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
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
Defamer of others to be drawn into Troubles by the means of one Somervil a mad Papist his Father-in-Law and one Hall a Popish Priest and being found guilty of Treason he his Wife Somervil and the Priest were all sentenced to die Somervil hanged himself in Prison Adern was executed and Hall the Author and Procurer of all this Mischief was preserved by the Intercession of Leicester This was by all men looked upon a Spectacle of great Compassion He laid Snares for many of the Nobility ruining the Reputation of some of them endangering the Lives of others and some Noble Families he utterly extinguished He impiously and sacrilegiously invaded the Revenues of the Church and brought some of the Bishops into Danger and Dis-favour He incensed the Queen against the Lord Archbishop Grindal a Prelate of great Integrity and Honesty by his Calumnies and Slanders This Grave and Religious Prelate was as Mr. Cambden saith first made Bishop of London then Archbishop of York and afterwards of Canterbury and for many years enjoyed the Favour of the Queen till by the crafty Insinuations of Leicester she was set against him upon a pretence and slanderous Report That he was a Favourer of the Conventicles of the turbulent Puritan Preachers and of their Preachments but in truth because he would not patiently dissemble the Disorders of one Julio an Italian Physician and a Favourite of Leicester's who had Married another man's Wife for which the good Prelate stoutly prosecuted him though Leicester appeared for the Criminal The best of Princes after all the Care and prudent Foresight that Mortality is capable of are yet sometimes deceived in the choice of their Servants Leicester having married the Countess Dowager of Essex who was a Widow when his first Lady died and having no Children of his own was easily perswaded by his Wife to recommend Robert Devereux the young Earl of Essex her Son to the Queen as one fit to serve her Majesty and by this he opened the way to that great man and brought him with good advantage into the Court and into Business Nor would this Nobleman afterwards refuse to acknowledge That all the Authority and Favour he had acquired with the Queen was owing in a great measure to the Assistance his Step-Father had at first given him When he had some time served as a Volunteer first under his own Father in Ireland and after in other places he was made General of the Horse and Field-Marshal under the Earl of Leicester when in the year 1585 he went General of the English Forces in the Low Countries In this Expedition this Noble Gentleman behaved himself with that Courage Bravery Moderation and Prudence that he won the Love and Esteem of the whole Army and by that Reputation he became very Popular which afterwards was the occasion of his Ruin The truth was he for Honesty Valour Liberality and Sincerity was equal to the best of the Nobility of his time but in Prudence and Discretion he was inferior to many He for a long time enjoyed the Favour of the Queen which his goodness prompted him freely to employ to the doing good and to the relief of the indigent and oppressed so that all his Greatness seemed only to be lodged in him as Water in a Cistern for the good of others He was not observed to be addicted to any Vice but that of Missing and Luxury but as to all his other Appetites he had them in a tolerable subjection to his Reason In the year 1587 he was made Master of the Horse In 1590 he was sent into France with an English Army to assist Henry the IVth In 1596 he was made Earl Marshal of England and after that Master of the Ordnance the same year In the year 1597 he was Admiral of the second Squadron of that Fleet which was sent against Cadiz In 1599 he was made Lord Deputy of Irelâ—…nd with more ample power than had been given to any of his Predecessors and a good Army This Expedition was the occasion of the Ruin of this Great Man his Army being wasted without any considerable Advantage Cambden attributes this to the Discontent of the Earl of Essex Because Sir Robert Cecil was made Master of the Wards which so netled him who desired to engross all hâ—…s Mistress's Favours that he left Ireland without leave and returned to England where he perished in his Discontent and Folly in the year 1600. The Queen was in her own Temper a Person of an extraordinary Piety and Goodness and without any exception yet her Virtue was scarce able to secure her from being made infamous and unhappy by the Wickedness of the Earl of Leicester she in the beginning of her Reign relying too much upon his Counsel and as it were committing her self and her Kingdoms to his Industry and Care to the neglect of the rest of the Nobility who hated this Minister Whilst the rest of the Peers withdrew from Danger or stood as it were at a gaze in a stupid amazement or servilely and patiently complied with him But Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex and Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold to the Queen and President of the North agoodly Gentleman of a Brave and Noble Nature constant to his Friends and Servants and the best Soldier the Queen then had would not so tamely yield to Leicester there being in his Nature as well as Morals a perfect Antipathy to the other so that the Court for a long time stood divided between them and they kept Spies upon each other's actions The Queen did what she could to reconcile them but it was utterly impossible they were equal in Power and Estate but so differing from each other in their Designs and Interests and so unwilling on both sides to yield that nothing but Death could determine this mortal Feud between them This Noble Martial Earl died in the year 1583. He would often remonstrate That Leicester's Covetousness and his other Vices were intolerable that he had more Authority with the Queen than all the rest of the Nobility that he disposed of all the Rewards of Virtue and Industry and all the rest were forced to truckle under and serve him that his Pride Laziness Luxury and dissolute Manners were not to be born and there was hardly a good man in the Nation who was not in his heart convinced of the truth of all this and did not wish to see this ill man humbled The truth is Sussex was the honester man and the better Soldier Leicester the more accomplished Courtier and the deeper Politician not for the general Good but his own partitular Profit Sir William Cecil was a Person of great Learning singular Judgment and admirable Moderation and Prudence unto which is justly attributed very much of the Prosperity which England for so many years enjoyed under this most auspieious Government He was made Secretary of State the 5th of Edâ—… the 6th 1551. His opposition to the Exclusion of
could get down and get into a Posture of Assisting them he saw all their Army dispersed and they forced to flee into Scotland whereupon he formed a Design to Murder the Bishop of Carlisle and the Lord scrope Warden of the West Marshes which when he saw he could not effect he recommended the Two Earls to the Scots and seized Greistoke and Caworth Castles as his own which belonged to the Family of the Dacres and he got together about 3000 Borderers with some others who were the Friends of that Ancient and Splendid Family The Lord Hunsdon hearing of this Insurrection drew out a part of the Garison of Berwick of which he was Governour and marched against this Incendiary who met Hunsdon and fought stoutly at the Head of his Party which was yet at last over-powered and broken the Lord Hunsdon having no great reason to be overjoyed at the Victory by reason of the Number of men he lost Dacres fled into Scotland and was with the two Earls Attainted in the next Parliament Both these Rebellions were caused by Pope Pius his Bull tho they broke out before the Bull was Published here in England which was one great reason that they spread no further The Delivery of the Queen of Scots who was then in the Custody of George Earl of Shrewsbury the Restoring the Popish Religion and the suppressing the Protestant was the last thing they aimed at and the King of Spain was the Fomenter of these Troubles and had sent them Assurances that he would send them Assistance from Flanders and had his Agent at Court to promote it But all these Projects being disappointed England soon returned to her former state of Peace and the rest of the Popish Party seeing their Weakness and the Severity of the Government against these Ring-leaders soon found how much it was their Interest to be quiet The secret Head of all these Motions was Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk who was the Richest most Noble and Wisest Peer then in England and of the greatest Authority with the Queen and no less beloved by the People This Great Man having appeared a little over-inclined to favour the Interest of the Captive Queen of the Scots in the XIth year of the Queen's Reign he drew upon himself both the Suspicion of the Queen and the Practices of his Enemies at Home and Abroad The Pope the King of Spain and many of the Nobility of England for different and very contrary ends promoting a Marriage between the Queen of Scots and this Duke which being by the means of these Rebellions discovered in part to the Council of England in the latter end of the year 1669 he was first Committed he left the Court in Discontent and resolved to Marry the Queen of Sâ—…ots without the Queen of England's Leave tho he had promised the Queen he would proceed no further in this business Whereupon he was committed Prisoner to the Tower in the year 1571 and the 16th of January 1572. he was found Guilty of High-Treason and Beheaded the 15th of June following The Greatness of his Fortunes and Soul and the wonderful Affection the People of England on all occasions shewed to this Noble Gentleman added to his Compassion for the Queen of Scots who was a Lady of great Wit and Beauty first stirred in him the thought of Marrying her upon her first coming into England which coming to the Queen's ears he was a little before the Rebellion of the North put under Confinement yet he found means to send Money to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland but so privately that after this he had his Liberty again By the procurement of one Robert Ridolf Agent for Pope Pius Quintus here in England under the pretence of Merchandize he was again drawn into a secret Practice for the Marrying that Captive Queen which being discovered to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh by the Duke's Secretary out of mere Treachery he was again Imprisoned Tried and Convicted by one whom he most trusted and leaft suspected of Designing against him Thus wonderfully did God appear for this Religious Queen turning all the Crafty Imaginations of her Enemies and all their intended Violences upon their own heads for the Preservation of this Church and Nation Saith Mr. Cambden The Love that the People of England bore to the Duke of Norfolk is incredible which he had acquired by a Courtesie and Goodness which was worthy of so great a Prince The Wiser part of the Nation were very differently affected towards him some being affrighted at the Danger which was threatned to the Nation from his Numerous Party whilst he lived to Head them And others very heartily commiserating this Noble Gentleman who was of an excellent Temper of great Beauty and of a Manly Aspect and would have been the Ornament and Securer of his Countrey if the fraudulent Arts of his Enemies had not turned him out of his former course and way of living by the deceivable hopes of greater things and the specious pretences and shews of promoting the Publick Welfare His End renewed the Memory of his Father's most unhappy Fate who Twenty Five Years before was Beheaded in the same place only because he wore the Scutcheon of Edward the Confessor in his Arms which were granted to the. Mowbrays Dukes of Norfolk from whom he was descended Lineally by King Richard the IId This Bull of Pope Pius V. and his Practises against England produced a shoal of Traytors to plague that Generation for they were ever after it restlefly plotting and conspiring against their Sovereign their Countrey and their Kindred with an invincible perfidy and obstinacy which the Executions of many could not extinguish But yet the Calamity did not end there for from the same Exuberant Fountain of Mischief issued those refractory and stabborn Recusants who separating from the Communion and Service of the Church of England which till then they had frequented without the least scruple or difference they set up Popish Conventicles and the Latin Mass and called over a swarm of Jesuits Priests and Monks to infest the Nation and incense those that entertained them against the Religion and Government that was established and so perpetuated our Quarrels and kept open the bloody wounds of this Kingdom This is the thing we have most reason to complain of because it has brought upon all the succeeding Times great miseries and distresses and the Wisdom of our Forefathers has not been able to cure this Disease The Queen seeing in the mean time the mischief this would bring upon her Kingdoms and being roused by the Rebellions in the North and the intimations she had that there were Designs on foot against her Person and Life took up a resolution to put a stop to it and to that end passed an Act in the next Parliament for the levying 20 l. the Month upon all that should refuse to go to Church and attend at the Service of God or to take the Oath
not remember that I have read elsewhere this Order for burning the Popish Books The Complaints of the Popish Bishops The Reformation estabâ—ished The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformâ—…tion The Happinesâ—… of England Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergymen And to curb the immoderate liberty of the Protestant Dissenters Anabaptists discovered Two of which were burnt The 〈◊〉 Conventicles suppressed The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. The Council of Trent recalled The Plea of the Protestant Princes against it Martiningo sent Nuncio into England And rejected by theQueen The Popish Party well disposed to rebel The Settlement of the Civil State taken into consideration The Money reduced to the old Standard The Security of the Nation providently taken care for Magaâ—…ines and Naval Stores provided LargeShips of War built The means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom Laws and Orders made for the publick good of her people The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility She fâ—…oured her Kindred and advanced them Her advice to the Nobility Her care to change or abolish evil Customs and Laws of former times 1559. The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry Which she refused and in a set Speech told them she resolved to live in Celebacy Her wonderful Temperance and Chastity The Princes and Great men that Couâ—…ted her * In 1560. * In 1560. †In 1568. ⸫ In 1574. By degrees she became more averse to Marriage than the seemed at first to be The character of the the Earl of Leicester She Prefer'd him in Title and estate and advanced his Brother The ill effects of Luxury His designs in debauching the Nobility Anno 1583. Leicester recommends Robert Earl of Essex to the Queen The Actions of that Earl in Holland His Character The Queen very much oppressed by the Infâ—…my and Villanies of Leicester The Character of Thomas Ratcliff Earl of Sussex The Character of Sir William Cecil afterward Lord Burleigh The Earl of Sussex sent Ambassador to the Emperor The Ruin of Leicester HisDeath and Dishonour The Character of the Lord Willoughby The Character of Sir Francis Walsingham Burleigh made Lord Treasurer for his Virtue The Character and Story of Mary Queen of Scotland The Character of Sir N. Throgmorton The French desirous of a War with England Tâ—…rogmorton kindles the Civil Wars in France The French design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England The Scotch complain and arm against them The French retire to Leith The Scots send into England for assistance A Fleet sent into Scotland And an Army which besieged Leith Leith dismantled The first Civil War in France The Death of Francis II King of France Mary Queen of the Scoâ—…s Marrieth James 1. borr The beginniâ—…g of the Miâ—…ortunes of Mary Qu. of Scotland Her Impriâ—…onment at Carlâ—… The Queen of Scots Letter to Q. Elizabeth upon her first Landing in England The Thiâ—…d Letter The deploâ—…ble state of the Princes of the earth The Difficulties attending the keeping or dismissing the Queen os the Scots A Resolution taken to detain her as a Prisoner of War The Queen of England not acted by a spirit of Jealousie and Revenge Mildmay sent into Scotland to threaten the Regent Murray upon Q. Elizabeth's threats comes into England Q Elizabeth durst not restore the Qu. of the Scots to her Throne The Queen prevailed upon to put the Queen of Scots upon her Trial. The Trial of the Q. of the Scots Hatton's wheedling Speech The Speech censured Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Q. of the Scots Pins V Excommunicates the Qu and absolves all her Subjects Thereupon followed Rebellions and Insurrections in England The E. of Northumberland leads the way And is followed by the E. of Westmorland Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders The Causes of the Miscarriage of this Insurrection The Calamities of the Earl of Northumberland The Earl of Sussex prosecutes the Rebels with great Severity Another Rebellion springeth out of this The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of these Rebellions The Character of the D. of Norfâ—… After these Rebellions followed a shoal of Treasons and Conspiracies Which occasioned the Acts of P. against the Recusants The Colleges of the Jesuits opene lin Eanders c. And called Seminaries Parson and Campian the two first Seminary Priests sent into England Parry's Conspiracy against the Queen Babington's Conspiracy His Character Savage sent to assassinate the Qâ—…en The Persons in Babington's Conspiracy Babington the great Actor in it This Conspiracy proved fatal to the Queen of the Scots A Justification of Queen Elizabeth against the Reproaches of the Papists The Queen has a plentiful Supply given her in Parliament She dischargeth a Part of what was granted by her Proclamation The Spaniards send Lopez and two others to murther the Queen Cullin York and Williams sent from Flanders on the same Errand And executed in 1595. She spared none of those who fell into her hands A Digression concerning William Parry Parry's Confession His Design discovered by one Nevil The Queen's Severity to these Conspirators made her terrible to the English Papists But it was God that preserved her There has been but one Protestant Prince Murthered since the Reformation by them The second Civil War in France The third Civil War of France She sends 100000 Crowns and great Stores of Arms and Ammunition into 〈◊〉 to the Protestants A Reflection concerning Passive Obedience The King of France laboureth to divide the Protestants without Success The true Causes of this and the other Civil Wars of France The Queen of England preserv'd the Protestants of France The beginning of the Low-Countrey War Liberty of Conscience treacherously granted and re-called The King of Spaâ—…n enraged at the Edict for Liberty of Conscience The Spaniards design to settle an Absolute and Arbitrary Government in the Nâ—…therlands The Regent grows severe against the Protestants on various pretences Valenciennes commanded to receive a Garison The rest of the 〈◊〉 petition for a General Assembly of the States The Designâ—… of Spain discovered to the Nobility of the Netherlands The Discovery at the first only terrified and divided them Valenciens besieged A bloody Persecution against the Pâ—…otestants of the Netherlands The Breakers of Images not put upon it by the Reformed The use Spain designed to make of this Disorder The Character of the Duke of Alva He comes into Flandâ—…rs The Council of Blood setled Their Rules The Counts of Egmont and Hoorne the first they seized And after them vast numbtrs of the meaner Inhabitants These Proceedings alarm all the Protestants in France and Queen Elizabeth They fly into England and set up many Manufactures The Conduct of this Prince considered The reasons which mov'd the Queen of England to oppose the Spaniards The Inhabitants of the Netherlands follow the Example of Q. Elizabeth He com-plains to Q. Elizabeth of her Harbouring the Netherland Pyrates
Confinement could thus comfort his drooping Spirits with the prospect of that Honour would be paid him in his Grave when his Name should be imbalmed in the grateful memory of his Subjects It is a wonder there is no more care taken by the Living to render this grateful Acknowledgment to their Ancestors for all that they have left them But if we are unmindsul of the Dead if their cold Bones can merit no corner in our Hearts or thoughts why are we so regardless of the Living a Prince can scarce deserve better of his Subjects instruct direct reform or amend them more effectually by any other method than by Good Histories The Precepts that are so delivered slide insensibly and pleasantly into the minds of the Reader and make lasting Impressions on his Memory Nor is this Benefit confined to the Subject and meaner Persons even Princes themselves do borrow from History those Counsels and Assistances they shall hardly gain from Courtiers and Ministers sometimes they will not sometimes they dare not Admonish their Master whilst a good History shews them by others what will be the effect of ill-concerted Designs and Counsels and at the same time is an Awe upon them suggesting this Thought frequently to them How will this look in History Thus Augustus Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Fourth of France became Famous to Posterity by observing carefully in History what Fate had attended the Princes that preceded them Posterity too are to be taken care of if the present Age is not such as a Good or a Wise Man would wish it let us try if we can make the next Generation better by shewing the Chain of Calamities have followed at the heels of the Vices of the last and of this Age. At her Death the Thrift the Probity the Piety and the Hospitality of the English Nation was much abated The Luxury that attended the Peaceable Reign of James the First and the Beginning of Charles the First brought on a War that threatned our Ruin What has hapned since the Restitution to the time in which Their Majesties began Their Reign is now fresh in Memory but will be lost if not written And I am persuaded nothing can possibly be invented to make us Wiser than we now are sooner or more easily than a good History of this Period of Time but then our Princes and Great Men must encourage it and skreen the Writer or it will never be done The Expence is too great for a Private Man and the Materials are most of them locked up from the view of all those who have not the Royal Authority consenting to their Inspection and the Royal Purse to support the Charge of Transcribing them Methinks every Prince that resolveth to do things worthy to be written should take care to have one good Historian about him to preserve the Memory of his Actions Those that live ill will find what they fear above all things a man to paint out those things to the Life which they would gladly have concealed Story will go on with or without their care but to their Damage if not discreetly encouraged But why do I write thus in all the Misfortunes that have so lately befallen me My Character has been written with the Poison of Asps instead of Ink so that one single Word in another man's Work otherwise interpreted than either he or I meant it as is plain by the words that follow and explain it has been enough to sink me after my Reputation had been sufficiently pierced by the Arrows of Envy and Detraction But all that I shall say in my own Defence is That I hate what I am supposed to be guilty of as much as any man in the Nation and never suffered said or thought the thing in all my Life THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK THE Birth and Parentage of Queen Elizabeth Page 1 Her Education 3 Her Tutors in the Greek and Latin Tongues and her Observations in Reading 4 5 Her Tutor in Theology 8 She spoke French and Italian and understood many other European Tongues 9 The Untimely Death of her beloved Brother Edward VI. 12 And the Succession of Q. Mary 13 She was a sorrowful Spectator of the Popish Cruelty 15 She was hated by the Popish Bishops for her Religion 16 Her Life was saved by King Philip 18 The Death of Queen Mary 19 The Nation then divided into Factions 22 Calais newly lost 23 She at first dissembled her Religion 24 Her Prime Counsellors 26 She dissembled with the K. of Spain 27 She makes a Peace with France and resolves on a War with Spain 29 The Treaty of Cambray 30 The French Plea against the Restitution of Calais 31 She resolves to reform the Religion of England 32 The contending Religions equally balanced 33 Her first Parliament The Complaints of the Popish Bishops 39 The Reformation established 40 The Miseries of Scotland in the Reformation 43 The Happiness of England 44 Her Care to settle Pious and Learned Bishops and Clergy-men 45 And to curb the immoderate Liberty of the Protestant Dissenters 47 The Behaviour of Pope Pius IV. 50 The Council of Trent restored The Plea of the Protestants against it The Popish Party inclined to Rebel 53 The Setâ—…lement of the Civil State considered 55 The Means by which she improved and enriched her Kingdom 59 Laws and Orders made for the Publick Good 60 The Bishops and Commons favoured as a Balance to the Nobility 61 She favoured her Kindred and advanced them 62 Her Care to abolish the evil Customs and bad Laws of former times 64 The Parliament Address to the Queen to Marry 67 Her Answer Her Temperanee and Chastity 71 The Princes and Great Men that courted her 73 The Character of the Earl of Leicester 75 Of Robert Earl of Essex 85 Of Thomas Earl of Sussex 89 Of Sir William Cecil afterward created Lord Burleigh 90 Of the Lord Willoughby 94 Of Sir Francis Walsingham Of Mary Queen of Scotland 97 And of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton 98 The French desirous of a War with England 99 They design to improve their Interest in Scotland to the Ruin of England 101 The Scots send to England for Assistance against the French The Scotch War The First Civil War in France 110 The Death of Francis II. The Beginnings of the Misfortunes of Mary Queen of Scotland The deplorable condition of Princes 113 118 Murray comes into England Queen Elizabeth durst not restore the Queen of the Scots to her Throne 124 The Trial of the Queen of the Scots 125 Foreign Princes and the Popish Priests guilty of the Murther of the Queen of the Scots Rebellions in England Northumberland taken in Scotland Westmorland fled into Flanders A second Rebellion The Duke of Norfolk the secret Head of them His Character 141 143 They are fâ—…llowed by many Treasous and Conspiracies 145 Which occasion Acts of Parliament against the Recusants 146 Colleges built for the English Papists beyond the Seas 147 Parry's Conspiracy Babington's 151 A
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
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
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
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
Plenty and was attacked by the Blandishments of Nature and a multitude of external pleasing Objects yet she persisted in the Resolution she had taken and with a constant and unmoveable Soul preferred her Maiden State to any Marriage Though she was almost every night tempted to change her Resolution by the Luxury Chearfulness and Wantonness of a Court which shewed it self in Interludes Banquets and Balls and was surrounded on all sides with the Enticements of Pleasures and the things which might provoke the most cool and languid Lust yet she preserved her self from being Conquered or broken by them For the Fear of God and a true Sense of Piety extinguished in her all Feminine Intemperance and Lust. Though she was the Sovereign and Mistress of all she did nothing that was insolent tho she haâ—… an abundance of Wealth at her Command she was not dissolute but she governed her self by the severest Rules of Chastity and Continence Yet her Juvenile Age for she was then about Twenty five years old and the Intemperance which will ever attend a Court gave occasion to some injurious Reports but then she as casily washed off that slanderous Infamy which was one of the most raging Crimes of the Age by the incredible Continence and Chastity of her whole Life her Modesty and Prudence over-ruling and controuling the Natural Inclination and Disposition Her Maids of Honour who waited on her took a wonderful pleasure in her Manners her Discourses and Conversation and wholly applied themselves to imitate her borrowing from her examples of Modesty and Chastity so that they would never suffer any young Nobleman to have any familiar Acquaintance with any of them if he had not recommended himself to them by some Generous Manly Action in the Wars Amongst those who in the several parts of her Life aspired to the Honour of her Bed Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire and Marquess of Exeter was the first who courted her in her youngest years And after him Christian III. King of Denmark for his Son Frederick after this â—…erdinand the Emperor desired her for his Son Charles Philip II. King of Spain Erix King of Sweden and Adolph Duke of Holstein the Dukes of Anjou and Alenzon both Princes of the House of France desired to have Married her but all this was to no purpose for when she had by these Treaties deluded them and secured her self she ever after pretended That at her Coronation she had obliged her self not to Marry a Foreign Prince Yet there were some at home who after this deceived themselves with these deluding hopes amongst whom was James Earl of Arran a Scotch Nobleman who was recommended to the Queen for an Husband by the Protestants of that Kingdom as the best means of Uniting England and Scotland but though she commended this Gentleman yet she rejected the Proposal There was also one Sir William Pickering a Gentleman who had improved himself by Ambassies and the French Breeding who aspired to it tho it was so much above his Fortunes And Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel asterwards Duke of Norfolk one descended of one of the Noblest and Richest Families in the English Nation and a person of great Interest and Authority though he was advanced in years yet he would also very fain have married the Queen but when he perceived his Old Age was ridicul'd and despised he left the Court and went abroad and never came back again into England She persisted in this Resolution of Celebacy with a Constancy that was admired then and ever since and at last she would grow angry when any of her Subjects spake to her of Marriage which they as passionately desired as she declined it The reason of this was wonderfully exagitated in the thoughts of men and some were very unmannerly to speak the best of it in their Conjectures whilst others ascribed it with much more probability to an habit of Chastity which put a Curb upon all irregular Desires or the fears of changing her Fortune and diminishing her Authority it being but reasonable she should â—…spect that whosoever had Married her would have taken upon him the principal Administration and so have abated her Power and Reputation others ascribed it to the Counsel of her Friends who yet prevailed with her to suffer Treaties of Marriage to be carried on to render Foreign Princes more favourable to her Interests by the hopes of attaining her at last But whatever was the true Cause of it which can be certainly known to none but God had this Queen been of the Communion of the Church of Rome this single Virtue would have gone a great way to the Canonizing of her as it has of many others and she certainly would have much more deserved it than any of the best that have been Sainted on that account only The common people of England for a long time most firmly believed That Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester and Lord Steward of the House to her Majesty would be the man that would marry the Queen He was youngest Son to John Dudley Duke of Northumberland who with his Eldâ—…r Sons â—…ohn call'd Larl of Warwick Sir Amâ—…rose Sir Guilford and Sir Henry Dudley had been found Guilty of High â—…reason and the Father anâ—… Sir Guilford a younger Son was beheadâ—…d in the fiâ—…st year of Queen Mary s Reign when this Roâ—…ert who was the youngest Son his â—…ather had then living was spared merely on the account of his youth and never Tried or Dishonoured This Gentleman in his younger years was a very goodly Person of a Bâ—…autiful and Lovely Complexion and Features but high foreheaded which yet was not then thought any diminution of his Beauty he was a very great Politician but no great Soldier and tho he was not over-righteous in his Actions yet in his Letters there was not known a Stile more Religious and fuller of the strcams of Devotion This Favourite was then in the Verdure and most Flowering Spring of his Youth of a Stately Carriage a Modest and Grave Look a great Flatterer of a pleasant and easie nature in outward shew or appearance and being endowed with all those Accomplishments the City or Court could teach him in which he had had his Education he had insinuated himself into the Favour and Familiarity of the Queen by his specious shews of Loyalty Industry and Vigilance in her â—…ervice and for a long time managed the greatest Station in the Court and was reputed the First Minister of State though his Counsels were not over-fortunate His Brother Ambrose was Heir to the Estate and he to the Wisdom of that Family for he had all the Arts of the Publiâ—…an Dudley his Grandfather and the Policies of Northumberland his Father He was the most reserved man of that Age that saw all and was invisible carrying a depth not to be fathomed but by the Searcher of Heâ—…rts He became in his latter times sullen to his Superiors haughty towards his
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
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
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
before he came up to them and both the Farls fled into Scotland The Earl of Northumberland was not long there before he was discovered by the Regent of Scotland and was sent a Prisoner to the Castle of Loâ—…klevin and in 1572 delivered into the Queen's hands and the 22d of August in that year he was Beheaded at York The Earl of Westmorland fled into Flanders and was received into the Protection of the Spaniards where he lived to a great Old Age and died in the year 1584 having lived all that while he was there in great Penury and Want This was the last Earl of that Noble Family which had enjoyed that Earldom Six Descents from the year 1398 and was now wholly extinct he being Attainted in Parliament and leaving none but Daughters behind him As their Forces were small they did but very little mischief to any besides themselves First they marched to Durham which they entred without Resistance in a kind of silly Triumph and entring the Churches they cast to the ground the Bibles and trod upon them because they were English and then they plundered all the Church-Treasures threatning great Calamities to all those they called Hereticks Then they went Northward and Besieged Bernard-Castle which Sir George Bowes defended against them Eleven days and by that time they had taken it Sussex was upon them and they were forced to disband and fly for it so little did the Popish Religion gain by this Abortive Insurrection When the Queen heard of this sudden Insurrection she forthwith by the Advice of her Privy Council issued out a sharp Proclamation against the two Earls and all the rest of the Commanders and Abettors of this Rebellion and exhorted all her Subjects to join heartily with her to revenge the Injury which was hereby offered both to her and them The Popish Religion which in the beginning of her Reign was not able to preserve it self tho Established by Law when she came to the Crown in the Thirteen years which she had now Reigned was become so much less in Numbers than it was at her coming to the Crown and her Throne was now so well established that many of the Roman-Catholicks which were desirous enough of Innovation durst not be too forward to appear for fear the Event should prove ruinous to them So that many of them sent the Earls Letters to them to the Queen and promised to assist her towards the suppressing this Rebellion And the two Earls being by their Servants and a company of hot-headed Priests trick'd into a Rebellion had made so little Preparations that they seemed only to rise that they might fall the lower and rise no more But that which hastned the Reduction of them mostly was the Reputation and Valour of Thomas Ratcliff Farl of Sussex then President of the North He was a Gentleman of great Industry and Experience and having now the supreme Command in the North he would not give them time to fill up their Numbers but getting what Forces he could on a sudden together he marched against them with an Army of 7000 men and by his bold and quick approach struck Terror into the Rebels and extinguished this dangerous Fire in its beginning The two Earls were by this time sensible that a great part of the Popish Faction would not Rise and that they had neither Numbers nor Officers nor Ammunition nor Money to carry on a War and besides they heard that the Earl of Warwick and Clinton were Raising Forces in the South and had got together 12000 men and were marching towards them So that if they had beaten Sussex they had been sure of another Army in a few days that would have ruined the Remains of their small Forces So that they had no other course to take than to disband their men and skulk away as well as they could Whilst the Earl of Northumberland continued at Liberty in Scotland he was forced to lurk in a small Cottage destitute of Meat and Drink and all other Necessaries of human life suitable to a Person of his Birth and Quality as living amongst the bordering Thieves and it was not long before they grew weary of him and discovered him to the Regent of Scotland Morton the next Regent of Scotland sold him after this tho he had formerly been very kindly entertained by this Earl when he was forced to flec out of Scotland So that as he had broke his Faith to his Mistress he found no Faith nor Pity or Gratitude amongst others but was pursued to the Block by a Divine Vengeance which turned every thing against him But it was however the happiness of this Family that by his Attainder the Estate descended with the Title to Sir Henry Piercy his younger Brother upon whom it was by Name entailed by Queen Mary when she re-granted this Earldom to this Thomas in 1556 whereas the Family of the Nevils was intirely ruined and never got up again The Earl of Sussex prosecuted the Rebels with great Severity tho he had obtained so easie a Victory and without any Bloodshed hanging many of them who had the misfortune to fall into his hands plundering their Houses of all they had and confiscating and seizing their Estates And not contented with this he led his Army into Scotland in hopes to catch the Fugitive Earls and wasted Tivedale with Fire and Sword and then returned into England without gaining what he sought The Queen was so incensed against them too that she Attainted all that she could find were concerned in it that were men of Estate but shewed more Mercy to the Poorer people whose Ignorance might bespeak her Compassion She ordered also her Thanks to be given to those Noblemen and Gentlemen who in the heat of this Affair had taken Arms and come into her Assistance commanding competent Rewards to be given to all that deserved them and that they should spare the Lives of all those miserable men who should beg her Pardon and acknowledge their Fault Out of the Ashes of this Rebellion there arose another at Naworth in the North part of Cumberland upon Severus's Wall which was headed by Leonard the second Son of William Lord Dacres of Gillesland This Gentleman was discontented because the Estate of his Family was by Law so vested in the Daughters of Thomas Lord Dacres his Elder Brother that it would pass into other Families with them and this was the first spring of this Motion He was in the Conspiracy of the Two Earls and was then at Court managing an Intrigue with some Foreign Ambassadors for some Assistance to be sent to them but finding the War began unseasonably he went to the Queen and tendred her his Assistance against the Earls and she granted him her Commission for the Raising men to that purpose He thereupon sent some to encourage the Earls to persist and to assure them That he would join them with what Forces he could raise but before he
keep her Promise And at other times she would say She promised them a Liberty to Preach but she never meant they should Marry Bury Baptize Administer the Lord's Supper and hold Consistories and the like When the Regent saw her Forces at hand she wrote to the City of Valentiennes to receive a Garison in the year 1566 because that City was more inclined to embrace the Reformed Religion than any of the rest in the Low-Countries and had rescued some that were condemned to be burnt for Heresie heretofore and also because it was nearâ—…r to France and so more suspected They refused to comply with this Command alledging many Reasons and Privileges to the contrary and were thereupon proclaimed Rebels the 14th of December After this all means good and bad were used to prevent the exercise of the Protestant Religion which had its effect in all places but Amsterdam Antwerp Sherlogen-bosk Maestricht Utrecht and Ghent for these Cities still upheld it These Proceedings alarm'd the Cities of Flanders and Antwerp sent a Committee of the principal Inhabitants to consult with the Deputies of the Cities in Brabant who all joined in a Petition to the Regent That there might be a General Assembly of the States to take present order concerning the business of Religion by provision That then new Orders might be therein made for the preserving the true Christian Religion the Authority and Majesty of their King and for the promoting the Prosperity of these Provinces That in the mean time assurance should be given to those of the Reformed Religion That they should not be molested or disquieted during this Suspension That after the said States have resolved with the King how they will settle these things those that were not satisfied with their Orders might have some Months time given them to retire in whither they pleased and those that would submit should have a general Pardon granted them This reasonable Request was very little debated because they of the Council knew the King's mind but was altogether rejected The principal Nobility of these Countries thereupon met at Dermondâ—… And here was read the Letter written by the Lord Montigni giving an account how much the King of Spain resented the present state of Affairs in the Low·Countries And there was also read a Letter written by Francis Davala the Spanish Ambassador in the Court of France to the Regent of Flanders the 29th of Auâ—…ust 1566. which was intercepted wherein he endeavoured to confirm her Highness in her opinion That all the Calamities of the Netherlands sprang from the Triumvirate meaning the Prince of Orange and the Counts of Egmont and Hoorne That it was fit nevertheless to shew these all the respect that was possible and to tell them that the King owned the preserving those Countries to have been the effect of their Loyalty and good Service But yet when time served he would punish them And also the two Lords that were now in Spain who should be kept there still to that purpose with Counsellor Rennert and that the King had sworn at Madrid That he saw well that what had happened in the Netherlands was not only prejudicial to his Honour but also to the Service of God which touched him so near that he would run the hazard of losing all the Dominions he had rather than not chastise this Rebellion exemplarily in the sight of all Christendom and that he would go thither in Person and send to the Emperor and the Pope for Assistance That his Majesty would certainly reap great Advantages from the ill things that had been done and expected to see those Countries brought under his Absolute Command and to settle after this both the Religion and the Civil Government as he thought fit which the King could never have done if these things had not hapned That the King had desired this a long time and they had now given him means to bring them under as to the Civil State and to quiet them as to the matters of Religion as he thought fit Thus the Crafty Spaniard made up his reckoning without his host and in the end found himself deceived The Nobility were never able howevâ—…r to come to any Resolve because Count Egmont was resolved to throw himself upon the King's Mercy and the Prince of Orange durst not undertake to Head the Leaguers against so Potent and Implacable a Prince as Philip the IId was then So this Discovery terrified and divided instead of uniting them And the City of Valenciens in the mean time defended it self very resolutely from the 14th of December to the 24th of March and then was forced to submit to Mercy Norcarmes the General for the King of Spain thereupon hanged up their Ministers and about Two hundred of the best of the Inhabitants whereupon the Regent forced or perswaded a great part of the Nobility to take an Oath to maintain the Roman-Catholick Religion but yet the Prince of Orange and some few others refused it and retired After this she fell to shut up all the Protestant Meeting-Houses and opened the Popish Churches furnishing them splendidly with new Images and other such-like Necessaries and they hanged up the contrary Party by whole-sale fifty or an hundred in a place some for pulling down their Images and others for bearing Arms against the Government And in some of the greater Cities they hanged up two three or four hundred men making Gallows of the Timber of their Meeting Houses Upon this many thousands of the Inhabitants of these Countries retired some into England and others into Germany so that by the beginning of May 1567. the Regent was intirely Mistress of all the Seventeen Provinces and there was not the least opposition any where made to whatsoever she was pleased to order Yet the King was never the more appeased but so soon as he heard the Inhabitants were mastered and brought under he put John Marquess of Bergen ap Zoom and the Marquess Van Montigni two Flandrian Noblemen both of the Roman Catholick Religion who went into Spain to inform him of the state of Affairs and to induce him to shew pity to his good Subjects into Prison where they both perished by what means was not known and besides he seized both their Estates In truth after long consultation it was resolved That the first Lâ—…gal Pretence that should be offered should be taken to bridle these provinces that they might so be brought into the new form of Conquered Kingdoms and be put under other Laws They pretended also that it was impossible without this to keep these Countries in the Roman-Catholick Religion because they were on all sides surrounded with Heretick Countries and relied very much upon their Civil Privileges and Liberties and this reason was very much pressed upon the King's Conscience by the Fathers of the Inquisition So that these Countries were doom'd to Slavery and Oppression as the only means to preserve Popery which can never thrive in a
free enlightned Countrey And their case was perfectly like ours for we too of late were to be Conquered and our Laws changed for the same end It was observed with great wonder on all sides That when they took so many and punished so severely those that had pull'd down and destroy'd the Images there was not one of them to be found that would confess that they had been put upon this or persuaded to it by those of the Reformed Religion but they all said it proceeded from an Impulse upon thâ—…ir minds of which they could give no account But however in Spain it was resolved to take the opportunity of these Troubles to bring under and subdue all these Provinces and to deprive them by way of Punishment of all their Privileges and Liberties and altho all was quiet in the beginning of the year 1567 yet they were not satisfied with the Punishment of the particular persons that had offended but resolved to extend their Revenge to all the Provinces and to those of their own Religion as well as to their Opposers And to fulfil this Bloody Tyrannical Resolution the Duke d' Alva was chosen a man of great Experience in Warlike Affairs and well acquainted with these Countries and of a merciless violent Temper The Inquisition and Clergy of Spain opened their Treasures and furnished the King liberally with Money also for they looked upon this as an Holy War and hoped to make it the dawning to a general Destruction of the Protestants This Duke arrived at Brussels the 22d of August 1567. with 8678 Spanish and Italian Foot and 1600 Horse and 12000 German Horse and Foot tho all was quiet and no opposition to be feared if they he brought with him did not cause it He concealed a great part of his Commission yet what he produced of it went very much beyond that which had been given to the Regent that now was recalled and discharged of the Government The Duke usurped presently an Absolute and Uncontroulable Authority and having appointed a Council of Twelve Bloody Men he disposed of the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects of the Low-Countries of all States and Conditions contrary to their Laws without any Appeal Reformation or Revision of his Sentence He proceeded to that height of Cruelty and Tyranny that Nine of the Twelve left the Council out of pure shame and went home For he had obtained from the King before he came thither a Full Absolute Sovereign Authority which was not bounded by any Lâ—…ws or Instructions and was not to be contradicted by any body Which was contrary to all the Laws of that people and to the King's Oath and Promise but he relied upon his Forces and was not at all concerned what men thought or said of him Amongst the Eighteen Rules which the Council of Blood prescribed to themselves to judge by these were some 1. All Petitions made by the States Cities or Nobility of the Land against the New Bishops and the Inquisition or to have any of the Placaets made by the King or Council moderated were Conspiracies against God and the King 2. That all the Lords Nobility and Governors that had not appeared against the Petitions Preachings and breaking down of Images are guilty of the same Crime tho they appeared discontented at them and ashamed 3. And all those that took the Proceedings of this Court for Tyrannical Unjust or Illegal The First this Council began with was Count Egmont the Count Van Hoorne and Anthony Van Straten Burgomaster of Antwerp who were treacherously summoned to a great Council and there Arrested by the Order of the Duke d' Alvâ—… the 9th of September 1567. which put the Countrey into such an affright that all degrees of men fled into all the Neighbour Countries but however they went on and filled the Prisons with the remainder and such as they hapned to take and it was observed that they had before-hand taken good care to Repair Strengthen and enlarge these places yet in some places they were broken up and the Prisoners discharged by Force Having spent the rest of this year in Ruining and Attainting the Nobility they in the year 1568. began to Persecute the meaner sort of people citing Thirty Forty or Fifty at a time out of every City in the Provinces to appear before this Council and upon their not appearing as none but the Imprisoned durst they seized upon their Estates and confiscated their Goods to the King's use Thus they dealt with the Rich but as for the poorer people they took them up and hang'd them without any more Ceremony They pretended by this Violence to enrich the King and to establish the Romish Religion but they frighted away the people alienated their hearts from him and drove many Roman Catholicks into Protestant Countries where they embraced that Religion they had only a moderate opinion of before To remedy a part of these Inconveniencies they published an Order That whosoever harboured or assisted any person that was fled or held any Correspondence by Letters or otherwise should be thought guilty of the same Crime and that any Ship that carried off any of their Goods or any Wagon or Boat that furthered their Escape or conveyed away their Goods should be forfeited The noise of these Proceedings alarmed all the Protestants in France and was the principal Cause of the renewing the War there of which I have already given a short account Queen Elizabeth was a sorrowful Observer of all these Tyranical Encroachments on the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of her Neighbours and such as fled into England from the bloody and outragious treatment of the Duke of Alva and the Spaniards found here in England a secure Sanctuary and had her leave to settle at Norwich Colchester Sandwich Maidstone and Hampton to the great Advantage of the English Nation and the great Impoverishing of the King of Spain's Territories by setting up here the making of SAYES BAYES and STUFFS which the English before fetched out of France and Flanders The King of Spain would have no Hereticks as he call'd them and none of his Subjects should have any Civil Liberties to secure them against his Will or Humour But then he might have soreseen he should have lost his Subjects his Trade his Wealth and he had reason to fear he should lose his Countrey too but he trusted in Force and it deceived him but no Force could secure the other Three Men are not like Beasts of Burthen they must be well treated or they will flye or not work or be poor or fail and the Land become desolate and not be able to defend it self How happy had Philip II. and Lewis XIV been if they had but understood this The ignorance of this has ruined many flourishing Empires I might say all and this is that first Cause of the Ruin of the Ottoman Empire which has sapped its Foundations and brought a Consumption
upon it which in a few years will destroy it Thus also fell the Roman and all the other Empires when the fatal time was come Not that Religion was then the pretence of the oppressing their Subjects but Oppression is the same thing and will eternally have the same effect be the Pretence or Motive what it will Emanuel Van Meteren in his Third Book of the History of these times deploring the Loss his Countrey sustained by being deprived at once of all its Trades and so many of its useful and industrious Subjects saith That there was not less than an Hundred thousand people that then fled into strange Countries to earn their bread and tho some of these afterwards returned yet the main body of them never did and their Trades were lost to the English and other Nations who learned them of these people and exercise them to this day The Queen of England seeing the King of Spain was deaf to all her and her Neighbour Princes Entreaties and Intercessions with him for the mitigating his Sanguinary and Cruel Edicts concerning Religion and that he had set up in the Netherlands a Spanish Inquisition for the more grievous Torturing the Consciences of his Subjects That he had denied an Assembly of the States of the Netherlands which was the only and the usual way of composing their Affairs when they were in any disorder That he governed them rather by Arbitrary Orders sent from Spain than by the Laws of the Countrey or Counsels of the Natives That he made use of the Tumults which the meanest of the people had fallen into upon the account of the Images tho they were presently suppress'd and that by the Natives to bring one of the Freest Nations of Europe under the intolerable yoke of an Arbitrary Government turning unjustly the rash Folly and Madness of a few mean people to the great Damage of this whole Nation by pretending All that people had rebelled against him and thereby Forfeited their Ancient Liberties She saw also that he had sent Ferdinand Alavares Duke of Alva a Bloody man to usurp this Arbitrary Government who being no way related to the Royal Family was now constituted the Supreme Governor of these Provinces contrary to their Laws and that he had abolished and suspended the Jurisdiction and Authority of all their Legal Courts and brought in amongst them a new unheard of Tribunal which had proceeded illegally against several of the Nobility of that Countrey and condemned them to death and they had been thereupon executed That Spanish Garisons were quartered and Citadels built in the great Towns and Cities and the Twentieth Penny of all their Real Estates and the Tenth of their Personal had been illegally assess'd and by force levied She saw also that the Duke d' Alva the 29th of December 1568. had furiously and impatiently seized the Goods and Persons of her own Subjects and put them into the Custody of his Soldiers on the pretence of some Moneys stopped in England which belonged to the Merchants of Genoua who had consented to the Embargo and she concluded this enraged man was not content to oppress the Netherlands but would needs make himself a Terror to her and her people too whereupon this Heroick Lady commanded all the Ships and Goods of the Netherlands which were in her Ports to be stopp'd which were of greater value than those the Duke had been able to find in the Low-Countries whereby she humbled that proud hasty man and made him see how little she could fear either him or his Master This Action of the Queen 's opened the eyes of the poor oppressed people of these Countries and shewed them the way to deal with their Oppressors was to attack them by Water and not by Land They had made several attempts on the side of Germany under the Command of some of their banished Nobility in the year 1568 and they had been unfortunate in all of them Lewis Van Nassau Brother of William Prince of Orange tho he had 7000 men Horse and Foot and was a good and a prudent Commander and had taken all the care that was possible to prevent Misfortunes yet he was defeated near Emden The Prince of Orange who followed after was in a short time forced to retire into France tho he had 11000 men under him The two next years he served the Prince of Conde in France and in the year 1569. he took up the Resolution to grant Letters of Mart to all that would put out Ships to Cruise against the Spaniards in the Low Countries the Heer Van Dolhain being Admiral who in that year took and spoiled and ransomed many Ships This good success encouraged more in the year 1570. to take this course and as they grew stronger and more numerous so they had better success In 1571. they set upon the Fleet that was going to Spain and took and plundered a great part of it in the Texel The Duke of Alva sent out some Men of War against these Privateers but to small purpose because they were small and too nimble for his great Ships and Germany and England protected victuall'd and harboured them Whereupon in the year 1571. he sent to the Queen of England to complain of the Harbouring these Pyrates as he called them The Queen was in no haste to do his business after he had so far provoked her but in the year 1572. when they were become Rich and very Numerous she put out a severe Proclamation against them commanding them to be gone by a limited time or to be feized in her Harbours whereupon in March this year they put themselves under the Command of William Van Marck Lord Lumey to the number of about Thirty Ships or Fly-Boats well mann'd and victuall'd and these had the good fortune to find the Briel without any Garison and so they took Possession of it without any opposition the first of April The eighth of the same month Flushing joined with them and cast out the few Spaniards were there And after this in a short time the whole Provinces of South and North Holland as fast as they could by any means get rid of the Spanish Garisons revolted from them and took up Arms against the Duke of Alva declaring at first for the Prince of Orange as Stadtholder to the King of Spain in these Provinces Thus were the Foundations of the Liberties of the United Provinces in the Low Countries laid in the blood of its Inhabitants and as heartily at first promoted by the Roman-Catholick Subjects to preserve their Civil Privileges as by the Protestants to secure their Lives and Fortunes from the Arbitrary Violence of the Spaniards So that if either of them were Rebels it was because Philip the IId would not be contented with the same degree of Power the former Princes his Predecessors had enjoyed but made use of a Ferment the Providence of God and his own Cruelty and Imprudenee had raised in the
the Town on the first Assault by the Cowardise of the Spaniards which paid Five hundred and twenty thousand Ducats for its Ransom There was Two Millions more offered for the Redemption of the Ships in Port Real but it was refused by the Admiral he saying He was sent to Burn and not to Ransom the Spanish Navies The Spaniards confess they lost in the Sack of this Town in Ships Taken and Burnt in Canon Taken and Sunk and in Stores and Ammunition and Victuals above Twenty Millions of Ducats The Magnanimous Earl of Essex was for keeping the Town and Island and he offered to do it with Three hundred men and Three Months Provision for them but the rest of the Commanders who had enriched themselves were for returning and so he was forced to return much against his will the 5th of July when he had got little but a Noble Library which he chose out of that Rich Spoil The Spaniards observed The English in this Sack shewed themselves to be Hereticks by their Contempt of their Religious Houses and Places but in all other things they behaved themselves with great Valour Prudence and Generosity The Noble Earl would fain in his return have attempted the Groyne St. Andreo and St. Sebastian but the rest of the Commanders were against making any other Trial of their Fortune believing they had done enough for the Glory and Safety of their Countrey This Expedition secured England for the Remainder of her Reign against all the Attempts and Fears of Spain In the year 1599. this Earl was made Deputy of Ireland which proved his Ruin Sir Robert Cecil in his Absence being made Master of the Wards tho the Queen had promised him that Office and he depended upon it as that which was to repair his Estate shattered in her Service whereupon he came back without her Leave and the next year after was beheaded for Attempting to Raise an Insurrection in London against the Court. To pass from these Foreign Affairs to others that were of nearer concern to England there was in all her days a Destructive and most Chargeable War continued against her in Ireland The Irish Nation have ever since it was subdued by the English born an implacable hatred to the Conquerors which neither Marriages nor Benefits nor Losses nor Time it self has been able to extinguish But when in her time the Religion of England was changed and the general Body of the Irish and a great part of the old English Families persisted in the Popish Religion there was by that means a new Ferment added to their restless and unquiet spirits so that there was nothing to be heard of from thence but frequent and perfidious Rebellions which were the more dangerous and lasting because they were excited by the Pope's Bulls whom the Irish reverence above all other Nations and supported and carried on by Spanish Counsels Money and Forces Yet however the Queen did never think it her Interest to make a sharp and a concluding War upon them because this was not possible to be done without being grievous to her People of England whilst she was forced to spend such prodigious Sums of Money in the Netherlands and France as would have made an effectual War in Ireland insupportable She took care in the mean time to send over thither the Best and Wisest of her States men and Sword-men as her Deputy-Lieutenants and she sent them such Supplies of Men and Moneys as enabled them from time to time to keep the English Pale in good order and to hinder the Spanish Party from growing more Potent in the North than was convenient to consume his Forces and divert him from nearer and more dangerous Attempts and by her Generals and the Forces she sent over she wasted and consumed the Forces of the CLANS and great Irish Lords and by degrees brought the Wild and Barbarous Irish from the former way of living more like Beasts than Men in Woods and Mountains to the living in Populous and well-govern'd Towns and Villages She taught them to leave off their barbarous cruel Customs and to live soberly and according to Law to forsake their wild ways of Diet and Cloathing and live more Civilly and like the English The Northern Province of Ulster was the first that Rebelled the Scots and the Islanders in great Numbers pouring into that Province whereupon Shan O Neale in the year 1563. took up Arms against his Sovereign instead of sending to her for Assistance to drive out these Foreign Enemies He was first Reduced by the Earl of Sussex and forced to come into England to beg Pardon of the Queen The next year he broke out again and was reduced by Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy and in 1565. he perished in a drunken Fray by the Macdonnels to whom he fled for Succour and Refuge This Shan O Neale was so wicked and debauched a Villain in all his Actions that all men approved of the Revenge Macdonnel took of so false and perfidious a man that had done many Wrongs to them and their Families as well as to the English The Macdonnels were Scots and of the number of the Islanders that had setled in this Province of Ulster This Execution hapned the 2d of June 1567. Mr. Cox writes their Names MACCONEL In the year 1564. there hapned a Quarrel between the Earls of Ormond and Desmond which came to a Battel between them at Affane in the County of Waterford The next year they went over into England together to implead each other before the Queen who of the two was most inclined to favour Desmond In 1566. they returned and Desmond took the Field with Two thousand men to join Shan O Neale as was pretended but in truth to Revenge his Quarrels on the Earl of Ormond who defeated him and all his Forces near Drumelin and in the close of that year the Lord Deputy Sidney took Desmond Prisoner and at Limerick tried him for High-Treason and he was found Guilty and committed to Prison and his Brother John was Knighted and made Earl of Desmond This Quarrel was at first a personal private Feud between these Two Potent Families but in the year 1568. some Laws having passed in a Parliament which displeased the Great Men they took up the pretence of Religion to draw in the People and the Pope entred into it and the King of Spain was solicited to send Forces by the Earl of Desmond's younger Brother Titular Bishop of Cashil Thereupon the Lord Deputy began the War this very year and defeated Two thousand of their men near Kilkenny with the loss of one single man The Earl of Ormond was then in England and went into Ireland to reclaim his own Brothers who joined with Desmond in this Revolt which was designed to subvert the Government and clear the Countrey of all English Men and English Laws In the year 1569. Pope Pius Quintus Excommunicated the Queen and deprived her of all her Dominions and
this had such effect upon Ireland that there was no quiet to be looked for in that Kingdom to the end of her days But yet by the year 1571. Sir John Perrot Governor of Munster brought that Province into Peace The King of Spain was slow in meddling with the Irish Affairs and sent them little or no Supplies till the year 1578. which was Ten years after they began to treat with him for his Assistance This year one Stukely an English-man was sent by Gregory XIII Pope of Rome and the King of Spain with Eight hundred Italian Soldiers but he went with Sebastian King of Portugal into Africa where he and his men perished with that King In 1578. Sir William Drury was sworn Lord Deputy of Ireland the 14th of September The same year James Fitz Morris after he had Sworn Allegiance to the Queen before Sir John Perrot went into France and failing of any Supplies from thence he went into Spain where he obtained a few Men and some Money and in July 1579. he landed Eighty Spaniards at Semerwick in Kerry where he built a Fort and Sanders the Pope's Legate Consecrated the ground but the English took the three Ships for all that and put the Spaniards into a wonderful fright The Desmonds joined with these Rebels and soon after a great many of the old English who persisted in the Roman-Catholick Religion which was in a great degree owing to the smalness of the English Forces in Ireland the Army being then but about Six hundred men Sir William Drury sickned and died and Sir William Pelham was chosen in his Place by the Council and Sworn the 11th of October 1579. who was succeeded by Arthur Lord Grey Baron of Wilton Sworn the 14th of September 1580. He took the Fort above-mentioned and put all the Spaniards to the Sword which much displeased the Queen tho the Deputy alledged That he could not keep them his Prisoners the Army was so small and the Numbers of his Enemies were so great The Deputy went on with small Forces and an Invincible Resolution and Industry defeating and reducing them so often and so strangely that at last they got him represented to the Queen as a Bloody man that regarded not the Lives of the Subjects any more than the lives of Dogs but had Tyrannized with that Barbarity that there was little left for the Queen to reign over but Carcasses and Ashes The Necessity of the Times had indeed made him severe but he had shewed much more Mercy to the Irish than either they deserved or was consistent with the Queen's Interest or the Safety of the English that were in Ireland however in the midst of his Victories he was re-called in August 1582. The next year the miserable Earl of Desmond was taken in a Cabin in a Wood and slain unknown by an Irish man and his Head sent over into England and set on London-Bridge His Name was Girald and he was the Fifteenth Earl of that Family and with his Life ended this Rebellion in Munster The Queen was however a Lady of that Generous Mercy and Compassion that she was heartily concerned for the Bloods of these miserable Wretches who sought hers and her Protestant Subjects Ruin with an Hellish and Implacable â—…ury The distributing Mercy and Justice with Prudence is the hardest Task a Prince has and in truth there is none but God that can pretend to do it always well because he alone knows both the truth of all mens actions the ends and designs of them and the tempers of the Agents as to the present and the future But Princes are often deceived in one or more of these and so spare or punish when they should not Besides they are subject to the same Passions other men are and by them they are mis-led when the thing is plain It is better generally speaking to be too Merciful than too severe But when it is known once that a man will be so it ruins more than it can save and too much exposeth the Innocent Mercy to Multitudes and mean people is always seasonable and the contrary destructive but to pardon Great men for two three or four Rebellions one after another is to proclaim a liberty of doing it impunedly She was never guilty of this in England but in Ireland it was frequently done and therefore it was her own fault that she met with so much trouble and all her Mercy almost was thrown away and proved Cruelty to the English Pardon a barbarous Enemy and you make him insolent and therefore inexorable Justice especially upon a relapse is absolutely necessary but then this is to be understood only of great Men and of great Crimes such as Murder and Rebellion In the year 1584. June 26. Sir John Perrot was made Lord Deputy of Ireland He was sent thither in unquiet and dangerous times and he managed Affairs with so much Industry and Courage that he saved Ireland tho he himself fell a Sacrifice to the Malice of Hatton the Lord Chancellor of England In his time the Queen gave to several Adventurers of the Lands forfeited by Desmond and his Accomplices 574628 Acres The Proprietors were to People the same and to pay the Queen over and besides 1976 l. 7 s. 5 d. the year Quit-Rent To this end she invited the younger Brothers of the English Nation to settle in Ireland promising them great Privileges and Land at reasonable Rents The Burks in Connaught hereupon rebelled but were overthrown Seven of Three thousand scaping Thus things were again reduced into a tolerable good order and the dispeopled Province of Munster was at once Peopled and Civilized by the English but the Deputy had no share in it but it was managed by a Committee for he was on ill terms with the Queen upon the account of some indiscreet passionate words he had dropped and which were by the Malice of his Enemies told the Queen with many invidious Additions The Queen had ordered That if any unforfeited Lands were intermixed with those that were forfeited that the Proprietor should be compounded with to his content and be bought out that so the Undertakers might have his Mannor intire But when this came to be put in practice there was great and loud Complaints brought to the Deputy That the Adventurers had unjustly outed many innocent men of their Inheritances out of covetousness to get their Estates Whereupon a Proclamation was issued out Commanding the Proprietors to restore what they had unjustly taken which with the favour the Deputy shewed to the Ejected Irish by the Queen's Order put a stop to the Wrong and the Complaints As he had had no hand in the distribution of these Lands so he soon made the Adventurers sensible they were to expect no favour from him which turned to the advantage of the Irish but occasioned bitter Complaints from the English against the Deputy as a Favourer of the Irish rather than of the English But
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
Military Discipline and this in a State the most closely united to her and he had ambitiously affected the Power of a Lieutenant·General in England and Ireland which Burleigh represented to the Queen as intolerable and thereupon she became so incensed against him that she brought him to a Despondence of Mind which ended in his Death the Queen declining all Reconciliation that he might be an Example to all others to consult their own and the Publick Interest better than he had done and not aspire like him to too great and dangerous Honours Upon this Repulse he resolved to retire into the Countrey and to live remote from the Court at Killingnorth but on the Road he fell into a violent Feavet which brought him to his Grave He left a Brother behind him who was Earl of Warwick and had the Character of a good man from his Enemies and he succeeded him in the Estate but did not long enjoy it He left also a Son who laid Claim afterwards to the Earldom of Leicester but he was then very young and not owned as Legitimate When the Queen heard of the Death of Leicester she could not forbear grieving at it She ordered however his Personal Estate to be seized for Money due to the Exchequer from the deceased Earl but she got little by it the Creditors and others by various Stratagems and on various Pretences drawing it out again Hatton was a very good Dancer and that was his best Qualification and was the means of promoting him to be Lord Chancellor of England Being in that high and undeserved Station he became proud and arrogant and at last began to favour the Popish Party more than the Queen thought well of The Queen thereupon told him That he was too much exalted by the Indulgence of his Fortune which had placed him in a Station for which he was unfit he being ignorant of the Chancery-Law and needing the Assistance of others to enable him to do his Duty This Reproach struck him to the heart and he resolved to admit no Consolation When he was almost half-dead the Queen repented of her Severity and went her self in Person to comfort the Dying Chancellor and did what was possible to retrieve him but it was all to no purpose for he was obstinately resolved to dye His Brother's Son succeeded him in his Estates and Goods he dying a Batchellor and raised a Family upon this Foundation and the Queen did not exact from him the Debts due to the Exchequer whether out of Respect to the Deceased or Favour to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh whose Niece this Gentleman had Married As the Queen was by Nature severe so she did not want the utmost Provocations to exert her Natural Temper For there was in all her Reign a Chain of Conspiracies detected which were so outragious and wicked that they exceeded by their Cruelty and bruitish Ferity all measures and seemed to deserve and call for Severity in her punishing of them she was also exasperated by Rebellions and Insurrections in both her Kingdoms and by most infamous Libels published without any Author's Name against the Cruelty of this Prince with the Infamy of them that writ these Books The Reproach of Cruelty would not fix upon her tho they did what was possible to defame her because all men thought the Actors and Leaders in these horrible Treasons and Rebellions deserved all the Punishments and Severities she inflicted on them for their Crimes However it is apparent That in her Reign many of the Nobility were put to Death some of the most Noble Families were ruined and that the Roman-Catholicks were punished banished or forced to flye into Foreign Countries to escape those Punishments they had drawn upon themselves by their restless endeavours to undermine her Throne and subvert her Government or to destroy her Person After all some of these Papists out of a spirit of Slander and Detraction and a desire to gratifie the Pope and his Party laboured by all ways that they could invent to have her thought a Cruel and a Bloody Princess and with the utmost Impudence represented her as such in their Pamphlets tho she was forced to this Severity by their great and repeated Villanies There were some that with an unsusserable Rashness charged her with Unchastity The principal of which was Nicholas Sanders one of the basest and wickedest Slanderers and of the most hellish and incurable Malice that ever was born This Fellow forgot all Modesty and not content with the defaming her Mother and the reviving all those Slanders against her which had before his time been sufficiently detected and disproved or were forgotten he went on to slander and defame the Queen too and to that end invented very many lewd Stories and most infamous Satyrs against her and her Ministers endeavouring to have the World believe she was guilty of Rapine villanous Lusts and intolerable Frauds for the Subversion of the English Nation But the Modesty and the incredible Chastity of her Life easily dispelled all these black and noisom Slanders and Reproaches her worst Enemies having never been able to discover the least shadow of Luxury or Unchastity in all her Life which was so pure and so spotless and unblamable that it is very hard to believe she was a Mortal This her rare Temperance and Continence put a stop to the Lyes and Defamations of this abominable Slanderer and made all men despise him and his Writings Nor did he so escape the Justice of God which pursued him for this and his other Crimes and before his Death deprived him of his Reason and Understanding and banishing him from the Conversation of men he perished in a desolate place in Ireland after he had a long time struggled with Hunger and Cold and endeavoured to preserve himself alive with the Roots of the Herbs that naturally grew in those Woods he lurked in nor was there one Friend to cover his Carkass with a little earth after he was dead but it was found by the English in the Woods and left a Prey to the Wild Beasts all men rejoicing that the Justice of God had thus fhewn it self in the Punishment of this infamous Slanderer and Impenitent Rebel Another virulent Slanderer printed a Book under the Title of Dydimus Veridicus being infected with the same contagious distemper of Lying and presumed to pollute the ears of men with most wicked Difcourses and to attempt the Ruin of the Fame of a most Noble Princess which was supported by the united Approbation and Praises of Mankind He invented many absurd false and incredible things that were like the fained Representations of Poets and Painters so that they appear false at first sight and only serve to shew the liberty he took of Lying notoriously so that he may be left without any answer to receive his Confutation from the Prudence of the Reader Florimond Remond another indiscreet Writer transcribes the Defamations and Lyes which Sanders had invented
They seize the Sea-Ports of Holland and Zealand Which was the beginning of the United Provinces ☞ Q. Elizabeth undertakes the Protection of her oppressedNeighbours French Affairs A Private League between France and Spain against the Protestants Henry III. succeeds in France The D. of Guise designs against that Prince An Account of the House of Guise The Reasons why Hen. III. was to be Deposed and Henry IV. Excluded Henry III. slain The Queen Mother of France dieth of Grief Queen Elizabeth assists Henry IV. with Men and Money The Spaniards invade Britagne a Province of France Q. Elizabeth assists the French against these Spaniards Spain invaded by the English They take the Groyne Robert Earl of Essex stole away from the Court and served as a Volunteer in this Expedition The Actions of Robert Earl of Essex The second Expedition into Spain Cadiz taken by the English The loss the Spaniard sustained The Affairs of Ireland in her time Ulster the first Provencethat Rebelled against her A Quarrel between Ormond and Desmond The Pope and King of Spain interested in the Irish War Fitz-Morris and Sanders invade Ireland with Spaniards The Deputy for his good Service slandered in England The difficulty of Administring Justice and Mercy seasonably Sir John Perrot Lord Deputy of Ireland New Colonies of English sent into Munster The Irish complain of the English The English complain of the Lord Deputy Fitz-Williams Character The College of Dublin finished The English Colonies keep Ireland quiet a while Part of the Spanish Armada shipwracked on the Coast of Ireland Hugh Roe wrongfully murthered by the Deputy The Rise of Hugh O Neale Earl of Tyrone He aspires to be King of Ulster Tyrone made a County which occasioned Neal's Rebellion Sir William Russel made Lord Deputy of Ireland under whom O Neal broke into a Rebellion Sir John Norris sent into Ireland with 3000 men The Character of this Great Man The Irish become very expert in the use of Arms. Tyrone's Pretences to the Deputy The Deputy offended with Tyrone The Lord Burroughs made Deputy of Ireland The Council of Ireland represent the Irish War as an universal Rebellion of that whole Nation Tyrone beat the English And at the same time treats with England and Spain The Earl of Essex sent Deputy The Army under Essex 20000 men The Lord Montjoy sent Deputy The Methods by which he ruined the Irish and ended the War No Irish pardoned but what merited the Mercy by some signal Service The Spaniards land at Kingsale The Irish reduced to eat man's flesh Tyrone submits Religion causlesly made the pretence of the Irish Rebellion Liberty of Conscience considered The Greatness of the Reputation of the English Nation in Q. Elizabeth's time Her Carriage towards her Allies abroad Sir Drake's Original and Story The Story of John Oxenham Drake's second Voyage to America He takes St. Jago He sails for the Nolucca Islands The Story of Mr. Thomas Cavendish Hackluit records and publishes all the English Expeditions in these and former times Philip King of Spain highly incensed against the English Nation The Invincible Armado in 1588. prepared and sent to invade Enggland Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England The Condition of the Spanish Fleet when the English left it The King of Spain bears his Loss with much Patience and Prudence The English and Hollanders glorifie God for the Victory The Queen declares a War against the King of Spain The English Expeditions against that Kingdom The Earl of Cumberland put out a Fleet against Spain at his own Cost A rare Example of Martial Valour and Courage Complaints made to her of the Depredations of the English at Sea A Reflection concerning Proclamations The Hanse Towns very clamorous against the English The Trade of the English prohibited in Germany She takes away the Stillyard from the Easter lings or Germans Poland continues the Trade with the English The Embassy into Muscovy p. 213 She ends a War between the Russians and Swedes Her Laws for the Enriching of her Subjects at home The Purveyers reformed As also the Concealers Her Severity to her Judges and Governors Usury mitigated The Customs carefully looked after Monopoly suppress'd Informers and Promoters carefully inquired into She detested multitude of Suits Her Admonition to the Judges The licentious liberty of the Theatre restrained The Calamities and Misfortunes that hapned in her Times Her Care of and Kindness to her good Magistrates Her Care of the Poor Her affectionate and tender Care of the Church Her Stature and Personal Accomplishments In her Old Age she was offended at the Decay of her Beauty Adulation sometimes used to her The Flatteries of learned men noted She endeavoured at first to raise a good opinion of her self in her Subjects Which by degrees brought her to love Flattery Crafty men wrought upon this her Infirmity She understood Preacliing very well and loved Severe and Grave men But curbed the Fiery Turbulent Preachers She loved Religion but hated Factions Her Devotion in the Publick Service of God She exposed her Life for the Safety of the Church She humoured and caressed the Body of the People Parliaments frequently held and for the most part well tempered Her Maxim concerning War and Peace She would never arm the meanest of the People The Honours belonging to the Peerage carefully given Her care in chusing good Councellors Bishops Judges and Ministers Her Justice and Veracity and Severity to Offenders Sir John Perrot an Instance of her Severity Her very Severity to Offenders made her the more beloved by the People Her Justice She was sparing in her personal Expences but magnificant in her publick Actions She was too sparing in her Rewards especially to the Sword-men Sir Philip Sidney much lamented She shewed great respect to the memory of the meanest Soldier that perished in her Service But was not liberal to the Great men which had an ill effect The Praises of Henry VII Her Bounty to the Earl of Oxford and some few others of the Nobility And her Severity towards Luxurious Spend-thrifts Her Favours to Anthony King of Portugal †This Anthony is by all confessed to have been a Bastard of the former King's Ursino Duke of Bracciano She never Knighted any but men of Virtue and good Estate The Peerage well and sparingly given The Noble Order of the Garter prudently given The Choice of her Servants Officers and Min isters Her kindness to the Bishops and Church-men She loved Sir F. Walsingham herSecretary Sir Nicholas Bacon Egerton Popham but above all the Lord Burleigh and Howard Her Habit in Publick and in Private Her Furniture Her Diet in Publick and in Private Aligophore The Splendor and Divertisements of the Court. Her private way ofliving Her Studies Her Summer Progress and catriage towards her People in it The Winter she spent in London Her Diet in Summer and Winter Her Diversions and private Conversation She was subject to be violently angry Her Severity and especially to the Queen of Scots Her Severity to Leicester and Hatton Hatton's Death The Provocations she met with were many and great The Character of Sanders and others who defamed her Dydimus Veridicus Florimond Remond a French Writer George Conc a Scot. Her last Sickness Her last Words to her Council She nominated her Successor She spent the last Moments of her Life wholly in Devotion Her last Words to the Archbishop And her Death The Sorrow for her Death
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