afife rtn , ALTEAUJS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRAR HISTORY or ELIZABETH QUEEN Or ENGLAND BY JACOB ABBOTT WITH TORTY-N1NE ILLUSTRATIONS Copyright 1900 by Henry Altemus Company 43219 Library of Ce^^reee "'wu Copies Received SEP 4 1900 Copyright entry SECOND COPY. Delivered t« ORDER DIVISION, £FP 7 1900 74324 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE Elizabeth's Mother . 13 CHAPTER II. The Childhood of a Princess . 31 CHAPTER III. Lady Jane Grey .... . 48 CHAPTER IV. The Spanish Match . 70 CHAPTER V. Elizabeth in the Tower . 88 CHAPTER VI- The Accession to the Throne . 106 CHAPTER VII. The War in Scotland . 126 CHAPTER VIII. Elizabeth's Lovers . 145 CHAPTER IX. Personal Character . 167 CHAPTER X. The Invincible Armada . 186 CHAPTER XL The Earl of Essex . 208 CHAPTER XII. The Conclusion .... . 234 (v) Elizabeth, vi Sedan Chair, used in the time of Elizabeth. «itei6 ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece. page vi . " x facing " Lady Jane Grey in the Tower Sedan Chair, Time of Elizabeth . Execution at the Stake .... Headpiece, Chapter I The Trial of Queen Catherine . facing Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, " Thomas Cranmer .... Arrest of Anne Boleyn King Henry VIII. Headpiece, Chapter II. Window in Anne Boleyn's Boom . Headpiece, Chapter III. Lady Jane Grey .... Queen Mary Watching an Execution Headpiece, Chapter IV. Philip II. Leaving England . Headpiece, Chapter V. The Tower of London . . . facing Place of Execution in the Tower Headpiece, Chapter VI. Mary, Queen of England . . facing Elizabeth Acknowledged by the Clergy, " Queen Elizabeth of England . facing Courtiers and Ladies, Time of Elizabeth . Headpiece, Chapter VII Mary, Queen of Scots . 13 16 18 20 24 26 31 47 48 50 < 69 •' 70 « 87 « 88 " 94 " 105 " 106 " 110 " 118 " 122 « 125 " 126 " 143 OH) Vlll ILLUSTRATIONS. Headpiece, Chapter VIII. . Queen Elizabeth and Suitor . Philip II. of Spain Catherine de Medici Headpiece, Chapter IX. Elizabeth Signing Mary's Death Warrant , State Progress of Elizabeth . Headpiece, Chapter X. Sir Francis Drake Drake's Return to England . The English Fleet Before Cadiz Destruction of the Spanish Armad Rejoicings Over the Victory Headpiece, Chapter XI. Elizabeth Condemns Essex to the Towei Essex Landing at the Traitor's (iate Execution of the Earl of Essex Headpiece, Chapter XII. Tomb of Queen Elizabeth Westminster Abbey King James I. of England . . page facin facins facii facing 145 146 148 1G6 107 170 185 186 194 198 202 204 206 208 216 230 233 234 247 248 251 INTRODUCTORY. The reign of Elizabeth was prolific of adven- ture, and has furnished an ever-fruitful source from which the historian can find material. It was the time when England first became a sea- power, and that policy of colonial expansion was begun which has built the British Empire. The great blot upon Elizabeth's name was the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. They were cousins, yet implacable foes. Much evil might have been spared had Elizabeth pur- sued a straightforward course when her rival was thrown into her hands. From her father Elizabeth inherited physical strength, energy, a fiery temper, an inclination to coarseness and a passion for splendor. It is probable that her insincerity, jealousy and love of artifice is attributable to her mother. The romantic side of Elizabeth's life is noted for its prominence, as for forty years one matri- monial scheme or violent passion succeeded another. Elizabeth was highly popular with her subjects, and she possessed the invaluable faculty of selecting the most capable of the men around her as her political advisers. (ix) =SWffi*--~ jm.:pmh/-: ; N •- s fr»v *%5ky ••^. Elizabeth, x Execution at the Stake. QUEEN ELIZABETH. CHAPTER I. ELIZABETH S MOTHER. Travellers, in ascending the Thames by the steamboat from Rotterdam, on their re- turn from an excursion to the Rhine, have often their attention strongly attracted by what appears to be a splendid palace on the banks of the river at Greenwich. The edifice is not a palace, however, but a hospital, or, rather, a retreat where the worn out, maimed, and crippled veterans of the English navy spend the remnant of their days in comfort and peace, on pensions allowed them by the government in whose service they have spent their strength or lost their limbs. The magnifi- cent buildings of the 'hospital stand on level land near the river. Behind them there is a beautiful park, which extends over the undu- lating and rising ground in the rear; and on the summit of one of the eminences there is the famous Greenwich Observatory, on the 13 14 QUEEN ELIZABETH. precision of whose quadrants and microme- ters depend those calculations by which the navigation of the world is guided. The most unconcerned and careless spectator is inter- ested in the manner in which the ships which throng the river all the way from Greenwich to London, "take their time" from this ob- servatory before setting sail for distant seas. From the top of a cupola surmounting the edifice, a slender pole ascends, with a black ball upon it, so constructed as to slide up and down for a few feet upon the pole. When the hour of 12 M. approaches, the ball slowly rises to within a few inches of the top, warn- ing the ship-masters in the river to be ready with their chronometers, to observe and note the precise instant of its fall. When a few seconds only remain of the time, the ball as- cends the remainder of the distance by a very deliberate motion, and then drops suddenly when the instant arrives. The ships depart on their several destinations,' and for months afterward when thousands of miles away, they depend for their safety in dark and stormy nights, and among dangerous reefs and rocky shores, on the nice approximation to correct- ness in the note of time which this descending ball had given them. ELIZABETH'S MOTHER. 1 5 This is Greenwich, as it exists at the pres- ent day. At the time when the events oc- curred which are to be related in this nar- rative, it was most known on account of a royal palace which was situated there. This palace was the residence of the then queen consort of England. The king reigning at that time was Henry the Eighth. He was an unprincipled and cruel tyrant, and the chief business of his life seemed to be selecting and marrying new queens, making room for each succeeding one by discarding, divorcing, or beheading her predecessor. There were six of them in all, and, with one exception, the history of each one is a distinct and separate, but dreadful tragedy. As there were so many of them, and they figured as queens each for so short a period, they are commonly desig- nated in history by their personal family names, and even in these names there is a great similarity. There were three Cather- ines, two Annes, and a Jane. The only one who lived and died in peace, respected and beloved to the end, was the Jane. Queen Elizabeth, the subject of this nar- rative, was the daughter of the second wife in this strange succession, and her mother was one of the Annes. Her name in full was Anne l6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. Boleyn. She was young and very beautiful, and Henry, to prepare the way for making her his wife, divorced his first queen, or rather declared his marriage with her null and void, because she had been, before he married her, the wife of his brother. Her name was Cath- erine of Aragon. She was, while connected with him, a faithful, true, and affectionate wife. She was a Catholic. The Catholic rules are very strict in respect to the marriage of relatives, and a special dispensation from the pope was necessary to authorize marriage in such a case as that of Henry and Catherine. This dispensation had, however, been ob- tained, and Catherine had, in reliance upon it, consented to become Henry's wife. When, however, she was no longer young and beau- tiful, and Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn, who was so, he discarded Cath- erine, and espoused the beautiful girl in her stead. He wished the pope to annul his dis- pensation, which would, of course, annul the marriage ; and because the pontiff refused, and all the efforts of Henry's government were unavailing to move him, he abandoned the Catholic faith, and established an independent Protestant church in England, whose supreme authority would annul the marriage. Thus, Elizabeth's mother. 17 in a great measure, came the Reformation in England. The Catholics reproach us, and, it must be confessed, with some justice, with the ignominiousness of its origin. The course which things thus took created a great deal of delay in the formal annulling of the marriage with Catherine, which Henry was too impatient and imperious to bear. He would not wait for the de cree of divotce, but took Anne Boleyn for Tiis wife before his' previous ' con- nection was made void. He said he was pri- vately v ma-rried to her. This he had, as he maintained, a right to do, for he considered his first marriage as void, absolutely and of itself, without any decree. When, at length, the decree was finally passed, he brought Anne Boleyn forward as his queen, and introduced her as such to England and to the world by a genuine marriage and a most magnificent cor- ronation. The people of England pitied poor Catharine, but they joined very cordially, not- withstanding, in welcoming the youthful and beautiful lady who was to take her place. All London gave itself up to festivities and re- joicings on the occasion of these nuptials. Immediately after this the young queen re- tired to her palace in Greenwich, and in two ig QUEEN ELIZABETH. or three months afterward little Elizabeth was born. Her birth-day was the 7th of Septem- ber, 1533. The mother may have loved the babe, but Henry himself was sadly disappointed that his child was not a son. Notwithstanding her sex, however, she was a personage of great distinction from her very birth, as all the realm looked upon her as heir to the crown. Henry was himself, at this time, very fond of Anne Boleyn, though his feelings afterward were entirely changed. He determined on giving to the infant a very splendid christen- ing. The usage in the Church of England is to make the christening of a child not merely a solemn religious ceremony, but a great fes- tive occasion of congratulations and rejoicing. The unconscious subject of the ceremony is taken to the church. Certain near and dis- tinguished friends, gentlemen and ladies, ap- pear as godfathers and godmothers, as they are termed, to the child. They, in the cere- mony, are considered as presenting the in- fant for consecration to Christ, and as becom- ing responsible for its future initiation into the Christian faith. They are hence some- times called sponsors. These spor supposed to take, from the time of Private Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth's mother. 19 tism forward, a strong interest in all that per- tains to the welfare of their little charge, and they usually manifest this interest by presents on the day of the christening. These things are all conducted with considerable ceremony and parade in ordinary cases, occurring in private life ; and when a princess is to be bap- tized, all, even the most minute details of the ceremony, assume a great importance, and the whole scene becomes one of great pomp and splendor. The babe, in this case, was conveyed to the church in a grand procession. The mayci and other civic authorities in London came down to Greenwich in barges, tastefully orna- mented, to join in the ceremony. The lords and ladies of King Henry's court were also there, in attendance at the palace. When all were assembled, and everything was ready,, the procession moved from the palace to the church with great pomp. The road, all the way, was carpeted with green rushes, spread upon the ground. Over this road the little infant was borne by one of her godmothers. She was wrapped in a mantle of purple velvet, with a long train appended to it, which was trimmed with ermine, a very costly kind of fur, used in England as a badge of authority. 20 - QUEEN ELIZABETH. This train was borne by lords and ladies of high rank, who were appointed for the pur- pose by the king, and who deemed their office a very distinguished honor. Besides these train-bearers, there were four lords, who walked two on each side of the child, and who held over her a magnificent canopy. Other personages of high rank and station followed, bearing various insignia and emblems, such as by the ancient customs of England are employed on these occasions, and all dressed sumptuously in gorgeous robes, and wearing the badges and decorations pertaining to their rank or the offices they held. Vast crowds of spectators lined the way, and gazed upon the scene. On arriving at the church, they found the interior splendidly decorated for the occasion. Its walls were lined throughout with tapestry, and in the center was a crimson canopy, un- der which was placed a large silver font, con- taining the water with which the child was to be baptized. The ceremony was performed by Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, which is the office of the highest dignitary of the English Church. After it was performed, the procession returned as it came, only now there was an addition of four persons of high Elizabeth, face p. 20 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. ELIZABETHS MOTHER. 21 rank, who followed the child with the presents intended for her by the godfathers and god- mothers. These presents consisted of cups and bowls, of beautiful workmanship, some of silver gilt, and some of solid gold. They were very costly, though not prized much yet by the unconscious infant for whom they were intended. She went and came, in the midst of this gay and joyous procession, little imag- ining into what a restless and unsatisfying life all this pageantry and splendor were ushering her. They named the child Elizabeth, from her grandmother. There have been many queens of that name, but Queen Elizabeth of Eng- land became so much more distinguished than any other, that that name alone has become her usual designation. Her family name was Tudor. As she was never married — for, though her life was one perpetual scene of matrimonial schemes and negotiations, she lived and died a maiden lady — she has been sometimes called the Virgin Queen, and one of the states of this Union, Virginia, receives its name from this designation of Elizabeth. She is also often familiarly called Queen Bess. Making little Elizabeth presents of gold 22 QUEEN ELIZABETH. and silver plate, and arranging splendid pa- geants for her, were not the only plans for her aggrandizement which were formed during the period of her infantile unconsciousness. The king, her father, first had an act of Parlia- ment passed, solemnly recognizing and con- firming her claim as heir to the crown, and the title of Princess of Wales was formally conferred upon her. When these things were done, Henry began to consider how he could best promote his own political schemes by forming an engagement of marriage for her, and when she was only about two years of age, he offered her to the King of France as the future wife of one of his sons, on certain con- ditions of political service which he wished him to perform. But the King of France would not accede to the terms, and so this plan was abandoned. Elizabeth was, how- ever, notwithstanding this failure, an object of universal interest and attention as the daughter of a very powerful monarch, and the heir to his crown. Her life opened with very bright and serene prospects of future great- ness ; but all these prospects were soon appar- ently cut off by a very heavy cloud which arose to darken her sky. This cloud was the ELIZABETH S MOTHER. 23 sudden and dreadful fall and ruin of her mother. Queen Anne Boleyn was originally a maid of honor to Queen Catharine, and became ac- quainted with King Henry and gained his af- fections while she was acting in that capacity. When she became queen herself, she had, of course, her own maids of honor, and among them was one named Jane Seymour. Jane was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in the end she supplanted her mistress and queen in Henry's affections, just as Anne herself had supplanted Catharine. The king had re- moved Catharine to make way for Anne, by annulling his marriage with her on account of their relationship : what way could he con- trive now to remove Anne, so as to make way for Jane ? He began to entertain, or to pretend to entertain, feelings of jealousy and suspicion that Anne was unfaithful to him. One day, at a sort of tournament in the park of the royal palace at Greenwich, when a great crowd of gaily dressed ladies and gentlemen were assembled to witness the spectacle, the queen dropped her handkerchief. A gentle- man whom the king had suspected of being one of her favorites picked it up. He did not 24 QUEEN ELIZABETH. immediately restore it to her. There was, besides, something in the air and manner of the gentleman, and in the attendant circum- stances of the case, which the king's mind seized upon as evidence of criminal gallantry between the parties. He was, or at least pre- tended to be, in a great rage. He left the field immediately and went to London. The tournament was broken up in confusion, the queen was seized by the king's orders, con- veyed to her palace in Greenwich, and shut up in her chamber, with a lady who had always been her rival and enemy to guard her. She was in great consternation and sorrow, but she declared most solemnly that she was in- nocent of any crime, and had always been true and faithful to the king. The next day she was taken from her pal- ace at Greenwich up the river, probably in a barge well guarded by armed men, to the Tower of London. The Tower is an ancient and very extensive castle, consisting of a great number of buildings inclosed within a high wall. It is in the lower part of London, on the bank of the Thames, with a flight of stairs leading down to the river from a great pos- tern gate. The unhappy queen was landed at Elizabeth, face p. ZU The Arrest of Anne Boleyn. ELIZABETH S MOTHER. 25 these stairs and conveyed into the castle, and shut up in a gloomy apartment, with walls of stone and windows barricaded with strong bars of iron. There were four or five gentle- men, attendants upon the queen in her palace at Greenwich, whom the king suspected, or pretended to suspect, of being her accompli- ces in crime,, that were arrested at the same time with her and closely confined. When the poor queen was introduced into her dungeon, she fell on her knees, and, in an agony of terror and despair, she implored God to help her in this hour of her extremity, and most solemnly called him to witness that she was innocent of the crime imputed to her charge. Seeking thus a refuge in God calmed and composed her in some small degree; but when, again, thoughts of the imperious and implacable temper of her husband came over her, of the impetuousness of his passions, of the certainty that he wished her removed out of the way in order that room might be made for her rival, and then, when her distracted mind turned to the forlorn and helpless con- dition of her little daughter Elizabeth, now scarcely three years old, her fortitude and self- possession forsook her entirely ; she sank haif insane upon her bed, in long and uncontroll- able paroxisms of sobs and tears, alternating 2,6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. with still more uncontrollable and frightful bursts of hysterical laughter. The king sent a commission to take her ex- amination. At the same time, he urged her by the persons whom he sent, to confess her guilt, promising her that, if she did so, her life should be spared. She, however, pro- tested her innocence with the utmost firmness and constancy. She begged earnestly to be allowed to see the king, and, when this was refused, she wrote a letter to him, which still remains, and which expresses very strongly the acuteness of her mental sufferings. In this letter, she said that she was so dis- tressed and bewildered by the king's displeas- ure and her imprisonment, that she hardly knew what to think or to say. She assured hiim that she had always been faithful and true to him, and begged that he would not cast an indelible stain upon her own fair fame and that of her innocent and helpless child by such unjust and groundless imputations. She beg- ged him to let her have a fair trial by impartial persons, who would weigh the evidence against her in a just and equitable manner. She was sure that by this course her inno- cence would be established, and he himself, Elizabeth, face p. 26 King Henry VIII. of England. Elizabeth's mother. 2? and all mankind, would see that she had been most unjustly accused. But if, on the other hand, she added, the king had determined on her destruction in or- der to remove an obstacle in the way of his possession of a new object of love, she prayed that God would forgive him and all her en- emies for so great a sin, and not call him to ac- count for it at the last day. She urged him, at all events, to spare the lives of the four gentlemen who had been accused, as she as- sured him they were wholly innocent of the crime laid to their charge, begging him, if he had ever loved the name of Anne Boleyn, to grant this her last 'request. She signed her letter his "most loyal and ever faithful wife," and dated it from her "doleful prison in the Tower." The four gentlemen were promised that their lives should be spared if they would con- fess their guilt. One of them did, accord- ingly, admit his guilt, and the others persisted to the end in firmly denying it. They who think Anne Boleyn was innocent, suppose that the one who confessed did it as the most likely mode of averting destruction, as men have often been known, under the influence of fear, to confess crimes of which it was afterward 28 QUEEN ELIZABETH. proved they could not have been guilty. If this was his motive, it was of no avail. The four persons accused, after a very informal trial, in which nothing was really proved against them, were condemned, apparently to please the king, and were executed together. Three days after this the queen herself was brought to trial before the peers. The num- ber of peers of the realm in England at this time was fifty-three. Only twenty-six were present at the trial. The king is charged with making such arrangements as to prevent the attendance of those who would be unwilling to pass sentence of condemnation. At any rate those who did attend professed to be satisfied of the guilt of the accused, and they sentenced her to be burned, or to be beheaded, at the pleasure of the king. He decided that she should be beheaded. The execution was to take place in a little green area within the Tower. The platform was erected here, and the block placed upon it, the whole being covered with a black cloth, as usual on such occasions. On the morning of the fatal day, Anne sent for the constable of the Tower to come in and receive her dying protestations that she was innocent of the crimes alleged against her. She told him that Elizabeth's mother. 29 she understood that she was not to die until 12 o'clock, and that she was sorry for it, for she wished to have it over. The constable told her the pain would be very slight and momentary. "Yes," she rejoined, "I am told that a very skillful executioner is provided, and my neck is very slender." At the appointed hour she was led out into the court-yard where the execution was to take place. There were about twenty persons present, all officers of state or of the city of London. The bodily suffering attendant up- on the execution was very soon over, for the slender neck was severed at a single blow, and probably all sensibility to pain immediate- ly ceased. Still, the lips and the eyes were ob- served to move and quiver for a few seconds after the separation of the head from the body. It was a relief, however, to the spectators when this strange and unnatural prolongation of the mysterious functions of life came to an end. No coffin had been provided. They found, however, an old wooden chest, made to con- tain arrows, lying in one of the apartments of the tower, which they used instead. They first laid the decapitated trunk within it, and then adjusted the dissevered head to its place, 3— Elizabeth 30 QUEEN ELIZABETH. as if vainly attempting to repair the irretriev- able injury they had done. They hurried the body, thus enshrined, to its burial in a chapel, which was also within the tower, doing all with such dispatch that the whole was finished before the clock struck twelve; and the next day the unfeeling monster who was the author of this dreadful deed was publicly married to his new favorite, Jane Seymour. The king had not merely procured Anne's personal condemnation; he had also obtained a decree annulling his marriage with her, on the ground of her having been, as he attempt- ed to prove, previously affianced to another man. This was, obviously, a mere pretense. The object was to cut off Elizabeth's rights to inherit the crown, by making his marriage with her mother void. Thus was the little princess left motherless and friendless when only three years old. CHAPTER II. THE CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. Elizabeth was about three years old at the death of her mother. She was a princess, but she was left in a very forlorn and desolate condition. She was not, however, entirely abandoned. Her claims to inherit the crown had been set aside, but then she was, as all admitted, the daughter of the king, and she must, of course, be the object of a certain de- gree of consideration and ceremony. It would be entirely inconsistent with the notions of royal dignity which then prevailed to have her treated like an ordinary child. She had a residence assigned her at a place called Hunsdon, and was put under the charge of a governess whose name was Lady Bryan. There is an ancient letter from Lady Bryan, still extant, which was written to one of the king's officers about Elizabeth, explaining her destitute condition, and asking for a more suitable supply for her wants-. It may en- tertain the reader to see this relic, which not 31 32 QUEEN ELIZABETH. only illustrates our little heroine's condition, but also shows how great the changes arc which our language has undergone within the last three hundred years. The letter, as here given, is abridged a little from the original : My Lord: When your Lordship was last here, it pleased you to say that I should not be mistrustful of the Kings Grace, nor of your Lordship, which word was of great comfort to me, and emboldeth me now to speak my poor mind. Now so it is, my Lord, that my Lady Elizabeth is put from the degree she was afore, and what degree she is at now* I know not but by hearsay. There- fore I know not how to order her, nor myself, nor none of hers that I have the rule of — that is, her women and her grooms. But I beseech you to be good, my Lord, to her and to all hers, and to let her have some rayment; for she has neither gown, nor kirtle, nor no manner of linen, nor foreemocks, nor kerchiefs, nor sleeves, nor rails, nor bodystitchets, nor mufflers, nor biggins. All these her Grace's wants I have driven off as long as I can, by my troth, but I can not any longer. Beseeching you, my Lord, that you will see that her Grace may have that is needful for her, and that I may know from you, in writing, how I shall order myself towards her, and whatever is the King's Grace's pleasure ?nd yours, in every thing, that I shall do. My Lord Air. Shelton would have my Lady Eliza- beth to dine and sup at the board of estate. Alas, my Lord, it is not meet for a child of her age to keep *That is, in what light the king and the govern- ment wish to have her regarded, and how they wish her to be treated. CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 33 such rule yet. I promise you, my Lord, I dare not take upon me to keep her in health and she keep that rule ; for there she shall see divers meats, and fruits, and wines, which would be hard for me to restrain her Grace from it. You know, my Lord, there is no place of correction* there, and she is yet too young to correct greatly. I know well, and she be there, I shall never bring her up to the King's Grace's honor nor hers, nor to her health, nor my poor honesty. Wherefore, I beseech you, my Lord, that my Lady have a mess of meat to her own lodg- ing, with a good dish or two that is meet for her Grace to eat of. My Lady hath likewise great pain with her teeth, and they come very slowly forth, and this causeth me to suffer her Grace to have her will more than I would. I trust to God, and her teeth were well graft, to have her Grace after another fashion than she is yet, so as I trust the Kings Grace shall have great comfort in her Grace; for she is as toward a child, and as gentle of conditions, as ever I knew any in my life. Jesu preserve her Grace. Good my Lord, have my Lady's Grace, and us that be her poor servants, in your remembrance. This letter evinces that strange mixture of state and splendor with discomfort and des- titution, which prevailed very extensively in royal households in those early times. A part of the privation which Elizabeth seems, from this letter, to have endured, was doubtless ow- ing to the rough manners of the day; but there is no doubt but that she was also, at least for a time, in a neglected and forsaken *That is, opportunity for correction. 34 QUEEN ELIZABETH. condition. The new queen, Jane Seymour, who succeeded Elizabeth's mother, had a son a year or two after her marriage. He was named Edward. Thus Henry had three child- ren, Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward, each one the child of a different wife; and the last of them, the son, appears to have monopolized, for a time, the king's affection and care. Still, the hostility which the king had felt for these queens in succession was owing, as has been already said, to his desire to remove them out of his way, that he might be at liber- ty to marry again ; and so, after the mothers were, one after another, removed, the hostility itself, so far as the children were concerned, gradually subsided, and the king began to look both upon Mary and Elizabeth with favor again. He even formed plans for marrying Elizabeth to persons of distinction in foreign countries, and he entered into some negotiations for this purpose. He had a decree passed, too, at last, reversing the sentence by which the two princesses were cut off from an inheritance of the crown. Thus they were restored, during their father's life, to their proper rank as royal princesses. At last the king died in 1547, leaving only these three children, each one the child of a CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 35 different wife. Mary was a maiden lady, of about thirty-one years of age. She was a stern, austere, hard-hearted woman, whom no- body loved. She was the daughter of King Henry's first wife, Catharine of Aragon, and, like her mother, was a decided Catholic. Next came Elizabeth, who was about four- teen years of age. She was the daughter of the king's second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn. She had been educated a Protestant. She was not pretty, but was a very lively and sprightly child, altogether different in her cast of char- acter and in her manners from her sister Mary. Then, iastly, there was Edward, the son of Jane Seymour, the third queen. He was about nine years of age at his father's death. He was a boy of good character, mild and gentle in his disposition, fond of study and reflection, and a genera! favorite with all who knew him. It was considered in those days that a king might in some sense, dispose of his crown by will, just as, at the present time, a man may bequeath his house or his farm. Of course there were some limits to this power ; and the concurrence of Parliament seems to have been required to the complete validity of such a settlement. King Henry the Eighth,, how- ever, had little difficulty in carrying any law 36 QUEEN ELIZABETH. through Parliament which he desired to have enacted. It is said that, on one occasion, when there was some delay about passing a bill of his, he sent for one of the most influen- tial of the members of the House of Commons to come into his presence. The member came and kneeled before him. "Ho, man 1" said the king, "and will they not suffer my bill to pass?'' He then came up and put his hand upon the kneeling legislator's head, and added, "Get my bill passed to-morrow, or else by to- morrow this head of yours shall be off." The next day the bill was passed accordingly. King Henry, before he died, arranged the order of succession to the throne as follows: Edward was to succeed him; but, as he was a minor, 'being then only nine years of age, a great council of state, consisting of sixteen persons of the highest rank, was appointed to govern the kingdom in his name until he should be eighteen years of age, when he was to become king in reality as well as in name. In case he should die without heirs, then Mary, his oldest sister, was to succeed him ; and if she died without heirs, then Elizabeth was to succeed her. This arrangement went into full effect. The council governed the kingdom in Edward's name until he was six- CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. tf teen years of age, when he died. Then Mary followed, and reigned as queen five years long- er, and died without children, and during all this time Elizabeth held the rank of a princess, exposed to a thousand difficulties and dangers from plots, intrigues, and conspiracies of those about her, in which, on account of her peculiar position and prospects, she was necessarily involved. One of the worst of these cases occurred soon after her father's death. There were two brothers of Jane Seymour, who were high in King Henry's favor at the time of his de- cease. The oldest is known in history by his title of the Earl of Hertford at first, and after- ward by that of Duke of Somerset. The youngest was called Sir Thomas Seymour. They were both made members of the govern- ment which was to administer the affairs of state during young Edward's minority. They were not, however, satisfied with any moder- ate degree of power. Being brothers of Jane Seymour, who was Edward's mother,, they were his uncles, of course, and the oldest one soon succeeded in causing himself to be ap- pointed protector. By this office he was, in fact, king, all except in name. The younger brother, who was an agreeable 38 QUEEN ELIZABETH. and accomplished man, paid his addresses to the queen dowager, that is, to the widow whom King Henry left, for the last of his wives was living at the time of his death. She consented to marry him, and the marriage took place almost immediately after the king's death — so soon, in fact, that it was considered extremely hasty and unbecoming. This queen dowager had two houses left to her, one at Chelsea, and the other at Hanworth, towns some little distance up the river from London. Here she resided with her new husband, some- times at one of the houses, and sometimes at the other. The king had also directed, in his will, that the Princess Elizabeth should be under care, so that Elizabeth, immediately after her father's death, lived at one or the other of these two houses under the care of Seymour, who, from having been her uncle, became now, in some sense, her father. He was a sort of uncle, for he was the brother of one of her father's wives. He was a sort of father, for he was the husband of another of them. Yet, really, by blood, there was no relation between them. The two brothers, Somerset and Seymour, quarreled. Each was very ambitious, and very jealous of the other. Somerset, in addition to CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 39 being appointed protector by the council, got a grant of power from the young king called a patent. This commission was executed with great formality, and was sealed with the great seal of state, and it made Somerset in some measure independent of the other nobles whom King Henry had associated with him in the government. By this patent he was placed in supreme command of all the forces by land and sea. He had a seat on the right hand of the throne, under the great canopy of state, and whenever he went abroad on public occasions, he assumed all the pomp and pa- rade which would have been expected in a real king. Young Edward was wholly under his influence, and did always whatever Somerset recommended him to do. Seymour was very jealous of all this greatness, and was contriv- ing every means in his power to circumvent and supersede his brother. The wives, too, of these great statesmen quarreled. The Duchess of Somerset thought she was entitled to the precedence, because she was the wife of the protector, who, being a kind of regent, she thought he was entitled to have his wife considered as a sort of queen. The wife of Seymour, on the other hand, con- tended that she was entitled to the precedence 40 QUEEN ELIZABETH. as a real queen, having been herself the act- ual consort of a reigning monarch. The two ladies disputed perpetually on this point, which, of course, could never be settled. They enlisted, however, on their respective sides various partisans, producing a great deal of jealousy and ill will, and increasing the ani- mosity of their husbands. All this time the celebrated Mary Queen of Scots was an infant in Janet Sinclair's arms, at the castle of Stirling, in Scotland. King Henry, during his life, had made a treaty with the government of Scotland, by which it was agreed that Mary should be married to his son Edward as soon as the two children should have grown to maturity; but after- ward, the government of Scotland having fall- en from Protestant into Catholic hands, they determined that this match must be given up. The English authorities were very much incensed. They wished to have the mar- riage take effect, as it would end in uniting the Scotch and English king- doms; and the protector, when a time ar- rived which he thought was favorable for his purpose, raised an army and marched northward to make war upon Scotland, and CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 41 compel the Scots to fulfill the contract of mar- riage. While his brother was gone to the north- ward, Seymour remained at home and en- deavored, by every means within his reach, to strengthen his own influence and increase his power. He contrived to obtain from the coun- cil of government the office of lord high ad- miral, which gave him the command of the fleet, and made him, next to his brother, the most powerful and important personage in the realm. He had, besides, as has already been stated, the custody and care of Elizabeth, who lived in his house ; though, as he was a profligate and unprincipled man, this position for the princess, now fast growing up to wo- manhood, was considered by many persons as a doubtful propriety. Still, she was at present only fourteen years old. There was another young lady likewise in his family, a niece of King Henry, and, of course, a second cousin of Elizabeth. Her name was Jane^ Grey. It was a very unhappy family. The manners and habits of all the members of it, excepting Jane Grey, seem to have been very rude and irregular. The admiral quarreled with his wife, and was jealous of the very servants who waited upon her. The queen observed 42 QUEEN ELIZABETH. something in the manners of her husband to- ward the young princess which made her an- gry both with him and her. Elizabeth resented this, and a violent quarrel ensued, which end- ed in their separation. Elizabeth went away, and resided afterward at a place called Hat- field. Very soon after this, the queen dowager died suddenly. People accused Seymour, her husband, of having poisoned her, in order to make way for the Princess Elizabeth to be his wife. He denied this, but he immediately be- gan to lay his plans for securing the hand of Elizabeth. There was a probability that she might, at some future time, succeed to the crown, and then, if he were her husband, he thought he should be the real sovereign, reign- ing in her name. Elizabeth had in her household two persons, a certain Mrs. Ashley, who was then her gov- erness, and a man named Parry, who was a j sort of treasurer. He was called the cofferer. iThe admiral gained these persons over to his interests, and, through them, attempted to open communications with Elizabeth, and persuade her to enter into his designs. Of course the whole affair was managed with great secrecy. They were all liable to a charge CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 43 of treason against the government of Edward by such plots, as his ministers and counselors might maintain that their design was to over- throw Edward's government and make Eliz- abeth queen. They, therefore, were all banded together to keep their counsels secret, and Elizabeth was drawn, in some degree, into the scheme, though precisely how far was never fully known. It was supposed that she began to love Seymour, although he was very much older than herself, and to be willing to become his wife. It is not surprising that, neglected and forsaken as she had been, she should have been inclined to regard with favor an agreeable and influential man, who expressed a strong affection for her, and a warm interest in her welfare. However this may be, Elizabeth was one day struck with consternation at hearing that Seymour was arrested by order of his brother, who had returned from Scotland and had re- ceived information of his designs, and that he had been committed to the Tower. He had a hurried and irregular trial, or what, in those days, was called a trial. The council went themselves to the Tower, and had him brought before them and examined. He de- manded to have the charges made out in form, 44 QUEEN ELIZABETH. and the witnesses confronted with him, but the council were satisfied of his guilt without these formalities. The Parliament immedi- ately afterward passed a bill of attainder against him, by which he was sentenced to death. His brother, the protector, signed the warrant for his execution, and he was be- headed on Tower Hill. The protector sent two messengers in the course of this affair to Elizabeth, to see what they could ascertain from her about it. Sir Robert Tyrwhitt was the name of the princi- pal one of these messengers. When the coff- erer learned that they were at the gate, he went in great terror into his chamber, and said that he was undone. At the same time, he pulled off a chain from his neck, and the rings from his fingers, and threw them away from him with gesticulations of despair. The messengers then came to Elizabeth, and told her, falsely as it seems, with a view to frighten her into confessions, that Mrs. Ashley and the cofferer were both secured and sent to the Tower. She seemed very much alarmed; she wept bitterly, and it was a long time before she regained her composure. She wanted to know whether they had confessed any thing. The protector's messengers would not tell her CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 45 this, but they urged her to confess herself all that had occurred ; for, whatever it was, they said that the evil and shame would all be as- cribed to the other persons concerned, and not to her, on account of her youth and inex- perience. But Elizabeth would confess noth- ing. The messengers went away, convinced, as they said, that she was guilty; they could see that in her countenance; and that her si- lence was owing to her firm determination not to betray her lover. They sent word to the protector that they did not believe that any body would succeed in drawing the least in- formation from her, unless it was the protect- or, or young King Edward himself. These mysterious circumstances produced a somewhat unfavorable impression in regard to Elizabeth, and there were some instances, it was said, of light and trifling behavior between Elizabeth and Seymour, while she was in his house during the life-time of his wife. They took place in the presence of Seymour's wife, and seem of no consequence, except to show that dukes and princesses got into frolics some- times in those days as well as other mortals. People censured Mrs. Ashley for not enjoin- ing a greater dignity and propriety of demean- 4— Elizabeth 46 QUEEN ELIZABETH. or in her young charge, and the government removed her from her place. Lady Tyrwhitt who was the wife of the messenger referred to above that was sent to examine Elizabeth, was appointed to succeed Mrs. Ashley. Elizabeth was very much dis- pleased at this change. She told Lady Tyr- whitt that Mrs. Ashley was her mistress, and tha f she had not done any thing to make it necessary for the council to put more mis- tresses over her. Sir Robert wrote to the pro- tector that she took the affair so heavily that she "wept all night, and lowered all the next day." He said that her attachment to Mrs. Ashley was very strong; and that, if any thing were said against the lord admiral, she could not bear to heat it, but took up his defense in the most prompt and eager manner. How far it is true that Elizabeth loved the unfortunate Seymour can now never be known. There is no doubt, however, but that this whole affair was a very severe trial and af- fliction to her. It came upon her when she was but fourteen or fifteen years of age, and when she was in a position, as well of an age, which renders the heart acutely sensitive both to the effect of kindness and of injuries. Sey- mour, by his death, was lost to her forever, CHILDHOOD OF A PRINCESS. 47 and Elizabeth lived in great retirement and se- clusion during the remainder of her brother's reign She did not, however, forget Mrs. Ash- Window in Anne Boleyn'a room. ky and Parr> On hei accession to the throne, man) years afterward, she gave them offices ver> valuable, considering their station in life, and wa? a true friend to them both to the end of their days, CHAPTER III. LADY JANE GREY. Among Elizabeth's companions and play- mates in her early years was a young lady, her cousin, as she was often called, though she was really the daughter of her cousin, named Jane Grey, commonly called in history Lady Jane Grey. Her mother was the March- ioness of Dorset, and was the daughter of one of King Henry the Eighth's sisters. King Hen- ry had named her as the next in the order of succession after his own children, that is, after Edward his son, and Mary and Elizabeth his two daughters ; and, consequently, though she was very young, yet, as she might one day be Queen of England, she was a personage of considerable importance. She was, accord- ingly, kept near the court, and shared, in some respects, the education and the studies of the two princesses. Lady Jane was about four years younger than the Princess Elizabeth, and the sweetness of her disposition, united with an extraordin- ary intellectual superiority, which showed it- 48 LADY JANE GREY. 49 self at a very early period, made her a univer- sal favorite. Her father and mother, the Mar- quis and Marchioness of Dorset, lived at an estate they possessed, called Broadgate, in Leicestershire, which is in the central part of England, although they took their title from the county of Dorset, which is on the south- western coast. They were very proud of their daughter, and attached infinite importance to her descent from Henry VII., and to the pos- sibility that she might one day succeed to the English throne. They were very strict and se- vere in their manners, and paid great atten- tion to etiquette and punctilio, as persons who are ambitious of rising in the world are very apt to do. In all ages of the worlds and among all nations, those who have long been accus- tomed to a high position are easy and uncon- strained in their manners and demeanor, while those who have been newly advanced from a lower station, or who are anticipating or as- piring to such an advance, make themselves slaves to the rules of etiquette and ceremony. It was thus that the father and mother of Lady Jane, anticipating that she might one day be- come a queen, watched and guarded her in- cessantly, subjected her to a thousand un- welcome restraints, and repressed all the spon- 50 QUEEN ELIZABETH. taneous and natural gayety and sprightliness which belongs properly to such a child. She became, however, a very excellent schol- ar in consequence of this state of things. She had a private teacher, a man of great emin- ence for his learning and abilities, and yet of a very kind and gentle spirit, which enabled him to gain a strong hold on his pupil's affec- tion and regard. His name was John Aylmer. The Marquis of Dorset, Lady Jane's father, became acquainted with Mr. Aylmer when he was quite young, and appointed him, when he had finished his education, to come and reside in his family as chaplain and tutor to his child- ren. Aylmer afterward became a distinguished man, was made Bishop of London, and held many high offices of state under Queen Eliza- beth, when she came to reign. He became very much attached to Queen Elizabeth in the middle and latter part of his life, as he had been to Lady Jane in the early part of it. A curious incident occurred during the time that he was in the service of Elizabeth, which illus- trates the character of the man. The queen was suffering from the toothache, and it was necessary that the tooth should be extracted. The surgeon was ready with his instruments, and several ladies and gentlemen of the royal Elizabeth, face p. 50 Lady Jane Grey. LADY JANE GREY. 5 1 household were in the queen's room commis- erating her sufferings ; but the queen dreaded the operation so excessively that she could not summon fortitude enough to submit to it. Aylmer, after trying some time in vain to en- courage her, took his seat in the chair instead of her, and said to the surgeon, "I am an old man, and have but few teeth to lose ; but come, draw this one, and let her majesty see how light a matter it is." One would not have sup- posed that Elizabeth would have allowed this to be done; but she did; and, finding that Aylmer made so light of the operation, she submitted to have it performed upon herself. But to return to Lady Jane. She was very strongly attached to her teacher, and made great progress in the studies which he ar- ranged for her. Ladies of high rank, in those days, were accustomed to devote great at- tention to the ancient and modern lan- guages. There was, in fact, a great necessity then, as indeed, there is now, for a European princess to be acquainted with the principal languages of Europe; for the various royal families ,were con- tinually intermarrying with each other, which led to a great many visits, and other in- tercourse between the different courts. There 52 QUEEN ELIZABETH. was also a great deal of intercourse with the pope, in Which the Latin language was the medium of communication. Lady Jane de- voted a great deal of time to all these studies, and made rapid proficiency in them all. The Princess Elizabeth was also an excel- lent scholar. Her teacher was a very learned and celebrated man, named Roger Ascham. She spoke French and Italian as fluently as she did English. She also wrote and spoke Latin with correctness and readiness. She made considerable progress in Greek too. She could write the Greek character very beauti- fully, and could express herself tolerably well in conversation in that language. One of her companions, a young lady of the name of Ce- cil, is said to have spoken Greek as well as English. Roger Ascham took great interest in advancing the princess in these studies, and in the course of these his instructions he be- came acquainted with Lady Jane, and he praises very highly, in his letters, the industry and assiduity of Lady Jane in similar pursuits. One day Roger Ascham, being on a journey from the north of England to London, stopped to make a call at the mansion of the Marquis of Dorset. He found that the family were all away ; they had gone off upon a hunting ex- LADY JANE GREY. 53 cursion in the park. Lady Jane, however, had been left at home, and Ascham went in to see her. He found her in the library reading Greek. Ascham examined her a little, and was very much surprised to find how well ac- quainted with the language she had become, although she was then only about fifteen years old. He told her that he should like very much to have her write him a letter in Greek, and this she readily promised to do. He asked her, also, how it happened that, at her age, she had made such advances in learning. "1 will tell you," said she, "how it has happened. One of the greatest benefits that God ever conferred upon me was in giving me so sharp and severe parents and so gentle a teacher; for, when I am in the presence of either my father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go ; eat, drink, be merry, or sad ; be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, I must do it, as it were, in just such weight, measure, and number, as perfectly as possible, or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways, which I will not name for the honor I bear my parents, that I am continually teased and tormented. And then, when the time comes 54 QUEEN ELIZABETH. for me to go to Mr. Elsmer, he teaches me so gently, so pleasantly, and with such fair al- lurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing while I am with him ; and I am al- ways sorry to go away from him, because whatsoever else I do but learning is full of grief, trouble, fear and suffering. Lady Jane Grey was an intimate friend and companion of the young King Edward as long as he lived. Edward died when he was six- teen years of age, so that he did not reach the period which his father had assigned for his reigning in his own name. One of King Ed- ward's most prominent and powerful minis- ters during the latter part of his life was the Earl of Northumberland. The original name of the Earl of Northumberland was John Dudley. He was one of the train who came in the procession at the close of the baptism of Elizabeth, carrying the presents. He was a Protestant, and was very friendly to Edward and to Lady Jane Grey, for they were Protest- ants too. But his feelings and policy were hostile to Mary, for she was a Catholic. Mary was sometimes treated very harshly by him, and she was subjected to many privations and hardships on account of her religious faith. The government of Edward justified these LADY JANE GREY. 55 measures, on account of the necessity of pro- moting the Reformation, and discouraging popery by every means in their power. North- umberland supposed, too, that it was safe to do this, for Edward being very young, it was probable that he would live and reign a long time. It is true that Mary was named, in her father's will, as his successor, if she outlived him, but then it was highly probable that she would not outlive him, for she was several years older than he. All these calculations, however, were spoiled by the sudden failure of Edward's health when he was sixteen years old. Northumber- land was much alarmed at this. He knew at once that if Edward should die, and Mary suc- ceed him, all his power would be gone, and he determined to make desperate efforts to pre- vent such a result. It must not be understood, however, that in coming to this resolution, Northumberland considered himself as intending and planning a deliberate usurpation of power. There was a real uncertainty in respect to the question who was the true and rightful heir to the crown. Northumberland was, undoubtedly, strongly biased by his interest, but he may have been unconscious of the bias, and in ad- 56 QUEEN ELIZABETH. vocating the mode of succession on which the continuance of his own power depended, he may have really believed that he was only maintaining what was in itself rightful and just. In fact, there is no mode which human in- genuity has ever yet devised for determining the hands in which the supreme executive of a nation shall be lodged, which will always avoid doubt and contention. If this power de- volves by hereditary descent, no rules can be made so minute .and full as that cases will not sometimes occur that will transcend them. If, on the other hand, the plan of election be adopted, there will often be technical doubts about a portion of the votes, and cases will sometimes occur where the result will depend upon this doubtful portion. Thus there will be disputes under any system, and ambitious men will seize such occasions to struggle for power. In order that our readers may clearly un- derstand the nature of the plan which North- umberland adopted, we present, on the follow- ing page, a sort of genealogical table of the royal family of England in the days of Eliza- beth. LADY JANE GREY. 57 > 5 Q « N K £ w 5 2 2 W Hi Ul ,, m a ^ D D £ * «A ro 3#V*- - « r v f the queen's unfortunate and unhappy history. Mary loved her husband, but she could not secure his love in return. He treated her with supercilious coldness and neglect, and evinced, from time to time, a de- gree of interest in other ladies which awaken- ed her jealousy and anger. Of all the terrible convulsions to which the human soul is sub- ject, there is not one which agitates it more deeply than the tumult of feeling produced by the mingling of resentment and love. Such a mingling, or, rather, such a conflict, between passions apparently inconsistent with each other, is generally considered not possible by those who have never experienced it. But it is possible. It is possible to be stung with a sense of the ingratitude, and selfishness, and 106 ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 10? cruelty of an object, which, after all, the heart will persist in clinging to with the fondest af- fection. Vexation and anger, a burning sense of injury, and desire for revenge, on the one hand, and feelings of love, resistless and un- controllable, and bearing, in their turn, all be- fore them, alternately get possession of the soul, harrowing and devastating it in their aw- ful conflict, and even sometimes reigning over it, for a time, in a temporary but dreadful calm, like that of two wrestlers who pause a moment, exhausted in a mortal combat, but grappling each other with deadly energy all the time, while they are taking breath for a re- newal of the conflict. Queen Mary, in one of these paroxysms, seized a portrait of her hus- band and tore it into shreds. The reader, who has his or her experience in affairs of the heart yet to come, will say, perhaps, her love for him then must have been all gone. No ; it was at its height. We do not tear the por- traits of those who are indifferent to us. At the beginning of her reign, and, in fact, during all the previous periods of her life, Mary had been an honest and conscientious Catholic. She undoubtedly truly believed that the Christian Church ought to be banded to- gether in one great communion, with *he Pope I08 QUEEN ELIZABETH, of Rome as its spiritual head, and that her father had broken away from this communion — which was, in fact, strictly true — merely to obtain a pretext for getting released from her mother. How natural, under such circum- stances, that she should have desired to re- turn. She commenced, immediately on her accession, a course of measures to bring the nation back to the Roman Catholic commun- ion. She managed very prudently and cau- tiously at first — especially while the affair of her marriage was pending — seemingly very desirous of doing nothing to exasperate those who were of the Protestant faith, or even to awaken their opposition. After she was mar- ried, however, her desire to please her Cath- olic husband, and his widely-extended and in- fluential circle of Catholic friends on the Con- tinent, made her more eager to press forward the work of putting down the Reformation in England; and as her marriage was now ef- fected, she was less concerned about the con- sequences of any opposition which she might excite. Then, besides, her temper, never very sweet, was sadly soured by her husband's treatment of her. She vented her ill will upon those who would not yield to her wishes in re- spect to their religious faith. She caused more ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. IO9 and more severe laws to be passed, and en- forced them by more and more severe penalties. The more she pressed these violent measures, the more the fortitude and resolution of those who suffered from them were aroused. And, on the other hand, the more they resisted, the more determined sihe became that she would compel them to submit. She went on from one mode of coercion to another, until she reached the last possible point, and inflicted the most dreadful physical suffering which it is possible for man to inflict upon his fellow- man. This worst and most terrible injury is to burn the living victim in a fire. That a woman could ever order this to be done would seem to be incredible. Queen Mary, however, and her government, were so determined to put down, at all hazards, all open disaffection to the Catholic cause, that they did not give up the contest until they had burned nearly three hundred persons by fire, of whom more than fifty were women and four were child- ren. This horrible persecution was, however, of no avail. Dissentients increased faster than they, could be burned ; and such dreadful pun- ishments became at last so intolerably odious to the nation that they were obliged to desist, 110 QUEEN ELIZABETH. and then the various ministers of state con- cerned in them attempted to throw off the b'.ame upon each other. The English nation have never forgiven Mary for these atrocities. They gave her the name of Bloody Mary at the time, and she has retained it to the present day. In one of the ancient histories of the realm, at the head of the chapter devoted to Alary, there is placed, as an appropriate em- blem of the character of her reign, the picture of a man writhing helplessly at a stake, with the flames curling around him, and a feroc- ious-looking soldier standing by, stirring up the fire. The various disappointments, vexations, and trials which Mary endured toward the close of her life, had one good effect ; they sof- tened the animosity which she had felt to- ward Elizabeth, and in the end something like a friendship seemed to spring up between the sisters. Abandoned by her husband, and looked upon with dislike or hatred by her subjects, and disappointed in all her plans, she seemed to turn at last to Elizabeth for com- panionship and comfort. The sisters visited each other. First Elizabeth went to London to visit the queen, and was received with great ceremony and parade. Then the queen went Elizabeth, /ace p. no Mary, Queen of England. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. Ill to Hatfield to visit the princess, attended by a large company of ladies and gentlemen of the court, and several days were spent there in festivities and .rejoicings. There were plays in the palace, and a bear-baiting in the court- yard, and hunting in the park, and many other schemes of pleasure. This renewal of friendly intercourse between the queen and the prin- cess brought the latter gradually out of her re- tirement. Now that the queen began to evince a friendly spirit toward her, it was safe for others to show her kindness and to pay her attention. The disposition to do this increased rapidly as Mary's health gradually declined, and it began to be understood that she would not live long, and that, consequently, Eliza- beth would soon be called to the throne. The war which Mary had been drawn into with France, by Philip's threat that he would never see her again, proved very disastrous. The town of Calais, which is opposite to Dover, across the straits, and, of course, on the French side of the channel, had been in the pos- session of the English for two hundred years. It was very gratifying to English pride to hold possession of such a stronghold on the French shore; but now every thing seemed to go against Mary. Calais was defended by a cita- 112 QUEEN ELIZABETH. del nearly as large as the town itself, and was deemed impregnable. In addition to this, an enormous English force was concentrated there. The French general, however, contriv- ed, partly by stratagem, and partly by over- powering numbers of troops, and ships, and batteries of cannon, to get possession of the whole. The English nation were indignant at this result. Their queen and her govern- ment, so energetic in imprisoning and burn- ing her own subjects at home, were powerless, it seemed , in coping with their enemies abroad. Murmurs of dissatisfaction were heard every where, and Mary sank down upon her sick bed overwhelmed with disappoint- ment, vexation, and chagrin. She said that she should die, and that if, after her death, they examined her body, they would find Cal- ais like a load upon her heart. In the mean time, it must have been Eliza- beth's secret wish that she would die, since her death would release the princess from all the embarrassments and restraints of her position, and raise her at once to the highest pinnacle of honor and power. She remained, however, quietly at Hatfield, acting in all things in a very discreet and cautious manner. At one time she received proposals from the King of ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 113 Sweden that she would accept of his son as her husband. She asked the embassador if he had communicated the affair to Mary. On his replying that he had not, Elizabeth said that she could not entertain at all any such ques- tion, unless her sister were first consulted and should give her approbation. She acted on the same principles in every thing, being very cautious to give Mary and her government no cause of complaint against her, and willing to wait patiently until her own time should come. Though Mary's disappointments and losses filled her mind with anguish and suffering, they did not soften her heart. She seemed to grow more cruel and vindictive the more her plans and projects failed. Adversity vexed and irritated, instead of calming and subdu- ing her. She revived her persecutions of the Protestants. She fitted out a fleet of a hundred and twenty ships to make a descent upon the French coast, and attempt to retrieve her fall- en fortunes there. She called Parliament to- gether and asked for more supplies. All this time she was confined to her sick chamber, but not considered in danger. The Parlia- ment were debating the question of supplies. Her privy council were holding daily meet- 114 QUEEN ELIZABETH. ings to carry out the plans and schemes which she still continued to form, and all was excite- ment and bustle in and around the court, when one day the council was thunderstruck by an announcement that she was dying. They knew very well that her death would be a terrible blow to them. They were all Catholics, and had been Mary's instruments in the terrible persecutions with which she had oppressed the Protestant faith. With Mary's death, of course they would fall. A Protest- ant princess was ready, at Hatfield, to ascend the throne. Every thing would be changed, and there was even danger that they might, in their turn, be sent to the stake, in retaliation for the cruelties which they had caused others to suffer They made arrangements to have Mary's death, whenever it should take place, concealed for a few hours, till they could con- sider what they should do. There was nothing that they could do. There was now no other considerable claimant to the throne but Elizabeth, except Mary Queen of Scots, who was far away in France. She was a Catholic, it was true ; but to bring her into the country and place her upon the throne seemed to be a hopeless undertaking. Queen Mary's counselors soon found that they ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. II5 must give up their cause in despair. Any at- tempt to resist Elizabeth's claims would be nigh treason, and, of course, if unsuccessful, would bring the heads of all concerned in it to the block. Besides, it was not certain that Elizabeth would act decidedly as a Protestant She had been very prudent and cautious during Mary's reign, and had been very careful never to man- ifest any hostility to the Catholics. She never had acted as Mary had done on the occasion of her brother's funeral, when she refused even to countenance with her presence the na- tional service because it was under Protestant forms. Elizabeth had always accompanied Mary to mass whenever occasion required; she had always spoken respectfully of the Catholic faith ; and once she asked Mary to lend her some Catholic books, in order that she might inform herself more fully on the subject of the principles of the Roman faith. It is true, she acted thus, not because there was, any real leaning in her mind toward the Catholic religion ; it was all merely a wise and sagacious policy. Surrounded by difficulties and dangers as she was during Mary's reign, her only hope of safety was in passing as quiet- ly as possible along, and managing warily, so Il6 QUEEN ELIZABETH. as to keep the hostility which was burning se- cretly against her from breaking out into an open flame. This was her object in retiring so much from the court and from all participa- tion in public affairs, in avoiding all religious and political contests, and spending her time in the study of Greek, and Latin, and philos- ophy. The consequence was, that when Mary died, nobody knew certainly what course Elizabeth would pursue. Nobody had any strong motive for opposing her succes- sion. The council, therefore, after a short con- sultation, concluded to do nothing but simply to send a message to the House of Lords, an- nouncing to them the unexpected death of the queen. The House of Lords, on receiving this in- telligence, sent for the Commons to come into their hall, as is usual when any important communication is to be made to them either by the Lords themselves or by the Sovereign. The chancellor, who is the highest civil of- ficer of the kingdom in respect to rank, and who presides in the House of Lords, clothed in a magnificent antique costume, then rose and announced to the Commons, standing, before him, the death of the sovereign. There was a moment's solemn pause, such as pro- ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 11/ priety on the occasion of an announcement like this required, all thoughts being, too, for a moment turned to the chamber where the body of the departed queen was lying. But the sovereignty was no longer there. The mysterious principle had fled with the parting breath, and Elizabeth, though wholly uncon- scious of it, had been for several hours the queen. The thoughts, therefore, of the august and solemn assembly lingered but for a mo- ment in the royal palace, which had now lost all its glory; they soon turned spon- taneously, and with eager haste, to the new sovereign at Hatfield, and the lofty arches of the Parliament hall rung with loud acclamations, "God save Queen Elizabeth, and grant her a long and happy reign." The members of the Parliament went forth immediately to proclaim the new queen. There are two principal places where it was then customary to proclaim the English sov- ereigns. One of these was before the royal palace at Westminster, and the other in the city of London, at a very public place called the Great Cross at Cheapside. The people as- sembled in great crowds at these points to witness the ceremony, and receive the an- nouncement which the heralds made, with the Il8 QUEEN ELIZABETH. most ardent expressions of joy. The bells were every where rung; tables were spread in the streets, and booths erected ; bonfires and il- luminations were prepared for the evening, and every thing indicated a deep and univer- sal joy. In fact, this joy was so strongly expressed as to be even in some degree disrespectful to the memory of the departed queen. There is a famous ancient Latin hymn which has long been sung in England and on the Continent of Europe on occasions of great public rejoic- ing. It is called the Te Deum, or sometimes the Te Deum Laudamus. These last are tihe three Latin words with which the hymn com- mences, and mean, Thee, God, we praise. They sung the Te Deum in the churches of London on the Sunday after Mary died. In the mean time, messengers from the council proceeded with all speed to Hatfield to announce to Elizabeth the death of her sis- ter, and her own accession to the sovereign power. The tidings, of course, filled Eliza- beth's mind with the deepest emotions. TI12 oppressive sense of constraint and danger which she had endured as her daily burden for so many years, was lifted suddenly from her soul. She could not but rejoice, though &U&L&>^ ^W§":mmM Elizabeth, face p. 11 Elizabeth Acknowledged by the clergy. -Elizabeth ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 1 19 she was too much upon her guard to express her joy. She was overwhelmend with a pro- found agitation, and, kneeling down, she ex- claimed in Latin, "It is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes." Several cf the members of Mary's privy council repaired immediately to Hatfield. The queen summoned them to attend her and in their presence appointed her chief secretary of state. His name was Sir William Cecil. He was a man of great learning and ability, and he remained in office under Elizabeth for forty years. He became her chief adviser and in- strument, an able, faithful, and indefatigable servant and friend during almost the whole of her reign. His name is accordingly indissol- ubly connected with that of Elizabeth in all the political events which occurred while she continued upon the throne, and it will, in con- sequence, very frequently occur in the sequel of this history. He was now about forty years of age. Elizabeth was twenty-five. Elizabeth had known Cecil long before. He had been a faithful and^true friend to her in her adversity. He had been, in many cases, a confidential adviser, and had maintained a secret correspondence with her in certain try- ing periods of her life. She had resolved, 120 QUEEN ELIZABETH. doubtless, to make him her chief secretary of state so soon as she should succeed to the throne. And now that the time had arrived, she instated him solemnly in his office. In so doing, she pronounced, in the hearing of the other members of the council, the following charge : "I give you this charge that you shall be of my privy council, and content yourself to take pains for me and my realm. This judgment I have of you, that you will not be corrupted with any gift ; and that you will be faithful to the state ; and that, without respect of my pri- vate will, you will give me that counsel that you think best; and that, if you shall know any thing necessary to be declared to me of secrecy, you shall show it to myself only ; and assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturn- ity therein. And therefore herewith I charge you." It was about a week after the death of Mary before the arrangements were completed for Elizabeth's journey to London to take pos- session of the castles and palaces which per- tain there to the English sovereigns. She was followed on this journey by a train of about ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. I2l a thousand attendants, all nobles or person- ages of high rank, both gentlemen and ladies. She went first to a palace called the Charter House, near London, where she stopped until preparations could be made for her formal and public entrance into the Tower ; not, as before, through the Traitors' Gate, a prisoner, but openly, through the grand entrance, in the midst of acclamations, as the proud and ap- plauded sovereign of the mighty realm whose capital the ancient fortress was stationed to defend. The streets through which the gor- geous procession was to pass were spread with fine, smooth gravel; bands of musicians were stationed at intervals, and decorated arches, and banners, and flags, with countless devices of loyalty and welcome, and waving handker- chiefs, greeted her all the way. Heralds and other great officers, magnificently dressed, and mounted on horses richly caparisoned, rode before her, announcing her approach, with trumpets and proclamations ; while she followed in the train, mounted upon a beauti ful horse, the object of universal homage. Thus Elizabeth entered the Tower; and inas- much as forgetting her friends is a fault with which she- can not justly be charged, we may hope, at least, that one of the first acts which i2i Queen eliZabetth. she performed, after getting established in the royal apartments, was to send for and reward the kind-hearted child who had been repri- manded for bringing her the flowers. The coronation, when the time arrived for it, was very splendid. The queen went in state in a sumptuous chariot, preceded by trumpeters and heralds in armor, and accom- panied by a long train of noblemen, barons, and gentlemen, and also of ladies, all most richly dressed in crimson velvet, the trappings of the horses being of the same material. The people of London thronged all the streets through which she was to pass, and made the air resound with shouts and acclamations. There were triumphal arches erected here and there on the way, with a great variety of odd and quaint de- vices, and a child stationed upon each, who explained the devices to Elizabeth as she passed, in English verse, written for the occasion. One of these pageants was entitled "The Seat of worthy Goverance." There was a throne, supported by figures which repre- sented the cardinal virtues , such as Piety, Wisdom, Temperance, Industry, Truth, and beneath their feet were the opposite vices, Su- perstition, Ignorance, Intemperance, Idleness, Elizabeth , face p. 1 22 Queen Elizabeth of England. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. 12.3 and Falsehood : these the virtues were tramp- ling upon. On the throne was a representa- tion of Elizabeth. At one place were eight personages dressed to represent the eight beatitudes pronounced by our Savior in his sermon on the Mount — the meek, the merci- ful, &c. Each of these qualities was ingen- iously ascribed to Elizabeth. This could be done with much more propriety then than in subsequent years. In another place, an an- cient figure, representing Time, came out of a cave which had been artificially constructed with great ingenuity, leading his daughter, whose name was Truth. Truth had an English Bible in her hands, which she presented to Elizabeth as she passed. This had a great deal of meaning; for the Catholic government of Mary had discouraged the circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. When the procession arrived in the middle of the city, some officers of the city government ap- proached the queen's chariot, and delivered to her a present of a very large and heavy purse filled with gold. The queen had to employ both hands in lifting it in. It contained an amount equal in value to two or three thous- and dollars. The queen was very affable and gracious to 124 QUEEN ELIZABETH. all the people on the way. Poor women would come up to her carriage and offer her flowers, which she would very condescending- ly accept. Several times she stopped her car- riage when she saw that any one wished to speak with her, or had something to offer; and so great was the exaltation of a queen in those days, in the estimation of mankind, that these acts were considered by all the humble citizens of London as acts of very extraordinary affa- bility, and they awakened universal enthus- iasm. There was one branch of rosemary giv- en to the queen by a poor woman in Fleet Street; the queen put it up conspicuously in the carriage, where it remained all the way, watched by ten thousand eyes, till it got to Westminster. The coronation took place at Westminster on the following day. The crown was placed upon the young maiden's head in the midst of a great throng of ladies and gentlemen, who were all superbly dressed, and who made the vast edifice in which the service was perform- ed ring with their acclamations and their shouts of "Long live the Queen !" During the ceremonies, Elizabeth placed a wedding ring upon her finger with great formality, to de- note that she considered the occasion as the ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. I2S celebration of her espousal to the realm of England ; she was that day a bride, and should never have, she said, any other husband. She Courtiers and Ladies of Elizabeth's time, kept this, the only wedding ring she ever wore, upon her finger, without once removing it, for more than forty years. CHAPTER VII. THE WAR IN SCOTLAND. Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots are strongly associated together in the minds of all readers of English history. They were contemporary sivereigns, reigning at the same time over sister kingdoms. They were cou- sins, and yet, precisely on account of the fam- ily relationship which existed between them, they became implacable foes. The rivalry and hostility, sometimes open and sometimes concealed, was always in action, and, after a contest of more than twenty years, Elizabeth triumphed. She made Mary her prisoner, kept her many years a captive, and at last closed the contest by commanding, or at least allowing, her fallen rival to be beheaded. Thus Elizabeth had it all her own way while the scenes of her life and of Mary's were transpiring, but since that time mankind have generally sympathized most strongly with the conquered one, and condemned the conquer- or. There are several reasons for this, and 126 WAR IN SCOTLAND. 12/ among them is the vast influence exerted by the difference in the personal character of the parties. Mary was beautiful, feminine in spirit, and lovely. Elizabeth was talented, mas- culine, and plain. Mary was artless, unaffect- ed, and gentle. Elizabeth was heartless, in- triguing, and insincere. With Mary, though her ruling principle was ambition, her ruling passion was love. Her love led her to great transgressions and into many sorrows, but mankind pardon the sins and pity the suffer- ings which are caused by love more readil) than those of any other origin. With Eliza- beth, ambition was the ruling principle, and the ruling passion too. Love, with her, was only a pastime. Her transgressions were the cool, deliberate, well-considered acts* of selfish- ness and desire of power. During her lifetime her success secured her the applauses of the world. The world is always ready to glorify the greatness which rises visibly before it, and to forget sufferings which are meekly and pa- tiently borne in seclusion and solitude. Men praised and honored Elizabeth, therefore, while she lived, and neglected Mary. But since the halo and the fascination of the vis- ible greatness and glory have passed away, they have found a far greater charm in Mary's 128 QUEEN ELIZABETH. beauty and misfortune than in her great ri- val's pride and power. There is often thus a great difference in the comparative interest we take in persons or scenes, when, on the one hand, they are reali- ties before our eyes, and when, on the other, they are only imaginings which are brought to our minds by pictures or descriptions. The hardships which it was very disagreeable or painful to bear, afford often great amusement or pleasure in the recollection. The old broken gate which a gentleman would not tolerate an hour upon his grounds, is a great beauty in the picture which hangs in his parlor. We shun poverty and distress while they are act- ually existing; nothing is more disagreeable to us ; and we gaze upon prosperity and wealth with neverceasing pleasure. But when they are gone, and we have only the tale to hear, it is the story of sorrow and suffering which possesses the charm. Thus it happened that when the two queens were living realities, Elizabeth was the centre of attraction and the object of universal homage; but when they came to be themes of 'history, all eyes and hearts began soon to turn instinctively to Mary. It was London, and Westminster, and Kenilworth that possessed the interest while WAR IN SCOTLAND. 129 Elizabeth lived, but it is Holyrood and Loch Leven now. It results from these causes that Mary's story is read far more frequently than Eliza- beth's, and this operates still further to the ad- vantage of the former, for we are always prone to take sides with the heroine of the tale we are reading. All these considerations, which have had so much influence on the judgment men form, or, rather, on the feelings to which they incline in this famous contest, have, it must be confessed, very little to do with true merits of the case. And if we make a ser- ious attempt to lay all such considerations aside, and to look into the controversy with cool and rigid impartiality, we shall find it very difficult to arrive at any satisfactory con- clusion. There are two questions to be de- cided. In advancing their conflicting claims to the English crown, was it Elizabeth or Mary that was in the right? If Elizabeth was right, were the measures which she resorted to to se- cure her own rights, and to counteract Mary's pretensions, politically justifiable? We do not propose to add our own to the hundred decis- ions which various writers have given to this question, but only to narrate the facts, and I3O QUEEN ELIZABETH. leave each reader to come to his own conclu sion. The foundation of the long and dreadful quarrel between those royal cousins was, as has been already remarked, their consanguin- ity, which made them both competitors for the same throne ; and as that throne was, in some respects, the highest and most powerful in the world, it is not surprising that two such am- bitious women should be eager and persever- ing in their contest for it. By turning to the genealogical table on page 57, where a view is presented of the royal family of England in the time of Elizabeth, the reader will see once more what was the precise relationship which the two queens bore to each other and to the succession. By this table it is very evident that Elizabeth was the true inheritor of the crown, provided it were admitted that she was the lawful daughter and heir of King Henry the Eighth, and this depended on the question of the validity of her father's marriage with his first wife, Catharine of Aragon ; for, as has been before said, he was married to Anne Boleyn before obtaining any thing like a di- vorce from Catharine; consequently, the mar- riage with Elizabeth's mother could not be le- gally valid, unless that with Catharine had WAR IN SCOTLAND. 131 been void from the beginning. The friends of Mary Queen of Scots maintained that it was not thus void, and that, consequently, the marriage with Anne Boleyn was null; that El- izabeth, therefore, the descendant of the mar- riage, was not, legally and technically, a daughter of Henry the Eighth, and, conse- quently, not entitled to inherit his crown ; and that the crown, of right, ought to descend to the next heir, that is, to Mary Queen of Scots herself. Queen Elizabeth's friends and partisans maintained, on the other hand, that the mar- riage of King Henry with Catharine was null and void from the beginning, because Cathar- ine had been before the wife of his brother. The circumstances of this marriage were very curious and peculiar. It was his father's work, and not his own. His father was King Henry the Seventh. Henry the Seventh had several children, and among them were his two oldest sons, Arthur and Henry. When Arthur was about sixteen years old, his father, being very much in want of money, conceived the plan of replenishing his coffers by marrying his son to a rich wife. He accordingly contracted a marriage between him and Catharine of Ara- gon, Catharine's father agreeing to pay him JO— Elizabeth I32 QUEEN ELIZABETH. two hundred thousand crowns as her dowry. The juvenile bridegroom enjoyed the honors and pleasures of married life for a few months, and then died. This event was a great domestic calamity to the king, not because he mourned the loss of his son, but that he could not bear the idea of the loss of the dowry. By the law and usage in such cases, he was bound not only to forego the payment of the other half of the dowry, but he had himself no right to retain the half that lie had already received. While his son lived, being a minor, the father might, not im- properly, hold the money in his son's name; but when he died this right ceased, and as Ar- thur left no child, Henry perceived that he should be obliged to pay back the money. To avoid this unpleasant necessity, the king con- ceived the plan of marrying the youthful wid- ow again to his second boy, Henry, who was about a year younger than Arthur, and he made proposals to this effect to the King of Aragon. The King of Aragon made no objection to this proposal except that it was a thing un- heard of among Christian nations, or heard of only to be condemned, for a man or even a boy to marry his brother's widow. All laws, War in Scotland. 133 human and divine, were clear and absolute against this. Still, if the dispensation of the pope could be obtained, he would make no ob- jection. Catharine might espouse the second boy, and he would allow the one hundred thousand crowns already paid to stand, and would also pay the other hundred thousand. The dispensation was accordingly obtained, and everything made ready for the marriage. Very soon after this, however, and before the new marriage was carried into effect, King Henry the Seventh died, and this second boy, now the oldest son, though only about seven- teen years of age, ascended the throne as King Henry the Eighth. There was great discus- sion and debate, soon after his accession, whether the marriage which his father had ar- ranged should proceed. Some argued that no papal dispensation could authorize or justify such a marriage. Others maintained that a pa- pal dispensation could legalize any thing ; ior it is a doctrine of the Catholic Church that the pope has a certain discretionary power over all laws, human and divine, under the authority given to his great predecessor, the Apostle Peter, by the words of Christ: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 134 QUEEN ELIZABETH. earth shall be loosed in heaven."* Henry seems not to have puzzled his head at all with the legal question ; he wanted to have the young widow for his wife, and he settled the affair on that ground alone. They were mar- ried. Catharine was a faithful and dutiful spouse ; but when, at last, Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, he made these old difficulties a pretext for discarding her. He endeavored, as has been already related, to induce the papal au- thorities to annul their dispensation ; because they would not do it, he espoused the Protest- ant cause, and England, as a nation, seceded from the Catholic communion. The ecclesi- astical and parliamentary authorities of his own realm then, being made Protestant, an- nulled the marriage, and thus Anne Boleyn, to whom he had previously been married by a private ceremony, became legally and techni- cally his wife. If this annulling of his first marriage were valid, then Elizabeth was his heir — otherwise not ; for if the pope's dispen- sation was to stand, then Catherine was a wife. Anne Boleyn would in that case, of course, have been only a companion, and Elizabeth, claiming through her, a usurper. *Matthew, xvi., 19. WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 35 The question, thus, was very complicated. It branched into extensive ramifications, which opened a wide field of debate, and led to endless controversies. It is not probable, however, that Mary Queen of Scots, or her friends, gave themselves much trouble about the legal points at issue. She and they were all Catholics, and it was sufficient for them to know that the Holy Father at Rome had sanc- tioned the marriage of Catherine, and that that marriage, if allowed to stand, made her the Queen of England. She was at this time in France. She had been sent there at a very early period of her life, to escape the troubles of her native land, and also to be educated. She was a gentle and beautiful child, and as she grew up amid the gay scenes and festivi- ties of Paris, she became a very great favorite, being universally beloved. She married at length, though while she was still quite young, the son of the French king. Her young husband became king himself soon af- terward, on account of his father's being kill- ed, in a very remarkable manner, at a tourna- ment; and thus Mary, Queen of Scots before, became also Queen of France now. All these events, passed over thus very summarily here, are narrated in full detail in the History I36 QUEEN ELIZABETH. of Mary Queen of Scots pertaining to this series. While Mary was thus residing in France as the wife of the king, she was surrounded by a very large and influential circle, who were Catholics like herself, and Who were also ene- mies of Elizabeth and of England, and glad to find any pretext for disturbing her reign. These persons brought forward Mary's claim. They persuaded Mary that she was fairly en- titled to the English crown. They awakened her youthful ambition, and excited strong de- sires in her heart to attain to the high eleva- tion of Queen of England. Mary at length assumed the title in some of her official acts, and combined the arms of England with those of Scotland in the escutcheons with which her furniture and her plate were emblazoned. When Queen Elizabeth learned that Mary was advancing such pretensions to her crown, she was made very uneasy by it. There was, perhaps, no immediate danger, but then there was a very large Catholic party in England, and they would naturally espouse Mary's cause, and they might, at some future time, gather strength so as to make Elizabeth a great deal of trouble. She accordingly sent an embassador over to France to remonstrate WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 37 against Mary's advancing these pretensions. But she could get no satisfactory reply. Mary would not disavow her claim to Elizabeth's crown, nor would she directly assert it. Eliz- abeth, then, knowing that all her danger lay in the power and influence of her own Cath- olic subjects, went to work, very cautiously and warily, but in a very extended and effici- ent way, to establish the Reformation, and to undermine and destroy all traces of Catholic power. She proceeded in this work with great circumspection, so as not to excite op- position or alarm.v/ In the meantime, the Protestant cause was making progress in Scotland too, by its own inherent energies, and against the influence of the government. Finally, the Scotch Pro- testants organized themselves, and commenc- ed an open rebellion against the regent whom Mary had left in power while she was away. They sent to Elizabeth to come and aid them. Mary and her friends in France sent French troops to assist the government. Elizabeth hesitated very much whether to comply with the request of the rebels. It is very dangerous for a sovereign to countenance rebellion in any way. Then she shrunk, too, from the ex- pense which she foresaw that such an attempt I38 QUEEN ELIZABETH. would involve. To fit out a fleet, and to levy and equip an army, and to continue the forces thus raised in action during a long and un- certain campaign, would cost a large sum of money, and Elizabeth was constitutionally economical and frugal. But then, on the other hand, as she deliberated upon the affair long and anxiously, both alone and with her coun- cil, she thought that, if she should so far suc- ceed as to get the government of Scotland into her power, she could compel Mary to re- nounce forever all claims to the English crown, by threatening her, if she would not do it, with the loss of her own. Finally, she decided on making the attempt. Cecil, her wise and prudent counselor, strong- ly advised it. He said it was far better to carry on the contest with Mary and the French in one of their countries than in her own. She began to make preparations. Mary and the French government, on learning this, were alarmed in their turn. They sent word to Elizabeth that for her to render counten- ance and aid to rebels in arms against their sovereign, in a sister kingdom, was wholly unjustifiable, and they remonstrated most earnestly against it. Besides making this re- monstrance, they offered, as an inducement of WAR IN SCOTLAND. 1 39 another kind, that if she would refrain from taking any part in the contest in Scotland, they would restore to her the great town and citadel of Calais, which her sister had been so much grieved to lose. To this Elizabeth re- plied that, so long as Mary adhered to ner pretensions to the English crown, she should be compelled to take energetic measures to protect herself from them ; and as to Calais, the possession of a fishing town on a foreign coast was of no moment to her in comparison with the peace and security of her own realm. This answer did not tend to close the breach. Besides the bluntness of the refusal of their offer, the French were irritated and vexed to hear their famous sea-port spoken of so con- temptuously. Elizabeth accordingly fitted out a fleet and an army, and sent them northward. A French fleet, with re-enforcements for Mary's adher- ents in this contest, set sail from France at about the same time. It was a very import ant question to be determined which of these two fleets should get first upon the stage of action. In the meantime, the Protestant party in Scotland, or the rebels, as Queen Mary and her government called them, had had very 140 QUEEN ELIZABETH. hard work to maintain their ground. There was a large French force already there, and their co-operation and aid made the govern- ment too strong for the insurgents to resist. But, when Elizabeth's English army crossed the frontier, the face of affairs was changed. The French forces retreated in their turn. The English army advanced. The Scotch Protestants came forth from the recesses of the Highlands to which they had retreated, and, drawing closer and closer around the French and the government forces, they hem- med them in more and more narrowly, and at last shut them up in the ancient town of Leith, to which they retreated in search of a temporary shelter, until the French fleet, with re-enforcements, should arrive. The town of Leith is on the shore of the Firth of Forth, not far from Edinburgh. It is the port or landing-place of Edinburgh, in approaching it from the sea. It is on the southern shore of the firth, and Edinburgh stands on higher land, about two miles south of it. Leith was strongly fortified in those days, and the French army felt very secure there, though yet anxiously awaiting the ar- rival of the fleet which was to release them. The English army advanced in the mean WAR IN SCOTLAND. I4I time, eager -to get possession of the city be- fore the expected succors should arrive. The English made an assault upon the walls. The French, with desperate bravery, repelled it. The French made a sortie ; that is, they rush- ed out of a sudden and attacked the English lines. The English concentrated their forces at the point attacked, and drove them back again. These struggles continued, both sides very eager for victory, and both watching all the time for the appearance of a fleet in the offing. At length, one day, a cloud of white sails appeared rounding the point of land which forms the southern boundary of the firth, and the French were thrown at once into the high- est state of exultation and excitement. But this pleasure was soon turned into disappoint- ment and chagrin by finding that it was Eliz- abeth's fleet, and not theirs, which was com- ing into view. This ended the contest. The French fleet never arrived. It was dispersed and destroyed by a storm. The besieged army sent out a flag of truce, proposing to suspend hostilities until the terms of a treaty could be agreed upon. The truce was granted. Com- missioners were appointed on each side. These commissioners met at Edinburgh, and 142 QUEEN ELIZABETH. agreed upon the terms of a permanent peace. The treaty, which is called in history the Treaty of Edinburgh, was solemnly signed by the commissioners appointed to make it, and then transmitted to England and to France to be ratified by the respective queens. Queen Elizabeth's forces and the French forces were then both, as the treaty provided, immediately withdrawn. The dispute, too, between the Protestants and the Catholics in Scotland was also settled, though it is not necessary for our purpose in this narrative to explain particu- larly in what way. There was one point, however, in the stipu- lations of this treaty which is of essential im- portance in this narrative, and that is, that it was agreed that Mary should relinquish all claims whatever to the English crown so long as Elizabeth lived. This, in fact, was the es- sential point in the whole transaction. Mary, it is true, was not present to agree to it; but the commissioners agreed to it in her name, and it was stipulated that Mary should solemnly ratify the treaty as soon as it could be sent to her. But Mary would not ratify it — at least so far as this last article was concerned. She said that she had no intention of doing any- WAR IN SCOTLAND. 143 thing to molest Elizabeth in her possession of the throne, but that as to herself, whatever Mary, Queen of Scots. rights might legally and justly belong to her, she could not consent to sign them away. The 144 QUEEN ELIZABETH. other articles of the treaty had, however, in the meantime, brought the war to a close, and both the French and English armies were withdrawn. Neither party had any inclina- tion to renew the confliot ; but yet, so far as the great question between Mary and Eliza- beth was concerned, the difficulty was as far from being settled as ever. In fact, it was in a worse position than before ; for, in addition to her other grounds of complaint against Mary, Elizabeth now charged her with dishonorably refusing to be bound by a compact which had been solemnly made in her name, by agents whom she had fully authorized to make it. It was about this time that Mary's 'husband, the King of France, died, and, after enduring- various trials and troubles in France, Mary concluded to return to her own realm. She sent to Elizabeth to get a safe-conduct — a sort of permission allowing her to pass unmolested through the English seas. Elizabeth refused to grant it unless Mary would first ratify the treaty of Edinburgh. This Mary would not do, but undertook, rather, to get home with- out the permission. Elizabeth sent ships to intercept her; but Mary's little squadron, when they approached the shore, were hidden by a fog, and so she got safe to land. CHAPTER VIII. ELIZABETH S LOVERS. Elizabeth was now securely established upon her throne. It is true that Mary Queen of Scots had not renounced her pretensions, but there was no immediate prospect of her making any attempt to realize them, and very little hope for her that she would be success- ful, if she were to undertake it. There were other claimants, it is true, but their claims were more remote and doubtful than Mary's. These conflicting pretensions were likely to make the country some trouble after Eliza- beth's death, but there was very slight proba- bility that they would sensibly molest Eliza- beth's possession of the throne during her life- time, though they caused her no little anxiety. The reign which Elizabeth thus commenced was one of the longest, most brilliant, and, in many respects, the most prosperous in the whole series presented to our view in the long succession of English sovereigns. Elizabeth continued a queen for forty-five years, during 145 I46 QUEEN ELIZABETH. all which time she remained a single lady ; and she died, at last, a venerable maiden, seventy years of age. It was not for want of lovers, or, rather, of admirers and suitors, that Elizabeth lived sin- gle all her days. During the first twenty years of her reign, one half of her history is a his- tory of matrimonial schemes and negotia- tions. It seemed as if all the marriageable princes and potentates of Europe were seized, one after another, with a desire to share her seat upon the English throne. They tried every possible means to win her consent. They dispatched embassadors; they opened long negotiations ; they sent her ship-loads of the most expensive presents; some of the nobles of high rank in her own realm expended their vast estates, and reduced themselves to pover- ty, in vain attempts to please her. Elizabeth, like any other woman, loved these attentions. They pleased her vanity, and gratified those instinctive impulses of the female heart by which woman is fitted for happiness and love. Elizabeth encouraged the hopes of those who addressed her sufficiently to keep them from giving up in despair and abandoning her. And in one or two cases she seemed to come very near yielding. But it always happened Elizabeth, face p. U6 11— Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth and Suitor. 147 when fhe time arrived in which a final de- cision must be made, ambition and desire of power proved stronger than love, and she preferred continuing to occupy her lofty posi- tion by herself, alone. Philip of Spain, the husband of her sister Mary, was the first of these suitors. He had seen Elizabeth a good deal in England during his residence there, and liad even taken her part in her difficulties with Mary, and had ex- erted his influence to have her released from her confinement. As soon as Mary died and Elizabeth was proclaimed, one of her first acts was, as was very proper, to send an embassa- dor to Flanders to inform the bereaved hus- band of his loss. It is a curious illustration of the degree and kind of affection that Philip had borne to his departed wife, that immedi- ately on receiving intelligence of her death by Elizabeth's embassador, he sent a special dis- patch to his own embassador in London to make a proposal to Elizabeth to take him for her husband ! Elizabeth decided very soon to decline this proposal. She had ostensible reasons, and real reasons for this. The chief ostensible rea- son was, that Philip was so inveterately hated by all the English people, and Elizabeth was I48 QUEEN ELIZABETH. extremely desirous of being popular. She re- lied solely on the loyalty and faithfulness of her Protestant subjects to maintain her rights to the succession, and she knew that if she dis- pleased them by such an unpopular Catholic marriage, her reliance upon them must be very much weakened. They might even abandon her entirely. The reason, therefore, that she assigned publicly was, that Philip was a Catholic, and that the connection could not, on that account, be agreeable to the English people. Among the real reasons was one of a very peculiar nature. It happened that there was an objection to her marriage with Philip simi- lar to the one urged against that of Henry with Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had been the wife of Henry's brother. Philip had been the husband of Elizabeth's sister. Now Philip had offered to procure the pope's dis- pensation, by which means this difficulty would be surmounted. But then all the world would say, that if this dispensation could le- galize the latter marriage, the former must have been legalized by it, and this would de- stroy the marriage of Anne Boleyn, and with it all Elizabeth's claims to the succession. She could not, then, marry Philip, without, by Elizabeth, face p. 1l£ Philip II. of Spain. Elizabeth's lovers. 149 the very act, effectually undermining all her own rights to the throne. She was far^ too subtle and wary to stumble into such a pitfall as that. Elizabeth rejected this and some other of- fers, and one or two years passed away. In the ' meantime, the people of the country, though they had no wish to have her marry such a stern and heartless tyrant as Philip of Spain, were very uneasy at the idea of her not being married at all. Her life would, of course, in due time, come to an end, and it was of im- mense importance to the peace and happiness of the realm that, after her death, there should be no doubt about the succession. If she were to be married and leave children, they would succeed to the throne without question ; but if she were to die single and childless, the re- sult would be, they feared, that the Catholics would espouse the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, and the Protestants that of some Pro- testant descendant of Henry VII., and thus the country be involved in all the horrors of a protracted civil war. The House of Commons in those day was a very humble council, convened to discuss and settle mere internal and domestic affairs, and standing at a vast distance from the splendor 150 QUEEN ELIZABETH. and power of royalty, to which it looked up with the profoundest reverence and awe. The Commons, at the close of one of their sessions, ventured, in a very timid and cautious manner, to send a petition 'to the queen, urging her to consent, for the sake of the future peace of the realm, and the welfare of her subjects, to accept of a husband. Few single persons are offended at a recommendation of marriage, if properly offered, from whatever quarter it may come. The queen, in this instance, re- turned what was called a very gracious reply. She, however, very decidedly refused the re- quest. She said that, as they had been very respectful in the form of their petition, and as they had confined it to general terms, without presuming to suggest either a person or a time, she would not take offense at their well- intended suggestion, but that she had no de- sign of ever being maraied. At the corona- tion, she was married, she said, to her people, and the wedding ring was upon her finger still. Her people were the objects of all her affection and regard. She should never have any other spouse. She said she should be well contented to have it engraved upon her tomb-stone, "Here lies a queen who lived and died a virgin." Elizabeth's lovers. 151 This answer silenced the Commons, but it did not settle the question in the public mind. Cases often occur of ladies saying very posi- tively that they shall never consent to be mar- ried, and yet afterward altering their minds; and many ladies, knowing how frequently this takes place, sagaciously conclude that, what- ever secret resolutions they may form, they will be silent about them, lest they get into a position from which it will be afterward awk- ward to retreat. The princes of the Continent and the nobles of England paid no regard to Elizabeth's declaration, but continued to do all in their power to obtain her hand. One or two years afterward Elizabeth was attacked with the small-pox, and for a time was dangerously sick. In fact, for some days her life was despaired of, and the country was thrown into a great state of confusion and dis- may. Parties began to form — the Catholics for Mary Queen of Scots, and the Protestants for the family of Jane Grey. Every thing por- tended a dreadful contest. Elizabeth, how- ever, recovered; but the country had been so much alarmed at their narrow escape, that Parliament ventured once more to address the queen on the subject of her marriage. They begged that she would either consent to 152 QUEEN ELIZABETH. that measure, or, if she was finally determined not to do that, that she would cause a law to be passed, or an edict to be promulgated, de- ciding beforehand who was really to succeed to the throne in the event of her decease. Elizabeth would not do either. Historians have speculated a great deal upon her mo- tives ; all that is certain is the fact, she would not do either. But, though Elizabeth thus resisted all the plans formed for giving her a husband, she had, in her own court, a famous personal fa- vorite, who has always been considered as in some sense her lover. His name was origin- ally Robert Dudley, though sftie made him Earl of Leicester, and he is commonly desig- nated in history by this latter name. He was a son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was the leader of the plot for placing Lady Jane Grey upon the throne in the time of Mary. He was a very elegant and accomplish- ed man, and young, though already married. Elizabeth advanced him to high offices and honors very early in her reign, and kept him much at court. She made 'him her Master of Horse, but she did not bestow upon him much real power. Cecil was her great counselor and minister of state. He was a cool, saga- ELIZABETHS LOVERS. I 53 cious, wary man, entirely devoted to Eliza- beth's interests, and to the glory and prosper- ity of the realm. He was at this time, as has already been stated, forty years of age, thir- teen or fourteen years older than Elizabeth. Elizabeth showed great sagacity in selecting such a minister, and great wisdom in keeping him in power so long. He remained in her service all his life, and died at last, only a few years before Elizabeth, when he was nearly eighty years of age. Dudley, on the other hand, was just about Elizabeth's own age. In fact, it is said by some of the chroniclers of the times that he was born on the same day and hour with her. However this may be, he became a great per- sonal favorite, and Elizabeth evinced a degree and kind of attachment to him which sub- jected her to a great deal of censure and re- proach. She could not be thinking of him for her husband, it would seem, for he was already married. Just about this time, however, a mysterious circumstance occurred, which pro- duced a great deal of excitement, and has ever since marked a very important era in the his- tory of Leicester and Elizabeth's attachment. 154 QUEEN ELIZABETH. It was the sudden and very singular death of Leicester's wife. Leicester had, among his other estates, a lonely mansion in Berkshire, about fifty miles west of London. It was called Cumnor House. Leicester's wife was sent there, no one knew why ; she went under the charge of a gentleman who was one of Leicester's de- pendents, and entirely devoted to his will. The house, too, was occupied by a man who had the character of being ready for any deed which might be required of him by his master. The name of Leicester's wife was Amy Robe- sart. In a short time news came to London that the unhappy woman was killed by a fall down stairs ! The instantaneous suspicion darted at once into every one's mind that she had been murdered. Rumors circulated all around the place where the death had occurred that she had been murdered. A conscientious clergyman of the neighborhood- sent an ac- count of the case to London, to the queen's ministers, stating the facts, and urging the queen to order an investigation of the affair, but nothing was ever done. It has according- ly been the general belief of mankind since that time, that the unprincipled courtier de- Elizabeth's lovers. 155 stroyed his wife in the vain hope of becoming afterward the husband of the queen. The people of England were greatly incens- ed at this transaction. They had hated Lei- cester before, and they hated him now more inveterately still. Favorites are very gener- ally hated ; royal favorites always. He, how- ever, grew more and more intimate with the queen, and every body feared that he was go- ing to be her husband. Their conduct was watched very closely by all the great world, and, as is usual in such cases, a thousand cir- cumstances and occurrences were reported busily from tongue to tongue, which the ac- tors in them doubtless supposed passed unob- served or were forgotten. One night, for instance, Queen Elizabeth, having supped with Dudley, was going home in her chair, lighted by torch-bearers. At the present day, all London is lighted brilliantly at midnight with gas, and ladies go home from their convivial and pleasure assemblies in luxurious carriages, in which they are rock- ed gently along through broad and magnifi- cent avenues, as bright, almost, as day. Then, however, it was very different. The lady was borne slowly along through narrow, and din- gy, and dangerous streets, with a train of I56 QUEEN ELIZABETH. torches before and behind her, dispelling the darkness a moment with their glare, and then leaving it more deep and somber than ever. On the night of which we are speaking, Eliza- beth, feeling in good humor, began to talk with some of the torch-bearers on the way. They were Dudley's men, and Elizabeth be- gan to praise their master. She said to one of them, among other things, that she was go- ing to raise him to a higher position than any of his name had ever borne before. Now, as Dudley's father was a duke, which title de- notes the highest rank of the English nobility, the man inferred that the queen's meaning was that she intended to marry him, and thus make him a sort of king. The man told the story boastingly to one of the servants of Lord Arundel, who was also a suitor of the queen's. The servants, each taking the part of his mas- ter in the rivalry, quarreled. Lord Arundel's man said that he wished that Dudley had been hung with his father, or else that somebody would shoot 'him in the street with a dag. A dag was, in the language of those days, the name for a pistol. Time moved on, and though Leicester seemed to become more and more a favorite, the plan of his being married to Elizabeth, if ELIZABETH S LOVERS. I57 any such were entertained by either party, appeared to come no nearer to an accomplish- ment. Elizabeth lived in great state and splendor, sometimes residing in her palaces in or near London, and sometimes making royal progresses about Iher dominions. Dudley, together with the other prominent members of her court, accompanied her on these ex- cursions, and obviously enjoyed a very high degree of personal favor. She encouraged, at the same time, her other suitors, so that on all the great public occasions of state, at the tilts and tournaments, at the plays — which, by-the-way, in those days were performed in the churches — on all the royal progresses and grand receptions at cities, castles, and univer- sities, the lady queen was surrounded always by royal or noble beaux, who made her pres- ents, and paid her a thousand compliments, and offered her gallant attentions without number — all prompted by ambition in the guise of love. They smiled upon the queen with a perpetual sycophancy, and gnashed their teeth secretly upon each other with a hatred which, unlike the pretended love, was at least honest and sincere. Leicester was the gayest, most accomplished, and most favored of them all, and the rest accordingly com- 1,58 QUEEN ELIZABETH. bined and agreed in hating him more than they did each other. Queen Elizabeth, however, never really ad- mitted that she had any design of making Lei- cester, or Dudley, as he is indiscriminately called, her husband. In fact, at one time she recommended him to Mary Queen of Scots for a husband. After Mary returned to Scot- land, the two queens were, for a time, on good terms, as professed friends, though they were, in fact, all the time, most inveterate and implacable foes; but each, knowing how much injury the other might do her, wished to avoid exciting any unnecessary hostility. Mary, particularly, as she found she could not get possession of the English throne during Elizabeth's life-time, concluded to try to con- ciliate her, in hopes to persuade her to ac- knowledge, by act of Parliament, her right to the succession after her death. So she used to confer with Elizabeth on the subject of her own marriage, and to ask her advice about it. Elizabeth did not wish to have Mary married at all, and so she always proposed somebody who she knew would be out of the question. She at one time proposed Leicester, and for a time seemed quite in earnest about it, especi- ally so long as Mary seemed averse to it. At ELIZABETH S LOVERS. 1 59 length, however, when Mary, in order to test her sincerity, seemed inclined to yield, Eliza- beth retreated in her turn, and withdrew her proposals. Mary then gave up the hope of satisfying Elizabeth in any way, and married Lord Darnley without her consent. Elizabeth's regard for Dudley, however, still continued. She made him Earl of Lei- cester, and granted him the magnificent castle of Kenilworth, with a large estate adjoining and surrounding it ; the rents of the lands giv- ing him a princely income, and enabling him to live in almost royal state. Queen Elizabeth visited him frequently in this castle. One of these visits is very minutely described by the chroniclers of the times. The earl made the most expensive and extraordinary prepara- tions for the reception and entertainment of the queen and her retinue on this occasion. The moat — which is a broad canal filled with water surrounding the castle— had a floating island upon it, with a fictitious personage whom they called the lady of the lake upon the island, who sung a song in praise of Eliza- beth as she passed the bridge. There was also an artificial dolphin swimming upon the water, with a band of musicians within it. As the queen advanced across the park, men and 12— Elizabeth l60 QUEEN ELIZABETH. women, in strange disguises, came out to meet her, and to offer her salutations and praises. One was dressed as a sibyl, another like an American savage, and a third, who was con- cealed, represented an echo. This visit was continued for nineteen days, and the stories of the splendid entertainments provided for the company — the plays, the bear-baitings, the fireworks, the huntings, the mock fights, the feastings and revelries — filled all Europe at the time, and have been celebrated by his- torians and story-tellers ever since. The Castle of Kenilworth is now a very magnificent heap of ruins, and is explored every year by thousand of visitors from every quarter of the globe. Leicester, if he ever really entertained any serious designs of being Elizabeth's husband, at last gave up his hopes, and married another woman. This lady had been the wife of the Earl of Essex. Her husband died very sud- denly and mysteriously just before Leicester married her. Leicester kept the marriage se- cret for some time, and when it came at last to the queen's knowledge she was exceeding- ly angry. She had him arrested and sent to prison. However, she gradually recovered Elizabeth's lovers. 161 from her fit of resentment, and by degrees re- stored him to her favor again. Twenty years of Elizabeth's reign thus pass- ed away, and no one of all her suitors had succeeded in obtaining her hand. All this time her government had been administered with much efficiency and power. All Europe had been in great commotion during almost the whole period, on account of the terrible con- flicts which were raging between the Catholics and the Protestants, each party having been doing its utmost to exterminate and destroy the other. Elizabeth and her government took part, very frequently, in these contests; some- times by negotiations and sometimes by fleets and armies, but always sagaciously and cau- tiously, and generally with great effect. In the mean time, however, the queen, being now forty-five years of age, was rapidly approach- ing the time when questions of marriage could no longer be entertained. Her lovers, or, rather, her suitors, had, one after another, given up the pursuit, and disappeared from the field. One only seemed at length to re- main, on the decision of whose faite the final result of the great question of the queen's mar- riage seemed to be pending. It was the Duke of Anjou. He was a FrencK l62 QUEEN ELIZABETH. prince. His brother, who had been the Duke of Anjou before him, was now King Henry III. of France. His own name was Francis. He was twenty-five years younger than Eliz- abeth and he was only seventeen years of age when it was first proposed that he should marry her. He was then Duke of Alencon. It was his mother's plan. She was the great Catharine de Medici, queen of France, and one of the most extraordinary women, for her tal- ents, her management and her power, that ever lived. Having one son upon the throne of France, she wanted the throne of England for the other. The negotiation had been pending fruitlessly for many years, and now, in 1581, it was vigorously renewed. The duke, him- self, who was at this time a young man of twenty-four or five, began to be impatient and earnest in his suit. There was, in fact, one good reason why he should be so. Elizabeth was forty-eight, and, unless the match were soon concluded, the time for effecting it would be obviously forever gone by. He had never had an interview with the queen. He had seen pictures of her, however, and he sent an embassador over to England to urge his suit, and to convince Elizabeth how much he was in love with her charms. The Elizabeth's lovers. 163 name of this agent was Simier. He was a very polite and accomplished man, and soon learned the art of winning his way to Eliza- beth's favor. Leicester was very jealous of his success. The two favorites soon imbibed a terrible enmity for each other. They filled the court with their quarrels. The progress of the negotiation, however, went on, the people taking sides very violently, some for and some against the projected marriage. The animos- ities became exceedingly virulent, until at length Simier's life seemed to be in danger. He said that Leicester had hired one of the guards to assassinate him ; and it is a fact, that one day, as he and the queen, with other at- tendants, were making an excursion upon the river, a shot was fired from the shore into the barge. The shot did no injury except to wound one of the oarsmen, and frighten all the party pretty thoroughly. Some thought the shot was aimed at Simier, and others at the queen herself. It was afterward proved, or supposed to be proved, that this shot was the accidental discharge of a gun, without any evil intention whatever. In the mean time, Elizabeth grew more and more interested in the idea of having the young duke for her husband ; and it seemed as if the 164 QUEEN ELIZABETH. maidenly resolutions, which had stood their ground so firmly for twenty years, were to be conquered at last. The more, however, she seemed to approach toward a consent to the measure, the more did all the officers of her government, and the nation at large, oppose it. There were, in their minds, two insuper- able objections to the match. The candidate was a Frenchman, and he was a papist. The council interceded. Friends remonstrated. The nation murmured and threatened. A book was published entitled "The Discovery of a gaping Gulf wherein England is like to be swallowed up by another French marriage, unless the Lord forbid the Bans by letting her see the Sin and Punishment thereof." The author of it had his right hand cut off, for his punishment. At length, after a series of most extraordin- ary discussions, negotiations, and occurrences, which kept the whole country in a state of great excitement for a long time, the affair was at last all settled. The marriage articles, both political and personal, were all arranged. The nuptials were to be celebrated in six weeks. The duke came over in great state, and was received with all possible pomp and parade. Festivals and banquets were arrang- ELIZABETH'S LOVEBS. 165 ed without number, and in the most magnifi- cent style, to do him and his attendants hon- or At one of them, the queen took off a ring from her finger, and put it upon his, in the presence of a great assembly, which was the first announcement to the public that the af- fair was finally settled. The news spread every where with great rapidity. It produced in England great consternation and distress, but on the Continent it was welcomed with joy, and the great English alliance, now so ob- viously approaching, was celebrated with ring- ing of bells, bonfires, and grand illuminations. And yet, notwithstanding all this, as soon as the obstacles were all removed, and there was no longer opposition to stimulate the de- termination of the queen, her heart failed her at last, and she finally concluded that she would not be married, after all. She sent for the duke one morning to come and see her What takes place precisely between lad.es and gentlemen when they break off their engage- ments is not generally very publicly known, but the duke came out from this interview in a fit of great vexation and anger. He pulled off the queen's ring and threw it from h.m, muttering curses upon the fickleness and faith- lessness of women. . 1 66 QUEEN ELIZABETH. Still Elizabeth would not admit that the match was broken off. She continued to treat the duke with civility and to pay him many honors. He decided, however, to return to the Continent. She accompanied him a part of M ■BL^' ""'•- f m Mm Wf -■&■:. f foL. Mfftrii^ftS- V, *■" ^*& " '~' ^" Catharine de Medici, the way to the coast, and took leave of him with many professions of sorrow at the part- ing, and begged him to come back soon. This he promised to do, but he never returned. He lived some time afterward in comparative ne- glect and obscurity, and mankind considered the question of the marriage of Elizabeth as now, at last, settled forever. CHAPTER IX. PERSONAL CHARACTER. Mankind have always been very much di- vided in opinion in respect to the personal character of Queen Elizabeth, but in one point all have agreed, and that is, that in the man- agement of public affairs she was a woman of extraordinary talent and sagacity, combining, in a very remarkable degree, a certain cau- tious good sense and prudence with the most determined resolution an'd energy. She reigned about forty years, and during almost all that time the whole western part of the Continent of Europe was convulsed with the most terrible conflicts between the Protestant and Catholic parties. The pre- dominance of power was with the Catholics, and was, of course, hostile to Elizabeth. She had, moreover, in the field a very prominent competitor for her throne in Mary Queen of Scots. The foreign Protestant powers were ready to aid this claimant, and there was, be- sides, in 'her own dominions a very powerful 167 l68 QUEEN ELIZABETH. interest in her favor. The great divisions of sentiment in England, and the energy with which each party struggled against its op ponents, produced, at all times, a prodigious pressure of opposing forces, which bore heav- ily upon the safety of the state and of Eliza- beth's government, and threatened them with continual danger. The administration of pub- lic affairs moved on, during all this time, trem- bling continually under the heavy shocks it was constantly receiving, like a ship stag- gering on in a storm, its safety depending on the nice equilibrium between the shocks of the seas, the pressure of the wind upon the sails, and the weight and steadiness of the ballast below. During all this forty years it is admitted that Elizabeth and her wise and sagacious ministers managed very admirably. They maintained the position and honor of England, as a Protestant power, with great success ; and the country, during the wriole period, made great progress in 'the arts, in commerce, and in improvements of every kind. Elizabeth's greatest danger, and her greatest source of solicitude during her wfaole reign, was from the claims of Mary Queen of Scots. We have already described the energetic measures PERSONAL CHARACTER. 169 which she took at the commencement of her reign to counteract and head off, at the out- set, these dangerous pretensions. Though these efforts were triumphantly successful at the time, still the victory was not final. It postponed, but did not destroy, the danger. Mary continued to claim the English throne. Innumerable plots were beginning to be formed among the Catholics, in Elizabeth's own dominions, for making her queen. For- eign potentates and powers were watching an opportunity to assist in these plans. At last Mary, on account of internal difficulties in her own land, fled across the frontier into Eng- land to save her life, and Elizabeth made her prisoner. In England, to plan or design the dethrone- ment of a monarch is, in a subject, high trea- son. Mary had undoubtedly designed the de- thronement of Elizabeth, and was waiting only an opportunity to accomplish it. Elizabeth, consequently, condemned her as guilty of trea- son, in effect; and Mary's sole defense against this charge was that she was not a subjeot. Elizabeth yielded to this plea, when she first found Mary in her power, so far as not to take her life, but she consigned her to a long and weary captivity. 170 QUEEN ELIZABETH. This, however, only made the matter worse. It stimulated the enthusiasm and zeal of all the Catholics in England, to have their leader, and, as they believed, their rightful queen, a captive in the midst of them, and they formed continually the most extensive and most dan- gerous plots. These plots were discovered and suppressed, one after another, each one pro- ducing more anxiety and alarm than the pre- ceding. For a time Alary suffered no evil con- sequences from these discoveries further than an increase of the rigors of her confinement. At last the patience of the queen and of her government was exhausted. A law was pas- sed against treason, expressed in such terms as to include Mary in the liability for its dread- ful penalties although she was not a subject, in case of any new transgression; and when the next case occurred, they brought 'her to trial and condemned her to death. The sen- tence was executed in the gloomy castle of Fotheringay, where she was then confined. As to the question whether Mary or Eliza- beth had the rightful title to the English crown, it has not only never been settled, but from its very nature it cannot be settled. It is one of those cases in which a peculiar con- tingency occurs which runs beyond the scope Elizabeth, face p. HO Elizabeth Signing the Death Warrant of Mary, PERSONAL CHARACTER. I7 1 and reach of all the ordinary principles by which analogous cases are tried, and leads to questions which can not be decided. As long as a hereditary succession goes smoothly on, like a river keeping within its banks, we can decide subordinate and incidental questions Which may arise; but when a case occurs in which we have the omnipotence of Parlia- ment to set off against the infallibility of the pope — the sacred obligations of a will against the equally sacred principles of hereditary succession — and when we have at last, two contradictory actions of the same ultimate umpire, we find all technical grounds of com- ing to a conclusion gone. We then, abandon- ing these, seek for some higher and more universal principles — essential in the nature of things, and thus independent of the will and action of man— to see if they will throw any light on the subject. But we soon find ourselves as much perplexed and confounded in this inquiry as we were before. We ask, in beginning the investigation, What is the ground and nature of the right by which any king or queen succeeds to the power possessed by his ancestors? And we give up in despair, not being able to answer even this first pre' liminary inquiry. 1J2 QUEEN ELIZABETH. Mankind have not, in their estimate of Eliz- abeth's character, condemned so decidedly the substantial acts which she performed, as the duplicity, the false-heartedness, and the false pretensions which she manifested in perform- ing them. Had she said frankly and openly to Mary before the world, If these schemes for revolutionizing England and placing your- self upon the throne continue, your life must be forfeited; my own safety and the safety of the realm absolutely demand it; and then had fairly, and openly, and honestly executed her threat, mankind would have been silent on the subject, if they had not been satisfied. But if she had really acted thus, she would not have 'been Elizabeth. She, in fact, pur- sued a very different course. She maneuv- ered, schemed, and planned; she pretended to be full of the warmest affection for her cousin ; she contrived plot after plot, and scheme after scheme, to ensnare her ; and when, at last the execution took place, in obedi- ence to her own formal and written authority, she pretended to great astonishment and rage. She never meant that the sentence should take effect. She filled England, France, and Scot- land with the loud expressions of her regret, and she punished the agents who had executed PERSONAL CHARACTER. 1 73 her will. This management was to prevent the friends of Mary from forming plans of revenge. This was her character in all things. She was famous for her false pretensions and double dealings, and yet, with all her talents and sagacity, the disguise she assumed was sometimes so thin and transparent that her as- suming it was simply ridiculous- Maiden ladies, who spend their lives, in some respects, alone, often become deeply imbued with a kind and benevolent spirit, which seeks its gratification in relieving the pains and promoting the happiness of all around them. Conscious that the circum- stances which have caused them to lead a single life would secure for them the sincere sympathy and the increased esteem of all who know them, if delicacy and propriety allowed them to be expressed, they feel a strong de- gree of self-respect, they live happily, and are a continual means of comfort and joy to all around them. This was not so, however, with Elizabeth. She was jealous, petulant, irri- table. She envied others the love and the do- mestic enjoyments which ambition forbade her to share, and she seemed to take great pleasure 13— Elizabeth 174 QUEEN ELIZABETH. in thwarting and interfering with the plans of others for securing this happiness. One remarkable instance of this kind oc- curred. It seems 'that she was sometimes ac- customed to ask the young ladies of the court — her maids of honor — if they ever thought about being married and t'hey, being cunning enough to know what sort of an answer would please the queen, always promptly denied that they did so. Oh no ! they never thought about being married at all. There was one young lady, however, artless and sincere, who, when questioned in this way, answered, in her sim- plicity, that she often thought of it, and that s'he should like to be married very much, if her father would only consent to her union with a certain gentleman whom she loved. "Ah!" said Elizabeth; "well, I will speak to your father about it, and see what I can do." Not long after this the father of the young lady came to court, and the queen proposed tfhe subject to him. The father said that he had not been aware that his daughter had formed such an attachment, out that he should certainly give his consent, without any hesi- tation, to any arrangement of that kind which the queen desired and advised. 'That is all, then," said the queen; "I will do the rest." PERSONAL CHARACTER. 175 So she called the young lady into her presence, and told her that her father had given his free consent. The maiden's heart bounded with joy, and she began to express her happiness and her gratitude to the queen, promising to do everything in her power to please her, when Elizabeth interrupted her, saying, "Yes, you will act so as to please me, I have no doubt, but you are not going to be a fool and get married. Your fa'fher has given his consent to me, and not to you, and you may rely upon it you will never get it out of my possession. You were pretty bold to acknowledge your foolishness to me so readily." Elizabeth was very irritable, and could never bear any contradiction. In the case even of Leicester, who 'had such an unbounded in- fluence over her, if he presumed a little too much he would meet sometimes a very severe rebuff, sudh as nobody but a courtier would endure; but courtiers, haughty and arrogant as they are in their bearing toward inferiors, are generally fawning sycophants toward those albove them, and they will submit to any thing imaginable from a queen. It was the custom in Elizabeth's days, as it is now among the great in European countries, to have a series or suite of rooms, one beyond I76 QUEEN ELIZABETH. the other, the inner one being the presence chamber, and the others being occupied by at- tendants and servants of various grades, to regulate and control the admission of com- pany. Some of these officers were styled gen- tlemen of the black rod, that name being de- rived from a peculiar badge of authority which they were accustomed to carry. It happened, one day, that a certain gay captain, a follower of Leicester's and a sort of favorite of his, was stopped in the antechamber by one of the gentlemen of the black rod, named Bowyer, the queen having ordered him to be more careful and particular in respect to the admission of company. The captain, who was proud of the favor which he enjoyed with Leicester, resented this affront, and threatened the officer, and be was engaged in an alterca- tion with 'him on the subject when Leicester came in. Leicester took his favorite's part, and told the gentleman usher t'hat he was a knave, 'and that he would have him turned out of office. Leicester was accustomed to feel so much confidence in his power over Eilza- beth, that his manner toward all beneath him had become exceedingly haughty and over- bearing. He supposed, probably, that the of- PERSONAL CHARACTER. I77 ficer would humble himself at once before his rebukes The officer, however, instead of this, stepped directly in before Leicester, who was then go- ing in himself to the presence of the queen ; kneeled before her majesty, related the facts of the case, and humbly asked what it was her pleasure that he should do. He had obeyed her majesty's orders, he said, and had been called imperiously to account for it, and threat- ened violently by Leicester, and he wished now to know whether Leicester was king or her majesty queen. Elizabeth was very much displeased with the conduct of her favorite. She turned to him, and, beginning with a sort of oath which she was accustomed to use when irritated and angry, she addressed him in in- vectives and reproaches the most severe. She gave him, in a word, what would be called a scolding, were it not that scolding is a term not sufficiently dignified for history, even for such humble history as this. She told him that she had indeed shown 'him favor, but her favor was not so fixed and settled upon him that nobody else was to have any share, and that if he imagined that he could lord it over her household, she would contrive a way very soon to convince him of his mistake. There I78 QUEEN ELIZABETH. was one mistress to rule there, she said, but no master. She then dismissed Bowyer, tell- ing Leicester that, if any evil happened to him, she should hold him, that is, Leicester, to a strict account for it, as she should be con- vinced it would have come through his means. Leicester was exceedingly chagrined at this result of the difficulty. Of course he dared not defend himself or reply. All the other courtiers enjoyed his confusion very highly, and one of them, in giving an account of the affair, said, in conclusion, that "the queen's words so quelled him, that, for some time af- ter, his feigned humility was one of his best virtues." Queen Elizabeth very evidently possessed that peculiar combination of quickness of in- tellect and readiness of tongue which enables those who possess it to say very sharp and bit- ter things, when vexed or out of humor. It is a brilliant talent, though it always makes those who possess it hated and feared. Elizabeth was often wantonly cruel in the exercise of this satirical power, considering very little — as is usually the case with such persons — the justice of her invectives, but obeying blindly the impulses of the ill nature which prompted her to utter them. We have already said that PERSONAL CHARACTER. 179 she seemed always to have a special feeling of ill will against marriage and every thing that pertained to it, and she had, particularly, a theory that the bishops and the clergy ought not to be married. She could not absolutely prohibit their marrying, but she did issue an in- junction forbidding any of the heads of the col- leges or cathedrals to take their wives into the same, or any of their precincts. At one time, in one of her royal progresses through the country, she was received, and very magnifi- cently and hospitably entertained, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at his palace. The archbishop's wife exerted herself very partic- ularly to please the queen and to do her honor. Elizabeth evinced her gratitude by turning to her, as she was about to take her leave, and saying that she could not call her the arch- bishop's wife, and did not like to call her his mistress, and so she did not know what to call her ; but that, at all events, she was very much obliged to her for her hospitality. Elizabeth's highest officers of state were continually exposed to her sharp and sudden reproaches, and they often incurred them by sincere and honest efforts to gratify and serve her. She had made an arrangement, one day, to go into the city of London to St. Paul's l80 QUEEN ELIZABETH. Church, to hear the Dean of Christ Church, a' distinguished clergyman, preach. The dean procured a copy of the Prayer Book, and had it splendidly bound, with a great number of beautiful and costly prints interleaved in it. These prints were all of a religious character, being representations of sacred history, or of scenes in the lives of the saints. The volume, thus prepared, was very beautiful, and it was placed, when the Sabbath morning arrived, upon the queen's cushion at the church, ready for her use. The queen entered in great state, and took her seat in the midst of all the parade and ceremony customary on such oc- casions. As soon, however, as she opened the book and saw the pictures, she frowned, and seemed to be much displeased. She shut the book and put it away, and called for her own ; and, after the service, she sent for the dean, and asked him who brought that book there. He replied, in a very humble and submissive manner, that he had procured it himself, hav- ing intended it as a present for her majesty. This only produced fresh expressions of dis- pleasure. She proceeded