were a rapacious sort of men and under the colour and pretence of Law made great depredations on the Husbandmen and the Farmers in her Kingdom and therefore she kept a strict hand upon them and by her Severity when ever any Complaint was brought against them she kept them in awe There was another Generation of men called commonly the CONCEALERS of mean Extraction and worse Disposition who had obtained Commissions to enquire into the Frauds and Concealments of those that had got any Lands belonging to the Royal Demeans or Crown of England and they had under that pretence wrested from many of her Subjects their Inheritances and Estates but when she understood their Crimes she not only punished them for their Wrongs but revoked their Commissions which she had formerly granted out And by a Proclamation she forbad any further inquiry should be made into the Titles of her Subjects as to those Lands they possessed on the behalf of the Crown by which she put a stop to that sort os Miscreants and secured the Estates of her People from further wrong Whencver she found that her People had been afflicted or ruined in their Fortunes by the Judges and Governors she had set over them in any part of her Dominions she consolated them upon the first opportunity Before her time the Usurers of England had taken what they could get from all for usury and she to prevent the Frauds and rapacious Encroachments of these men first passed a Law that they should not take above ten in the hundred for one years interest which by the plenty of Money sunk after to Six and of late without any Act to five in the Hundred To prevent enhansement of the Market she made a severe Law against Forestallers Ingrossers and Regattors repelling their insatiable Avarice by imprisoning whipping and Pillory She called her Customs the Nerves of the Nation as they were the best branch of her Revenues and she made it her business to study them and well understand the value of them and the ways of raising them When her Exchequer was at the lowest ebb she detested all Monopolies and bitter Exactions upon her People which she thought to be utterly unlawful and tending more to the loading her with the hatred of her Subjects than the enriching of her Coffers She was very severe against all Informers or Promoters who having been for many Ages encouraged by her Predecessors as the Enrichers and Improvers of the Royal Revenues had contracted a vast envy from the whole Nation but she was the first Prince that would suffer their Crimes to be inquired into and finding they had been guilty of many ill Actions she put a stop to them and punished them for what they had done that they might no longer impoverish the better and richer part of her Subjects Thus she delivered her People from the grievous Oppressions of Usurers Ingrossers and Promoters She was no less careful to protect them against the Avarice of her Judges and Presidents and when any of them came to wait on her she would upon occasion speak very severely against their aspiring to those places the multitude of Suits and the over great variety of Causes
She encreased the Wages of her Judges that she might deliver them at once from the temptation and suspition of Bribery She passed an excellent and a most equitable Law for the more speedy determining the Cases depending in her Courts She admonished her Judges That they should consider the Judgment or Jurisdiction they exercised was God's and therefore they should hear with patience and give judgment with equity and justice truly and without any corruption That they should diligently study the Law and consider it well and with relation to the profit of the State and not shew the sharpness of their Wits by a falacious interpretation of a doubtful Law to the injury of her People but that without partiality they should administer equal Justice to all and severely punish those they found guilty If therefore there were any just cause os complaint in her times it was only owing to the Judges who had a full liberty to have satisfied the Nation by their Fidelity and Integrity and the Religious Observation of their Oaths and so were not necessitated to become a Grievance to her People by Illegal Prooâ—…edings But then all these cares shew the Corruption of the Times and that many of the Law-Proceedings had been corrupted by the Lawyers which made these Laws for the correction of them necessary When she had thus restored her Law-Courts her next care was to restrain the License of the Theatre and she prohibited all Exercises and Plays but what were Manly and tended to the fitting her Subjects for War by making their bodies more hardy and active and their Souls more valiant Her Divine Virtues are not to be Recompenced by Statues of Brass or Marble which have more of Ostentation than true and solid Honour nor are they to be Equall'd by any Commendations or Magnificent Titles for they deserved more Lasting Monuments to be erected in the Minds and Judgments of men for an Everlasting Remembrance And certainly Posterity will stand amazed to read and consider a State so firmly established by the Greatness of her Soul and Counsels so many Victories obtained and such incredible things done in her Times Tho her Reign was the most glorious and happy period or space of time that had ever hapned to this Island from the Norman Conquest to her days yet there were some Misfortunes and Calamities that clouded the Brightness of it In the fifth year of her Reign there was a Plague brought out of France by her Soldiers from Newhaven which destroyed more people in England than any that had happened before it The Earthquakes that happened frequently in those times frighted the English more than any other thing they being very unusual and attended with horrible Noises in the earth and some Damage The Queen was always ready to relieve any of her Subjects that had suffered by these Earthquakes Inundations or Fire her Coffers were ever open to redress the Calamities of her Subjects and to enable them to repair their Losses When the people of London fell into an outragious Tumult on the account of a Famine and a great want of Corn she first by her Royal Proclamation appeased their enraged minds and then commanded the Lord Mayor to undertake the Care of supplying the Wants of the City and she sent many Ships into the Baltick Sea and to Poland for Corn which upon their return put an end to these Complaints She would punish the Iniquities of her Magistrates whenever she found them guilty but then she would defend their Lawful Power and assert their Just Authority against ill men with the hazard of her Life Thus she put a stop to the Insolence of the Londoners when they were in the greatest Rage that was possible by the sole Authority of her Proclamation without any Forces She frequently issued considerable Sums of Money out of her Treasury for the Relief of the Poor She took a particular care that all Religious Foundations and places built for the benefit of the Poor should be employed to the right uses and that the Lands and Houses belonging to them should for ever be preserved intire to them As she took effectual and wise Care to heal the Wounds of the State or Civil Government so she well understood the Diseases of the Church were to be taken into consideration too and to be prevented with the utmost hazard of a Prince's Personal Safety To this end she made severe Laws against the selling Livings the Avarice of Patrons and the Simony of Clergy-men She detested the giving Curacies and Preferments to those that had no Learning She preferred honest stout men who were well read in Divine and Humane Literature and well acquainted with Men and Books and the Times to the Dignities of the Church and the greatest and best endowed Livings But on the other hand she despised all those that had neither Virtue nor Parts nor Learning but above all the dishonest slanderous and crasty Knaves who were at a catch to injure others She compelled all that were inducted into any Benefice to swear That they had not given nor promised any thing to any person whatsoever directly or indirectly on the account of that Preferment She would not suffer any Benefice to be bought or sold but she detested the Buyer and the Seller as the worst of Plagues and took care to exclude them from that and all other Preferments She was never silent or unconcerned when unworthy and unfit men were recommended to the Dignities of the Church The most earnest solicitations of the greatest of her Courtiers and Favourites could in this case have no effect upon her and in all other things which concerned the Safety and Welfare of the Church she took a Pious and Religious Care to place her Favours to the best advantage She was a Lady of Great Beauty of a Decent Stature and of an Excellent Shape In her youth she was adorned with a more than usual Maiden Modesty her Skin was of pure white and her hair of a yellow colour her Eyes were beautiful and lively In short her whole Body was well made and her Face was adorned with a wonderful and sweet Beauty and Majesty This Beauty lasted till her Middle Age tho it declined In her Old Age she became deformed with Wrinkles Leanness and fallen Lips so that it was hard to believe she had ever had that Excellent Composure and Lovely Beauty But then Time was able to make no change in her as to her Majesty her Princely Speech and Carriage her Mind was as high her Manners as regular and the Course of her Life the same it had ever been She was however so displeased to see her Beauty wear off and her Body decline from its former Lustre that she made her self a little ridiculous by her taking too much notice of it If she hapned by accident to cast her eye upon a true Looking-glass she would be strangely transported and offended because it did not
Drunkenness Filthiness Immodesty and the very fame and saspicion of Wantonness Whoredoms Rapes Adulteries and Incests were Crimes she detested and if she found any of her Retinue how great soever they were guilty of them they must never more come before her She banished Burgess one of her Maids of Honour because she had entred into an Intriegue with the Earl of Essex who loved her very passionately because the Queen suspected she had had an hand in his Ruin And the Lady Fitton another of these Maids was sent away too for yielding to the Inticements of a young Gentleman of Noble Birth The Noblemen found no more favour than the Ladies if once they were found guilty in the same kind She sent the Earl of Oxford to the Tower for attempting to Ravish one of her Maids of Honour that was a Tall and Lovely Lady If she knew any of her Nobility given to frequent Houses of ill fame she treated them with as little Respect as she did meaner men To conclude she shewed her self the Irreconcilable Enemy of all that had been found guilty of any base or immodest and unchaste Action She would frequently admonish her Servants and Attendants That they should take heed not to do any thing that might be dishonourable to her destructive to themselves and of ill Example to the Publick That they should take care not to bring an Ill Report upon the Chaste a Blot upon the Upright or an Infamy and Dishonour upon the Good In the Furniture of her Royal Palaces she ever affected Magnificence and an extraordinary Splendor she adorned the Galeties with excellent Pictures done by the best Artists the Walls she covered with Rich Tapistries She was a true Lover of Jewels and Pearls all sorts of Precious Stones Plate plain Bossed of Gold and Silver and Gilt Rich Beds Fine Coaches and Chariots Persian and Indian Carpets Statues Medals c. which she would purchase at great Prices The Specimen of her Rich Furniture was to be seen a long time after her Death at Hampton Court which was Moveabled above any of the other Royal Houses in her Times and here she had caused her Naval Victories obtained against the Spaniards to be represented in excellent Tapistries and laid up amongst the Richest Pieces of her Wardrobe These things did not only please the eyes of the Spectators and renew the Memory of the great things atchieved in her Times but they helped to raise in the minds of her Subjects and of Strangers too a Venerable Idea of the Majesty Wisdom Riches and Power of this Heroick Lady In her Meat Drink and other Nourishments and Refreshments she was very Temperate in private especially She was not subject to the love of Sleep or any of the other Pleasures of Human Life She eat very little but then she chose what was pleasant and easie of digestion and in her declining Age she became more Temperate than before but then she eat whensoever she was hungry She seldom drank above Three times at a Meal and that was common Beer and she very rarely drank again till Supper She would seldom drink any Wine for fear it should cloud her Faculties She loved Alicant Wine above any other She always Religiously observed the Fasting-Days When she made any Publick Feast or Dinners for her Honour or her Pleasure she would then order her Table to be served with all the Magnificence that was possible and many Side-Tables to be adorned with all sorts of Plate She had many of the Nobility which waited upon her at the Table at those times and served her with great Care and Attention In these things she took the greatest Pride to shew her Royal Treasures and made her greatest Feasts when Foreign Ambassadors were present who were highly pleased with these Shews At these times she would also have all sorts of Musick Vocal and Instrumental and after Dinner Dancing and she took care thus to entertain the most Illustrious Persons of other Nations that came into England Nor was she less careful that her great Ministers of State should keep up the Tables she allowed them and she would order her Nobility to keep good Hospitable Houses according to their Qualities and Degrees All which tended more to her Honour and the Reputation of the Nation than the Courses were afterwards taken up with a greater Expence The Splendor and Magnificence of the Publick Feasts in her times and the Ceremonies that were used when the several Courses were serv'd up to the Table would be troublesome to relate and perhaps a little ridiculous now they are antiquated The Cup-bearer never presented the Cup to the Queen but with much ceremony and kneeled always when he gave or took it and during the whole Refreshment Musick and Songs were heard and the Queen her self would frequently dance to humour the younger Persons in her Court for all these Solemnities were in her Royal Palace and were designed to adorn and sweeten her Government The coming of the Duke of Alenzon into England opened a way to a more free way of living and relaxed very much the old severe form of Discipline The Queen danced often then and omitted no sort of Recreation pleasant Conversation or variety of Delights for his satisfaction At the same time the plenty of good Dishes pleasant Wines fragrant Ointments and Perfumes Dances Masques and variety of rich Attires were all taken up and used to shew him how much he was honoured There were then acted Comedies and Tragedies with much cost and splendor From whence proceeded in after-times an unrestrainable desire of frequenting these Divertisements so that there was afterwards a greater concourse at the Theatre than at the Sermon When these things had once been entertained the Courtiers were never more to be reclaimed from them and they could not be satiated or wearied with them But when Alenzon was once dismissed and gone the Queen her self left off these Divertisements and betook her self as before to the care of her Kingdom And by her own Example and severe Corrections she as heartily endeavoured to reduce her Nobility to their old severe way of living and the former provident way of cloathing In her private way of living she always preferr'd her necessary Affairs and the dispatch of what concerned the Government before and above any Pleasures Recreations and Conversation and serious things before what was pleasing In the morning she spent the first fruits of her time in her Closet at her Devotions and then she betook her self to the dispatch of her Civil Affairs and to the reading of Letters and the ordering what Answers should be returned then she considered what was fit to be brought before the Lords of the Council she ever kept a vigilant eye upon the Motions of Philip II. King of Spain who was all her days plotting and contriving the Conquest of Europe and the reducing all his Neighbours and the Free-States and Cities of it under his obedience