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
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
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
compassionating the Dangers of Scotland foreseeing also at the same time the great and almost unavoidable danger which was approaching her own Kingdom if the French were suffered by force or fraud to subdue that part of the Scots which were of the Protestant Religion she couragiously and prudently resolved to undertake the Defence and Protection of this Nation and broke with the French whose Friendship is at all times doubtful and uncertain Thereupon she sent Mr. William Winter the Master of her Naval Cannon with a Fleet into the Fryth of Edinburgh in the year 1560 which took the Island of Keth from the French and expelled their Garifoâ—… and relieved the Scots that were then in Arms. She made also the Duke of Norfolk a Peer of good Experience in Warlike 〈◊〉 President of the North. At the same time she sent the Lord Grey of WILTON who had been very unsuccessful in the Defence of GUINES a Fortress belonging to Calais in her Sister's Reign with an Army by Land into Scotland He entred Scotland with this Army which consisted in Six Thousand Foot and Two Thousand Horse in a peaceable and civil manner treating the Countries through which he passed as a Friend and an Ally that came to help them and sat down before Leith a Sea-Port which was then Garison'd by the French Martigues who was a young and a fiery Gentleman being spurr'd on by the over-warm desires of Glory would needs undertake with Twelve Companies of Foot to beat the English Army upon their first approach from the Hills on which they were posted tho the French were to charge up the Hill whereupon there was presently a sharp and bloody Fight for that Ground the French for a great while sustained with much Bravery the Charge of the English Army on their Front but the Scotch Horse Wheeling about and Charging them on the flank too they were at last beaten with great Loss from their ground and forced into the Town of Leith and very few of them had escaped if the English Horse had done their part as well as the Scotch did theirs The French however were not quiet tho thus beaten but making a Sally after this the 15th of April they surprized the Advanced Guards and cut them off broke into the Lines and Nailed up Three of the English Cannons and took Maurice Berkley one of the Commanders Prisoner But Robert Crofâ—…s and Cuthbert Vaghan two other English Officers fell on the French who pursued their point too far and forced them back into the Town In this Sally Arthur the Eldest Son of the Lord Grey who then commanded in the Trenches was wounded in the Shoulder by a Musket-Bullet whilst he valiantly opposed the French This Sally exasperated the English and they observingthat their Batteries had not any considerable effect on the Walls by reason of their distance they came nearer to the Town and erected new Batteries There was nothing wanting in the Town which was needful to enable the Garison to make a stout Defence the Walls and Bastions were full of men excellently Armed and they played furiously on the English wounding some and killing others and both by day and by night making furious Sallies besides which the English bore with so much Patience and Bravery that they surâ—…ounted all these difficulties The last day of April a Fire happened in the Town which bâ—…rned all that night and the English by turning their Cannon upon those parts that were burning terrified the Inhabitants and spread the Fire and the same night they passed the Dike and measured the heighth of the Walls The French within the Town were no less industrious than the English were without and at last they had the good fortune to put out the Fire and to prevent the English from turning the Terror of it to the best advantage After this the English burnt the Water-Mills upon the River Leith which here falls into the Fryth of Edinburgh and gives name to the Town and what they could not burn they demolished The 5th of May the English storm'd the Town with the Assistance of the Scots under the Command of one Vincer the French tho much terrified with the bold approaches of the English yet manfully defended the Walls and the Ladders proving too short and the Waters being restrained by the Garison were also found deeper than was expected to their great damage so that 160 of the English were slain and nothing gained The whole blame of this Misfortune was cast upon Crofts who stood stone still in the placâ—… he was appointed to act in and neither diverted the Enemy or sent any Assistance to them that were engaged and thereupon he was accused to the Queen by the Duke of Norfolk and thâ—… Lord Grey for which he afterwards being called beâ—…ore the Council was deprived of the Government of Berwick The Duke of Norfolk in the mean time took care to revive the droopiâ—…g Spirits of the English by a fresh Supply of 2000 men which he soon after senâ—… to reinforce the Camp and to curb the Insolence of the French which rose higher upon this Misfortune of the Besiegers so that they made more frequent Sallies after iâ—… than they had done before At the same tiâ—…e the Duke sent a Letter to the Lord Grey to coâ—…fort the Army for the late 〈◊〉 and to assure him that within a short time he would follow with all the Forces he had under his Command This Recruit blew off the Memory of their Loss and kindled in the minds of the Besiegers a strong desire to revenge the Baffle they had received and recover their former Reputation By this time the Besieged had tried all the ways their prudence could suggest to raise the Siege without any success and were now as much oppressed by Famine within as by the Enemy without and having no hopes of any Relief they at last began with the consent of the French King to Capitulate with the Queen for he scorned to Treat with the Scots who were his Subjects who to that end sent Sir William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to Edinburgh The Lord James a Scotch Peer proposed some things on the behalf of the Scots in this Treaty which Sir William Cecil told him did not become Subjects to ask or Princes to grant And the French on the other side offered the Queen that if she would withdraw her Forces out of Scotland he would restore Calais to the English to which she generously replied She did not value that Fisher-Town so much as to hazard for it the State of Britain so even did she hold the Balance between that King and his Subjects suffering neither of them to wrong the other At last it was agreed That the French should within Twenty days depart out of Scotland and the Fortifications of Leith and Dunbar should be slighted The 16th of July the French accordingly embarked on the English Fleet for France and the same day the Lord Grey began his
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 Great Man who was of a Regal Spirit and is supposed to have been a Bastard Son of Henry the VIIIth despised too much the Complaints of his Countrey-men and forced the greatest of the English to fly before his Authority and as for the Irish he made them better than they would otherwise have been both by his Threats and Severity and by his good Advices and by the strength of his Reason he made them understand how much it was for their good to continue firm in their Allegiance to the Queen This was an hard Task considering the Capacity and Temper both of the People he was to deal with and of the Times in which he governed Ireland In the year 1588. Sir William Fitz-Williams was made Lord Deputy of Ireland and continued till the 11th of August 1594. He was a Covetous Unjust man and laid the Foundations of a great many Troubles to the English in after times but in all his Ireland was tolerably quiet till towards the latter end of his Government only the Irish took up an Aversion for the English Government and Sheriffs by his means and Tyrone having Six Companies allowed him under the Queen's Pay he changed his men so often that the whole Countrey became Disciplined men and he got great quantities of Lead into his Possession under pretence of building a fine House In the year 1593 the College of Dublin was finished at the Queen's Charges and Burleigh was the first Chancellor and Usher the first Scholar in it That which made Ireland so quiet under Fitz-Williams was the Justice Prudence and Valour of his Predecessor Sir John Perrot which had broken the Power of the Heads of the Irish Clans and so well Civilized and Planted that Kingdom with English Colonies and Garisons that during these Six years there was but Eight hundred Foot and Three hundred Horse maintained to keep the Natives in quiet The Irish were also so well setled in their Lands Estates and Cattel that it was no mans Interest to make any Disturbance And there was no Foreign Prince that could be brought to join with them or lend them any Assistance The Spanish Armada in the latter end of the year 1588. lost Seventeen of its Ships upon the Northern and Western Shores of this Kingdom and 5394 of the men in it perished and tho some of the Popish Natives sheltered some of them yet they all robbed them of their Freasures and got what they had for it And King James of Scotland looked upon himself as the Presumptive Heir of this Kingdom after the Queen and kept a fair Correspondence with the English and restrained the Scots and Islanders from joining with the Irish. There was a Rumor in England That there was a vast Treasure found in the Spanish Ships which perished in Connaught and Ulster And Fitz-Williams the Lord Deputy made a severe search after it commanding by a Proclamation all the Spanish Treasures to be brought into the Exchequer for the Queen's use and he imprisoned Sir Owen O Toole and Sir John O Dogherty two of the greatest men in the North in the Castle of Dublin on this pretence tho they were the best affected to the English of any of the Inhabitants but he could discover nothing tho he kept the first Two years in Restraint and the latter all his time who was discharged by his Successor and died soon after being much decayed by the Hardships of a long Imprisonment and Old Age. But all these ill things done under Fitz Williams made work for them that followed him Upon the Death of Mac Mahon who was one of the Heads of an Irish Clan and had not long before taken a Patent from the Queen for the County of Monaghan to him and his Heirs Male for ever Hugh Roe his Brother and Heir Petitioned the Deputy to be setled in his Inheritance according to the Queen's Patent and the Laws of the Kingdom and the Irish say it coft him Six hundred Cows to have a Promise of it And then the Deputy only said he would go in person to do it But as soon as he came to Monaghan he Imprisoned Tried and Condemned Hugh Roe by Military Law and without any Legal Trial pretending he had Levied Forces two years before to distrain for Rent he pretended was due to him in the Ferny Hereupon he was hanged and the County was divided between Sir Henry Bagnal Marshal Captain Henslow and four of the Mac Mahons under a Yearly Rent each of these giving the Deputy considerable Bribes as they said in their Complaint to the Council of England The Deputy denied all this but it was observed That from thenceforward the Irish loathed Sheriffs and the Neighbourhood of the English fearing the same fate might at one time or other attend them that had befallen Hugh Roe The Report of this Villany Spread it self all over Ulster and the Heads of the Clans were greatly terrified and incensed at it and had close Cabals wherein they severely taxed the ill Management Covetousness and Cruelty of the Deputy There was then in Ulster a Great Man called Hugh O Neal the Son of one Mathew a Smith a Cunning and a Crafty man who from his youth had served the Queen in the Wars In Desmond's Rebellion he had done the Queen good Service and got much Reputation both for his Courage and Industry The Queen on the other side protected this poor obscure Gentleman against the Malice of the O Neals who hated him as the Enemy to their Nation and she advanced him from an abject and mean Condition to great Honour and made him Earl of Tyrone for his Merits and Deserts He became intoxicated with his too good fortune and ungratefully and madly design'd to ruin her that had made him what he was and now nothing would serve him but he would needs be King of Ulster and to that end he assumed the Title of O Neale and cast off all Respect and Allegiance for the Queen He disciplined the rude and ignorant Kerns after the English manner under the pretence I have before recited and in the mean time under hand instilled into them an invincible hatred of the English Religion and Government calling the first Heresy and the latter a shameful Slavery and Servitude by which he disposed them so well to a Rebellion that almost the whole Nation revolted at once from the Queen In July 1591. Tyrone was made a County and divided into Eight Baronies Dungannon being appointed for the Shire-Town which with the Authority of Marshal Bagnal so fretted Tyrone that it 's believed it occasioned his Confederating this Summer underhand with the rest of the Irish to defend their pretended Rights and not to admit Sheriffs into their Counties The effects of this first appeared in the year 1593. when O Connor became troublesome in Connaught and O Donnel and Mac Guire chief of Fermanagh rose in Ulster against the Sheriffs and would have
murthered them but that Tyrone pretended to intercede to have their 〈◊〉 spared This they durst never 〈◊〉 done but that they knew all the â—…ans in Ulster would second them The Deputy to revenge this Insurrection proclaimed Mac Guire a Traytor and invading Fermanagh he took Inniskilling but upon his withdrawing the Irish returned and drove the English he had left out of Fermanagh During this Tumult Tyrone came thither as by chance and asking what the matter was and what had provoked their Anger against the English he gravely reprehended Mac Guire the Beginner of the Insurrection and then began seemingly to appease the exasperated meaner Irish people tho in truth he was the first Promoter of all this Disturbance and did this only to conceal himself and avoid being suspected by the English Hereupon the Queen recalled Fitz-William who had never been a Soldier and sent a new Deputy in his stead Sir William Russel youngest Son of Francis Earl of Bedford was sworn Lord Deputy of Ireland the 11th of August 1594. Under him this great Revolution hapned Tyrone's Brother about the same time Befieged Inniskilling and defeated 46 English Horse and 600 Foot that came to Relieve it under the Conduct of Sir Edward Herbert and Sir Henry Duke yet Tyrone had the Impudence to come to Dublin and impose upon the Council That he had no hand in this Insurrection tho some offered to prove him a Traytor which was not then believed In March 1595. he broke into a second open Rebellion notwithstanding all his Oaths and Asseverations which in an Irish man are the certain tokens of Treachery and Falshood Bagnal his mortal Enemy thereupon marched against him with 1500 Foot and 250 English Horfe and Tyrone appeared with 1500 Irish Horse but retired without attempting any thing but soon after he appeared with 8000 Foot to second his Horse Yet this handful of men fought all his Forces and came off with good Success tho they were in great danger of being destroyed as they had been if the Enemies Powder had not failed in the Action In June 1595. Sir John Norris arrived with Two thousand Veterane Soldiers and One thousand New-raised men and with the Title of Lord General of the Forces in Ulster he being to command absolutely in the absence of the Deputy The Queen's Design in sending Norris with this large Commission was that he and the Deputy should act with the greater vigor against the Enemy But then tho Norris was an excellent Commander he was a little too violent and disdained to be subject to the Orders of the Deputy and which was yet worse disagreed with him in the general method of managing the War and was very stiff in his opinion besides so that much time was spent in useless Contests between these two high-spirited men which very much prejudiced the Queen's Affairs and secured Tyrone who cunningly made use of it from being suppressed in the beginning of his Rebellion By this time the Rebels had taken several of the English Forts and were become so expert in the use of Arms that they were almost a Match for the English Sir John Perrot to save charges had armed the Irish in Ulster against the Islâ—…nder Scots and taught them the use of Fire-Arms and Fitz-Williams had pursued the same false Measures and had taken many Irish into the English Army and sent others of them into the Low-Countries to be bred Soldiers and now they were become stout Rebels to the damage of the English The Deputy having in the mean time spent the Summer in the Field against the Enemy took care to settle Connaught and Leinster in the Winter and finding them much disordered by the Injuries of the Presidents he heard their Complaints very patiently and redressed what he found amiss with much Justice that he might raise in the people an expectation and hopes of better â—…mes to come And he also levied â—…ore Forces and invited Tyrone to coâ—… 〈◊〉 him to Dublin and sent him a Passport The Earl came accordingly being tossed between hopes and fears and there the Deputy before many of the Nobility of that Kingdom represented to him the Benefits he had received at the Queen's hands which he readily acknowledged pretending That he had on that consider at ion patiently born the Injuries of Fitz-Williams Government and the Wrongs done him by Bagnal the Marshal That he had saved the English from the Fury of Mac Guire and preserved them in the possession of Fermanagh That his good Actions had been misrepresented and he had been ill rewarded for them That he desired nothing more than to be restored to the Queen's Favour which he had been deprived of by the slanders of his Enemies This cunning Defence appeased the Deputy and he was resolved to try if he could reclaim him by favours and good usage and so he permitted him to return home again Yet in September of this year he offered the King of Spain the Kingdom of Ireland if he would supply him with 3000 Men and a little Treasure Thus were the Winter of this year and the Spring of the next spent in needless and ineffectual Treaties Tyrone pretending to submit to gain time and at last he was Pardoned but Three Ships arriving from Spain with Powder and 200 men he refused his Pardon a great while and when he took it he used it as a cover for his Treasonable Designs He was always Treating and Rebelling at the same time and finding a Discontent between Sir John Norris and the Lord Deputy he made use of the one against the other and in the mean time surprized the Garisons and embroiled the Countrey to the great hazard of Extirpating the English A Treaty with a perfidious man tends to nothing but to make him insolent and the Government secure to its Ruin If you never trust him he can never hurt you The English Council was so weary of these Chargeable Wars that they dreaded nothing more than a War in Ireland So that it was then a Maxim here That it were well for England if Ireland could be sunk into the bottom of the Ocean but since that was not possible to be done it had been well if they had gone roundly to work and sending competent Forces had pursued these counterfeiting Rebels to utter destruction not suffering any Irish-man to have any Fire-Arms The Deputy observing that Tyrone slighted him and made his applications to Norris to whom he sent Messengers to commemorate his Loyalty and Duty to the Queen and to beg her Majesties Pardon he thereupon wrote to the Queen That he had not been used to Wars and was unacquainted with the Fatigues that attended Insurrections and Tumults That King Philip of Macedonia was less terrible to him than a desultory Enemy and a barbarous Irish Teagne That this languid Sedition might be composed without wounds or bloodshed as some thought if good men were but sent to treat with the Rebels That
never granting them upon Caprice to shew her Absolute Power upon the Intercession of Favourites or the Letters of Great men to those that were mean and neither deserved nor could maintain the Grandeur of that Noble Title She set a high Value upon the most Noble Order of the Garter and took the utmost care to keep it as the sincerest Reward of an extraordinary Fidelity Industry and Nobility and therefore she would never suffer it to be in the least corrupted by any mixture of mean persons Tho the Lord Burleigh was her Principal Councellor and the First Mover in all her greater Affairs without whose advice she would rarely resolve upon any thing of moment and he had deserved so very well of her by his unparallel'd Care Labour and Vigilance yet because he was but a Gentleman born and a Peer of her own Creation only it was very long before she could persuade her self to take him into the Order of the Garter which has flourished now Three hundred years and more and has in all times been given to the Greatest and Best of the Nobility at Home for the best Services they could do for their Princes and Countrey or to Foreign Princes Abroad who were united to us by the most strict and indearing Bonds of Friendship and Interest She gave Governments Magistracies Court-Offices and other Places of Trust Reputation and Profit to those that deserved well of her that by the example of these Rewards she might provoke others to imitate their Fidelity and Industry She would never endure that any man she employed should raise to himself an odious or oppressive Gain either from the Power or Office she had given him If she observed a man to do nothing but for Money she would never trust him and as for any Offices or Governments she took care to keep them as much as was possible out of such men's hands Yet she was not too hard to or suspicious of her Servants she extended her Favour to all those she found good men and her Friendship and Kindness was lasting to all those she found honest thrifty sober men but then in Law-Suits she would not suffer any the least distinction to be made between her Servants and Favourites and the rest of her Subjects lest they being exalted by it above measure should any way endanger the common Liberty of her People or the Publick Peace and Safety She raised Sadler from nothing Mildmay and Fortescue from mean Fortunes to the Honour of Knighthood and made them Privy Councellors for their good Services and lest that Dignity should suffer by the meanness of their Estates she gave them a Competency by way of Addition to what they had before She would always remember to Reward those well that had served her faithfully as her Ambassadors in Foreign Courts And she raised many of her servants for their Fidelity and protected others of them from the Violence of Great Men She protected Sir Thomas Knevet from the Violence of the Earl of Oxford who to revenge a Wound he had received from Sir Thomas in a Duel was mustering up all his Friends and Servants to destroy him which the Queen prevented by giving him a Guard for some time She so effectually recommended the Cause of her Bishops to her people when they were attacked by the Clamours and Reproaches of the Puritans that nothing was more dear to the Multitude than their Bishops and no Name was more Popular or beloved than theirs so that all men stood up for their Dignity and Authority She curbed the Boldness Rage and Fury of these Pretenders to Godliness by Laws well and severely executed and she made it her business to preserve the Church to the utmost of her Power as well from the Disturbance of Seditious Preachers within as the Insults of Declared Enemies without Her Motto was Semper eadem Always the same and in this affair she took the greatest care to verify it never departing one tittle from what she had once setled or changing the Methods she had established but upon great reason She had a very great Love for Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State who was one of the Pillars of her Kingdom and so intent upon the Preservation of the Publick Safety and the Discovery of the Designs of her Enemies against her Person and Government that he took little care of his own private Family and made no provision for those he left behind him But then it was hardly well taken by the body of the Nation to see the most part of his Inheritance sold after his death to repay those Moneys to the Treasury which he had spent in the Queen's Service The Envy of which however fell heaviest upon the Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester who were none of his Friends whilst he lived and took this opportunity to revenge the Affronts they had received from him She had also a particular favour for Sir Nicholas Bacon the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal who was the Ornament of the Court and the great Luminary of Westminster-Hall She highly esteemed Egerton and Popham But above all her other Councellors and Ministers of State she valued Burleigh the Lord Treasurer and Howard the Lord Admiral of England the Ornament of his own Family and a strange Example of Modesty Civility and Liberality These men enjoyed her Favour to the last and were ever of great Authority with her She loved a Prudent and Moderate Habit in her private Apartment and conversation with her ownServants but when she appeared in Publick she was ever richly adorn'dwith the most valuable cloaths set off again with much gold and Jewels of inestimable Value and on such occasions she ever wore High Shooes that she might seem Taller than indeed she was The first day of the Parliament she would appear in a Robe Embroidered with Pearls the Royal Crown upon her Head the Golden Ball in her Left-hand and the Scepter in her Right and as she never failed then of the loud Acclamations of her People so she was ever pleased with it and went to the House in a kind of Triumph with all the Ensigns of Majesty There was at such times so great a Concourse of the People to see and salute the Queen that many were trodden down and some have been lamed The Royal Name was ever venerableâ—… to the English Nation but this Queeâ—… was more sacred than any of her Ancestors She alone was able to furnish her whole Sex with the Examples of Chastity Temperance and all other Vertues And she was very vigilant to keep her Family and Court in severe Discipline She persuaded all Married Women to pay a modest Respect to their Husbands as to their Superiors She kept a severer Guard upon her own desires than upon those of others that were about her so that by degrees she made them seem at least like her self because she ever laboured so to have them She banished from her Court all
England and there was no place free from their Religious Butchery The Princess ELIZABETH in these doleful times seeing her self deprived of the Protection of a Kind Brother deserted by Her Friends and betrayed by Her Enemies had not the least hope of enjoying the Free Exercise of the True Religion Nor was this Calamity thought enough but Her Popish â—…nemies persecuted Her under the pretence She had Conspired with Sir â—…homas Wiat to Destroy Her Sister tho at his death he declared to all the world She had no hand in his Insurrection but however Her Sister was glad of this pretence to use Her ill and being spurr'd on by Her Popish Bishops who were highly cnraged against Her as the Head of the Reformed Religion She was sent close Prisoner to the Castle of WOODSTOCK in the year 1554. Thus She saw Her self deprived at once of all her Friends and Her Liberty too Her Servants and Friends abroad were many of them Attainted and others forced to seek their Safety in Foreign Countries And the Protestants in great Numbers became a Sacrifice to the Rage of the Popish Bishops So that no Orator is able truly and effectually to represent in words the Desolations and Calamities of those times Many however of the most Learned of the English Nation during this storm betook themselves to Germany as to their safest Harbour The rest who could not make a timely Escape were committed to Prisons tormented with various Arts of Cruelty and at last burnt alive The Publick places of our Cities were bathed with the Blood of Innocent and Holy men and our streets were filled with the dreadful shrieks and groans of the miserable men from their souls detesting the Cruelty of the Popish Clergy and the infamous Inhumanity of these Marian Times The Princess Elizabeth was a sorrowful Spectator of this Tragedy but for all the fear she lived in and the repeated Threats of Her Sister She stood her ground and would not be withdrawn from the Religion She had embraced and in Her Conscience approved but bore all with an undaunted and Heroick Courage The Chearfulness of Her Temper soon overcame the Greatness of the Calamity the Melancholy of a Prison and the Fear of Her Sister The Bitterness of Her Misfortunes was much allayed also by discovering to Her how tenderly the People loved her so that the Joy of this over balanced the Calamities of the Times and the Frowns of Fortune In the midst of such over-whelming Sorrows Suspicions and the Fears of an Ignominious Death no mortal ever saw her dejected or dispirited When the fears of Her Treacherous and Perfidious Enemies and that of Violence encompassed Her Good Reason encouraged Her a Sound Mind and a Quiet Conscience supported Her under Her Misfortunes and Her Hope and Trust in the Goodness and Mercy of God overcame all assaults of Despair It is not my Purpose to make the Reigns of Henry the VIII and Qeeen Mary odious and therefore I will not spend my time in representing the Cruelties that were then put in Practice the manifold Murthers extending to all Sexes and Ages or the Miseries that followed those that fled hence into Foraign Countries For tho the mischievous Example of the Popish Clergy who by their Authority Counsel and the specious pretences of Retrieving and Preserving the Ancient Piety and Worship raised and augmented these Persecutions and is for ever to be detested yet the Faults of Princes like those of our Parents are to be concealed as much as is possible and the Injuries they do us are patiently and silently to be suffered The Popish Clergy and especially some of the Bishops foreseeing what hazard their Religion was exposed to as long as the Princess Elizabeth lived and was the next Heir to the Crown of England because she had from her Infancy been bred up in the Protestant Religion made it their Great Design to hasten her Death with an implacable Malice that so they might at one blow cut off the Head of that Party which was here formed against their Church She in the mean while during all this calamitous time saw herself under Custody her faithful Servants in Prison and she had perpetually before her eyes the Images of a violent Death The People of England saw her Danger but could not so prudently conceal their Fears but upon all occasions openly and with great Anxiety said This Royal Off-spring was designed for Slaughter Truth and Innoccnce were not secure and the Ruin and Undoing of the Nation would be the effects of her Death Queen Mary in the mean time was distracted between the Shame of offending the whole Nation which generally believed the Princess Elizabeth to be innocent and the Fear of exposing her Religion which she loved above all things to the Hazard of another Protestant Reign She saw herself in danger of Conspiracies if her Sister lived and that on the other hand she could not take away her Life without being guilty of a great Wickedness Philip the II. a King of Spain the Husband of Queen Mary upon wise Reasons of State delivered the poor distressed and helpless Princess out of this horrid Danger out of pure Aversion to the Kingdom of France his most dreadful Rival For he wisely considered That Mary Qâ—…een of Scotland and Grandchild to Henry VII was married to Francis the Eldest Son of Henry II. King of France and that if the Princess Elizabeth were cut off she would be the undoubted Heiress of England Scotland and Ireland and would transfer and unite these Three Northern Crowns to that of France and make the House of â—…aloise dreadful to that of Austria This Thought put a stop to their Cruelty God by it procuring her Safety and with her preserving the English Nation to the universal joy of all who wished well to her or their Countrey Queen Mary her Sister died the 17th of November 1558 when she had Reigned Five Years Four Months and Eleven days being then in the XLIII Year of her Age concluding an unhappy Reign and an unfortunate Life She at her Death by her last Will left the afflicted and disconsolate Lady the Princess Elizabeth the Heir of the Crown of England rather out of an unavoidable Necessity than any thing of Choice There was then a Parliament sitting which began the 5th of that month in which she died and as the Government was then wholly in the hands of the Roman-Catholicks none of the other Party daring to appear or if they did not daring to own their Opinions the Death of Queen Mary was concealed for some hours for what purpose is not known but about Nine of the Clock the Lord Chancellor went to the House of Lords and first acquainted them with it This gave a great terror to the Bishops and those Counsellors who hadbeen severe against the Princess Elizabeth yet they all agreed to Proclaim her Queen so they sent for the House of Commons and the Chancellor told them also
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
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
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
Queen Mary preserved him in her fair Esteem tho he was of a differing Religion In the first of Queen Elizabeth he was again call'd to the Council-Table In the 3d. year of her Reign he was made Master of the Wards and in the 14th Anno 1572. he was made Lord Treasurer of England upon the Death of William Lord Paâ—…let havingthe 25th of February of the preceding year obtained his Patentof Baron Lord Burleigh so that he was the first Peer of this Illustrious House though his Father and Grandfather had enjoyed good Employments under Henry the 8th In all the Contests between Sussex and Leicester this Great Man stood Neuter and would engage in neither of the Parties which made him the Head of a Third and enabled him to serve himself of both the other in whose ways he laid many rubs Others were raised to balance Factions he to support a Kingdom as he was the best Statesman in that Age so he was constantly on the watch for the Safety of his Mistress and her Kingdoms Leicester was the Cunningest man of the Age but Cecil the Wisest the Stoutest and being without Guile or Pride made it his business to baffle all Leicester's Projects for thâ—… Marriage of the Queen and the enslaving the Nation He and Sussex threw themselves once at the Feet of the Queen and presumed to tell her That all her good subjects were concern'd to see the Danger and Dishonour Dudley had brought upon her That he had transgressed all the bounds of a Subject and very much exceeded the Crimes of Northumberland his Father That he had bragg'd of Marrying her That this was a Dishonour to her Majesty and would bring Mischief on her Kingdoms for her Subjects would never endure the Soveraignty of an unchaste and wicked man And they advised her to put a stop to the Jealousies of her People and to consult her own Honour and the Safety of her Friends They represented to her very warmly the Dignity Power and Wealth of a Foreign Match and recommended to her Charles Arch-Duke of Austria second Son of Ferdinand the Emperor and Brother of Maximilian II. as a Prince worthy of her Affections These Discourses of these Great Men made a very deep Impression on the mind of the Queen and thereupon this Noble Earl was sent in the year 1567 to carry the George to Maximilian II. Emperor of Germany and had Commission at the same time to treat of this Marriage which he endeavoured to effect with all his Power though the Earl of Leicester opposed it The Gallantry of his Behaviour and the Splendor of his Equipage and Retinue gain'd him a Familiarity from the Emperor and a Reverence from the Arch-Duke a Respect from the People and his Mistress a kindness in that Court which stood her in great stead against the Attempts of the King of Spain and Pope of Rome which perhaps was all that was designed by the Treaty for it is said the Lord North who went with him had Orders under hand to oppose all his Negotiations as he did and by a few fond Scruples disappointed and at last defeated the whole Design It is supposed by some this Obstruction was procured by Leicester to secure his own Greatness When this Great but Ill Man had struggled many years with the opposite Parties which arose one after another against him in the Court and found himself sinking in the Favour of the Queen by his private Marrying the Countess of Essex during the Life of his first Wife fearing the Divine Justice the Change of the Times and the great Numbers of men he had exasperated against him he in the year 1585 obtained a Commission of the Queen for Levying 500 men to be sent into Holland and Zealand and was after that by another constituted Lieutenant and Captain-General of the whole Army designed for the Service of the United Provinces against the Spaniard whither he went the same year he had no good Success in this Expedition and the next year the Hollanders made loud and dreadful Complaints against him for mis-spending their Money and ill-managing their Affairs whereupon he was re-called and the Complaint following him hither he told the Queen That she having sent him thither with Honour he hoped she would not receive him back with Disgrace and that whom she had raised from the Dust she would not bury alive Thereupon he left the Court and the 4th of Septembâ—…r 1588 he died at Cornbury-Park in Oxfordshire Thus died this Favourite having in one year in the Wars lost all that Reputation and Favour he had acquired in so many years in the Court. Peregrine Lord Willoughby a Noble Gentleman a good Soldier and a Virtuous Man who was one of the Commanders under the Earl of Leicester succeeded him as General of the English Forces in the Netherlands He had more Experience more Courage and also more Success than his Predecessor so that he was stiled the Queen's first Sword-man and a great Master of the Military Art by the Historians of those times He did the States of Holland great Service by his brave Defence of Bergen ap Zoom against the Prince of Parma in the year 1588 But for all that he had some of the Fate of his Predecessor which fell to his lot for he was complained of by the Hollanders as well tho not so justly as Leicester but his Innocence clear'd him In the year 1589 he was sent General of 4000 men in aid of the King of Navarre into France and he died in the year 1601. The Queen in all the time of her Reign took care to Establish her Government by the Counsel Virtue and Fidelity of many Wise and Learned Men who spent their whole time in promoting the Publick Welfare and Peace of her Kingdoms Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State was one of the greatest of these and an Ornament to her Court and Council He so sedulously attended the execution of the Office committed to him and took his Measures for the Safety of her Person and Kingdoms and the Security of the Protestant Religion with that Prudence and Caution that it was scarce possible any thing should happen which his Care and Industry had not foreseen or his Spies discovered to him before-hand His Maxim was Knowledge is never too dear and accordingly he spent his whole Income and Time in her Service and died in the year 1590 so poor that the Queen gave his Daughter her Portion The Queen has been heard to say That his Diligence and Sagacity exceeded her Expectation The Lord Burleigh was made Lord Treasurer of England by her because he was the Cato of his Time a man well versed in the Affairs of the Treasury and a Provident and Careful Manager of them He would insinuate to the Queen That the Treasury was not her own Money but committed to her Care for the Safety of her People and therefore it was not to be spent in useless
March with the English Army for England where he was rewarded for this Service with the Government of Berwick which he did not long enjoy for he died the 14th of December 1562. This War saith Mr. Cambden preserved all Britain from Ruin restored the Scots to their Ancient Liberty and setled the Peace and enlarged the Reputation of the English Nation so that from thenceforward during all her happy Reign she had no reason to apprehend any danger from Scotland the Protestants of that Nation esteeming the Queen their Patroness and Deliverer and the English acknowledging she had laid a sure foundation for their future Security Thus she delivered Scotland from those Foreigners who designed by Violence and Force to suppress not only the Protestant Religion but their Civil Rights and Liberties also and to bring upon that Free Nation an intolerable French Slavery Of this the Scots were then so extremely sensible saith my Author who was of that Nation That they being delivered by her means from Foreign Servitnde they thereupon subscribed to a League to maintain the Protestant Religion and to use the English Worship and Rites After this a Civil War arose in France and the Queen sent Supplies under the Earl of Warwick in 1562. to the Prince of Conde the Count de Rohan and Coligny the Defenders of the Protestant Religion and of the Liberties of that Kingdom To these Forces when the Protestants themselves opposed thâ—…m she sent afterwards Additional Forces and great Sums of Money At this time the French Protestants put Havre de Grace into her hands as a Cautionary Town and it was Garison'd with English Soldiers but so soon as their Fear of the Popish Party was a little abated by a Peace granted to them which yet waâ—… of no duration they joined with their Popish Countreymen to drive out their Benefactors and with equal Violence endeavoured to reduce the Town under the Crown of France again The Earl of Warwick seeing his men consumed by a War without and a Plaâ—…ue within the Town and no Relief to be expected in due time he thereupon began a Treaty with the Enemy and the 28th of July 1563. the Articles of Surrender were signed the next day there came a Fleet of 60 Sail of English Ships into the Haven on which the Garison was Transported into England And the Protestants of France had the chief hand in the driving them out as all sides acknowledge The Death of Francis II. King of France the 5th of December 1560. when he had Reigned but Seventeen Months put an end to all the French Ambitious Designs of Conquering England and Reducing Scotland and to the Fears of both these Kingdoms on that score Mary Queen of Scotland being thus deprived of her Beloved Husband soon grew weary of that Kingdom and getting a small Number of Ships together for that purpose she went on board at Calais the 14th of August and she landed at Leith the 20th of the same month in the year 1561 being attended by many of the Nobility and some great Ladies of both the French and Scots Nation Not long after the Queen of England having opposed this Princess's designs of Marrying Charles Archduke of Austria and rather recommending to her choice the Lord James Darnley Eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox and the next Heir after her of the Crowns of England and Scotland so that this Match would undoubtedly secure her Title to England too after the Death of Queen Elizabeth whereupon she married him at Edinburgh in the year 1565 and the next year after James their only Son was born to the great Joy of both the Nations for he was then thought one of the Pillars of Christendom the Ornament of his Native Countrey and Family and all men presaged That he would one day become the King of Great Britain as it came afterwards to pass by the wonderful good Providence of God This Marriage was attended with a Catastrophe and Tragick Event which is grievous to the thoughts and scarce possible to be enough lamented Mary Stewart the Relict of Francis II. King of France and the Immediate Heiress and Lawful Queen of Scotland and the Presumptive Heir of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Mother of James VI. soon after became a Lamentable Example of the Unsteadiness of Human Affairs The Lord Darnley her Husband having out of Jealousie ordered the Murther of one David Rixio the Queen's Secretary was afterwards himself Poisoned first and then Murdered at Edinburgh in the year 1567 The effect of which was the Deposing the Queen her self who was suspected to have an hand in it and the Imprisoning her in a Castle in the Lake of Locklevin where she was forced to subscribe a Resignation of the Crown and Government of Scotland in the year 1568. The Queen by the Providence of God escaped afterwards out of this Restraint the 2d of May and raised some Forces to recover her Crown again which were intirely routed and dispersed by the Forces of the Regent of Scotland So that having nothing more to trust to in that Kingdom she took shipping with intention to pass into France but being by stress of Weather or the Treachery of those that carried her brought into England she was landed at Warkinton in Cumberland the 17th of the same Month and not long after committed Prisoner to the Castle of Carlisle so that being driven from her Native Countrey by her own Subjects she found an uneasie and cruel Restraint where she expected a Refuge and a Sanctuary The Laws of Hospitality and that Kindness which Nature teacheth all men to use towards those that are of the same Lineage and Blood not being able to protect her against the Jealousie of a Rival Queen When Mary Queen of the Scots saw her self reduced to this Calamitous Condition forsaken of all her Subjects and Servants and forced to flee in one day about Sixty Miles and then not thinking her self secure till passing to Sea she was thrown upon the English shore She wrote a Letter to the Queen of England before she left Scotland and sent it by one Beton and she gave him a Diamond which the Queen had sent her before this as a Pledge of her Friendship she also ordered him to tell the Queen That she intended to leave Scotland and to come into England and did most earnestly beseech her to send her such Help and Assistance as was necessary in case the Scots should persist in the same Methods of Oppression Queen Elizabeth assured this Gentleman That she would shew the Queen of Scots all that Affection that she could possibly expect from a Sister Before this Gentleman could get back again she left Scotland contrary to the Advice of all her Friends and came into England and as soon as she was on shore she sent the Queen a Second Letter in French in the Conclusion of which she tells the Queen of England That she was come into her
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
report you guiltless believe me the Queen her self will be much affected with Joy who affirmed to me at my coming from her That never any thing befel her more grievous to her than that you were Charged with such a Crime Wherefore lay aside the bootless Privilege of a Royal Dignity which here can be of no use to you appear in Judgment and shew your Innocence lest by avoiding Tryal you draw upon your self suspicion and lay upon your Reputation an Eternal Blot and Aspersion This short Speech is highly commended for the Ingenuity and Softness of it but it was a detestable piece of Wickedness to wheedle a poor Captive Queen who was ignorant of the Laws of Nations and destitute of all Advice and Counsel out of her Reputation Majesty Innocence and Life and under the false Pretences of the Queen's Tenderness for her her Judges Uprightness and her own alledg'd Innocence to bring her by a Pretended Shew of Justice to a Scaffold as a Subject who was an Equal an Enemy and a Sovereign The Queen of Scots Innocence did not consist in her having never contrived any thing against Queen Elizabeth but in her Right to contrive all that was possible to recover her Liberty and her Kingdom and therefore when they had proved her in their Notion Guilty they had done nothing she was no Subject to Queen Elizabeth and so ought her no Allegiance and consequently could commit no Treason against her and the Queen of England ought to have set her at Liberty and commanded her out of her Kingdom before she could justly treat her as an Enemy So that this was all of it Pretence Injustice and Oppression and had Nathan the Prophet been sent to the Queen of England he would certainly have told her as he did David Thou hast slain her with the sword of the children of Ammon And the Complaint that she made to the Lord Hatton and all that she did after to excuse her self shew that she had a reluctance within and acted against the Dictates of her own Conscience so that this can be no Example for the future to any Prince or Subject but ought to be looked upon as the Dishonour and Shame of that otherwise most Excellent Princess Yet after all the Queen is not to be charged with the whole Guilt of this Royal and Innocent Blood but those Foreign Princes and the Priests and Jesuits are justly chargable with the greatest part of the blame because when they saw the Queen of Scots in so much danger of her Life they would never suffer her to be quiet but were eternally Plotting and Contriving Bribing and Conspiring how to murder Queen Elizabeth and to set up the Queen of Scots in her stead to restore their Beloved Popery here in England To demonstrate the Truth of this Assertion I must in the next place give an account of the Troubles and Conspiracies of the Popish Party against this Princess which to the shame of their Religion were all began and carried on under the pretence of a mighty Zeal for their Faith and in Obedience to its Principles Pope Pius Quintus in the year 1570 thought it became his Piety and would be an excellent Argument of his deserving that name to Arm all the Queen's Subjects against God and their Prince and Countrey and foolishly presumed the Avenger of Perjury would permit him to free them from the obligations of their Natural and sworn Allegiance to their Lawful Sovereign and his Vicegerent Thereupon he sent out his BULL to declare the Queen an Heretick and that she had forfeited all her Right to Reign and Govern And he excited all the Neighbour Catholick Princes to take Arms against her and put this Bull in Execution And one Dr. Morton the Pope's Legate à Latere here then lay lurking amongst the Papists in the North of England and with impatience expected the Roaring of this Bull as the Signal to Treason and Rebellion and in the mean time made it his business to excite their Madness and Rage and inflame their Hatred by vain hopes and promises that so he might engage them in a miserable destructive War The Popish Subjects of England being thus debauched from their Allegiance by the Pope's Authority and Approbation there presently followed a great many Seditions and Insurrections and some of the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion in compliance with their Religion began to be very ill affected towards their Prince Thus Religion became a Pretence for and a Promoter of Rebellion and Treason The first of the Nobility that entred into Action against the Queen was Thomas Piercy Earl of Northumberland who in the year 1569 had been privy to the Intended Marriage of Mary Queen of the Scots with Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and being discovered thereupon he submitted himself to the Earl of Sussex at that time President of the North yet after this he joined with Charles Nevil Earl of Westmorland and great Multitudes of people began to resort to them and they began to be suspected again by the Government as designing some Mischief The President of the North sent for them both at one time and freely told them what he had heard and they both stoutly disclaimed the having a Conspiracy in hand against the Queen and promised to adventure their Lives very zealously against any Traytor whatsoever that should take Arms against their Sovereign Yet after all Piercy began to raise what Forces he could in the year 1569 which being discovered to the Queen she sent her Letters to them requiring them to come both to Court The Earl of Northumberland was so easie a man and so far from that fiery Activity that is requisite in the Head of a Faction that upon the receit and reading of the Queen's Letter he was almost resolved to go to Court and cast himself at the Queen's Feet as in all probability he had done if his Servants and Followers who were more bent upon Mischief than he had not allarm'd him in the dead of the night and frighted him into a Rebellion by their crafty arts persuading him at the same time That all the Catholicks in England were ready prepared to assert that Religion and that if they neglected it any longer Foreign Princes would take this work in hand to the great Damage of the Nation Whereupon he fled to Branspeth in the Bishoprick of Durham to the Earl of Westmorland and they joining in a Rebellion summoned their Confederates and issued out a Proclamation in the Queen's Name commanding the people to put themselves in Arms for the Defence of her Majesty's Person In their Banner was a Cross Painted with the Five Wounds of Christ yet after all they never could assemble more than 2000 Horse and 5000 Foot so that tho they designed to have marched to York they durst not do it and upon the first News that the Earl of Sussex was advancing towards them they disbanded these Tumultuous Forces
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
of Supremacy And finding that the Iesuits and Secular Priests were under the Mask and Pretence of Religion the Spies and Partisans of Philip II. King of Spain and the Emissaries and Promoters of the Papal Tyranny and Disorder and that their greatest business was to pervert her Subjects and to entice them to commit the most unnatural and horrid Crimes she banished them for ever from her Kingdoms and Territories and made it Treason for them to return and Felony for any of her Subjects knowing them to be such to entertain conceal or harbor them This which was designed by the Queen and the Government to cure or rather to prevent their Treachery and Malice by keeping them at a distance inflamed their rage against her so that concealing themselves under the Habits and Dresses of Lay men and sometimes under the Disguise of Mechanick and mean Trades and Employments they lay as it were in ambush expecting and ready to catch at any opportunity that offered it self to murther her In the year 1578. which was the 12th year of her Reign and the very year when the Popish Schism began several of the Popish Priests fled over into Flanders where Philip II. had already prepared for them a College at Doway and here they put themselves under the Government of one William Alan a Divine of Oxford who having obtained a large Pension from the Pope opened here a School for Rebellion and Treason To the end say they that as the Papal Priests in England are by time extinguished there might always be a new Race to supply their Places and sow the Seeds of the Roman Religion in England and therefore they called these Places Seminaries and those that were educated in them Seminary Priests The first of these Seminary Priests sent over were Robert Parson and Edmund Campion in the year 1580. Parson was a Somersetfhire man of a furious and hot Temper and of an ungenteel behaviour Campian was a Londoner well bred sweet and elegant and both of them had been bred up in the University of Oxford and had profess'd the Protestant Religion These men upon their coming over into England appeared sometimes in a Military Habit sometimes in the Dress of a Gentleman and at others in the Habits of the Clergy and sometimes like Paritors and frequented the Country Houses and Seats of the Popish Nobility and Gentry Parson was so hot with them for the deposing of the Queen that some of them were strongly inclined to deliver him up into the Hands of the Magistrates Campian made it more his business to pervert the People by his Writings to the Popish Religion but his Reign was not long for in the year 1581. he was taken and executed for High-Treason The Queen had before this put out a Proclamation to give these men a caution before-hand That seeing they had put off all that Love which they owed to their Countrey and the Allegiance which was due to her they should yet behave themselves prudently and modestly and not irritate her Justice any farther against them for she was now resolved not to be cruel to her self and her good Subjects any longer by sparing such Miscreants as she had found them to be So that how severely soever they were used they had the lessâ—…ason to complain because she had fairly before-hand told them what she meant to do and what usage they might expect at her hands In the year 1583. Francis Throgmorton the eldest Son of John Throgmorton Chief Justice of Chester Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel and others of the Popish Religion conspired to deliver the Queen of Scots out of her Confinement Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip his Son Earl of Arundel were suspected and confined to their own Houses and some others were suspected and difficultly delivered themselves For about this time the outragious Malice of the Popish Party against the Queen broke out to that degree that they printed Books to exhorâ—… the Queens Servants to serve her as Judith did Holofernes The Author of which was never fully discovered but iâ—… was suspected that it was written by Gregory Martin of Oxford but Carter a Printer that printed it was hanged Throgmâ—… had the same Fate but Paget and Charles Arundel left the Nation and went into France Stafford the Queen's Ambassador desired they might be sent out of France which was denied because the Queen had at the same time entertained the Count de Montgomery and had then with her Sagner an Advocate of Berne an Ambassador for the King of Navar who was endeavouring to promote a War in France In the year 1585. William Parry a Welshman by Birth and of a very mean Extraction meanly learned in the Civil Law but proud and gallant beyond his Means being chosen a Member of the Lower-House declaimed very furiously against a Bill then proposed in Parliament against the Jesuits averring tâ—…at it was a cruel bloody desperate Bill and would be destructive to the Kingdom of England Being desired to shew his Reasons for what he said he refused to answer before any other than the Privy Council whereupon he was commitâ—…ed and afterwards upon his submission readmitted into the House but was afterwards accused by Edmund Nevil the Heir Male of the House of Westmorland to have a Design against the Life of the Queen which he confessed afterwards in the Tower upon which he was tryed and executed In the year 1586. J. Ballard a Ruffling Priest of the College of Reims came over to embroil the Nation and made his visit to most of the Popish Nobility and Gentry in England and Scotland being every where accompanied by one Mand who was a Spy employed by Sir F. Walsingham This Silken Priest came into England about Easter and contracted a great acquaintance and friendship with Mr. Anth. Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman of good Birth and Estate of great Wit and Learned above his years but being a great Zealot for the Romish Religion he about a year before this without the Queen's leave went into France and there was first debauched as to his Loyalty by Morgan an Agent for the Scotchmen in that Court Ballard informed this Gentleman that the Queen of England would not live long because there was one Savage come over to assassinate her This Project did not please Babington so he formed a new Design in which were Edward Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Sarisbury of the County of Denbigh Charles Tilney one of the Gentlemen Pensioners that waited upon the Queen and the only hope of his Family but reconciled to the Church of Rome under-hand by this Ballard Chidick Tichburn of the County of Southampton Edward Abington Son of the Queen's Cosserer Robert Grage of Surry John Traverse John Charnock of Lancaster John Jones whose Father had been Master of the Wardrobe to Queen Mary Savaâ—…e and one Barnwell of a Noble 〈◊〉 Family Henry Dun a Clerk in
low as to employ one Roderâ—…ck Lopez a Jew and a Physician by Profession to Poyson the Queen Stephen Ferreira Gama and Emanuel Loisio two Portuges to stabher but all this was so seasonably discovered to the Queen by the Letters that were sent to them and intercepted by her Subjects that they were all three taken up and they all confessed their several Treasons and had Sentence of Death sor it and they were all three executed for it together with one Cullin an Irish Fencing-Master who was hired by the Fugitives in Flanders and sent over to Murther the Queen which he also confessed And not long after Edmund York and Richard Williams were hired by D. Ybarra a Spaniard and these Fugitives and sent into England on the same Errand and here taken up When the Queen was told of all the base Conspiracies against her Life she was no way terrified at the danger tho she saw Henry the III. fall by their Hands in the Year 1589. in France but repeated that Passage in the Psalms Thou art my God my time is in thy hand Psalm 31. And with a Maseuline Courage despising all their Rage and Baseness she took great care of her self and put her whole trust in God For the rest persisting to her dying day in her first Resolution not to spare one of these Traytors that fell into her hands as she at first told them in a Proclamation she would not And this is the true way of dealing with these Implacable Monsters who are neither worthy of Mercy nor capable of Repentance This Censure may possibly seem too severe to those that are not perfectly acquainted with the Principles and Tempers of these Men and therefore it will not be amiss to confirm it with an Example William Parry mention'd above was employed by the Jesuits to murther the Queen and they had thoroughly pèrswaded him That there was nothing more Glorious than to die for the service of the Church and that he would be reputed a Martyr if he could extirpate her who was the Favourer of Heresie and the Enemy of the Church To this End he came into England in the Year 1583. And to insinuate himself into the Queen's Favour whose Servant he had formerly been and to obtain her belief he freely and openly told her that he had been solicited to Murther her by Morgan and other Fugitive Priests beyond the Seas Pretending that he had entred into a Familiarity with them to no other end than to discover their secret Designs against her and to take care of her Safety to whom he owed his Life she having pardoned him when he had forfeited it to Justice in the year 1580. The Queen heard all this Story with an unconcerned Courage and told him That none of the Catholicks should be called in question on account of his Religion or of the Pope's pretended Supremacy if they behaved themselves in all other things like good Subjects Which words he afterwards confessed made such an impression on his mind that he could not forget them And after this he was so much in her good opinion that he solicited for an Employment but receiving a Letter from the Cardinal of Coma wherein he commended the Design he was engaged in saith he and sending him an Absolution in the Pope's Name tho he shewed the Letter to the Queen yet he persisted in his Resolution to Assassinate her and from thenceforward had no scruple in his mind concerning the Lawfulness of the Fact But then he pretended he was resolved first to try if he could perswade her by fair means to use the Catholicks more favourably And when at any time he went to the Queen he would lay by his Dagger for fear the Opportunity should be too strong a Temptation to him When he looked upon her and considered her Royal Virtues he confessed he was staggered in his mind But his Vows were in Heaven and his Letters and Promises on Earth that he would do it and this perpetually disquieted him and put him on At last he fell upon a Book written by Alan a Jesuit to prove That Princes that were Excommunicated might be Deposed or Slain and this Book was a strong Motive to him to go on with the Treason And he communicated it to Nevil who afterwards Accused him and they two having taken an Oath of Secrefse each to other formed a Design to set upon her with Ten Horsemen when she was in the Countrey and so Murther her They could however never find the opportunity and about six months after this the Earl of Westmorland dying and Nevil being his next Heir he discovered to Secretary Walsingham this Conspiracy By the Queen's Order he sent for Parry and asked him If he had had any Treaty with any Dissatisfied or Suspected person opening him a door for his Escape but he plainly denied he ever had for if he had confessed it and said he did it to try Nevil he had without doubt escaped but the Crime he had resolved upon had blinded his eyes so that he could not see it Nay he had the Impudence to say That tho the Queen had twice spared his Life yet he was not beholden to her for it because it had been unjust to have taken it The greatest part of this Narrative is extracted from his own Confession before the Lord Chancellor Hatton and others so that there can be no doubt of the Truth of it This her Severity to them struck a great Terror into the minds of the English Papists when they every where saw the Heads and Quarters of their Party exposed to the publick view but nothing could cure or appease their festered Malice Her Majesty and Presence we see was able to excite the Admiration and her undaunted Valour to terrifie this Cut-throat as he confessed but tho she charmed his hands yet neither was her Mercy or Goodness able to melt his hardned heart nor was her Severity towards him and other such Miscreants sufficient to mitigate the enraged Malice of the rest of the Jesuits and Popish Villains but they still went on with their Hellish Designs to destroy her But when all was done the Goodness of God watched over her to preserve her and frustrated all the Designs of wicked men against her and without this all the wise Counsel of Burleigh and Walsingham and the rest of her Servants would have signified nothing We may see Henry the IIId of France and Henry the IVth his Successor tho they both professed the Roman-Catholick Religion were Assassinated in the day time in the midst of their Servants and Friends by these Religious Villains when it was not possible they that did it could escape and yet this Queen who was more hated than either of them and less able to defend her self in the spite of all their Malice Reigned above Forty four years and died in Peace And it is worth the observing That in all the times since the
sixty Years the Right of it fell to Henry King of Navarre of the House of Bourbon but he was suspected by all his Popish Subjects stoutly resisted by all that were in the League against his Predecessor and Excommunicated by the Pope and sorely laid at by the King of Spain who dreaded nothing so much as the seeing France in the hand of a Valiant Wise Protestant Prince now his Invincible Armado was returned back srom England with Shame Ignominy and Contempt and such a Loss as Spain was never able since to recover The Queen-Mother of France who had been the principal Incendiary when she saw the Duke of Guise fall in the Assembly of Bloise and her only Son in the utmost danger of being Murdered or Deposed she died with the mere apprehension of the Calamities she had brought upon her own head and Family before her Son was slain And as for Henry the IVth the new King of France he saw things in that Disorder and Confusion that he was forced to raise his Camp and retreat from Paris into Normandy from whence he sent to Queen Elizabeth for Succors of Men Money and Ammunition The Queen presently sent Peregrine Lord Willoughby who had signalized his Valour in the Netherlands with Four thousand Men and Two and twenty thousand Pounds of English Money in Gold which was a Sum which Henry the IVth owned he had never before seen together in Gold at once Henry had beat the Leaguers before these men arrived contrary to the expectation of all the World and being thus reinforced from England he pursued his Victory to the Gates of Paris and was in a fair way to have taken the City but that he did not think it possible and he was besides unwilling to run the hazard of seeing the Capital City of France plundered by his own Army This tenderness of his at length brought him under the necessity of changing his Religion to gain the Crown of France In the year 1590. the King of Spain sent Forces to take possession of Bretagne a Province of France pretending a Title to it for himself and some of the English Courtiers advised Queen Elizabeth not to concern her self any farther in the Affairs of that Kingdom to her great impoverishing and no advantage telling her Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy used to say It would be better for all the Neighbour Nations to have France under Twenty Kings than One To which she as stoutly replied The Evening of the last Day the Crown of France should see would be fatal to England And the next year she sent a Fleet and Three thousand Land-men to secure that Province out of the hands of the Spaniards This small Number of men being commanded by Sir John Norris a person of great Experience and Conduct preserved that Province not only from the Dominion but in a good degree also from the Rapines and Cruelties of the Spaniards She spent in Three years in these French Affairs besides the Gold she sent to Henry the IVth into Normandy 226058 Crowns of French Money yet she did not burthen her Subjects to pay it but got it together by her Thrifty Management This Queen was wholly intent upon the humbling the Pride of Spain and at the same time she opposed his Greatness and curb'd his Ambitious Designs in France and the Netherlands she sent a potent Fleet and an Army into Spain in the year 1589 to revenge the Invasion of the preceeding year and to settle Anthony a Bastard in the Kingdom of Portugal which was then in the Possession of Philip the IId King of Spain The Army consisted of Eleven thousand Men and there went in the Fleet Fifteen hundred Sea-men The Army was commanded by Sir John Norris and the Fleet by Sir Francis Drake They first landed at the Groyne in Galicia without any Opposition and the next day they took the Lower-Town by Scalado but not without the loss of a great many men And here they found a vast Magazine of Gunpowder and Maritime Stores which was brought hither for another Expedition against England In this Expedition Robert Earl of Essex gave proofs of his Martial Inclinations for he stole away from Court without the Queen's Leave she being unwilling to venture any of her principal Nobility in so dangerous an Undertaking as this seemed then to be but this brisk young Gentleman on the contrary despising the soft Pleasures of a Court greedily embraced this opportunity of Revenging the Wrongs of his Countrey and set Sail after the Fleet in a single Ship and he had the good fortune to fall into the English Fleet after they had left the Groyne and were going to attack Lisbon wherein they had not the same success by reason their Forces were too small and the Fleet was kept at too great a distance to relieve the Army which was forced to march about Sixty Miles by Land but however they took the Towns of Paniche and Chascais and brought out of Spain One hundred Great Guns and about Sixty Ships sent by the Hanse Towns in Germany loaded with Corn which went round about Scotland and Ireland by the Vergivian Ocean to avoid being intercepted by the English the Queen having before warned those Cities That if they sent any Provisions or Ammunition into Spain she would treat them as Enemies Besides all these they brought back with them a very rich Prey in Housholdstuff Money and Plate which they gathered in that Kingdom but the most considerable advantage was the intercepting all the Stores which had been gathered for a second Expedition against England the Design of which was after this laid aside and the discovering the Weakness of the Spaniards when they were set upon at their own doors so that after this time the English despised this before so formidable Enemy they having with so small an Army marched so many Miles and taken so many places in two of the best peopled Provinces of that Kingdom In the year 1591. Robert Earl of Essex was sent into Normandy with Four thousand English to Assist Henry the IVth in the Reduction of Roan where before that City he lost his Brother Walter who was â—…ain by a Musquet This was so far from terrifying this Noble Earl that it was with wonder observed by the French that he exposed his own person the more freely that he might take all opportunities to revenge his Death After this in the year 1596. the Queen sent him her General again into Spain the Fleet which consisted of One hundred and fifty Ships being partly English and partly Dutch was commanded by Charles Lord Howard Admiral of England and the Land-Forces which were about Seven thousand and three hundred men were to be commanded by Essex and Howard as Joynt-Generals Essex having the Precedence on Shore and Howard at Sea They came before Cadiz the 20th of June but did not attempt to Land while the 22d and then they took
there were those in Ireland who had conferred with the Rebels and had sent into England the Rebels Defamations against him and others of her Governors By which passage the Deputy slily taxed Sir John Norris as one that had done nothing worthy of his former Military Reputation but thought to work upon the good nature of the Ulster Clowns by his Courtship and Flattery which tended rather to the making them more insolent This carriage of the General 's was the occasion of fierce Contests and Quarrels between him and the Deputy and the effect of it was that not only the Heads of the Clans in Ulster but those also in Connanght and Leinster took Arms and revolted from the Crown of England The Deputy seeing things by their Divisions brought to so desperate an estate resolved to get rid of the Government and by his Letters humbly besought the Queen a good General might be sent in his place In this doubtful time Sir John Norris as earnestly desired to be Deputy and that his Brother who was fitter for the Labours of the War might be made President of Munster But he obtained neither of his Requests The Council of England was divided for some time between the Lord Burroughs and the Earl of Essex but the latter joining with the former it was carried for him and he had both the Supreme Civil and Military Power put into his hands The 15th of May 1597. Thomas Lord Burroughs arrived at Dublin with a Commission to be Lord Deputy of Ireland With the Supreme Authority he presently commanded Norris to his Presidency of Munster which with the disappointment of the Deputy's Place broke his heart Johnstonius saith The reason of this was because Norris was a person of more Experience in the War and of greater Fame than Burroughs So that when he came to Dublin Norris was no way pleased with the change for that he dreaded the fiery Temper of that Lord with whom he had formerly had some quarrels which he would now have willingly sacrificed to the Welfare of his Countrey But the Deputy was of an Implacable Temper and commanded him into Munster upon the peril of his life not permitting Norris to see him This Great and Stout Man could not bear the Affront but he that had run through so many Perils in the Field in the Netherlands France and Portugal he that had despised the Rages of the Duke d' Alva in Holland and put a stop to the Victories of the Duke of Parma fell under this and expired in the Arms of his Brother Thus he became a wonderful Instance of humane frailty as well as of Martial Courage being rather pitied than approved because his Management in Ireland was much inferior to what he had done elsewhere and short of what was expected from him The Lord Lieutenant died in November following yet in that short time he beat the Irish in Ulster and recovered the Fort of Blackwater and Garison'd it with English Sir Thomas Norris was nominated for his Successor but he was melancholy and would not accept it his Brother the General being just then dead also Thereupon the Archbishop of Dublin and Sir Robert Gardiner Lord Chief Justice were sworn the 15th of November when the Council concluded their Account of the State of the Kingdom That it was an universal Irish Rebellion to shake off all English Government In August this year Tyrone had the good fortune to rout Marshal Bagnal his mortal Enemy in a Wood half a mile beyond Armagh where the Marshal 13 Captains and 1500 English Soldiers were slain The Irish by this Defeat got Arms Victual Ammunition and Reputation and the Fort of Blackwater so that the English were reduced from an Offensive to a Defensive War This nettled the Queen and she sent to Ormond who was Lieutenant-General to clear the Army of all the Irish and she sent 2000 Foot and 100 Horse to recruit the Army Tyrone sent after this 4000 Kerns into Munster and the President not being able to resist them by reason his Forces were small that whole Province rebelled also in October 1598. and began to Kill Rob and Ravage the English without Measure or Mercy Thus the Rebellion grew to that height that it became terrible to the Queen Tyrone in the mean time sent submissive Letters to the Earl of Ormond and promised the Spaniards that he would accept no Conditions from the English magnifying his Victories beyond all reason and truth So that now the Courtiers in England began to consider as Mr. Cambden observes That by long use it was grown to a destructive custom in Ireland That Rebels and Traytors might with the Money they had gotten from the spoiled English by Pillage and Villany procure for themselves Protection and Pardon The Queen was well inclined to have sent the Lord Montjoy into Ireland but the Earl of Essex pretended to it and he was chosen Others say the Council put him upon it that he might put an end to the Troubles of Ireland which had been encreased by the Contentions between the Commanders that were employed before and also by the deaths of Sir John Norris and that of the Lord Deputy as well as by the Defeat of Marshal Bagnal That the Lords cried up the Valour of the Earl of Essex to the skies and affirmed that there was not in England any General who could undertake the Reduction of so far-spread a Rebellion with that Prudence Diligence and Courage they might expect from him Thus he was sent thither by the perfidious Commendations of his Enemies against the opinion of his real and true Friends that they that put him upon it might when he was there find an opportunity to ruin him The Earl on the other side was anxious and unresolved what to do for as he feared the Fate of his Father who perished in that Kingdom so he could not tell how to oppose his own Destiny and accepted of an Employment which no other durst pretend to purely to comply with the good opinion of the whole Privy Council which loaded him with Praises on this occasion tho in his heart he misdoubted the Event The Queen also sent him away thither with great Testimonies of her Affection to him commending him excessively for preferring her Service before his own Safety but then this was the last good day that unfortunate Earl ever saw He landed there the 15th of April 1599. with 13000 Horse and 16000 Foot which were made up 20000. there being more than that number in Arms against the Queen But with all these Forces he did nothing worthy of his former Reputation or of his Army And that Winter he went out of Ireland in a Discontent without the Queen's Leave and returned unexpectedly to the Court which proved his Ruin Tyrone grew insolent hereupon and profess'd publickly he would recover the Liberty of Religion and his Countrey Charles Lord Montjoy was thereupon sent Lord Deputy who landed the
he every time drove them into their own ships or into the Sea Thus he defended himself all that night with the great slaughter of his own men but with the greater loss of the Enemy In the morning the English found their Powder fail their Masts shot down their Rigging torn and the most part of their bravest men slain or wounded and the rest so wearied with the fight that they could hardly stand to their Arms The ship also had received 800 shot of Cannon from the Enemy Greenvill was wounded and whilst the Chyrurgeon was applying a Plaister to the Wound he was wounded on the head and the Chyrurgeon was slain When the day broke upon them they found the Deck all covered with Blood shattered Timber dead and dying men so that it struck terror into the beholder Greenvill having now fought 15 hours and there being no hope of escaping commanded the ship to be sunk the Pilot forbad it and went forth within the Long-boat to the Spanish Admiral to resign the English ship covenanting for their Lives and Liberties that were left in it Greenvill thereupon was carried aboard the Spanish Admiral languishing and just ready to expire The Spaniards when they came to fetch him off found him lying upon the Deck all covered with Blood and Wounds and gasping out his Soul and they being amazed at the Resistance he had made and the Condition they found him in endeavoured to stanch his Wounds and applied fit Remedies to him But all they could do or say to mitigate his Sorrows was despised by him and he answered all their Kindnesses with Frowns and Threats and thus living two days in the Agonies of Death he expired The Spaniards who are a valiant Nation were so far from being exasperated by this carriage of his that they reverenced him as an Hero The ship verified her Name at last for being sent into Spain with 200 men on board she perished in a storm and all the men were drown'd so that every way she was to them a severe REVENGE When the Queen had any small respite from the Cares of War the far greatest part of her Reign being in truth spent in the defence of her Kingdoms and her Neighbours who all had their recourse to her in their Distresses she always turned her thoughts to the amending what was amiss in the State There were great Complaints made to her by the Ministers and Ambassadors of Foreign States residing here That the Seas were infested by her Subjects and the ships of her Friends and Allies rifl'd whereupon she put out a Proclamation for the security of her Friends strictly forbidding all her Subjects for the future to offer any violence or wrong to the Ships of any of her Neighbours if they did not carry Iron Corn or Stores for Navigation and Shipping to the Spaniards with whom she was then in War Threatning that whoever was hereafter found to break her Orders should be taken for Pyrats and treated accordingly By this Proclamation and her exact care to see it executed accordingly she cleared the Seas and made them as safe as the Land The management of Proclamations in our Government is a thing of great difficulty because they can introduce no new Law and are of no force if they be contrary to Law And when they are never so legal if men are once inured to the slighting them they are no more regarded than the whistling of the Wind in a stormy day We have seen many Proclamations put out in our times which were extorted from Princes against their wills or issued upon design to serve a turn for the present and the Prince well pleased to see the Bauble ridiculed and contemned but men did not stop there they treated other Proclamations in the same manner which were of the greatest importance to the safety of the Prince and Nation And all these Orders of State which in her times were as venerable as an Act of Parliament in Ours sunk to the value of almost a common Ballad a Mischief which it will take some time perfectly to redress Amongst those that complained of the Depredations of the English none were more clamorous than the Hanse Towns in Germany who in the Year 1597. brought a Complaint before the Dyet of Germany at Ratisbon against the English That they had rifl'd and robb'd all their ships that carried Corn Iron and Cordage to the Spaniards The Quarrel went so high that the English were prohibited all Trade in Germany because they traded there upon their own Laws and not according to the Laws of the Empire That is that they would not submit their Trade to the Rules of the Hanse Towns but traded as a free Nation under the Protection of their own Queen and Laws To this the Queen by her Ambassador Mr. John Wroth replied That the Complaint of the Hanse Towns was unjust That it became her as a good Prince to consult the Welfare of her own People and to promote their safety and common advantage and that it became a good Shepherd to prefer the welfare of his own Flock before that of any other That the Hanse Towns if they did well consider it might trade upon the same Privileges with her own Subjects but then if they expected to enjoy a Monopoly in her Kingdom they desired more than was fit to be granted by a just and free Prince as she was Rodolph then Emperor of Germany was offended with the Answer the Queen had made and passed a Law in the Dyet prohibiting the English from trading in any of the Ports of Germany and commanding them to withdraw with their effects by a certain day The Queen on the other hand represented the injustice of this Edict to the Emperor and the Princes and informed them that Henry the IIId her Predecessor had by a Royal Charter made by agreement granted to the Hanse Towns a place in London call'd the Stillyard with many very large Privileges for the preserving the Freedom of their Trade That this Grant had after been confirm'd by Edward III. Richard II. Henry IV V VI. and all the other Princes to her Brother's time and had been religiously observed and therefore she desired that the Edict might be suspended and the Controversie ended by a Treaty but this was denied Whereupon the Queen by the Advice of her Council put out a Proclamation commanding the Germans to depart from the Stillyard the same day the English were commanded to leave Germany from thenceforward she put a stop to all their Trade in London or any other of her Ports and ordered the Lord Mayor of London to seize the Stillyard The Hanse Towns called a Dyet of all their Members at Lubeck and in it by way of Revenge resolved to put a stop to the Trade of the English in Poland and other places of the Baltick Sea Whereupon the Queen sent Sir George Carew Chancellor of the Exchequer into Pruffia and Poland to acquaint the
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