I.T17 (QUEEN IILIlAIIfl ¦AA^/A O^' iA,^Au7 77Ay//A//f^W//dl7 r>tf77/fA/' ,V 7a AAA.7 ^IAA//'- <_77a 7 A/ AAA/ Af' 6.m7'a7 Zen-eton, TiU>lUh&d by S. Colburn, & R.£entUy. 1831. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY, SECRETARY OF STATE IN THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD VI. AND LORD HIGH TREASURER OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. CONTAINING AN HISTORICAL VIEW . OF THE TIMES IN WHICH HE LIVED, AND OF THE MANY EMINENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONS WITH WHOM HE WAS CONNECTED; WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER PAPERS, NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS. BY THE REV. EDWARD NARES, D.D. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. VOL. III. LONDON: COLBURN AND BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. MDCCCXXXI. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY MILDRED CECIL, (ELDEST DAUGHTER OF THE MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY,) Cflte Folume, WHICH CONCLUDES THE LIFE, &c. OF HER GREAT ANCESTOR, LORD BURGHLEY, AND PARTICULARLY "¦'. COMMEMORATES THE EXALTED VIRTUES, EXTENSIVE CHARITIES, AND VERY EXTRAORDINARY TALENTS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MILDRED BARONESS BURGHLEY, IS, WITH GREAT DEFERENCE AND RESPECT, INSCRIBED BT THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Page Lord Worcester sent to Paris, to attend the christening ofthe Queen's godchild — Protestants at Rochelle — Of the Queen's proposed marriage with the Due d'Alencon — Walsingham recalled from Paris, made Secretary of State — His character in the Anonymous Life of Sir P. Sidney — Siege of Rochelle — Pacification — Election of the Due d'Anjou to the Polish throne — M. deMontluc — Mary goes to Buxton — Plot formed by the foreign Popish Princes to invade England — Lord Burghley visits Mary at Buxton — Great fears of her escape — Puritans — Dering — Sampson — Concealers — Dering's letter to Lord Burghley — Puritans — Lines by Bishop Parkhurst — Case of Birchett — Archbishop Parker and Bishop Sandys of the Disciplinarians — Bishop Sandys' letter to Lord Burghley — Letter of Gilbert Talbot to his father, Lord Shrewsbury — Queen's Progress into Kent — Letter of Lord Burghley to Lord Shrewsbury, from Hemsted — His letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a venomous book, by a Papist — The Archbishop's answer to Lord Burghley — Books pre sented to Lord Burghley by the Archbishop — The Queen's return to Greenwich — Presents she received on her Progress 1 CHAP. II. Rapin of the year 1574 — Strype on the Papists — Letters from the Archbishop of York and Dr. Sampson to Lord Burghley — Ofthe difficult part Lord Burghley had to act — Collier's account of a plot against Archbishop Parker and Lord Burghley — Undertree — Puritans — Genevans — Prophesyings — Prophesyings put an end to — Letter in favour of them — English Popish refugees pensioned by the King of Spain — Plot to poison Lord Burghley — Sir F. Englefield — The Queen's apprehensions — Leaves her principal Ministers in town, on her Progress — The Queen goes to Havering Bower — Afterwards to Bristol — Lord Ox ford — Lady Oxford's illness — Sir T. Smith's skill in medicine — Chemistry — Cox, Bishop of Ely — His house — Death of Bishop Parkhurst — Account of him — Death of Reginald Wolf — Affairs of Scotland — Morton — Killegrew — Edinburgh Castle surrenders to Mor ton — Grange executed — Character of the Bishop of Ross, by Dr. Stuart — Maitland poisoned — Of Morton's government — Foreign affairs — Protestants in Flanders — Prince of Orange — Deceit of France — Of Rochelle — Death of Charles IX. — Succeeded by the King of Poland— Death of the Cardinal of Lorrain 25 VOL III. b CONTENTS. CHAP- III. Page Henry III. and Elizabeth confirm the treaty of Blois— Cox, Bishop of Ely, in trouble — New Statutes for St. John's College, Cambridge— Westminster Scholars— Puritans troublesome — Deaths of Pilkington and Parker — Archbishop Parker's legacy to Lord Burghley — The latter misrepresented at Court about Mary Queen of Scots — His letter to Lord Shrewsbury — Faithful to the Queen — Account of Lord Burghley's feelings towards Mary — Visit to Kenilworth — Leicester's letter to Lord Burghley 42 CHAP. IV. Confusion of dates — Choice of new Counsellors, &c. — Duke of Alencon — Death of Charles IX. — Henry III. succeeds — Holland and Zealand offered to the Queen — Wentworth's Speech — A subsidy granted — The Lord Keeper's speech — The Queen pays ofFold debts- Lord Burghley appealed to on all occasions — The Puritans very troublesome — >His conduct towards them — Corn act — Barker's Bible — Zodiac of Life — Lambard's Perambulation- Death of the Emperor Maximilian-^Letter from Lord Essex to Lord Burghley— Death of Lord Essex, and of the Duke of Chatelherault — Death of Sir Anthony Cooke • • • -57 CHAP. V. Lord Oxford — Letter of Lord Burghley to the Queen concerning him and Lady Oxford- — Sir Thomas Smith's letter to Lord Burghley concerning Lord Oxford — Affairs of the Netherlands — Don John — Schemes of the Catholic Princes — Lord Burghley's letter to Lord Shrewsbury on the rumours of attempts to be made to liberate Mary — History of this period perplexed — Lord Sussex on Continental affairs — Archbishop Grindal sequestered — Prophesyings — Affairs ofthe Church — Letter from the Queen to the Bishop of Lincoln — Letter from Bishop Barnes to Lord Burghley — Ofthe Book^f Common Prayer — Ho milies, &c. — Letter from Bishop Cox to Lord Burghley on Archbishop Grindal's suspen sion — Extract from Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer concerning Lord Burghley — Extract from Preface to the Decads of Bullinger— Of Archbishop Grindal and Lord Burghley— Egremond Radcliffe— His letters to Lord Burghley— Multiplicity of affairs in which Lord Burghley was engaged — Criminals — Sir Nicholas Bacon's letter to ' the Queen on the dangers threatening the nation— Queen's Progresses in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex— Lord Burghley at Buxton— Visits Chatsworth— Letter from the Queen to Lord Shrewsbury, thanking him for his attentions to Lord Leicester at Chatsworth— Death of Sir Thomas Smith — Succeeded by Dr. Wylson as Secretary of State 76 CHAP. VI. Entries in Lord Burghley's Diary— Bad state of his health— Magicians— Quacks— Mr. Edward Stafford's Mission -Affairs of the Church— Archbishop of York— Strype— Letter from Archbishop Sandys to Lord Burghley— Case of Feckenham— Decree of Lord Burgh- CONTENTS. vii Page ley against excess of apparel among the Students at Cambridge— Address from the Vice Chancellor, &c— Mr. Gilbert Talbot's letter to his father from Charing Cross— Foreign affairs— Letter from Lord Sussex to the Queen concerning the Due d'Anjou— Lord Sussex's letters to Lord Burghley concerning Lord North— Death of Don John— Affairs of the Continent— Death of Sebastian, King of Portugal— Stukeley— Death of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and of Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk— Queen's Progresses— The University of Cambridge present a book, perfumed gloves, &c. to the Queen at Audley End— Account of the Queen's reception at Norwich— She visits the Earl of Surrey- Letter from Topclyffe to Lord Shrewsbury concerning Rookwood— Papists — Puritans • 93 CHAP. VII. Account of Duke Casimir's visit to England— Mistakes of Strype— French Ministers in England— Mr. Talbot's letters concerning M. de Simier, and the Queen's marriage— The Clergy denounce the marriage— Stubbs' book— The Queen's proclamation— Letter and address from Sir Philip Sidney to the Queen against the marriage— Leicester's duplicity about the Queen's marriage— The Duke d'Anjou arrives secretly at Greenwich— Returns shortly to France— Indecision ofthe Queen and Privy Council with regard to the marriage —Opinions of different members of the Council on the subject— Extract from Murdin con cerning the Pope's bull against Elizabeth, and concerning Mary— Affairs of the Church and Universities— Dispute at Christ's College, Cambridge— Books enjoined to be read to the Oxford Students — Case of dilapidations referred to Lord Burghley — Dispute between 'Archbishop Sandys and the Dean of York— Letter from the Archbishop to Lord Burghley — Letter from Lord Huntingdon to the same — Sermon preached by Archbishop Sandys at York, on the Queen's entering the twenty-second year of her reign — Extract from another sermon ofthe Archbishop on a similar occasion— Bishop Cox applies to Lord Burghley — Letter of Lord Burghley to Bishop Aylmer — Several Bishops refer to Lord Burghley on different points relating to their sees — The Family of Love— Death of Sir Thomas Gresham and George Ferrers — Queen's Progress in Essex and Suffolk Ill CHAP. VIII. Inaccuracy of Strype — The breaking off the Queen's marriage with the Due d'Anjou—Arrival of the Prince of Conde — Letters of Lord Burghley and Lord Sussex concerning the Prince of Conde— Papists — Gregory XIII. — Seminaries — Popish Missionaries — Parsons— Cam- pian — Queen's first proclamation — Queen's second proclamation — Rapin — Camden — Allen — Dr. Bilson — Dr. Lingard's account of Parsons and Campian — Designs ofthe Pope — — Lord Burghley's letter to the Vice Chancellor, &c. of Cambridge — Sanders's letter to the Irish — Lord Burghley on Fasts — Oxford — Leicester's Commonwealth — Catherine Duchess of Suffolk — Mr. P. Bertie — Queen's Strange conduct to the Shrewsbury family — Mary Queen of Scots — Affairs of Scotland— D'Aubigny — Remonstrances of Randolph — James Stuart — Ireland — Fitzmorris — Attempts of France and Spain on Ireland— Lord Burghley on Irish affairs — Confession for the Reformed Churches — Drake 124 Till CONTENTS. CHAP. IX. Page Parliament and Convocation— French Commissioners sent to treat of the Queen's Marriage with Monsieur— Their extraordinary Reception, Pageants, &c— Dinner at Burghley House— Uncertainties about the Marriage— Mission of Walsingham— Spanish affairs- Disturbances with the Puritans, and other Sects— Brownists— Brown related to Lord Burghley— Campian's avowal regarding the revival of Papacy in England^-Pope Pius V. Papists — Jesuits — Speech of Campian's Counsel on his trial— Campian — Letter of thanks to Lord Burghley on his settling controversies at Oxford— Beza— Arrival of the Due d'Anjou in England— Reports about him and the Queen— Earl of Oxford- Mr. Wentworth ' 156 CHAP. X. Affairs of Scotland— The Regent Morton— Departure of the Due d'Anjou— The Queen's conduct with regard to Mary and Scotland— Randolph — King James and his favourites — The King's abjuration of Popery— Morton beheaded— Raid of Ruthven — Bulls of Paul III., Pius IV., and Pius V.— Mary's Letter to Elizabeth alluded to— The conduct of the two Queens considered — Catherine de Medicis — Bishop of Ross — The Guises — Passage from Lord Burghley's letter to Sir F. Walsingham — Lord Burghley appealed to in Church affairs— Bishop Overton — Archbishop Sandys — Sir C. Hatton's letter to Lord Burghley — Sir F. Stapleton sent to the Tower — Bishop Aylmer — Archbishop Grindal — Dr. Matthews — Serjeant Anderson appointed Cliief Justice — Remark of Strype on Lord Burghley — Mr. Wentworth died — Christopher Ockland's Book — Account of Lord Burgh ley in it — Anecdotes of Lord Burghley, from Fuller's Holy State, Peacham's Complete Gentleman, and his Life by a Domestic — Lines in Ockland's Book on Lord Burghley — Attempt to assassinate the Prince of Orange — Gregory XIII. — His Bull for reforming the Calendar — Difficulty of rightly deciding. on the conduct of Elizabeth and her Ministers, with regard to Mary — Spies — Papers preserved by Lord Burghley — Mary's " long letter" — M. la Motte Fenelon's Embassy to Scotland — Dr. G. Stuart's account of it — Bowes — Davison — Gowry executed — Of Fenelon's Mission — Death of Archbishop Grindal — Suc ceeded by Bishop Whitgift — Puritans, their objections to the Articles set forth by the Archbishop — Dudley Fenner — Strype of the Papists — Rhemish Testament — Cartwright — Withers' letter to Lord Burghley — Of Lord Burghley and the Dissenters — Address of the Suffolk Non-conformists — Of the term Puritans — Lord Burghley wishes to retire — The Queen's letter to him — Case of Arden and his' family — The Queen's visit to Theobald's — Account of her different visits to Lord Burghley, and of his several houses — Camden's account of Theobald's 181 CONTENTS. ix CHAP. XI. Page Power of the King of Spain— Mendoza — Waad — Plots ofthe Catholic Princes — Associations formed to protect Elizabeth — Disturbed state of England and Scotland — The Prince of Orange shot— His Daughters — Atrocious acts and designs of the Papists— Affairs of the Netherlands — Don Antonio — Letter from Lord Burghley to Henry IV. — Visit of the Prince Palatine and Duke Casimir to England — Letter from Mary to Lord Burghley — ¦ The Pope and Papists — State of Affairs as regarded the two Queens — Books published against Elizabeth — Letter from Mary to Sir F. Englefield — Letters from Sir F. Englefield to the Courts of Spain and Rome — Parliament meets — Lord Leicester's letter to the Burgesses of Andover — Complaint of the want of able Pastors in the Church — TheDecads of Bullinger — Bishop Aylmer — Correspondence between Archbishop Whitgift and Lord Burghley — Of the Affairs of the Church, as brought before Parliament— The Queen's Speech to the Parliament at the end of the Session — Letter from Archbishop Whitgift to Lord Burghley 217 CHAP. XII. Designs of Philip — Letter from Adrian Saravia to Lord Burghley — Lord Leicester ap pointed General in the Low Countries — Extract from Bishop Bedel's letter — The Queen's declaration — Death of Parry the conspirator — Letter from Cardinal Como to Parry— Difficulties and dangers to which Elizabeth and England were exposed — Seditious persons and books come to England — Strict watch kept on all parts ofthe coast — Cardinal Allen's book — Affairs of the Church and Universities — Vintners at Cambridge — New printing press at Oxford — First book printed there — Lord Lumley's books — Return of Cartwright from abroad — Contest between Hooker and Travers for the Mastership ofthe Temple — Lord Burghley slandered — His letter to his friends — Correspondence between Lord Burghley and Leicester 243 CHAP. XIII. Sir Francis Drake's Expedition — Introduction of Tobacco — Discovery of Davis's Straits — Lord Leicester takes the command of the Army in Holland— Honours paid him — Of the Queen's letter to him — Returns to England — Death of Sir Philip Sidney— Account of his Father and Mother — On the five crises, Spanish Armada, &c. — State of Affairs in general — Treaty of Alliance between Elizabeth and James — The French Ambassador D'Esneval — Philip and Mary — Mary's letter to Babington — Of Elizabeth and Lord Burghley — Re mark of Schiller — Babington's Conspiracy — Of Leicester's wish to Poison Mary — Strype on the Designs of the Papists — Camden's Account of the Babington Conspiracy — Of Philip's Designs— Pasquier— Speeches of Sir F. Walsingham and Mary— Of Mary's Trial — Lord Burghley's letter to Sir Edward Stafford — The Ambassador Francois de Noailles Of Mary and Lord Burghley — Rapin's remarks on the Trial of Mary— The Speaker's reasons for Mary's condemnation — Extracts from Elizabeth's answers to the Parliament — Message from Elizabeth to Mary in a letter to Sir Amyas Paulet 261 CONTENTS. CHAP. XIV. Page Sentence passed upon Mary — Answers to the French Ambassadors — L'Aubespine — Master of Gray— Of Elizabeth's conduct— Of Henry III. — Account of Elizabeth's signing Mary's death-warrant — Davison — Execution of Mary — Of Elizabeth, Lord Burghley, and Davi son, with regard to Mary — Davison sent to the Tower — Further account of Davison — Passage from a letter of James to Elizabeth — Davison's memorials — Lord Burghley's letter to Elizabeth after his disgrace — Lord Burghley returns to Court — Absents himself again for some time — Maxims noted down by Lord Burghley on his first disgrace — Of James — Mary's Will and letter to Sixtus V. — Of James and Philip — On the Spanish Armada and London Merchant — Sir Francis Drake's letter to Lord Burghley on the Spanish Armada — Precautions taken throughout England — Letters from Bishops How- land and Herbert to Lord Burghley — Travers, Hooker, Whitgift, &c. — Mr. Lane's Dis courses — Letters from Oxford and Cambridge to Lord Burghley — Lambard the Lawyer — Popish Libel on Lord Burghley, and vindication of him in answer — Of Lord Burghley and Leicester — Death of the Duchess of Somerset — Lord Oxford — Lord Burghley's letter to him — Inscription on a Tomb at Stamford 294 CHAP. XV. Annus Mirabilis — The Spanish Armada — Of Mary's case — Ronsard — Marguerite Lam- brun — Lord Burghley's State Papers — Of Philip and Elizabeth — Book written upon the most happy Armada— Paper on the proceedings between England and Spain — The Pope — The Queen's letters to the Lord Lieutenant — The Armada sails from Lisbon — Bull of Sixtus Quintus — Duke of Parma — Command of the English fleet given to Lord Howard of Effingham — Officers under him — Poem by Aske on the Armada — Defeat of the Armada — Pasquinade — Proceedings of the English army — Mendoza — Elizabeth— Lord Burghley — Fenelon's embassy to Scotland — The Queen's heroic conduct — Her Speech to the army on the banks of the Thames — Letter from Leicester to Lord Shrewsbury — Re joicings in England, on the defeat of the Armada — Philip — Willingness of all classes in England to carry on the war — Disputes at the Universities, referred to Lord Burghley — Sir Edward Kelly— Case of Digby — Papists and Puritans — Whitgift — Martin Mar- prelate — Reply to Dr. Bridges' book— Mr. Neal's History of the Puritans— Of the Queen, and Ecclesiastical affairs — Burnet and Calvin pn Episcopacy — The Puritans' Platform — Of the Established Religion, and Puritanism — Bishop Cooper— The Puritans' abuse of the Queen, Bishops, &c. — Sir Francis Walsingham's letter to Mr. Critoy — Qf Leicester, and the Puritans— Lord Burghley— Death of Archbishop Sandys— Extract from his will— Character of Leicester — Lord Burghley and the Queen — Death of Leicester— Epitaph on Leicester— His will— Sir Robert Dudley— Duchess Dudley . . 327 CONTENTS. xi CHAP. XVI. Page Meeting and dissolution of the Parliament— Unusual subsidies— Death of Lady Burghley— Lord Burghley's meditation on the event— Character of Lady Burghley— The Queen's visit to Barn Elms— Expedition of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake against Spain —Earl of Essex— General state of politics— Death of Henry III. of France— Deaths of the Countess of Sussex, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Dr. Laurence Humphrey— The King of Scotland marries the King of Denmark's daughter— The Queen's health— Various appli cations from different Bishops and others to Lord Burghley— Extract from Topcliffe's letter to Lord Burghley — Sir Francis Knollys— Lord Burghley's letter to Count Figgleazzi — State of affairs in France, Spain, &c. — Death of Pope Sixtus Quintus, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Francis Walsingham, Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Shrewsbury, arid Sir James Croft — Character of Walsingham — Inscription on his tomb • ¦ . '. . . 360 CHAP. XVII. Lord Essex — Sir Robert Cecil — Davison — Satirical paper addressed by the Queen to Lord Burghley — Standen's letter to Lord Burghley — Lord Burghley and Spenser — Affairs of France — Lord Burghley's instructions to Standen — Lord Bacon and his Brother — Pro clamation against the Catholics — Persons — Creswell— Puritans — Death of Sir Chris topher Hatton — Lord Buckhurst succeeds him as Chancellor of Oxford — University of Dublin founded on the suggestion of Lord Burghley — Affairs of Scotland— Confession of a Jesuit — Views of Philip, King of Spain — The Lord Admiral's fear of the Spaniards — His letters to Lord Burghley — The Queen's second visit to Oxford — Persons' libel on Lord Burghley — Lord Bacon's answer to it — Remarks on Persons' slanders against Lord Burghley — Deaths of Sir John Perrott, and the Duke of Parma 380 CHAP. XVIII. Meeting of Parliament — Speeches of the Lord Keeper, Puckering, Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir John Fortescue, and others — Bill against Recusants — Hooker's letter to Lord Burghley — Execution of Penry — Mr. James Morrice — His letter to Lord Burghley — The Puritans — Foreign Reformers — Francis Johnson's letter to Lord Burgh ley — Henry IV. of France attends mass for the first time — Queen Elizabeth's indignant letter to him — Her letter to the Emperor of Germany — Mr. Standen — Lord Essex — Antonio Perez — Competition for the post of Attorney-General — Lord Burghley's illness — Mr. Standen's account of going to visit him — Memorial for the defence of the kingdom against the Spaniards — Lopez — King of Scotland — Birth of his son Henry — Lord Burghley's great care and attention to all matters in Church and State — Letters from Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, to Lord Burghley — Letter from the Bishop of Limerick to the same — Dramatic performances at Cambridge — Death of Cardinal Allen — Aylmer, Bishop of London, and Cooper, Bishop of Winchester — Lines on the latter — Conversation between Lord Essex and Sir Robert Cecil on the proper person to be Attorney-General — xii CONTENTS. Page Sir Edward Coke— Lord Bacon— Letter from Lady Bacon to her son, Mr. Anthony Bacon— Marriage of the Earl of Derby to Lady Elizabeth Vere— Decision of the case of the Lordship of the Isle of Man • • • 409 CHAP. XIX. State of Scotland— Henry IV. of France— The Queen's speech on the loss of Cambray— England threatened with another Spanish Armada — Sir Thomas Bodley sent to demand pecuniary assistance from the States — Lord Burghley's memorial for the defence of weak parts of the kingdom — Dr. Bilson's letter to Lord Burghley — Sir Henry Savile's letter to Lady Russel— Theological dispute between Whitaker, Baret, and Baro — The Lambeth Articles — Doctrines of Baro— Letters from Lord Burghley to Sir Robert Cecil — Sur render of Calais— An English fleet and army sent there — Paper written by an English fugitive at Douay — Sir Francis Vere made Governor of Brill — Sir Robert Cecil appointed Secretary — Sir Thomas Bodley — Fresh treaty between England and France — Henry IV. invested with the order of St. George — Memorials and prayer of thanksgiving drawn up by Lord Burghley — Deaths of Lord Hunsdon, the Lo.rd Keeper Puckering, Fletcher, Bishop of London, Lord Huntingdon, and Sir Francis Knollys — Account of Sir Francis — Epitaphs on Lord Chancellor Audley and Bishop Fletcher — Account, from a Papistical book, of Lord Hunsdon's death — Lord Burghley — Sir Robert Cecil — Lord Essex — The Spanish fleets dispersed by storms — The expedition, under Lord Essex, to the Azores, put an end to by violent tempests — The Queen and the Polish and Danish Ambassadors — The Lord Admiral Howard created Earl of Nottingham, and Lord Essex made Earl Marshal — The association ofthe Steel-yard Merchants done away with — HughBroughton — Curious controversy between him and Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, referred to Lord Burghley — Letter from Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, to Lord Burghley — The Queen visits Lord Burghley at Wimbledon 442 CHAP. XX. Parliament meets — Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Thomas Wilkes, and Mr. John Herbert, sent on an Embassy to France — State paper drawn up by Lord Burghley on the existing state of affairs in Europe — Henry IV. — Death of Lord Burghley— Account of him from his Life by a Domestic — Lord Buckhurst made Lord Treasurer — Extract from Sir John Har rington's Notes— Death of Philip IL— Extract from Lord Burghley's will— Of his funeral — Inscription on his monument at Stamford — Description of the monument erected in Westminster Abbey to Lady Burghley and Lady Oxford 467 Appendix 505 MEMOIRS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY. CHAP. I. 1573. Fifteenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1572. Lord Worcester sent to Paris, to attend the christening ofthe Queen's godchild — Protestants at Rochelle — Of the Queen's proposed marriage with the Due d' Alencon — Walsingham recalled from Paris, made Secretary of State — His character in the Anonymous Life of Sir P. Sidney- — Siege of Rochelle — Pacification — Election of the Due d'Anjou to the Polish throne — M. de Montluc — Mary goes to Buxton — Plot formed by the foreign Popish Princes to invade England — Lord Burghley visits Mary at Buxton — Great fears of her escape — Dering — Sampson — Concealers — Dering's letter to Lord Burghley — Puri tans — Lines by Bishop Parkhurst — Case of Birchett — Archbishop Parker and Bishop Sandys of the Disciplinarians — Bishop Sandys' letter to Lord Burghley — Letter of Gil bert Talbot to his father, Lord Shrewsbury — Queen's Progress into Kent— Letter of Lord Burghley to Lord Shrewsbury, from Hemsted — His letter to the Archbishop at Canterbury, with a venomous book, by a Papist — The Archbishop's answer to Lord Burghley — Books presented to Lord Burghley by the Archbishop — The Queen's return to Greenwich — Presents she received on her Progress. The first public transaction that falls under our notice this year (beginning it in January), is the mission of the Earl of Worcester to Paris, to represent the Queen, at the royal christening, her Majesty having consented to be sponsor to the young Princess, daughter of Charles IX. His Lordship was a Catholic, but so moderate and temperate a one, as to induce the Queen to say of him, as Lloyd VOL. III. b 2 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. reports, " that he had managed to reconcile two things which she had judged to be inconsistent, being a stiff Papist, but a good subject ;" so that, to continue in the style of that singular writer, "his Mistress excused his faith, which was Popish, but honoured his faithfulness which was Roman ;" and indeed in this mission, she had to lay an odd restraint upon him, which was, not to suffer himself, being her representative, to be drawn in to attend the Mass. To avoid which, however, she had endeavoured to procure the Queen of Navarre to stand in her room, as a Princess well affected to the Protestants.* Lord Worcester was received with distinguished honours by the French Court, Lord Burghley having particularly prepared them for it, by representing him to Walsingham, to be a Nobleman of great gentleness and thankfulness ; adding, that "in very truth he loved him dearly." His religion of course could not faij to be some recommendation, and he was generally numbered among those who as far as was consistent with their duty to Elizabeth, were friendly to the Queen of Scots ; but of his devotion as a sworn subject of the former, he gave good proof, on his arrival at Paris, by refusing to hold any intercourse whatever with his own sister, then in that metropolis, till her peace was made with Elizabeth, she having been, as Countess of Northumber land, concerned in the late rebellion.f > Lord Worcester carried with him as a baptismal present, a font of pure gold, such as had been given on the Queen's being sponsor to James of Scotland ; the Empress and the Duke of Savoy were the other sponsors, and the child, who lived only six years, received the names of Mary Elizabeth. On his way to France the Earl had been attacked by pirates, who are repre sented to have been French and Flemish Protestants, jealous ofthe compliment about to be paid to the French Court.J His Lordship indeed had two com missions intrusted to him, being empowered to hold communication with the royal family upon the subject of the marriage with the Due d'Alenc.on, as well as to attend the christening. Upon the troubles happening in France, of which we have given an account under the preceding year, many Protestants fled for refuge to Rochelle ; a place capable of defence, and to which end they raised considerable forces in Lan guedoc ; seeming to set their enemies, and even the Government at defiance. And indeed the King was puzzled how to proceed against them, since the * Compl. Ambassador, p. 318. f Ibid. p. 328. J Lodge's Illustrations, ii. 90. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 3 Swiss, in resentment of the horrible massacre that had taken place, withdrew their men from the service of France, and would allow of no more recruits to be sent from their cantons ; nor were the Germans less scrupulous.* In the mean while the Rochellers took possession of the Isle of Rhe, which afforded them every means of receiving succours by sea, and many English are said to have resorted thither to render their assistance, against which strong remonstrances, as might be expected, were made on the part of the French Court, to Walsingham at Paris. Rochelle possessed many local advantages, as a shelter to the Pro testants ; the soil around it was so rocky, as to prevent the enemy approaching it by trenches, and while the sea was open to them, it was difficult to reduce the place by famine. It appeared, however, to be a point of such great importance, not to leave this place in the hands of the Protestants, that a regular siege was determined upon, or pretended at least, t under the conduct and command ofthe King's brother, the Due d'Anjou, who was to be accompanied by the Due d' Alencon also; a circumstance of which Walsingham was inclined to take hold, observing to the Queen Mother, that the King's employing the latter thus against those of the religion, might cause him to be less in favour with Elizabeth, and less grateful to her subjects. J The Duke, however, was not prevented going, and he wrote from the camp, to the Queen, " loving letters," as Lord Burghley called them.§ He did not indeed advance far in his suit • " I am glad to hear of the good fortune of the Rochellers, God send it to be true ; as also that the King is of no better credit, with the Almains and Switzers." — Leicester to Walsingham, Jan. 29, 1572-3. Compl. Amb. p. 323. f See Compl. Amb. p. 307. J Ibid. 331. § These letters were sent in the month of March, by an agent named Chateauneuf, who having passed through Paris, was supposed to have had in view to prevent any succours going from England to the Rochellers, particularly under the conduct of the Count of Montgomery, a French refugee, supposed to be secretly favoured by Elizabeth. The latter it seems took the opportunity of letting this agent understand, that she was for maintaining the amity if she could, though she was well informed of the French King's evil designs against her, and her kingdom, " when his own troubled causes should come to be settled ;" yet she intended that the first breach of the league should be on the King's part, in which case she knew her people to be so willing to . " withstand all forces [or foreign, p. 341.] force," that already she could scarcely restrain them from going in numbers to succour the persecuted Protestants at Rochelle, and not only " those of the popular, but Noblemen ami, Gentlemen of ancient and great livelihoods ; who had offered of their own charges to raise an army in Gascony of 20,000 footmen and 2000 horsemen, and for which, in fact, they were quite prepared, but at present restrained, out of respect to the league." — Lord Burghley to Sir Francis Walsingham, March 20, 1572-3. In this letter his Lord- 4 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573; during the .present year, the two Courts carrying on the negotiation much after the manner of the former treaty with the Due d'Anjou, the question of religion continually serving to keep matters in suspense, and now more particularly from what had passed in France ;* to which indeed in this instance was added, on the English part, the notorious disparity of age. But we shall have to notice here after, in this Duke's case, some nearer advances towards a marriage than common, upon, the occasion of a personal acquaintance between the parties, which Eliza beth seems earnestly to have insisted on, and for which she might be expected to obtain some credit, considering that the disparity of years was likely to tell against herself, were it not for the universal opinion entertained of her personal vanity, and some disparagements which had reached her ear, of the Duke's countenance and appearance ; for though Walsingham found many good qualities in him, yet as to his person he doubted. " The Gentleman sure," he writes to Lord Burghley, " is void of any good favour, besides the blemish of the small pox.; now when I weigh the same, with the delicacy of her Majesty's eye, and considering also that there are some about her in credit, who in respect of their particular interests, having neither regard unto her Majesty, nor to the preserva^ tion of our country from ruin, will rather increase the misliking of him by defacing of him, than by dutifully laying before her the] necessity of her mar riage^ ,Scc." In the last passage there can be little doubt of an allusion to Leicester, who, notwithstanding all possible professions to the contrary, had been nearly hurried into excesses, while the former treaty was on foot, for marriage with the Due d'Anjou. However, on which side there was least of sinperity, it rnight be difficult to decide : Elizabeth's shufflings and indecisions on all , such occasions are well known; and as to the views, of the French Court, Walsingham in the very letter just cited, writes, " Whether this marriage be sincerely meant or no, is a hard point to judge, where dissimulation taketh so deep root." It was not long after the writing of this letter, that Walsingham was recalled from his laborious and hazardous embassy to the French, Court, with which he had great reason /to be disgusted, and some months after his return, made Secre- ship reiterates his strong apprehensions of such " imminent perils to the state," and " danger to the crown," unless her Majesty marry ; that speaking of the negotiations with the Due d' Alencon, he says, " I do force myself to pursue it with desire."— Compl. Ambass. p. 336. Of the particular part he took in it, a proof may be seen in the two papers following, in French, pp. 337, 338. pur porting to be the Queen's answer to the French Ambassador, Le Motte Fenelon, par Mons. Le Grand Tresorier, March 18, 1573. « Compl. Ambass. p. 340. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 5 tary of State, to the satisfaction no doubt of Lord Burghley, who had now two Secretaries whom, he could so much trust, and of whose talents, as statesmen, in those most difficult times, it is impossible to doubt Walsingham, it is true, has a hard name, with those who contemn all underhand dealings, the employ ment of spies, interception of letters, &c. &c* But in his vindication we have only to look to the manners of: the age, in which, it is not too much to say, there could be found no security but by over-reaching the crafty, confounding the intriguing, preventing the plotters in secret^ and stripping .the mash from the hypocrites. We must again revert to what we have so often said, that dangers averted come in time to be accounted no dangers, and that the successful watchman, is scarcely credited for having put to flight thieves or murderers, or prevented any intended depredations. Fortunately, however, for the credit of Elizabeth's wise and vigilant protectors, we have the self-acknowledgments of many of that age, in foreign Courts, that deceit and dissimulation were at all times the fixed principles of their policy; at all events, with regard to Sir Francis, we have rather an extraordinary testimony to produce, that his efforts were patriotic, and that whatever he did, was for the security of his Sovereign and his country, to his own great loss. In the Anonymous Life of Sir Philip Sidney, pre fixed to his celebrated romance of the Arcadia, we have this account of him: Sir Philip, it should be observed, married his daughter, and as she was portionless, has the credit given him of "not carrying his love in his purse," but of having chosen the lady for her intrinsically rich, but unendowed virtues ; and speaking of ber. father, he adds, "this is that Sir Francis, who impoverished himself to enrich the state, and indeed made England ;his heir; and was so far from build ing up a fortune, by the benefit of his place, that he demolished that fine estate left him by his ancestors, to purchase dear intelligence from all parts of Christen dom. He had a key to unlock the Pope's cabinet ; and as if master of some invisible whispering place, all the secrets of Christian Princes met at his closet. Wonder not then if he bequeathed no great wealth to his daughter, being1 privately interred in the quire of St. Paul's, as much indebted to his creditors, though not so -much as our nation is indebted to his memory." Mr. d'Israeli has reasomably enough introduced this passage into his paper, On " Palaces built by Ministers," in the second series of his Curiosities of Literature. The King's army did not meet with much success at first in the siege carry- • Forging of letters, which has undoubtedly been laid to his charge, seems to admit of no excuse ; but the charge itself is doubtful. 6 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. ing on against Rochelle. Victuals were scarce, and some eminent persons were killed, particularly two, the Duke d'Aumale and Schaviger, whose deaths were regarded as a judgment upon them, for having been the chiefest executors of " the late horrible massacre at Paris. The Queen, however, would not grant any help from England to the Rochellers, for fear of violating the treaty of Blois. There is a particular account of the place, and of the efforts of the besiegers, to be seen in a letter from Dr. Dale, the successor of Walsingham at the French Court, in the Appendix to the second volume of Strype's Annals, No. xxvii. The Rochellers defended themselves admirably against the besieging army, and in the month of July, were relieved by a pacification brought about, in a great measure, by the interposition of Elizabeth ; the Protestants were allowed the free exercise of their religion, and it was stipulated that no garrison should be kept in Rochelle. This, however, proved not to be agreeable to many about the Court, nor was the army satisfied; so much otherwise indeed, that the Due d'Anjou who commanded it, and was now become King elect of Poland, was induced to retire from the Camp almost by stealth. The election of this Prince to the vacant throne of Poland, was perhaps one ofthe most extraordinary transactions ofthe times; an anxiety seemed to prevail in the French Court, to remove both the King's brothers to a distance. The King was jealous of Henry, and the Queen Mother had regard it seems to a prophecy, which foretold that all her sons should be kings ; but as Charles was not strong, and Henry was her favourite, she wished the Due d' Alencon to be absent also, that in case of the King's death, he might have no advantage oVer his brother. The Due d'Anjou might have gone to England or Scotland, as well as the Due d'Alenc^on, could he have been fixed in either of these kingdoms ; but as things stood, he was to be sent, it seems, as far off as to Poland, and his election to be secured against a host of competitors, or at the least, against a number of adverse votes. The task of managing this difficult election, was consigned to a person of wfiom we have before had occasion to speak, the cele brated Bishop of Valence, M. de Montluc, as subtle a Statesman 'as any then in existence, and who had already appeared in sixteen embassies in Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, and Constantinople. It has been conjectured, that his diplo matic abilities were never exposed to a greater trial, or a severer test, than upon this occasion. The story may be read in a work just cited, Mr. d'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature ; the account being chiefly drawn from the " DisCours" of Choisnin the Bishop's Secretary. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURHGLEY. 7 " There was one scene in this Drama" [an Elective Monarchy], says that enter taining writer, " which might appear somewhat too large for an ordinary theatre ; the actors apparently were not less than fifty to a hundred thousand. Twelve vast tents were raised, on an extensive plain ; a hundred thousand horses were in the environs— and Palatines and Castellans, the ecclesiastical orders, with the Ambassadors of the royal competitors, all agitated by the cease less motion of different factions during the six weeks of the election, were assembled at the diet." The election however of Henri d'Anjou, was to many persons and states so obnoxious, that he had some difficulty to find even a practicable road to his new dominions. He is said to have been denied a passage through some parts of the Continent, and endeavouring to pass by sea, the jealousy of England was aroused ;* especially as his application to do so, through the French Ambas sador, happened to coincide so exactly with some applications made by the same Minister, for the removal of the Queen of Scots to Buxton, as to excite no small suspicions of a confederacy for sinister purposes — as permission was asked for his fleet to take shelter, upon any emergency, in the ports of England. We have indeed one account to produce, of a very complicated plot against England at this time ; but the intelligence appears to have passed through so many hands, as to render the substance of it very doubtful ; we shall give it in the words of Strype, as deduced from documents still extant. "A plot was this summer carrying on, by the foreign Princes addicted to the Papacy, to invade England ; and first, the King of Poland under pretence of preparing a navy for Poland, was therewith suddenly to seize some port in England ; and at the same time the Scots, persuaded by the Cardinal of Lor- rain, were to break into England with a very great army, made up of French and Scots ; and then on another side, the navy of the Spaniards and that of the French together, were to seize another haven of the kingdom ; at which time Duke d'Alva, with the aid of the Bishop of Colen, and other Bishops, and the Duke of Bavaria, with 10,000 foot, intended, on the side of Flanders, to wage war with the Queen ; and for the carrying on this war the more successfully, the Pope, the King of Spain, the aforesaid Bishops, and all the Popish States of France, were now consulting together; and the Cardinal of Lorrain intending • Camden indeed says, that upon an application to pass with safety through the British seas, it was not only willingly granted by Queen Elizabeth, but that she also offered a fleet to convey him.— P. 195. 8 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. the kingdom for his niece the Queen of Scots, of which he was very confident, promised for one year to provide payment for 30,000 men ; as soon as the nation was thus invaded, great numbers of Roman Catholics, the Queen's sub jects, were to rise." — All this was signified in discourse at the baths of Aguis- grane, by an English lord, to a certain French lord there, named De la Tour. — The whole of this communication may be read in the Appendix to Strype's Parker, No. xci. We cannot pretend to say who excited the alarms in the breast of Elizabeth, that seem at this time to have existed, but we are happy to be able to acquit Lord Burghley of all participation in them, as far as regarded the Queen of Scots. He urged the Queen to allow Mary to pass to Buxton, telling her, '-' That if in , very deed that Queen's sickness were to be removed by a resort to those wells, her Majesty in honour could not deny her to have the remedy thereof ;"* being ready besides to answer for Lord Shrewsbury's care of his charge, whatever plots might be in agitation. The Due d'Anjou, therefore, was allowed to pass by sea to Poland, and Mary went to Buxton for the recovery of her health ; and here it was that she ac tually received a visit from Lord Burghley himself, ill health appearing to carry him to Buxton exactly at the same time ; and his great intimacy with Lord Shrewsbury, bringing him naturally into contact with his unfortunate prisoner. We cannot pretend to say what passed upon this occasion, but advantages were taken at Court of this accidental meeting. There were those at hand with the Queen, prepared to insinuate, that the Lord Treasurer was inclining to take the part of Mary against the Queen ; and in consequence of these insinuations, it became necessary for him to leave the place. It is impossible for us to draw any other conclusion from these premises, than that Lord Burghley was no such inveterate enemy to Mary, as to be free from the suspicions of those who were enemies to both ; that this was really the case we have, however, a much stronger proof, inasmuch as these very jealousies and suspicions, were the ostensible reasons for Lord Burghley's declining a proffered alliance with Lord Shrews bury's family ; an alliance, certainly not to be upon any slight motives declined by a new Peer, though so great a man. But as this relates rather to the year 1575, we shall pass by it for the present. Great fears, however, seem to have been entertained at this time of the Scottish * Lodge, ii. No. xc. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 9 Queen's escape. — And the Earl of Shrewsbury was not free from imputations of carelessness, or over-much indulgence to his charge. Mary suspected Leicester of being her great enemy, and though he repelled such charges and insinuations in a letter to Lord Shrewsbury, yet it is extremely probable, that he took pains to render all other persons suspected, who put themselves into his power, by shewing her any particular attentions; which seems particularly to have been the case with Lord Burghley. His absence from Court afforded Leicester an oppor tunity of depreciating him in the eyes of his Sovereign, by mischievous insinu ations; while his accidental repair to Buxton, gave, if we may so say, a locality to those insinuations, by fixing Elizabeth's attention on his probable intercourse with Mary, through Lord Shrewsbury ; the accusation was the more formidable at this time, because the Queen had intimation given her of a remarkable confe deracy of Popish Princes abroad, to rescue Mary, and set her on the throne of England: "Devouring the kingdom of England," as Strype expresses it, in favour of the Queen of Scots.* The Puritans were very troublesome this year, and Lord Burghley could not avoid, as in former instances, the being appealed to by both parties, chiefly on the part of the Puritans, by Dering, and Sampson the deposed Dean of Christ Church, now master ofthe hospital of Leicester ;f " a situation procured for him by Lord Burghley himself, in consideration of his great learning. He had been seized with a fit of the palsy, which did not however prevent his writing (or dictating) a particular letter to the Lord Treasurer, the substance whereof may be seen in Strype, in which he professes a conformity in doctrine to the Esta blished Church, but is very anxious for a stricter discipline. Dering's application to the Lord Treasurer was much more particular, enter ing largely into all the circumstances of the case, objecting principally to the lordship and civil government of the Bishops ; for some time, it is reported, * See the report of De La Tour, a French Nobleman, Bochart, a French Gentleman, and Bromfield, an English Gentleman, from the Spaw, August 11, 157 '3.— Strype's Annals, ii. 376, 7. + In the government of this hospital, he acquired great credit ; having been instrumental, be sides, in rescuing its estates and property from the rapacity of the Concealers, in which, says Strype, he was assisted by " the good Lord Burghley ;" in allusion to wlik>h, Sampson tells his Lordship in one of his letters, " All the poor there prayed for him, and he with them, that God would bless his honour." How much the Lord Treasurer set his face against these Concealers, may be seen in Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker, xxi., where their practices are well exposed. —He even procured the Queen to revoke their commission by proclamation, and make them restore what they had wrongfully taken. VOL. III. C 10 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. he hesitated whether he should address his letter to .Lord Leicester or Lord Burghley ; the former was a sure friend, upon motives we need not at present discuss ; the latter could only be chosen in .preference, as eminently disposed to give a patient hearing to whatever might be advanced on either side; his chief object being peace and quietness, if it had been possible to reconcile two parties so opposite ; but he was not for encouraging any disobedience to the laws. Collier has inserted, as much as has been preserved of a long speech delivered in the Star Chamber by the Lord Treasurer, and at the Queen's command, to press the execution of the laws, particularly the uniformity statute ; and as it seems decidedly to acquit his Lordship of all partiality towards the Precisian Non-conformists, of which he has been accused, we cannot avoid repeating some passages of it; the Treasurer, says Collier, acquaints the Lords of the Star Chamber, that, " Her Majesty was informed, that through the negligence ofthe Bishops and governing Clergy, several persons underqualified in age, and unfur nished with learning and discretion, have been admitted to cure of souls, and trusted with the desk and pulpit. That these men for want of ballast and ma turity have struck out into singularities, governed themselves by their own fancies, set the Rubric aside, and made alterations in the offices of the Church ; and thus, neither the prayers are read, nor the Sacraments administered according to public order ; thus by the mischief both of precept and example, they have misled their audience, brought them to dislike and censure ofthe ecclesiastical Govern ment, and made them believe they cannot comply with the ceremonies established, without disserving their conscience ; that this latitude must be destructive to Government, and that her Majesty cannot discharge the trust lodged with her by Almighty God, without providing a remedy for this evil. That her Majesty cannot satisfy her conscience without prosecuting these disorders, and doing her utmost to bring practice and law together : neither does she think those subjects. worthy of favour and protection that abet these innovations ; and either directly or indirectly countenance the alteration of any thing settled in the Church. That her Majesty is apprehensive, the long connivance at these pernicious doctrines, the countenance and commendation given them by some persons in public stations both of the Clergy and Laity, may probably have made way for propagating the mistake upon certain persons of figure in the country, who may be apt to fancy these innovating doctrines, these refinings upon the ceremonies of the Church, are not so destructive as her Majesty believes them ; that the points are little more than matter for argument and problem, and that the practice either way is in a manner- 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. It indifferent ; and, it may be some people may go farther, and imagine these Novel- lists in the right, and that their exceptions against the ceremonies of the Church are reasonable and well-founded: Now if any persons lay under a mis-persuasion of this kind, the Queen commanded him to dilate farther upon the case, and make good her apprehensions of the danger. He observes, therefore, that nothing is more obvious to those who have any idea of government, any taste of conduct, than that contempt of order must pull all in pieces and prove fatal iri the issue. If a man has but a family to manage, or a vessel to steer, there is nO good to be done without submission to the person at the helm. For if the subordination be once broken, if orders be disputed, if be that is to govern com mands one thing, and those under his charge quarrel the directions, and demur in their obedience ; if they set up new schemes of their own, what can follow but jarring and confusion ? And if, as it sometimes happens, they disagree among themselves, contend for their own singularities, and run into farther subdivisions, the mischief must increase and grow more troublesome when the union is thus broken, when authority is lost, and all the respects of public and private confounded, what a condition must any society be in? Which way can either the head or the body be preserved, upon such wild measures ? Can the Governor maintain his post, and continue his situation without being obeyed ? or can the subject subsist in a Government where, every one runs counter to the public rule, and sets up a different direction 1 and if this liberty looks ill in language and description, how lamentable must it be when brought into life, and reduced to practice ? By this clashing between the father and the children, between the master and the servants, between the captain and the crew, many rich ships go to the bottom, many estates are spent, and families brought to nothing; and thus by a private image, and by comparing small things with great, they might collect the calamity of a nation, where the harmony was dis turbed, and the Government disregarded; and if disorder and squabbling about temporal matters may destroy the public interest to so remarkable a degree, what may be expected where conscience is concerned, where Religion lies at stake, and the other world is brought into the quarrel ?"— But to return to the case we were more immediately discussing. Dering addressed himself to Lord Burghley as an accused person (for he had been removed from his Lectureship), and his appeal to him was grounded on the injunction of St. Paul, " Receive no accusation against a preacher without good and sufficient witness." "I know, my Lord," he writes, "you will not do it, and I have good evidence of your equity in this behalf; and because I will not 12 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. appear to be led by fancy, wherein of a great many I am thought to be singular ; I will be bold with you, as the man, whom, above others of your calling, I am bound to honour, to shew forth what is my opinion, and the reasons by which I am moved unto it." Most of his objections to the Episcopal Government of the Church, are evidently directed against the Popish Government by Bishops, of which he wished no similitude, as it would seem, to remain. "And so I beseech you, my good Lord," he writes, " while God hath taken away a courage from Princes, that they have suffered such a servant to sit in the monarchy of the world : hath not God recompensed the thraldom of their hearts upon their own heads, and made only a proud Pope to tread them down all in dishonour ? and in several reigns also, the Popish prelacy hath shamed their Princes, and sometimes raised up such rebellions, as have cost their Kings both crown and life." And speaking of Episcopacy generally, or such an order in the Church as Bishops ; he says, " It is of the Pope, and it shall drink of the same cup of confusion. Where is this Lordship in the greatest honour, but where the Pope's Holiness is set highest? Where is it abated, but where the Pope's head is broken ? And where is it rejected, but where the Pope is trodden under feet ?" He does not indeed deny a primitive order of Bishops, but by his comparisons, and making no allowance for a difference of times, and states of society, plainly objects to the order as suffered to remain in a reformed Church. The whole of this long letter may be seen also in Strype [Annals, b. i. ch. xxviii. vol. ii.],* and may serve to shew the spirit and reasonings of the party, which at this time, in endeavouring " to break the Pope's head," and ignominiously " tread him under foot," gave great disturbance to the Church,f and great advantage to the Papists themselves, who were by nothing more comforted and encouraged, than by these sad differences among those, who were equally bent upon with drawing themselves from the power of the Pope ; hoping, that the little prospect * See also in the Appendix, No. xxviii. his answer to certain articles of matters which he had spoken at some public dinner, presented to the Lords of the Star Chamber ; and in the text vol. ii. 415, 416. the articles presented to him by the Court of Star Chamber, for his subscrip tion or opinion, in order to his restoration to his ministry. t The Genevians, as Gualter of Zurich called them, were not singular in disturbing the Church of England. " God has adorned that Church [of Geneva], with divers excellent gifts and the ministers thereof; but yet I would wish them, ' modestius et humilius sapere,' and not seek to draw their shoe on every man's foot. The Genevians do still endeavour to thrust their discipline upon all Churches ; they suggest their arguments and counsels not only to you Englishmen, but in like sort to the Germans, Phrysians, Polonians, and Hungarians ; whereby, among those 'that agreed well before, rixce et turbx enascuntur, brawlings and quarrels do arise." 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 13 there might seem to be of reducing things to an uniformity, under a regal supre macy,* would induce the Queen herself, in course of time, to re-admit the spiri tual supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, The Privy Council, amidst all these disturbances, though not inactive in endeavouring to preserve the peace in Church and State, by some prosecutions and frequent warnings and admonitions, yet were judged by the Archbishop and Bishop of London, to neglect too much, at so critical a time, to advise with the Bishops [See their joint letter to some absent Bishop in Strype's Life of Parker, vol. ii. 280, 281.] ; while the Puritans, not content with asserting their opinions at home, in derogation of the established order of things, were continually appealing to the foreign Reformed Churches, where indeed there were many able and excellent men,f but whose interference (though they generally lamented and often blamed the contentious spirit of the appellants),^ could scarcely fail to raise jealousies ; the independence of the English Reformed Church being one of its first principles. In the mean while it deserves to be recorded of those who had the chief rule at this time, that a great distinction was made between peaceable Non-conformists and those that endeavoured the overthrow of Church and State : that the one were indulged, while the other were restrained.^ How much restraint some needed, may be judged from the case of Birchett, a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, a furious * The Queen, in June of this year, issued a proclamation (which may be seen in Strype's Life of Parker, ii. 256.) directed against the books and practices of the Puritans, and strongly inveigh ing against their contempt and breach of the laws, which were intended to promote "one uniform, godly, and quiet order within her realms." The proclamation, however, had but little effect. f The following lines by Bishop Parkhurst to his friend Cole, a learned man at Oxford, con tains so many names, and bespeaks so largely that Bishop's gratitude for favours conferred on him while an exile in Mary's time, that they deserve to be transcribed. " De Bullingero, Bibliandro, Martyre, Zancho, Et Gualthero, Gesnero, de Pelicano, Nostrum judicium si forsan, Cole, requiris;" Hos Ego doctrina eximios, pietate gravesque, Judico, queis similes perpaucos hie habet orbis." His description of Zurich, while he sojourned there, " Urbs, e qua pulsa est Venus, Ate, pulsus Jacchus," is also curious, as an historical monument. X It may be observed that the Clergy of Zurich, such as Bullinger, Gualter, &c. were far from approving the conduct of those who were for forcing the discipline of Geneva upon other Churches ; as if Geneva were to be accounted the " oracle of Christendom." See the letters of these divines to the English Bishops, Annals, vol. ii. ch. xxxi. | See the Vindication of the Church of England under Elizabeth, p. 12. 14 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. zealot, who had taken it into his head that it was lawful to kill such as opposed their endeavours to bring in their model and discipline, and in the extremity of his zeal, slew by mistake a captain of the royal navy whom he took for Mr. Hatton: This act of fanaticism appeared so alarming, that the Queen was for having him tried and executed in a summary manner, and by martial law ; and a commission was actually drawn, on the suggestion, as it was by some mistake alleged, of Lord Leicester and the Lord Admiral, which so hurt the latter, that wishing to have the aid of Lord Burghley, who was not then With the Court, he wrote to him in the greatest haste, even while he was at dinner, the Queen also seeming to wish to have his judgment upon it. It is to the credit of that noble Lord that he soon turned her Majesty aside from the design of having him executed in such haste, though unfortunately it had an ill effect in the end, as by deferring to proceed against him, it gave him the opportunity of committing another sad murder,, by killing his keeper. Such, however, was the infatuation of this deluded fanatic, and it seemed to accord in no slight degree with the general spirit of his party, which was too apt to represent the op ponents of the Genevan discipline, as the direct enemies of God and the Gospel. " Their colour is sincerity," (they are the words of Archbishop Parker and Bishop Sandys)* " under the countenance of simplicity : but in very truth they are ambitious spirits and can abide no superiority. "f " In the platform set down by these new builders, we evidently see the spoliation of the patrimony of Christ, and a popular state to be sought ; the end will be ruin to religion, and confusion to our country." " Neither do they only cut down the ecclesiastical state, but give a great push at the civil policy." "Their fancies," say these reverend Prelates, " are favoured of some of. great calling, who seek to gain by other mens' losses." This indeed was very much the case, especially with Lord Leicester, as is very generally known ; nor has Lord Burghley altogether escaped the im- * It is remarkable that the expressions used by these learned Prelates are by no means stronger than the terms applied to the Puritans by certain of the divines at Zurich : " I would to God," says Bullinger, " there were not in the authors of this Presbytery lubido dominandi, an ambitious desire of rule and principality." "I understand," says Gualter, " that those turbulent innovators have gone so far, that under the plausible title of good order and discipline, they desire the whole government and policy of the Church of England to be utterly overthrown." t Speaking of Cartwright's Admonition to the Parliament, the Archbishop in defence of himself who was personally attacked in it, says, " Howsoever he (Cartwright) disliketh the act of throaU- cutting, or of breaking mens' necks, he delighteth to apply both terms to Archbishops and Bishops " P. 90. sect. 4. p. 70. sect. 3. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 15 putation, through his moderation, and sometimes acting with the Privy Council, under an apparent neglect of the Bishops, as has been intimated before.* But he seems in no instance to have turned a deaf ear to the complaints or remon strances ofthe Episcopal Bench ; on the contrary, he appears to have wished for a Convocation to be summoned, and to sit, for the express purpose of considering what was best to be done, to keep the people steady to the Church as esta blished by law ; for thus Bishop Sandys wrote to himf at a time that the Puri tans were most busy : "The Convocation ofthe Clergy, to convince or reject these new mysteries, is well-minded of your Lordship ; it is the thing that I have sundry tiriies remembered, and oftentimes desired, for otherwise the people can hardly be satisfied. I humbly pray your Lordship to be a means unto her Majesty that a national Council may be called, wherein these matters now in question may be thoroughly debated : and that concluded, and by her Majesty confirmed, which may most tend to the true serving of God, and the good ordering of this Church of England. If your Lordship travel herein, you shall travel in God's cause, and for the quiet of this Church; and the sooner the better, for it is time to cut off these troubles." From the above letter, we may form some judgment of the arduous task im posed upon the Lord Treasurer as a layman, to decide between so many diffe rent appellants, calling upon him to take their part as equally active and zealous, in what they mutually called "God's cause;" for the Puritans made greater pretence of this than any others. Their cause, they constantly assumed to be, in exclusion of all others, the cause of God and the Gospel. And of the exclu- . sive claims of the Papists, as the members of an infallible Church, there could be * See the Bishop of Ely's letter to the Lord Treasurer, Strype's Parker, ii. 266. He refers him to the two following passages, one ancient and the other modern, as good authorities in the case ; "Quotius de religione agitur, Episcopos convenit agitare ;" which is a sentence in an edict of Arcadius and Honorius ; and which is cited from Bullinger, the pious minister of Zurich (then livinc); " Sacerdotum proprium est officium, de religione ex verbo Dei constituere. Principum autem est, juvare sacerdotes, et provehere et tueri veram religionem." These passages were ad duced in censureof the Privy Council, for having passed a judgment on Dering's answers, without consulting spiritual men. It must be observed, that Dering had told the Bishop of London, that at his last appearance in the Star-Chamber, all the Council favoured him, except the Lord Trea surer. Strype's Parker, ii. 270. Dering on one occasion had grossly misrepresented the Bishop to Lord Burghley.— See Ibid. 271. ¦f- Lord Bujghley seems sometimes to have pressed hardly upon the Bishops, in too freely quar tering upon them the foreigners who resorted to England for protection. — See Strype's Parker, b. v. ch. xxii. vol. ii. 16 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. no doubt. Between all these, Lord Burghley seems to have kept on his course, with singular moderation and prudence. Though a layman indeed, he had, in cases where he chose to rely upon his own judgment , 'no slight knowledge of the questions in dispute between the parties, but he was not for deciding any thing when appealed to, if, with greater propriety, he could refer the case to -others.* He seemed, therefore, constantly to be chosen, as a medium of communication with the Queen, with the Bishops, with the Privy Council, with the heads of the Universities, as well as with those who, by any circumstances, had rendered them selves amenable to the authority of any of those public magistrates. — We need not stop to produce proofs of this, for the proofs are still extant in their original shape and character, if any should choose to inspect them with their own eyes; the greatest difficulty to us has been, to make a selection out of documents abso lutely innumerable.-!" We have now to speak of the Queen's Progress in the summer of this year, which was confined chiefly to the county of Kent and its borders. First, how ever, it may be well to notice a letter from the Court, in which the Lord Trea surer and some of his family are so particularly spoken of, as not to be passed by in a work like the present; otherwise, there is perhaps no document of those times better known. It is the. letter of Gilbert Talbot, to his father the Earl of Shrewsbury, No. Ixxxiv. in the 2d vol. of the Illustrations of British History. We cannot transcribe the whole, as it is too long; but, as descriptive of the Court in this very year (May 9, 1573) it is certainly curious. " I have thought good to advertise your Lordship, of the estate of some here at the Court, as near as I have learned by my daily experience. My Lord Trea surer, even after the old manner, dealeth with matters of the State only, and * See an instance of his concern upon such an occasion, and his great caution.— Strype's Parker, ii. 278, 279. + The following remark by Mr. Ellis, in his admirable publication of Original Letters, consi-. dering his situation as head librarian of that surprising repository of ancient documents, the Bri tish Museum, is too important and of too great authority to be passed over ; considering what we have already often intimated of Lord Burghley's incessant and multifarious occupations. " The unceasing employ of Sir William Cecil's mind, while Secretary of State, can only be known to those, whose researches lead them to the documents of his time. From the question of peace or war, down to a regulation for the lining of a slop-hose [alluding to a former paper] • from quarrels at Court, to the bickering between a schoolmaster and his scholar ; from the arresl of a Peer, to the punishment of a cut-purse ; all was reported to him, and by all parties in turn was his favour craved."— Vol. ii. 2d Series, p. 311. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 17 beareth himself very> uprightly ; my Lord Leicester is very much with her Ma jesty, and she sheweth the same great good affection to him that she was wont. Of latejhe hath endeavoured to please her more than heretofore ; there are two sisters now in the Court, that are very far in love with him, as they have been long; my Lady Sheffield, and Frances Howard,* they (of like striving who shall love him better) are at great wars together, and the Queen thinketh not well of them, and not the better of him ; by this means there is spies over him. My Lord of Sussex goeth with the tide, and helpeth to back others, but his own credit is sober, considering his estate ; he is very diligent in his office, and taketh great pains. My Lord of Oxford is lately grown into great credit ; for the Queen's Majesty delighteth more in his personage, and his dancing, and valiantness, than any other. I think Sussex doth back him all that he can;f if it were not for his fickle head, he would pass any of them shortly. My Lady Burghley, unwisely, hath declared herselfj as it were, jealous, J which is come to the Queen's ear ; whereat she hath been not a little offended with her, but now she is reconciled again. At all these love matters my Lord Treasurer winketh, and will not meddle any way. Hatton^ is sick still, it is thought he will very hardly recover his disease — 'the Queen 'goeth almost every day, to see how he doth." About two months after the writing of the above letter, her Majesty began her Progress. She had before, in the month of March, paid the Archbishop a visit at Lambeth, and been, with her whole Court, most sumptuously entertained there, at his sole expense ; and now in July she began her summer progress with an other visit to his Grace, at his house in Croydon; where she staid seven days, with all her attendants. On the 21st, her Majesty removed to Orpington, the seat of Sir Perceval Hart, Grantee of the Manor ; here also her Majesty was magnificently entertained, and so delighted with some fanciful and allegorical representations got up to amuse her, that she gave a new name to the house, calling it Bark Hart; the last, in compliment to the owner, and the former, because a ship and a sea-cqnflict had been among the sights exhibited. || * Daughters of William, Lord Howard, of Effingham ; the Earl of Leicester married the former, and the latter became Countess of Hertford. t Out of spite, probably, to Leicester. X For her daughter, who was married to Lord Oxford. § Sir Christopher Hatton. [| The house which now belongs to Sir Thomas Dyke, Bart: is said in Nichols,- still to bear the name so given to it. VOL. III. D 18 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. She staid three days at Orpington, and thence went to her own palace at Knowle, adjoining to Sevenoaks, where she continued five days ; from Knowle, she went to Birlingham, or Birling, an ancient seat of the Nevilles, but then the residence of Lord Burgavennie (Abergavenny) and continued three days ; pro ceeding next to Mayfield, on a visit to Sir Thomas Gresham; and from thence, to another seat of Lord Burgavennie, Eridge, in Waterdown Forest, where her Majesty abode six days. And from Eridge she passed to Bedgbury, in the parish of Goudhurst, a seat of the Colepeppers ; here her Majesty stayed one day only, and proceeded to Hemsted in the parish of Benenden, belonging to Mr. Guilford, where she passed three days. A letter which Lord Burghley wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Hemsted, dated from the Court at Mr. Guilford's house in Kent, Aug. 10. is still preserved; in it his Lordship writes, " The Queen's Majesty has had a hard beginning of a progress in the weald of Kent ; and namely, in some part of Sussex ; where surely, are more wondrous rocks and vallies, and much worse ground, than in the Peak. Now we are bending to Rye, and so afterwards to Dover, where we shall have amends."* But her Majesty by no means took the shortest road to Dover ; for from Rye, where she remained three days, she came back to Sissinghurst, the seat of Mr. Baker, in the parish of Cranbrook, where she staid three days ; and from thence, to Boughton Malherb, Mr. Wotton's ; her next journey being to Hoth- field, Mr. Tufton's, where she spent two days, some of her Court being enter tained at Surrenden, the seat of the Derings. This was on the 20th of August, and from a MS. account book of one of the family (Richard Dering, Esq.), it appears that Lord Burghley was one of the number. " Mem. That the 20th day of August, anno 1573, when her Majesty in her progress, lay at Mr. Tufton's, * The chief purport of this letter, is concerning the Queen of Scots going to Buxton for her health ; Lord Burghley appearing to have just gained the Queen's permission for her removal, the letter being written by command. " I am now commanded to write to your Lordship by her Majesty, that she is pleased, that if your Lordship shall think you may without peril, conduct the Queen of Scots to the well of Buxton, according to her most earnest desire, your Lordship shall so do."— "And this I write, because her Majesty was very unwilling she should go thither." The reasons are stated; which, it seems, with the help of the French Ambassador, during the visit to Lord Abergavenny at Eridge, he had overcome; but he adds, That the Ambassador having just at the same time, asked for admission into our ports, of the ships ofthe Due d'Anjou on his way to his new kingdom of Poland, gave occasion to some about the Queen, to be jealous of Mary's journey to Buxton. 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 19 there lay in my house Sir William Cecil, Knight, Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England and his wife; the Lady Paget, and Mr. Carye her husband; Mr. Edward Fitzgaret, Lieutenant of the Pensioners, with divers of their retinues." "From Hothfield the Queen went to one of her own houses, Westenhanger, the keeper whereof was Lord Buckhurst, and' there she continued four days ; and from thence took her departure for Dover, dining at Sandown Castle in her way. On Folkstone down, or cliff, she was met by the Archbishop, with a large company of Knights and gentry of the county, by whom she was con ducted to Dover, amidst the ringing of bells, and the roaring of heavy ordnance."* Lord Cobham was then Constable of the Castle, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. At Dover she remained .six days, taking next, in the course of her progress, the ancient town of Sandwich, where great honours were paid her; the particulars of which maybe seen in Nichols. From Sandwich she went to Wingham, on her way to Canterbury; where she arrived in great state, being lodged at the old palace of St. Augustine,! and entertained by the Archbishop, in a style of great magnificence and prelatical hospitality ; for the particulars of which we must refer to other writers, who have treated expressly of these things.^ But as far as regards Lord Burghley, a constant attendant upon her Majesty, and to whom, indeed, all the preparations for her Majesty's recep- * " Interea frequentes tormentorum ictus ex castro, navium statione, et aliis arcibus emissi, tanquam tonitrua in aere resonabant." — Latin account. + This ancient palace, or rather monastery, by a grant from the Crown in 1 603, came into the possession, for a short time, of Lord Burghley's second son, Robert Cecil, Lord Essenden, after wards Earl of Salisbury. Here Charles I. and his Queen Henrietta, lodged on the day of their marriage ; and Charles II. on his passage through the city at the Restoration. X See a letter from the Archbishop to Lord Burghley, concerning the arrangements at Canter bury for the reception of the Queen on this progress ; Ellis's Original Letters, first series, Letter cciv. where may be seen also, other letters upon the same subject, with remarks on the heavy expenses of such progresses, according to an estimate of charges, corrected by Lord Burghley himself, A. D. 1573. [Lansd. MSS. No. 16. Art. 52.] As to his Lordship's treatment ofthe Queen's suite, which Mr. Ellis thinks was not always what they expected, it should be considered, that Theobalds was not originally calculated for such receptions ; and that her Majesty went ofteuer there, than any where else. — As the letters, however, that seem to complain of the receptions at Theobalds, were addressed to Mr. Hickes, Lord Burghley's Secretary, it is possible that the mean ing may have been misinterpreted; perhaps they might only express, for Mr. Hickes's infor mation, the apprehension, that Theobalds could not escape the trouble and expense of a fresh visit, 20 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. tion had been submitted by the Archbishop, we have to record rather an un pleasant circumstance that befel him, while .within the precincts of the Cathe dral; for: here he received a "most venomous book, written by some Papist against him and the Lord Keeper;" not the first of the kind he had received, but coming to his hands at such a time, it could not but be expected that he would feel it severely. He was lodged in one of the prebendal houses, from whence he could not help writing to the Archbishop, though so nigh to him, to express his resentment of so malicious an attack of his character, as well as upon the character of his near friend and relative, the Lord Keeper; his note is dated, from " My lodgings, at Mr. Person's,* 11 September, 1573," and is to this effect : " May it please your Grace, "You shall see how dangerously I serve in this State, and how my Lord Keeper also in my respect, is with- me beaten with a viperous generation of traiterous Papists, and I fear of some domestic hidden scorpion. If God and our con sciences were not our defence and consolation, against these pestilential darts, we might well be weary of our lives. I pray your Grace read the book, or so much as you list, as soon as you may, and then return it surely to me ; so as also I may know your opinion thereof. When your Grace hath done' with this, I have also a second smaller, appointed to follow this; as though, we were not killed with the first, and therefore new assault is given ; but I will rest myself upon the Psalmist's verse, ' Expecta Dominum, viriliter age, et confortetur cor tuum, et sustine Dominum' — "Your Grace's at commandment, W. Burghley." To which the Archbishop returning the book gave answer, describing the malice of it ; and like a true friend, and grave divine, comforted the good Lord Trea surer in these words : " I return your Lordship your mad book again ; it is so outrageously penned, that malice made him blind. I judge it not worth an answer ; some things were better put up in silence than much stirred in. Your conscience shall be your testimony to Almighty God. It is no new matter for such as take pain& for the good governance of the commonwealth to be railed on. In my opinion they be very comfortable words which be uttered by our Saviour Christ, who once shall be * As several of the Court were of necessity obliged to find their lodgings distinct from her Majesty's residence, many of the prebendaries, as Strype relates, after the,- Archbishop's own words, strove for the honour of receiving the Lord Treasurer. See his Life of Parker, ii. 294. 1573] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 21 our Judge, Beati estis cum probra jacerint in vos homines, etdixerint omne malum adversus vos, mentientes, et propter me, gaudete et exultate; sic enim persecuti sunt Propheias qui fuerunt ante vos. In these and like words, I for myself repose my heart in quietness : beseeching Almighty God with his Holy Spirit to comfort your mind in these blasts of these devilish scorpions. Conscia mens recti men- dacium videt, &c. " Your assured in Christ, M. C." We may surely perceive in these letters, a great sense of injured innocence on the part of Lord Burghley, and a great confirmation of his just resentment of such malicious slanders, on the part of the Archbishop ; and we may very fairly draw this conclusion, that in allusion to the beginning of Lord Burghley's letter, it was on many accounts, " very dangerously," that he served" the state, in such strange, critical, and important times. The Lord Treasurer had always been a lover of antiquities, even from his first entrance at Gray's Inn, in the year 1541, as is particularly recorded of him. The Archbishop seems to have remembered this circumstance, and to have sought to indulge his taste at this particular time, by sending to him many books, of that credit and character; some especially that related to the county of Kent; "that the "Queen," as it is stated, "who would be inquisitive concerning the places where she journeyed, might have the more satisfaction given her by the said Treasurer, who was near her person, and whom she was known to look upon as a man of special learning and knowledge of the history and antiquities of her kingdom, and so would be most apt to put her questions to him." Lam- bard's Topographical Discourse of Kent was therefore sent to him, though as yet only in manuscript ; and another book entitled " A Discourse of Dover," with which, upon perusal, the Lord Treasurer found great faults, and therefore sent it back to be corrected. The Archbishop gave the Treasurer, however, some other books, more apper taining to his office, than to the Kentish progress ; as particularly a manuscript of Gervasius Tilberiensis, sometime a Treasurer of the Exchequer, an author whom Lambard supposed to have flourished in the reign of Henry II.* His Grace also was careful at this time, to present to the same noble and learned * Gervaise of Tilbury, was, in fact, a nephew of King Henry II. Nicholson, in his historical library, calls him " that famous Exchequer man, King Henry the Second's nephew, Gervase of Tilbury ; who besides the Black Book, is said to have written a large historical commentary upon Jeoffrey of Monmouth, under the title of Illustrationes Galfredi, which he dedicated to the Emperor Otho IV." 22 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. Lord, his own book, entitled Antiquitates Britannica, of which a very par ticular account may be seen in Strype's Life of that excellent Metropolitan, b. 4. c. xxiii. The full title of the work was as follows : " De Antiquitate Bri tannica; Ecclesia; et Privilegiis Ecclesia Cantuariensis; cum Archiepiscopis ejusdem LXX. Historia." The Archbishop assured the Treasurer, that he had not given copies of this work to so many as four men in the whole realm.* It was, indeed, printed in 1572, but kept back, and the Archbishop seems to have doubted whether it would ever be openly presented to the public, leaving it in a great measure to the private judgment of his Lordship, " peradventure, it shall never come to sight abroad, though some men, smelling ofthe printing of it, are very desirous cravers of the same ; I am content to refer it wholly to your Lord ship's judgment, whether it shall stand or fall." It would seem that in the title- page the lives of seventy Archbishops were promised ; but the Archbishop him self was the seventieth, and yet his life does not appear, though written, as it is conjectured, and ready for printing under the title of Matthaus.-f The Arch bishop's Secretary Joselyn, is supposed to have had a great share in the work, and probably was the sole author of Matthceus. The Queen staid fourteen days at Canterbury, then proceeded to Faversham for two days, to Sittingbourn, Tunstall, and Rochester, where she abode four days, for the purpose, it has been conjectured, of more narrowly inspecting the work going on in her Dock Yards at Chatham, having the year before issued orders for the increase of her Navy.J From Rochester she passed to Cobham Hall, the seat of Lord Cobham, then Lord Lieutenant of the county ; from thence to Dartford, and finally returned to her palace at Greenwich ; having made, as it were, a complete circuit of the county of Kent. In the course of this Progress her Majesty received many costly presents at divers places, and from divers persons : — " Lord Cobham, gave her two cups of gold, and Lady Cobham a tankard of alabaster, garnished with silver and gilt. " Mr. Colepeper at Bedgebury, gave her a chrystal cup garnished with silver and gilt, and a tuft of flowers at the top. " Mr. Guildeford at Hemsted, a bowl of silver and gilt, with the Queen's arms and supporters on the cover. * See the Archbishop's letter, Strype's Life, Appendix, No. lxxxix. t See an account of this in the Life itself, in Strype's Life of the Archbishop, ii. 246, and Appendix, No. xc. j Denne's History of Rochester 1573.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 23 " Sir John Baker at Sissinghurst, a standing cup of chrystal and silver, &c. " The Townsmen of Cranbrook, a cup of silver and gilt, with plates enamelled, with the arms of the Sinkpotts,* and a cover. On the top a lion holding the Queen's arms. " Mr. Tufton at Teeston, 3 bowles of silver gilt, chased, with figures of fishes and the Queen's arms. " The Townsmen of Sandwich, a gold cup, &c. " of Dover, a gold cup with enamelled flowers and a cord of gold, and the arms of Sinkports.* " ¦ — : of Faversham, one double almaine cup of silver gilt. "The Archbishop of Canterbury, a salt of agate garnished With gold, with a cover, having at top a galley, in the middle thereof a lozenged diamond. "The Lord Treasurer Burghley, a jug of chrystal garnished with silver and gilt, divers plates' enamelled with birds, having chrystal at the top and a hoop about it." On the 9th of June this year died the celebrated William Maitland, who, even as Mr. Chalmers admits, " was not second to any Statesman, during an age of talents." Of the particular circumstances attending his death we shall have more perhaps to say hereafter, when we bring down the history of Scot land to the period of which we are speaking. Before We entirely turn our back on the year 1573, it may not be amiss, perhaps, to take some notice of the following passages in Mr. Ellis's very inte resting collection bf Original Letters, from MSS. in the British Museum — though we must anticipate a good deal in bringing the facts together, and some, indeed, we must leave for future consideration. In his first series of Letters, vol. iii. No: ccxxxi. Mr. Ellis has printed one from Henry Bossevyle to Lord Burghley from Calais, concerning a medicine for the gout, A.D. 1592, "f which he introduces with the following remarks : " The gout of a Prime Minister, must in any country, and at any time, have been an object of fixed attention with physicians : and in no time more, perhaps, than when Lord Burghley was Lord Treasurer of England. His Lordship was greatly afflicted with the gout : and people, even in remote countries, and of the highest consideration, used their utmost efforts to effect his cure. Among the Lahsdowne MSS. there are letters to Lord Burghley from all parts of Europe, * Qusere? Cinque Ports. f MS. Lansd. Brit. Mus. No. 69. art. 60. 24 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1573. in English, in Latin^ in Italian, presenting him with nostrums ofthe most infal lible characters." How early in life the disease attacked Lord Burghley does not appear; but a Mr. Dyon writes to him with a course of physic and diet as early as Jan. 24, 1573, the outside of which is marked in Lord Burghley's hand, Recipe pro podagrd.* The Lady Harrington sent his Lordship some other directions,1 Feb. 4, 1573.f We have an Italian letter to him concerning a powdef for the gout, dated Dec. 12, 1575. % In 1579, a prescription was sent to his Lordship in Latin, by Dr. Henry Land wer, to ease his gout by medicated slippers ;§ pre vious to which, a variety of remedies had been sent to him in Latin by Dr. Hector, selected from the works of Averroes, Johannes Anglicus, and Mattheus Gradensis\ In 1583, another Latin letter came from one Nicholas Gybberd, who pretended he had found a tincture of gold to cure the gout:^" and in 1584, an Italian letter with a pressing offer of cure of another kind, from one SignoT Camillo Cardoini.** In 1592, one Henry Bossevyle wrote (as above)f'f from Calais, offering for a few hundred pounds and apiece of preferment to furnish his Lordship with some plaisters, which, from the description, it might strongly be feared would have proved more painful to the patient than the gout itself. Lastly, the Earl of Shrewsbury J J begged his Lordship, in 1593, to make trial of the oil of stag's blood, which he said, with a rare and great virtue, had been serviceable to himself. Having before had occasion to notice several instances of sickness and bad health, to which Lord Burghley was subject, we shall only observe at present, that he certainly appears to have been visited by the gout long before the year 1573; and that he 'scarcely seems to have suffered any attack of pain or illness without receiving some nostrum or other from the hands of friends or strangers; Among the Lansdowne MSS. we also ' remember to have met with several; particularly one from Low! Abergavenny, in 1584, consisting of a pot- of balm, and a cere-cloth for a pain in the shoulder. In the very next year we shall have occasion to speak of his friend Sir Thomas Smith's attempts to cure botlr his Lordship and one of his daughters. *MS. Lansd.No. 18, art. 35. f Ibid. art. 36. I Ibid: No. 21, art. 27. ^ Ibid. No. 29, art. 7. || Ibid. No. 27, art. 43. f Ibid. No. 39, art! 53. ** Ibid. No. 42, art. 27. +t See the Letter itself, vol. iii. p. 36. II Vol. iii. 1st Series, p. 38. No. ccxxxii. CHAP. II. 1574. Sixteenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began November 17, 1573. Rapin ofthe year 1574 — Strype on the Papists — Letters from the Archbishop of York and Dr. Sampson to Lord Burghley — Of the difficult part Lord Burghley had to act — Collier's account of a plot against Archbishop Parker and Lord Burghley — Vndertree — Puritans — Genevans — Prophesyings — Prophesyings put an end to — Letter in favour of them— English Popish refugees pensioned by the King of Spain — Plot to poison Jjord Burghley — SirF. Englefield — The Queen's apprehensions — Leaves her principal Ministers in Town, on her Progress — The Queen goes to Havering Bower — Afterwards to Bristol — Lord Oxford — Lady Oxford's illness — Sir T. Smith's skill in Medicine — Chemistry — Cox, Bishop of Ely — His house — Death of Bishop Parkhurst — Account of him — Death of Reginald Wolf — Affairs of Scotland — Morton — Killegrew — Edinburgh Castle sur renders to Morton — Grange executed — Character of the Bishop of Ross, by Dr. Stuart — Maitland poisoned — Of Morton's government — Foreign affairs — Protestants in Flan ders — Prince of Orange — Deceit of France — Of Rochelle — Death of Charles IX.— Suc ceeded by the King of Poland — Death ofthe Cardinal of Lorrain. If we might trust to the report of Rapin, as to the events of this year, the reader- would have little to expect from us, and our own labours would be very trifling ; for thus he delivers his opinion of the total want of materials for any history of our domestic occurrences : " Nothing memorable passed in England during the year 1574." We wish, for the reader's sake, as well as our own, that this state ment were at all true, as regards the subject of this Memoir ; but it is certainly far otherwise : Lord Burghley had much upon his hands — by an act of lenity to the Papists, he gave great offence to the Puritans at home ; while, by his continual watchfulness over the practices of the emissaries of Rome, he exposed himself so much to the resentment of the Papistical party abroad, as, according to some accounts, narrowly to have escaped assassination before the year was passed. The Queen, the Bishops, and the Privy Council, were at variance upon some important points of Church discipline; and the Lord Treasurer, as usual, was the referee of all parties. "We come now," says Strype, "to look vol. in. E 26 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1574. upon those dangerous enemies, both of the Church and the Kingdom, the Papists. " The State was so unwilling to inflict the rigour of the laws against them (so I will say, rather than indeed favourable to them), that it set at liberty this year divers of them, as yet detained in prison. " But the setting these men at liberty gave great disgust to many, as being judged a matter of very dangerous consequence; their very principles leading them into practice against religion and the Queen's life ; and it was reported commonly, that the Lord Treasurer's gentleness had been the cause of this counsel." It having been a matter of perfect impossibility at that time, to take any such step, with the consent of all parties, or indeed with any safety, we must not wonder that the1 Lord Treasurer was soon checked in the course he was judged to be pursuing, by remonstrances, cautions, and no slight instances of blame. The first address of this nature, indeed, appears to have been from an Arch bishop, and certainly not without some ground of reason; some parts of the kingdom being undoubtedly more in danger from Papists than others, and par ticularly the Northern parts, where the seeds of the late rebellion were likely enough to start into life again upon any favourable concurrence ojf circumstances. The rumour of what was taking place in the South, imboldened those therefore, who were in confinement in the North, to demand, as of right, their own release, presuming the indulgence to be general ; but the Archbishop of York, upon their petition, or rather claim, being presented to the Council there, judged it expedient immediately to write to the Lord Treasurer, intimating that " if such a general jubilee should be put in use there, a great relapse would soon follow after in those parts."* But the remonstrances of the Puritans were of a less confined nature, and more alarming, if the grounds thereof had been perfectly true. For in a letter * - * In the beginning of the year this Archbishop [Grindal] had particularly reported to the Lord Treasurer, that things were quiet in those parts, he might therefore be the more afraid of any accidental disturbance. " We are in good quietness," his- Grace wrote, " God be thanked, both for the civil and ecclesiastical state." He had, indeed, by his care and good judgment, much diminished the number of disaffected Papists there ; and in what he wrote to the Lord Treasurer, he had authority to use the Lord President's name, as well as his own, whose care also he highly commends.— The letter itself may be seen in Strype's Life of Grindal, Ap pendix, No. iii. 1574.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 27 from as considerable a person amongst them as any, and one as well known to Lord Burghley himself, we mean the ex-Deasi of Christ Church, Sampson, the lenity shewn to some of these unfortunate prisoners, is charged upon the noble Lord, as an actual favouring, nay justification of their cause; for in one passage of this letter, he fairly tells his Lordship, that "if he received them as men to be pitied and helped by him, for the cause of their imprisonment, and therefore worthy of his favour and friendship, view well," said, he, " what you do ; jou do justify their wicked cause; you cannot be friendly to Jhem, but you must become a friend to popery. In which doing, what is it that you can proinise yourself? is it heaven? is it God's favour? nay, truly; for, they are all, the ene mies of God, enemies to his truth — My most hearty and due commendations done, I can not' sufficiently express in words the inward hearty affection that I.conceive by your Lordship's friendly offer of your marriage of your younger son, and that in such a friendly sort, by your own letter, and as your Lordship writeth, the same proceeding of yourself : now, my Lord, as I think myself much beholden to you for this your Lordship's kindness, and manifest argument of a faithful good-will, so must I pray your Lordship to accept mine answer, with assured opinion of my continuance in the same towards your Lordship. There are especially two causes why I do not in plain terms consent by way of conclusion hereto ; the one, for that my daughter is but young in years, and upon some reasonable respects, I have determined (notwithstanding I have been very honourably offered matches) not to treat of marrying her, if I may live so long, until she shall be above fifteen or sixteen ; and if I were of more likelihood myself to live longer than I look to do, she should not with my liking, be married before she were near eighteen or twenty. The second cause why I defer to yield to conclusion with your Lordship, is grounded upon such consideration as, if it were not truly * Edward, fourth son, who became afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, on the death of his brother Gilbert. VOL. III. H 60 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [15**. to satisfy your Lordship, and to avoid a just offente which your Lordship might conceive of my forbearing, I would not by writing or message utter, but only by speech to your Lordship's self. My Lord, it is over true, and over much against reason, that upon my being at Buxton last, advantage was sought by some that loved me not, to confirm in her Majesty a former conceit which had been laboured to put into her head, that I was of late time become friendly to the Queen of Scots, and that I had no disposition to encounter her practices, and now at my being at Buxton, her Majesty did directly conceive that my being there was, by means of your. Lordship and my Lady, to enter into intelligence with the Queen of Scots ; and hereof at my return to her Majesty's presence, I had very sharp reproofs for my going to Buxton, with plain charging of me for favouring the Queen of Scots ; and that in so earnest a sort as I never looked for, knowing my integrity to her Majesty, but specially knowing how contrari- ously the Queen of Scots conceived of me for many things passed to the offence of the Queen of Scots ; and yet true it is, I never indeed gave just cause by any private affection of my own, or for myself, to offend the Queen of Scots ; but whatsoever I did, was for the service of my own Sovereign Lady and Queen, which if it were yet again to be done, I would do. And though I know myself subject to contrary workings of displeasure, yet will I not, for remedy of any of them both, decline from the duty I owe to God, and my Sovereign Queen. For I know and do understand, that I am in this contrary sort, maliciously depraved, and yet in secret sort ; on the one part, and that of long tirne, that I am the most dangerous enemy, and evil-wilier to the Queen of Scots ; on the other side, that I am also a secret well-wilier to her, and her title, and that I have made my party good with her : now, my Lord* no man can make both these true together ; but it sufficeth for such as like not me in doing my duty to deprave me, and yet in such is done in darkness as I cannot get opportunity to convince them in the light. In all these crossings, my good Lord, I appeal to God, who knoweth, yea (I thank him infinitely), who directeth my thoughts to intend principally the service and honour of God, and jointly with it the surety and greatness of my Sovereign Lady, the Queen's Majesty, and for any other respect that may tend to those two, I appeal to God to punish me if I have any. As for the Queen of Scots, truly I have no spot of evil meaning to her ; neither do I mean to deal with any titles to the Crown. If she shall intend any evil to the Queen's Ma jesty, my Sovereign, for her sake I must and will mean to impeach her ; and therein I may be her unfriend or worse. 1575.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 51 " Well, now, my good Lord, your Lordship seeth I have made a long digression from my answer, but I trust your Lordship can consider what moveth me thus to digress ; surely it behoveth me not only to live uprightly, but to avoid all probable arguments, that may be gathered to render me suspected to her Majesty, whom I serve with all dutifulness and sincerity; and therefore I gather this, that if it were understood that there was a communication or a purpose of marriage, between your Lordship's son and my daughter, I am sure there would be an advantage sought to increase these former suspicions, considering the young years of our two children. — I think it best, as the marriage could not take effect, to refer the motion in silence, and yet so to order it with ourselves, that when time shall hereafter be more convenient, we may (and ihen also with less cause of vain suspicion) renew it. And in the mean time, I must confess myself much bounden to your Lordship for your goodness ; wishing your Lordship's son all the good education that may be meet to teach him to fear God, love your Lordship, his natural father, and to know his friends ; without any curiosity of human learning, which without the fear of God, I see doth great hurt to all youth in this time and age. My Lord, I pray you bear with my scribbling, which I think your Lordship shall hardly read, and yet I could not use my man's hand in such a matter as this is. From Hampton Court, 24 December, 1575. " Your Lordship's most assured at command, W. Burghley." "To the Right Honourable, my singular good Lord, the "Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl Marshal of England, and one of the Lords of her Majesty's Privy Council." This letter was not sent for some days, the common post not being to be trusted ; and in the mean time Lord Burghley had received from the Earl a costly gift of plate, " as a new year's token," for which he wrote at the same time to thank him; his second letter being dated, January 1, 1576.* No man could have more reason to resent any imputations cast on his loyalty and dutifulness to his Sovereign, than Lord Burghley ; it was his ruling prin ciple ; connecting, that is, the safety of his Sovereign with the safety and secu rity of the nation ; and obedience to the Crown, with obedience to the laws. Had his obedience been servile or self-interested, his situation would have been less onerous and his way more clear ; but he had frequently to combat some of the Queen's strongest prejudices, and to recommend measures, not merely ob noxious but offensive to others of the Court, and those in greater favour than * i.e. 1575-6. 52 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1575. himself on some accounts; any other person in his place, had Elizabeth's temper been so capricious or ungovernable as some would have it, would have been discredited, crushed, and ruined in a moment, upon the suggestions of such great but secret enemies, as he had to contend with ; but his merits, and the value of his advice, happened to be too justly appreciated by the Queen's own understanding, to give any permanent advantage to his adversaries; a few sudden and transient clouds might arise, which it might require time and care to disperse, but he had a right to expect that with care and time, all that did arise might be dispersed, and in truth he found it so. In the instance above, he relied entirely on his dutifulness to his own Sovereign, to account for his actions ; against Elizabeth, he was never a well-wilier (to use his own words) to Mary, nor could be so ; but he was never so ill a wilier to her, as to aggra vate her misfortunes, or do more than impeach to the utmost of his power, her practices against England, and against Elizabeth, and this deserves to be attended to; what Elizabeth was taught to suspect was this, that he was becoming so friendly to the Queen of Scots, as to have no longer any dispo sition to encounter her practices ; they were her practices, and not her person, to which he opposed himself, and this he boldly told Lord Shrewsbury, he would even do, while they might appear to be directed against his own Sover reign; he was aware that upon acting on a principle approaching in any degree to impartiality, he should expose himself to the contrary imputations of being the Queen of Scots greatest open enemy, or her greatest, but secret friend ; if, as in duty bound, he sought to protect Elizabeth, against the intrigues and cabals of Mary's pretended friends, he was then accounted the greatest enemy of that unfortunate Princess ; but if he sought to promote her comfort in any way, to procure her any indulgences on the part of Elizabeth, or to thwart those who were upon a different principle her decided enemies, then he was exposed to the artful practices of his courtly enemies, and misrepresented to Elizabeth. — This we verily believe, is a just picture of his difficult situation, as Elizabeth's principal political adviser. Mary " gave ear," to use an expression of her own ambassador Bishop Leslie, too readily to the discontented subjects of Elizabeth, and to her foreign Catholic friends, as they called themselves ; and thereby rendered herself obnoxious to the suspicions of Elizabeth and very fairly exposed herself to greater restraints, and a more watchful attention to all her actions, than would otherwise have been the case ; and perhaps, could she have been persuaded to intrigue less with Elizabeth's decided ene- 1575.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 53 mies,* to have given more scope to the Protestant interests in Scotland ; to have acknowledged some of her errors and false steps ; or had Elizabeth married, and thereby quieted the disturbance about the succession, she might have been set at liberty, or at the least restored to a great enjoyment of rank, consequence, and consideration ; but unfortunately, being in the power of Elizabeth, she went on intriguing by every channel of communication she could command, against Elizabeth, her person, and her crown ; against the Protestant interests in Scot land, and consequently against a large proportion of her own subjects ; driven by these very intrigues into the arms of Elizabeth, the case was complicated, but capable of being understood in all its bearings, certainly not by any super ficial readers of history, but by those who have patience to go thoroughly into the depths of such an inquiry, and are sufficiently free from prejudices, to acknowledge the truth, wherever it can be made to appear ; for, with regard to the dark and perplexed transactions of the sixteenth century, it may justly be regarded as a spirit we have to call from the " vasty deep." We must not conclude our account of the year 1575, without observing that this was the year of the Queen's most memorable visit to 'Kenilworth, so renowned in history and romance. For the former, we must refer to Nichols's elaborate account of it,! ana f°r the latter to Sir Walter Scott's celebrated novel of Kenil worth ; rendered interesting by bold anachronisms, illustrative of some of the worst actions in the life of Lord Leicester. The historical account is very curious, as a true picture of the amusements Of those days,! and as descriptive of a suc cession of allegorical pageants, the taste for which is passed ; mixed up with strange poetry, most whimsical conceits, and a deal of ancient mythology .§ - * " He saith, he did from time to time tell the Duke [of Norfolk] of the Bishop's [Ross] talks and encouragements, and the Duke answered commonly, that if the Queen of Scots would be con tent and quiet, and suffer a year or two, he doubted not but God would put in the Queen's Majesty's mind so to deal with her, as she and her friends should be content." — Barker's answers, Murdin, 103. '< I will not cast away myself, my children and my friends, for none of them all ; I am bound to the Queen of Scots in honour, if I can comfort and quiet her I am content, otherwise I will not." — The Duke of Norfolk, as reported by Barker, Murdin, 105. f Incorporating the accounts of Gascoigne and Laneham. J Among these amusements, bear-baiting was one So much in vogue, that no fewer than thir teen were provided for this fete at Kenilworth, all to be baited with a large species of ban-dogs. § We must not speak slightingly of these representations, if it be true, as some have conjec tured, that Shakspeare was present at all that passed at Kenilworth, being then only in his twelfth year; and that he probably derived " from the impression thereby made on his glowing imagina- 54 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1575. Strype, with his usual carefulness and sobriety of selection, (the historians before him having scarcely noticed the event, though as Bishop Hurd has remarked, "it claimed a remembrance in the annals of our country,") has not entered far into the details ofthe entertainment, which Laneham, in his very interesting and amusing letter,* tells us, " was so great and noble, that for persons, place, time, cost, devices, strangeness, and abundance of all that ever he saw, and wherever he had been, in France and Flanders, long and many a day, he never saw any where so memorable as this." It was on the 9th of July that the Earl of Leicester met the Queen at Icbing- ham,! a town and manor of his own, within [seven] miles of Kenilworth,! where tion that bias for theatrical amusements, which afterwards proved the basis of his own glory, and of his country's poetic fame." — Drake. * The original title-page of this letter is curious. " A letter, wherein part of the entertainment untoo the Queenz Majesty, at Killingworth Castle in Warwick-Sheer, in this Soomerz Progress 1575, iz signified ; from a freend officer attendant in the Court, unto his freend a citizen and mer- chaunt in London." There are two copies of this book in black letter in the Bodleian Library ; of the author as much as could be recovered, may be seen in Nichols. — He was. called Clerk of the Council Cham ber-door. How well qualified he was to describe the wonders he saw, the reader who has never yet peTused his entertaining letter, may judge from the following account ofthe Italian tumbler. " Noow within allso, in the mean time, waz thear sheawed before her Highness, by an Italian, such feats of agiliti.e, in goinges, turninges, tumblinges, castinges, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambaud, soomersauts, caprelliez and flights; forward, backward, sydewize, a downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings, and circumflexions; allso lightly and with such easiness, as by me in feaw words, it iz not expressibl by pen or speech I tell you plain ; I bleast rrre by my faith to behold him, and began to doout whither a waz a man or a spirite, and I ween had doouted me till this time, had it not been that anon I bethought me of men that can reazon and talk with too toongs, and with too persons at onez, sing like burds, curteiz of behaviour of body strong, and in joynts so nimbi withall, that their bonez seem as lythie and plyaunt as syneu?. They dwel in a happy iland (as the book termz it) four months sayling southward beyond CEthiop. Nay, master Martin, I tell you no jest,; for both Dio.dorus Siculus, an auncient Greek Historiogra pher, in his third book of the acts of the olid Egypcians ; and also from him Conrad Gesnerus, a great learned. man, and a very diligent writer, in all good arguments of oour time (but deceased) in the first chapter of hiz Mithridates,, reporteth the same. Az for thiz fellow* I cannot tell what to make of him, save that I may gess.e hiz baqk.be metall'd like a lamprey, that haz no bone, but a.lyn.e like a lute-string. Well, Sir„let him passe and hiz featz, and this day? pastime with all, for heer.iz as mooch az I can remember me for Thursdaiz entertainment." f Or, Ichingto.p. X Called at that time Killingworth, " but," Laneham adds, "of truth grounded upon feythful storie, Kepelworth." The real origin of the name, is supposed to be Kenelms Worth, or the Court of Kenelm, from the Saxon ,poji# a Court. 1575.1 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 55 she dined in great state, and being entertained with hunting on her road after dinner, did not arrive at the Castle before eight o'clock in the evening. Before she came to the first gate, one dressed as a Sybil, in her prophetic character and suitable poetry, directing her speech to her Majesty, foretold a long reign of prosperity, health, and felicity. On her arrival at the great gate, the Porter, " tall of person, big of limbs, stark of countenance, wrapt all in silk, with club and keys of quantity according," acted his part, after a manner so well known to all readers of romance* as well as history, as entirely ta prevent our repeating the often told story of this splendid reception; or of the many days of festival and "princely pleasures"! which passed between the 9th and 27th of July, on which latter day her Majesty took leave of this celebrated Castle : it being the third visit she paid to Leicester, but far exceeding all others, in expense, sports, pastime, plays, speeches, and country recreations. Lord Burghley, we may conclude, was in attendance upon her Majesty on this great occasion, though not a word of it appears in his Journal,! but among those who received the honour of knighthood at the Castle, was his eldest son, the Honourable Thomas Cecil ; — the others being Henry Cobham, the Lord Cobham's brother ; Thomas§ Stanhope, Arthur Basset, and Thomas Tresham ; " men of great worship all,' as Strype observes. Though the visit to Kenilworth was sufficient to eclipse all other visits this year, yet her Majesty was upon her Progress for nearly three months, in the counties of Northampton, Warwick, Stafford, and ending at Woodstock. There is a letter extant from Lord Leicester to Lord Burghley, written on the 18th of June, from one of her Majesty's houses, but from which is uncertain ; it is con jectured to have been Grafton. — Some parts of the letter are curious : " My good Lord, — The great expectation I had of your being here before this time hath caused me to be more silent to you than else I had been ; but finding your coming yet doubtful (albeit I hope Kenilworth shall not miss you), I will let your Lordship understand such news as we have, which is only and * See Scott's Kenilworth. f Gascoigne. X In the Preface to Nichols' Progresses, the Queen is said to have began this most memorable of all her progresses from Theobalds, the seat of the Lord Treasurer ; where, from his Journal, she appears to have been on the 24th of May, his entry being as follows : " May 24. The Q. Majesty was at Theobalds, and so she was afore July 22, 1572." Of her many visits to this celebrated place we shall have a fuller account to give elsewhere. § Quaere Francis ? 56 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY, [1575. chiefly of her Majesty's good health, which, God be thanked, is as good as I have long known it ; and for her liking of this house, I assure your Lordship, I think she never came to a place in her life she liked better, or commended more; and since her coming hither, as oft as weather serves, she has not been within doors. The house likes her well, and her own lodgings specially. She thinks her cost well bestowed, she says, if it had. been five times as much : but I would her Majesty would bestow but half as much more, and then I think she should have as pleasant and commodious a house as any in England. I am sorry your Lordship is not here to see it, even by and by her Majesty is going to the. forest, to kill some bucks with her bow; as she hath done in the park this morning. God be thanked she is very merry; but at her first coming, being a marvellous hot day, not one drop of good drink for her, so ill was she pro vided for, notwithstanding of her oft telling of her coming hither ; but we were; fain to send to London with bottles, to Kenilworth, and to divers other places where ale was, her own here was such, as there was no man able to drink it;: it had been as good to have drank malmsey ; and yet was it laid in about three days before her Majesty came. It did put her very far out of temper, and almost all the company beside so : for none of us all were able to drink either beer or ale here. Since, by chance we have found drink for her to her liking, and she is well again ; but I feared greatly, two or three days, some sickness to have fallen by reason of this drink. God be thanked, she is now perfectly well and merry; and I think upon Thursday come sennight, will take her journey towards Kenelworth, where I pray God she may like all things no worse than she hath: done here : I hope the better by the good news. " And so wishing you good health, and alway well to do, with my most hearty commendations, I bid your Lordship farewell. In some haste, ready to ride, this Tuesday towards evening, June 1 8. "Your assured friend, R. Leycester." " To the Right Honourable, my very good Lord, the Lord Burley, Lord Treasurer of England, &c." CHAP. IV. 1576. Eighteenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began November 17, 1 575. Confusion of dates — Choice of new Counsellors, fyc. — Duke of Alencon — Death of Charles IX. Henry III. succeeds— Holland and Zealand offered to the Queen — Wentworth' s speech — A subsidy granted— The Lord Keeper's speech — The Queen pays off old debts — Lord Burghley appealed to on all occasions — The Puritans very troublesome — His conduct towards them — Corn act — Barker's Bible — Zodiac of life — Lombard's Perambulation — Death of the Emperor Maximilian — Letter from Lord Essex to Lord Burghley — Death of Lord Essex, and ofthe Duke of Chatelherault — Death of Sir Anthony Cooke. We have still to complain of the great confusion arising out of the difference of reckoning either by the civil or historical year ; of which we have a very remarkable instance at this time in Strype, an author, whom upon most occa sions every writer must be disposed to consult, from his well-known command of original documents, and great diligence in examining them. He begins his account ofthe year 1575,* as follows : " The Parliament was now sitting in the months of February and March, 18 Elizabeth ;"! and again, " The Convoca tion at this time of Parliament sitting, framed articles, &c." Now, it is very certain that the 18th of Elizabeth 'did not begin before the 17th of November, 1575. It was, therefore, entirely at the end of the civil year 1575, that the Parliament and Convocation sat, or according to the historical reckon ing, at the commencement of the year 1576. Almost all that follows, therefore, in Strype, from the beginning of ch. xxxiv. to the end of ch. xxxvi. happened before the meeting of Parliament, and not after, as it would appear to have done from the text as it stands' at present. And in truth, the Convocation of which he speaks, vol. ii. p. 533., was under the Presidency of Grindal, suc cessor of Parker in the see of Canterbury, whose death having occurred on the * As marked in the margin. f B. i. ch. xxxiv. Oxford Edition, 1824. VOL. III. I 58 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. 17th of May 1575,* Grindal did not succeed, so as to be confirmed, before the 15th of February, 1575-6, at which time both the Parliament and Convocation had begun their sittings. Had Strype, or the editors of his works, looked more narrowly into matters, they might have discovered that the account of this Parliament and Convocation should have been introduced where reference is made in ch. xxxvi. to the letters of Mr. Talbot to his father, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and which have since been published by Mr. Lodge. These give a true account of what was actually passing at the end of the civil year 1575, or, as the historical reckoning would make it, the beginning of 1576 ; and to which, therefore, we shall now proceed. In a letter, dated January 4, 1575,! Mr. Talbot writes, from the Court, " Matters touching the choosing of Counsellors remaineth doubtful, but daily it is looked for that some shall be chosen." " I find," says Strype, " among the Lord Burghley's MSS. a paper of his own hand-writing, containing the names of such Counsellors as were dead, and such as still remained alive, and also of such as were thought fit, by reason of their great possessions, to be received into the rank of the Nobility : which I make no doubt was to be laid before the Queen."! From the paper thus referred to, it appears, that of King Edward's Coun sellors, forty in number, only four remained alive, viz. Henry, Earl of Arundel, Edward, Earl of Lincoln, William, Lord Burghley,§ and Sir Ralph Sadler. * There is another mistake made in Strype's Life of Grindal, ch. v. where it is said .that the Archbishoprick had been void since August, and that the Queen after three months deliberation, &c. It had been vacant six months, when Lord Burghley first wrote to Grindal, to tell Turn, that on his recommendation the Queen meant to remove him from YoTk to Canterbury. Parier, indeed, was buried on the 16th of June, 1575 ; and Lord Burghley, in his letter to Grindal. speaks of his removal, as to take place " now at this Parliament," that is, the next sitting of the Parlia ment, 1575-6 ; his letter being dated Nov. 25, about eight days after the commencement ofthe eighteenth year of the Queen's reign. The articles passed in Convocation, may be seen in Collier, ii. 551, who very properly refers them to Grindal, and speaks of the see of Canterbury having been kept vacant somewhat more than half a year, which was the case. f Properly 1575-6. t Annals, ii. 574. S The following passage from his Life by a Domestic, may reasonably find a place here. " He [Lord Burghley] was the youngest, the oldest, the gravest, and greatest Counsellor of Christendom ; for there was before his death never a Counsellor left alive in Europe, that were Counsellors when he was first made. He was made a Counsellor at twenty-five years of age and so continued four years in King Edward's time; and was the first Counsellor Queen Eliza-' beth had, and so continued to the fortieth year of her reign; a long and happy time to live in such 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 59 Of Queen Mary's Council, only two remained alive ; Archbishop Hethe and Sir Francis Englefield. And of Queen Elizabeth's original Council, six were dead, and seven alive. The former consisting of the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Edward Rogers, Sir Thomas Parry, Sir Ambrose Cave, Sir Richard Sackville, and Dr. Wotton. Leaving, the Lord Keeper Bacon, the Lord Treasurer Burghley, Thomas, Earl of Sussex,* Edward, Lord Clinton,! Henry, Earl of Arundel, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, and George, Earl of Shrewsbury. Mr. Talbot continues his letter : " Here are Ambassadors out of France, both from the King and from Monsieur ; it was a bruit that Monsieur was poisoned, but now advertisements are come to the contrary.! He hath referred his cause to be dealt in by her Majesty betwixt him and his brother, the King ; how her Majesty will please to deal in it is not yet known, but the Ambassadors make show of desire to be dispatched." Monsieur, the Duke of Alencon, had privately favoured the Hugonots, partly from a personal dislike to Catherine de Medicis, his mother, and partly to strengthen a party which he hoped might advance him to the throne, in pre ference to his elder brother, the King of Poland. The Queen Mother dis covering his designs, had him arrested and imprisoned for some months, during which Charles IX. died, Henry was made King, and the Queen (his mother) nominated Regent, till he could have time to return from Poland. § Monsieur escaped, and with his friends went over to the Hugonots, under the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, and having thereby, as he thought, place in so great account and reputation ; and in the end, having lived so honourably, virtuously, and peaceably, to die so godly, is an example of God's wonderful and rare blessing, seldom found in men of his estate and employment," pp. 65, 66. Danet, in his Dedication of his Translation of Commines, to Lord Burghley, says, "Philip de Commines continued a Counsellor successively to so many French Kings, that he was reputed one of the antientest Counsellors in Christendom at his death. Wherein your Lordship's fortune is not only correspondent, but has also surmounted his."— Second Edit. 1601. * Lord Chamberlain. f Lord Admiral. I The following entry occurs in Lord Burghley's Diary, " Mons. d'Alanson advertiseth by Dr. Dale, that he was almost poisoned with a cup of wine, whereof M. Thorry drinking was almost dead." § According to Daniel, Henry was very unpopular in France, being hated by the Hugonots as one of the principal authors of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and by the Malecontents, who supposed him to be governed by the House of Guise. But he was the favourite of his artful mother, by whose care and good management, he came securely to the crown ; otherwise, a plan was on foot to prevent his return, and place his brother on the throne. 60 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. become formidable to the Court, he judged that Elizabeth might procure for. him such terms with his brother, as might put it out of his mother's power to molest him further. It would appear that the Duke had proposed coming over to England, from the following entry in Lord Burghley's diary : " Feb. 2. La Mott Fenelon and La Porte* had their answer at Hampton Court, that during the troubles in France, it was not convenient for Monsieur to come into England." To proceed with Mr. Talbot's letter : — " Here is also Sir Henry Cobham returned out of Spain with answer of his message." Of Sir Henry's embassy to Spain we have the following account in Lord Burghley's diary : "Oct. 18, (1575). Sir H. Cobham was sent into Spain to impart to the Spanish King the danger of the revolt of his countries of Holland and Zealand to the French ; and then he moved the King of Spain to command a surcease of arms to procure a concord; and so the King yielded thereto." The next passage in Mr. Talbot's letter opens up a new scene : — " Also here, is come one from the Prince of Orange, out of the Low Country, with a couple of chief merchants of Flanders, to make offer of that country to be delivered unto her Majesty's hand ; and if it will please her to keep it, they will betake, themselves to their merchandises, and pay her Majesty such tribute as before, they paid to the King of Spain ; they also require speedy answer. The Council be all at Court ; they sit daily, and the Ambassadors do come to them. — The Ambassadors have had audience of the Queen twice." The names of these Dutch Ambassadors appear from Lord Burghley's diary to have been St. Aldegond, Paul Buss, and Francois Maison,! and i* is said, that the States offered to become subject to the Queen as their hereditary Sove reign, deducing her claim or title from Philippa, the celebrated Queen of Edward III., daughter of William of Bavaria, Earl of Hainault and Holland.! These embassies to Elizabeth, seem to have occasioned no small trouble and uneasiness. " Her Majesty," says Mr. Talbot, " is troubled with these causes, which maketh her very melancholy ; and seemeth greatly to be out of quiet. • " Those two marriage brokers," Camden calls them. t See the names as reported by Camden. X See Camden, under the. year 1575, for a very good account ofthe debates in Holland about the choice of a Protector. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 61 What shall be done in these matters as yet is unknown, but here are Ambas sadors on all sides, who labour greatly one against the other. Her Majesty hath put unto her to deal both betwixt the King of Spain and the Low Country ; the King of France and his brother : her Majesty may deal as pleaseth her, for I think they both are weary of the wars ; especially Flanders, which, as the report goeth, is utterly wanting both of money,* munition and powder; and therefore hath offered their country to her Majesty." This letter is dated from Hampton Court, Jan. 4, 1575, that is, 157.5-6. It was certainly very difficult for the Queen to know what to do at this crisis; she could not take any of the Spanish provinces under her protection, much less into her possession, as proposed, without an open breach with the Spaniard, and probably with the Emperor ; and yet, if she refused them all assistance, the Prince of Orange might be compelled to turn to the French for protection : he had, indeed, some private motives so to do ; his principality of Orange being so situated, as in the case of a rupture, to be at the mercy of the French. — ¦ [Camden]. She endeavoured, therefore, to alarm Philip, by pointing out to him the probability of such an alliance, or rather submission of the Provinces to the power of France ; and sought thereby to help the Netherlander, by procuring for them a peace at his hands, with a restoration of their privileges. She had had much more friendly communications of late with Requesens, the successor of the Duke of Alva,! than with the latter; but Requesens himself died in Feb. 1576, and was succeeded by Don John of Austria, the natural son of Charles V«! * The Spanish troops, indeed, this year mutinied for want of pay, and in their anger and impa tience, pillaged and plundered in a most merciless manner the city of Antwerp, to the great loss and discomforture of many English families. This disturbance led to what was called, the pacification of Ghent, in Nov. 1576; and which was confirmed the next year by Don John of Austria, in the " Perpetual Edict," named so, one would think in burlesque, since, in the very next year, viz. 1578, he totally violated it. ¦ f For an account of the extraordinary cruelties of the Due d' Alva, and the Spaniards under him, especially in the plunder and massacre of Antwerp, see Strype's Annals, vol. ii. part ii. anno 1576. X Sir Edward Horsey was sent over to Don John as soon as he was settled in the Government, to represent to him, that the Queen wished him to come to some peaceable settlement with the States ; — that if the King of Spain meant to make a conquest of the Low Countries, and to plant a martial government there, that was so prejudicial to her state, she neither could nor would endure it ; — that her Majesty would not suffer the States, through desperation, to cast themselves into the hands ofthe French; and, lastly, to crave restitution of her merchants' goods, and liberty for them to depart from Antwerp. 62 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. In respect to France, she endeavoured to deter Henry from meddling too much with the affairs of the Netherlands, as he lay open in other parts to the resentment of the Spaniard ; and she sought to procure an agreement between him and his brother the Duke d'Alencon, who was disposed to renew his over tures of marriage, and to visit England for that purpose, his late connexion with the Hugonots appearing to have rather interested Elizabeth in his favour ; for though she declined giving any open assistance to the Protestants, or to see the Duke while the civil war continued, she supplied Casimir with money, to bring German troops into France, to help quiet the disturbances, which indeed appears to have had that effect. Europe, in general, but particularly the Netherlands, seemed to be in much confusion from the clashing of these several interests ; and it was extremely difficult to discover how to attend to the overtures of any party, without hazard of serious offence to others. But it is time to notice the proceedings in Parliament, which began on the 8th of February, and broke up on the 15th of March; this was no new Parlia ment, but a continuation " post varias ac diversas prorogationes," of that which sat in 1572, being the second session of the Queen's fourth Parliament.* In regard to the business which occupied the attention of this renewed assembly of the representatives of the people, scarcely any thing need to be particularly noticed, except the speech of Mr. Wentworth, for which he was for a short time committed to the Tower; adverting to what had passed in the last session, 1572, he declaimed largely against the use made of the Queen's name, to overawe the debates, and stop their proceedings, especially on points of religion ; which latter, indeed, had been interrupted by a deliberate message from the Queen, who not only judged it to be a trespass on her prerogative, but disorderly, with out the concurrence of the spiritual heads of the Church ; which Mr. Went worth, as a Calvinist, disclaimed ; affirming, that it was to make Popes of the Bishops, to pretend that every thing relating to rites and ceremonies, and eccle siastical matters in general, should be left exclusively to their judgment and approval ; and strongly insisting upon it, that such things were strictly within the cognizance of Parliament. He also expressed great concern that the Queen should have been so ill advised, as to neglect, if not positively to reject, the Bills * Several of the prorogations of the Upper House during this session were by the Lord Trta- surer [Burghley], in the absence of the Lord Keeper ; a circumstance D'Ewes seems unable to account for. — See his Journal. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 63 proposed or passed in the late session against the Queen of Scots, maintaining that it was very hazardous to her crown and person, and an exposure of her faithful Commons, hot only to the resentment, but to the mockery of the Papists. A subsidy was granted to her Majesty, and as it may serve to account for the extreme popularity of this extraordinary Sovereign of England, we cannot refrain from noticing the very gracious manner in which she directed her Lord Keeper to acknowledge the liberality of her subjects. " Her Majesty, in these your dooings, has noted three things especially and principally, every of them tending much to the setting forth of your benevo lence. The first, who it is that granted ; the second, the manner of granting ; the third, what it was that is granted. As to the first, her Majesty cannot forget, how this grant proceeded from the earnest affections, and hearty goodwill, of her loving and obedient subjects ; therefore her Majesty maketh greater account thereof than ten subsidies, and so she commanded me to say unto you. Again, her Majesty remembereth very well, that this grant was made not by sub jects that never did the like before, but by subjects that have been, and conti nued to be, ready from time to time, to contribute towards the necessary charges and defence ofthe realm ; which doth greatly commend and set forth, she saith, this great benevolence of yours. And as to the second, which is, the manner of granting, her Highness noteth two things especially ; the one is, universality of consent, and can there be a more universal consent, than when all agreeing and none denying, as this was ? nay, her Highness knoweth that before her time, these manner of grants passed not but with a great persuasion, and many difficulties ; whereas this was frankly offered, without any persuasion or difficulty at all ; the other is, readiness of granting. It is written of benevolence, bis dat qui cito dat, which, her Majesty saith, may justly be applied to these your proceedings — and to the third, which is the thing granted, she taketh it to be as liberal as any heretofore hath been granted ; and therefore hath commanded me, yield unto you her most hearty condign thanks, and withal to let you understand, that her Majesty is as willing and desirous to give you this whole subsidy again, as you have been willing to grant it, if the necessity of the realm, and your surety would suffer it." The beauty of this address is, that it was any thing but declamatory, false, or delusive ; this Queen asked for no help from her subjects in the way of subsidy, beyond what the exigencies of the time might seem to render indispensably necessary ; she did not like to burden her subjects, wherever it could be reason- 64 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. ably avoided, and when any grant was obtained, through the great care and judicious management of her Lord Treasurer, it was raised with as little pressure upon individuals as possible,* and never squandered to gratify any vain or "fan tastical desires ; being granted for strictly national purposes, it was, as carefully as possible, so applied, and if the public aids proved at any time deficient, her Majesty was not backward to yield up a portion of her own revenues, scorning to resort to such measures as had been but too common with her predecessors ; such as the abasing the currency, to the great damage ofthe realm. On the contrary, having at the beginning of her reign, by the special advice of Lord Burghley, restored the standard, she carefully kept to it.! Finally, wherever credit was given, it was, for the most part, faithfully and punctually discharged and requited; nor wasJier own credit of more concern to her than that of the nation, as may be seen by the following passage in the address of Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons, on the motion for a subsidy. " Her Majesty has most carefully and providently delivered this kingdom from a great and weighty debt, begun four years at the least before the death of King Henry VIII. , and not cleared till within these two years, and all that while running upon interest, a course able to eat up not only private men's patrimonies, but also Princes and their estates. The truth of this may be testified by the citizens of London, whose bond, under the common seal of the city, of assurance of pay - * Camden relates, that upon complaints made by the Gentry and Nobility of Ireland, of a too rigorous exaction, by the Lord Deputy, of the Cesse, a tax for the maintenance of the Deputy's household and garrison soldiers, she caused the Deputy to be written to, to use more modera tion, reminding him of the proverb, that she would have her subjects while they were polled, not to be flayed ; expressing also, as some reported, her fear of having it objected to her, as it was to Tiberius by Cato, concerning the Dalmatian commotions, " You, you it is that are in fault, who have committed your flocks, not to shepherds, but to wolves." Of the notice taken of these com plaints by the Council, Lord Burghley wrote both to Lord Shrewsbury, and to the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, ending his letter to the latter by saying, that he " thought the Cesse needful, but not in such a strainable sort as it was sought.'' That the Queen's prerogative had been inju diciously enforced, and that all excess in the demand ought to be remedied.— See Strype's Annals, ii. part. ii. 102. t See, however, vol. ii. note p. 81. — as the debasement of the coinage was carried farther under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., than ever known before, it may be added to the credit of our own country, that according to Lord Liverpool, in his celebrated work on the Coins of the Realm, the Government of England, generally speaking, has committed fewer errors, and practised fewer arbitrary debasements ofthe currency, than any other country in Europe. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 65 ment, being usually given and renewed, and which have hanged for so many years to their great danger, and to the peril ofthe whole traffic, are now all dis charged, cancelled, and delivered into the Chamber of London, to their own hands ; by means whereof, the realm is not only acquitted of this great burden, and the merchants free, but also her Majesty's credit thereby both at home and abroad, greater than any other Prince, for money, if she have need, and so in reason it ought to be, for that she hath kept promise to all men, wherein other Princes have often failed, to the hindrance of many."* The Speaker of the House of Commons, when the Parliament was to be pro rogued, ventured again to urge her Majesty, in his speech at the bar of the House of Lords, to marry. Upon which occasion the Queen herself is reported to have made a very eloquent and grave oration, "as well uttered and pronounced as it was possible for any creature to do," as Lord Shrewsbury was informed by his sons, who, being Members of the House of Commons, were probably pre sent. The speech is printed in Harrington's Nugae Antiquas, vol. i. p. 120, but D'Ewes not mentioning it, has led some to conjecture, that it was only an intended speech. — See Nichols' Progresses, ii. p. 3; this, however, is contradicted by Mr. Talbot's letter. Strype supposed that no copy of it existed. — See Annals, ii. 532. It would seem to be beyond the reach of any man's calculation, to estimate the time spent by the Lord Treasurer, in close and strict attention to public affairs, not merely as one of her Majesty's Ministers, but as the ultimate referee upon all occasions, civil and ecclesiastical, foreign and domestic. Strype's Annals of the Reformation, alone, are sufficient to shew, that besides his duties as Treasurer, and at Court, he had on his shoulders, the burden and weight of every Diocese, and of both Provinces. Scarcely a day passed in which some special reference was not made to the Lord Treasurer. He was invoked as a * D'Ewes, 245, 24?6. This must be received in excuse of the expedients used by Elizabeth of occasionally raising money, by loans and benevolences, and other unconstitutional means ; i. e. distinct from Parliamentary grants. There can be no doubt that she did often resort to the purses of her subjects in this manner, but still with the same regard to public emergencies, and the secu rity of creditors. Mr. Hume indeed, in his Third Appendix, inclines to think the Queen's creditors were not very often regularly repaid, and that at all events, they suffered considerably from their mbhey lying in the Prince's hands without interest. It is, however, certain that other writers speak highly of the Queen's punctuality in the repayment of loans, and Sir Thomas Gresham's letters seem to prove, that she often. gave such large interest, as to bring her creditors within the penalties of the Statute of Usury. Macdiarmid has considered the subject in his section on the financial policy of Lord Burghley. VOL. III. K 66 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [157«. friend, appealed to as a judge, and even solicited in the most respectful terms, by those who were suffering punishment for their detected plots and conspi racies. When well, every complaint, every information, every return or report was addressed to him in London, or at the Court, wherever it might be. When ill, and even so far from the metropolis, as Buxton, in Derbyshire, his opinion was to be obtained, before any nice case of politics or religion, or ofthe internal government of the state could be settled. This year, in particular, many addresses were made to him, to interpose between the constituted authbrities, and the Nonconformists. The latter being very troublesome in the Universities and in the different sees. Strype has entered so largely into these disputes, that' it is quite unnecessary to do much more than refer generally to his writings ; or indeed to meddle with them at all, except to explain, as well as we can, the exact part that Lord Burghley seems to have taken. That he was not for any severe or hasty measures, is extremely clear from the circumstance, that wherever he could grant time for amendment, or re-consideration, he was willing to do it. A Bachelor of Divinity, of Queen's College, Cambridge, having rendered himself conspicuous, by a total disregard of the customs and practice of the University, as well as of the Church, the Master of the College had conferred with Lord Burghley upon the subject, at Theobalds ; and though he had been cast out by command of the Queen's Council, the Chancellor, in hopes of a better compliance, had procured him to be received again, and tried for one year more, telling the Master, that if after wards he should not conform to the statutes and customs of the University, he should confirm the sentence of deprivation. Such indulgence, indeed, we must confess, does not appear to have had the good effect intended, but it serves to mark the general disposition of a Government calumniated for its extreme rigour, even to the Puritans, which was certainly far from being the case. We have already observed, that there was a considerable difference between individuals amongst the Non-conformists. Some were undoubtedly very learned persons, and though their resistance to the laws was not less obnoxious than that of the less learned, perhaps indeed more so, from the ill example it carried with it, yet they might be judged to be upon the whole more open to reason in due course of time, if treated with some lenity; as seems to have been proved in the case of Dr. Humfrey, Professor of Divinity, at Oxford, the very person who had com mitted himself, by a positive refusal to wear the habits, some years before, when Sampson, on the same account, was removed from the Deanery of Christ Church. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 67 Dr. Humfrey was this year, by the means of the Lord Treasurer, advanced to the Deanery of Gloucester, having been previously persuaded by his Lordship to conform to the laws ; as he acknowledged in a letter to Lord Burghley, contain ing the following passage : " That he had received his letter, and perceived his care for the bettering of his state. That he was loth her Majesty, or any other honourable person, should think that he was forgetful of his duty, or so far off from obedience, but that he would submit himself to those orders, in that place where his being and living was, and therefore he had yielded." The rudeness of some, in resisting the Bishops, was wholly inexcusable, and indeed, is not to be read of to this day, without disgust. Thus one, who was law fully deprived about this time, by Fricker,* Bishop of Norwich, for a total disre gard ofthe ecclesiastical orders in his ministry, wrote afterwards to the Bishop, a letter, which his party thought fit to print for its great merit, in which he plainly tells the Bishop, that the " reins of Church Government (the Bishops continuing), were not in the hands of Christ, but of Antichrist. And that whereas they [the Bishops] shrouded themselves under the shadow of the Prince, saying, that she created them and their authority, &c. He could discourse of that generation better than so : he knew it of a truth, that the Archbishop begat them, and the Bishop of Rome begat him, and the Devil begat him. So now in respect of their offices, they saw who was their grandsire, and who their great grandsire." The rest of the letter is not much unlike the specimen we have selected; but one passage is quite sufficient to shew how little these angry " Preachers of God's word" as they called themselves, had of that wisdom which is from above, and which a truly inspired Apostle has described, as "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."! We have now to commemorate a public measure attributed toLord Burghley, which has continued to operate ever since to the great benefit of both the Uni versities, and other collegiate bodies; nor can we do this more concisely than in the very words of Strype. * Successor of Parkhurst. t See the cases of Rockrey, Gawton, and Harvey, Strype's Annals, iii. b. ii. ch. 4. anno 1576. See also in the same chapter a curious account of an Ordination iii the Irish Popish Church, this year, in which no fewer than five bastards, some, and perhaps all, sons of priests, presented themselves, contrary to the ecclesiastical canons, but fortified with a regular dispensation from the Pope, Gregory XIII. 68 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. After speaking of Dean Nowell's interposition with Lord Burghley, "the great patron of religion and learning in those days," in behalf of Manchester College, whose revenue had been greatly abused, he proceeds as follows : "This great and good Lord Treasurer was now also very instrumental to the cause of learning and religion, by procuring some favours to the Universities ;* namely, a seasonable act of Parliament for increasing the commons of the Colleges, there having been but slender allowances to the students. It was called the Corn Act, which Andrew Willet, D.D. commemorates with these words : 'The statute of provision of corn for Colleges in both Universities, made in the eighteenth of her Majesty's reign [i. e. 1576], whereby it is provided, that in every lease to be made, the third part of the rent should be paid in corn, for the mending and increasing the common diet. Wheat to be served in at 6*. and Sd. and malt at 5*. the quarter, or so much money [to be taken at the will of the Colleges'], by virtue of which act, the benefit upon new leases, which are actually void, without reservation of such provision are doubled, to the great relief of the company of students ; the benefit whereof may arise to the increase of more than 12,000/. per annum, in both Universities. This act, saith the before-men tioned author, was devised and procured by the prudent and provident care of Sir William Cecil, Lord Treasurer and Chancellor of the University of Cam bridge. I know this Act is attributed by some to Sir Thomas Smith, the Queen's Secretary ; but Dr. Willet, who lived in those times, and was then an University man, no question had good information. It is probable, that both the one and the other joined together in devising and procuring it." . This was certainly a great instance of the foresight and penetration of these very able men ; who observing how greatly the value of money had sunk, and the price of all provisions risen, by the quantity of bullion imported from the new found Indies (which effects were likely to increase to a greater degree), devised this method for upholding the revenues of the Colleges-! In the course of this y»ear the Church was enriched by another publication of * One of these favours was the confirming the right of Sturbridge Fair, to the University of Cambridge, for which others had made suit to the Queen. t See Blackstone's Commentaries, b. ii. ch. 20. who observes, that things have so changed since, that by the operation of this very device, whereas at first the corn-rent was but one-third of the old rent, the money arising from corn-rents now, is, commvnibus annis, almost double to the rents reserved in money — the proportions have varied considerably at times, since the learned Commentator wrote. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. (ft * the Bible in 4to, of which a large and circumstantial account, as usual, is given by Strype, under the year 1576; the Lord Treasurer is supposed to have had no small share and influence in the preparation of this edition of the Scriptures,* from the circumstance, that within the capital letter B, the first letter of the word blessed which begins the first Psalm, his arms and motto, Cor unum via una, are included. In the title-page also, where is a picture of Queen Eliza beth, several figures are introduced ; one of a grave Senator in his gown, by the side of a pulpit, where a minister is preaching, is supposed to be intended for Lord Bnrghley. Another book called, the " Zodiack of Life," being a translation of a Poem, by Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus, an excellent Italian Christian Poet, appeared this year, from the hands of Bernabie Googe, and was dedicated to Lord Burghley. " It is a piece," says Strype, " of natural philosophy, and aimeth at the drawing men to morality and piety, and the fear of God ; taking his argument from the immortality of the soul, and a future state." A re-print also of Sir John Cheke's book, " The true Subject," of which we had occasion to speak largely in our first volume, under the reign of Edward VI., anno 1549, was put out this year, in a small 8vo, perused and imprinted by Seres. It was in this year likewise, that Lambard's Perambulation of Kent was printed,! in which the Lord Treasurer is supposed to have had some hand ; the manuscript having been sent to him by Archbishop Parker (see before, p. 21), who had been entrusted with it by the author, and who wished it " to suffer the hammer of some of his friends' judgments," as the Archbishop wrote to Lord Burghley, before he could venture to put it abroad ; " by which hints," says Strype, " we may collect the value of that book, which as it had a very learned man for its author, so it had the perusals, corrections, and additions of two other men of learning in antiquity ; and they no less than an Archbishop of Canterbury, and a Lord Treasurer of England." In the obituary of this year, several eminent names are to be found ; as, the * This was called Barker's Bible, the name of the Queen's Printer. f We follow Strype ; Nicholson, in his Historical Library, speaks of an edition in 1570. Lond. 4to. This does not seem lo agre,ewith what is said, of the Archbishop's sending it in MS. to the Lord Treasurer in 1573. See before, p. 21 ; and in which letter, which may be seen in the Appendix to Strype's Life of the Archbishop, No. 89, he says, he is sure the Lord Treasurer had not seen it. In truth Nicholson is wrong, as the Preface to Bolisant's edition, 1576, expressly mentions |he circumstance of its having been written in 1570. 70 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. Emperor Maximilian, the Earl of Essex, the Duke of Chatelherault, and Sir Anthony Cooke. Maximilian II. was born in 1527, and elected King of the Romans in 1562 ; he had procured himself to be chosen King of Hungary and Bohemia, in the life-time of his father, whom he succeeded in the empire, 1564. He was of too mild and pacific a disposition to make any great figure in those days, but it is much to his credit, that he scrupled not to remonstrate openly with those who were for more violent measures. When urged to take a decided part against the Protestants, " He did not," he said, " comprehend how it could be doing any honour to the common Father of mankind, to sprinkle his altars with the blood of heretics." When Henry III. of France visited him on his road from Poland, to take possession of his new dominions, he advised him to adopt milder mea sures than his brother Charles. " In pretending to exercise a power over men's consciences," he observed, "which God never conferred upon them, Princes are in danger of forfeiting that power which God has really entrusted to them." He was a Prince of a cultivated understanding, fond of books, and a patron of learned men ; he married a sister of Philip the Second of Spain, by whom he had rather a numerous family ; and the eldest daughter, according to the hor rible arrangements of royal marriages, married her uncle Philip ; the youngest daughter Elizabeth, was the wife of Charles the IXth of France : we have already spoken of her virtues ; she suffered, but in silence ; her father had fore warned her of the sad state of the kingdom, over which she was called to pre side as Queen, and she prudently learned to conceal her grief, and managed to be spared giving her consent to measures, which she could not but view with horror and disgust. The Emperor died on the 12th of October, 1576.* The death ofthe Earl of Essex, had something in it very melancholy ; for he held a high situation in Ireland, where he was known to have discharged his duty, like a good, faithful, and brave subject of the Queen, liked by every body in that divided country, even, it would seem, by his greatest opponents, but there were those who wished him out of the way ; Leicester had set his heart upon possessing Lady Essex, and it has been conjectured, therefore, that her unfortunate husband lost his life by poison;! at a11 events, the marriage of Leices- * On this occasion, the Queen sent Sir Philip Sidney, upon an embassy of condolence to the German Court, and to convey her congratulations at the same time to Rodolph, King of the Romans, on his succession to the Empire. t See the account prefixed to Letter ccxi, in Mr. Ellis's Collection, 1st series, vol. ii. 279. 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 71 ter with his widow, afforded very reasonable grounds for such suspicions, con sidering the character of the persons, the times, and the transaction ; especially as Leicester had interested himself to get him sent back to Ireland after a tem porary absence, and shamefully repudiated another Lady to wed the Lady Essex, who was a daughter of Sir Francis Knollys. The very last letter this unfortunate Nobleman wrote, seems to have been addressed to Lord Burghley, and must therefore be copied. It is dated Sept. 25, 1576.*— "My good Lord, " It were more reasonable that I framed my last speech unto you to this end, to shew myself thankful for your favours past, than to enter into new petitions at such a time as this, when you are sure that your thanks will die with me ; and that my son, by tenderness of years, is far from discretion to judge of such friendships, as I must desire to proceed from your Lordship in his behalf. Nevertheless, upon the assured confidence, that your love to me shall descend to my children, and that your Lordship will declare yourself a friend to me alive or dead ; I have willed Mr. Waterhouse to shew unto you, how you may with honour and equity do good to my son Hereford, and how to bind him with perpetual friendship to you and your house, and to the end I would have his love towards those which are descended from you spring up and increase with his years. I have wished his education to be in your household, though the same had not been allotted to your Lordship as Master of the Wards ; and that the whole time, which he should spend in England, in his minority, might be divided in attendance upon my Lord Chamberlain and you, to the end, that as he might frame himself to the example of my Lord of Sussex in all the actions of his life, tending either to the wars, or to the institution of a Noble man ; so that he might also reverence your Lordship, for your wisdom and gra vity, and lay up your counsels and advices in the treasury of his heart. " I assure myself in God, that he will raise up many friends to my posterity, and that this small persuasion shall be sufficient to move your Lordship to do good to the son of him, who lived and died your true and unfeigned friend, and so to the Lord I commit you, sequestering myself henceforth from all worldly causes, Your Lordship's bounden and at commandment, "Essex. "At Dublin the 21st of September, 1576." * Murdin, 301. 72 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1576. " My good Lord,— I am much desirous that my son* should be sent to the Palsgrave as soon as your Lordship and my Lord Chamberlain should think him fit to travel, but whatsoever I write to the Queen's Majesty therein, I shall submit myself to your two opinions, as I would in all things, if God had given me life." ' This- is certainly a very remarkable letter, for on the very day after it was written, viz. on the 22d of September, this "good Earl of Essex," as he has been reasonably called, breathed his last in the Castle of Dublin, according to the account of the Master of the Rolls there, in a letter to Lord Burghley, as follows : " O my good Lord, here I must among others advertise you of the doleful departure of the Earl of Essex ; who ended his life, to begin a better, the 22d of September in the Castle of Dublin." — He continued to inform his Lordship, * Of this son we shall have more to say hereafter. — But we cannot help transcribing the fol lowing letter, as justly appertaining to the work we have in hand ; though we have been antici pated by Mr. Ellis, who has published it already in the 2d series of his Original Letters. " Walter Earl of Essex to the Lord Treasurer."— [MS. Lansdowne, 17, art. 23.] " My verie good Lord, because I have ever found in your Lordship such love and favour towards me as I cannot anie wais fully requite, I have therefore resolved to make you the offir of the most sufficient pledge of my good will, namely of the direction, educacion, and marriage of myne eldest sonne, whome if you can like to match with your daughter I will presently assuer hym two thousand markes by yere in Englande, besides my houses, demaines, and parkes. I will give to your Lordship one hundreth poundes or two hundreth markes by yere for his education, I will assuer to your daughter five hundreth poundes by yere in jointure, and upon the marriage depart with a convenient portion for their maintenance during my lief; yf at yeres of discretion the match shalle not goe forward, I will give to the gentlewoman, to her marriage two thousand poundes, and thus much in behalf of my sonne. From myself you shall most assuredlie look and ever fynde as firme and constaunt friendship as your Lordship shall receive by enie other alliaunce in Englande ; to all which pointes I gage myne honour and faith, and have testified the lik.e to the bearer to be utterid to your Lordship, as I do now also confirme it with my hand and seale. Their is equality sufficient in their yeres, no great distaunee iu neighbourhood between Tiboldes and Bonington, such an occation might make me like well of my landes in Essex, where if God send me lief I might hereafter shewe all offices of friendship to the good Countesse your daughter, of whose match I mistrust not but your Lordship shall in the end receive singular cumfort. Your Lordship seeth how open and plaine I am ; use me as it shall please you : and so with my most harty commendacions to my Lady I take my leave — at Knockfergus the first of November 1573. " At your Lordship's Commandment, " To the right honourable my verie good lord the " W. Essex." lord Burleighe Lord Treasurer of Englande." 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 73 that being about him in the latter end of his sickness, he beheld such tokens of nobility, conjoined with a most godly and virtuous mind, to the yielding up of his breath, as was rarely to be seen ; — that two days before he died, he had speech with him of his Lordship [the Lord Treasurer], and said he thought he was born to do him and his good. But now, said he, I must commit the over sight of my son and all to him;— that he spake also lovingly of my Lord of Sussex; — he doubted that he had been poisoned,* but of that suspicion he quitted this land, saying, No, not Tirrelaghe Lunnagh himself would do any villany to his person. — At the last, yielding up his breath, he cried, Courage, courage ; L am a soldier that must fight under the banner of my Saviour Christ." The body of this noble Lord! was brought over to be buried at Carmarthen, where he first drew his breath, and where his funeral was performed with great solemnity, the Bishop of St. David's preaching the sermon. The following account of' the death of the Duke of Chatelherault we copy from Camden : "There died this year no man of great note in England, but in Scotland a most noble person, namely James Hamilton, Duke of Chastel-Herault, and Earl of Arran ; who being great grandson to James the Second King of Scots, by his daughter, was appointed tutor to Mary Queen of Scots, and Governor and Heir-apparent of the kingdom during her minority. After, when he had deli vered her to the French, he was made Duke of Chastel-Herault in France, and was after that constituted by Q. Mary (being then a prisoner) the 'first of the three Lieutenants of Scotland. Whose cause whilst he most constantly main tained, being an open-hearted man, and of a mild disposition, he was perpe tually tossed and turmoiled by the vexatious contrivances of turbulent persons." The death of Sir Anthony Cooke, the father-in-law of Lord Burghley, took place on the 11th of June, 1576, at his seat, Giddy Hall, in the county of Essex. * Sir Anthony, to go back to the commencement of our work, was one of the executors of Henry VIII. 's last will, and one of the tutors to his son • This seems very much to differ from the account in Camden ; and, perhaps, as that his torian observes, it was but a suspicion of the vulgar (who always suspect them to be poisoned, whom they esteem and love). The testimony of the Master of the Rolls, however, is very strong, and his discharging Ireland from the imputation appears to implicate Leicester. ¦f He was only thirty-three years of age when he died. — He had a superstitious notion that thirty-six was the utmost limit of the days of the Earls of Essex, and even desired his son to be admonished of this, who indeed did not live so long. — Camden. VOL. III. L 74 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1'576. King Edward VI. The inscription upon his monument in Rumford Chape], where he was buried, very concisely expresses his quality, his worth, his mar riage, and his family, in the following words : "Dns Anthonius Cocus, ordinis equestfis miles, ob singularem Doctrinam, prudentiam et pietatem, Regis Edoardi Sexti Institutor Constitutus. Uxorem habuit Annam filiam Gulielmi Fitzwilliams de Milton, militis, vere piam et generosam. Cum qua diu feliciter vixit, et supervixit. Ut tandem quum suos, tam natos, quam natas, bene collocasset, in Christo pie mortuus est, anno setatis, 70."* The celebrity of his daughters need scarcely be insisted upon. Much has been said of them in our first volume, and more may be seen in the Biographia Britannica, and in Strype's Annals, b. ii. ch. 5. where also an account is given of Sir Anthony's last will, and of his eminent deserts, as one of the restorers of learning, and of true religion, in this kingdom; and more especially, as one who had been particularly instrumental in embuing the mind of that excellent Prince Edward VI. with right principles of religion, and disposing him to carry on the Reformation of the Church, began by his father, Henry VIII., and per fected by his sister, Queen Elizabeth. The Queen's summer excursion or Progress this year, seems to have hung for sometime in suspense, as Mr. Gilbert Talbot wrote to Lord Shrewsbury. " Since my coming to the Court there hath been sundry determinations of her Majesty's Progress this summer ; yesterday it was set down she would to Grafton, and Northampton, Leicester, and to Asheby, my Lord Huntingdon's house, and there to have remained twenty-one days to the end the water of Buxton might have been daily brought thither for my Lord of Leicester, or any other to have used ; but late yesternight this purpose altered, and now at this present her Majesty thinketh to go no farther than Grafton : howbeit there is no certainty, for these two or three days it has changed every five hours. The physicians have fully resolved, that wheresoever my Lord of Leicester be, he must drink and use the Buxton water twenty days together. My Lady Essex, and my Lady Susan will be soon at Buxton, and my Lady Norris shortly after. I cannot learn of any others that come from hence. w'„See « tHe Appendix' b< "• No> v- other ins"iptions and epitaphs. From one it appears that William Cooke, his second son, married a daughter of Lord John Grey, brother ofthe Duke of Suffolk, and uncle to Lady Jane Grey, Lady Catherine, &c, which may account for Lord and Lady Burghley be.ng styled cousins in the letters of that family, preserved in the Museum 1576.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 75 " I saw the Queen's Majesty yesternight in the garden ; but for that she was talking with my Lord Hunsdon, she spake nothing to me, but looked very ear nestly on me : I hear her Majesty conceiveth something better of me than here tofore ; and my Lord of Leicester doubteth not in time to bring all well again." This letter is dated July 6, 1576. The Queen, in fact, made no great nor remarkable Progress this year. On July the 30th, she appears to have gone to Havering, having been previously in Surrey,* and from thence, perhaps, made a short tour through Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. In September, Lord Burghley in his Journal writes ; " Her Majesty continueth at Windsor." On the 24th of August, Mr. Horsman (a Gentleman in the employ of the Lord Treasurer Cecil), wrote to Sir William More, at Losely, near Guildford, in Surrey, to tell him, it was thought the Queen would not come to his house as expected. He ends his letter, " My Lord Treasurer told me he heard the plague was about Oatlands." This may have hastened her Majesty's return to Windsor. * See Preface to the Progresses, p. xix. CHAP. V. 1577. Nineteenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began November 17, 1576. Lord' Oxford—Letter of Lord Burghley to the Queen concerning him and Lady Oxford — Sir Thomas Smith's letter to Lord Burghley concerning Lord Oxford — Affairs of the Netherlands— Don, John — Schemes of the Catholic Princes — Lord Burghley's letter to Lord Shrewsbury on the rumours of attempts to be made to liberate Mary— History of this period perplexed — Lord Sussex on continental affairs — Archbishop Grindal sequestered — Prophesyings — Affairs of the Church — Letter from the Queen to the Bishop of Lincoln — Letter from Bishop Barnes to Lord Burghley — -Ofthe Book of Common Prayer, Homi lies, fyc. — Letter from Bishop Cox to Lord Burghley' oh Archbishop Grindal' s suspen sion — Extract from Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer concerning Lord Burghley — Extract from Preface to the Decads of Bullinger — Of Archbishop Grindal and Lord Burghley — Egremond Radcliffe — His letters to Lord Burghley — Multiplicity of affairs in which Lord Burghley was engaged — Criminals — Sir Nicholas Bacon's letter to the Queen on the dangers threatening the nation — Queen's progresses in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex — Lord Burghley at Buxton — Visits Chatsworth — Letter from the Queen to Lord Shrewsbury, thanking him for his attentions to Lord Leicester at Chatsworth — Death of Sir Thomas Smith — Succeeded by Dr. Wylson as Secretary of State. At the beginning of this year, the Lord Treasurer appears to have suffered great trouble and uneasiness from the waywardness and irregular conduct of his son-in-law, the Earl of Oxford. We have, in a former part of our work, given some slight sketches of this Nobleman's character, which betokened a high spirit, but not subject to any reasonable control. With great advantages at Court, even as it is sup posed, a personal likingcon the part of the Queen, he managed to offend her ; having quitted the kingdom without her permission, he was sent for back in the most public manner ; and his father-in-law Lord Burghley, seems, from the fol lowing entry in his Diary (as it is called), to have been obliged to go to Bristol with him, where the Queen was at that time on her Progress, to procure pardon and remission of his great offence.—" August, 1574— Earl of Oxford returned ; and he and I went to the Queen's Majesty at Bristol."* * Murdin, 776. 1577.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 77 After this, his Lordship seems to have gone abroad again, and not to have returned before the 29th of March, 1576 ; when we find the following entry also, in the Diary : i ''The Earl of Oxford arrived, being returned out of Italy; he was enticed by certain lewd persons, to be a stranger to his wife." Lord Burghley was by all accounts an excellent family man, and bore a great love to his children, this slight of his daughter, therefore, could not fail to give him great uneasiness; especially as the estimation in which Lord Oxford appeared' to be held at Court, for many showy accomplishments, might natu rally lead i him to suppose, that the Queen might be prejudiced by false repre sentations of the case ; this seems to have induced him to address a letter to her Majesty, March 3, 1576-7, in which he appears rather to put her Majesty on her guard against false rumours, than in any- direct manner to criminate Lord Oxford. The letter may be seen in the Appendix to Strype's Annals, book ii. No. v. — His Lordship, in this letter, professes not to know the exact cause of Lord Oxford's cold and neglectful behaviour, and to doubt whether he meant to accuse Lady Oxford of any misdemeanor, or whether it might be out of mislike to himself. Lord Orford, in his History of Royal and Noble Authors, has ventured to repeat the following story as a solution of the difficulty. "The Duke of Nor folk," he says, " was nephew of this Earl of Oxford, who was very strongly attached to him, and used the utmost urgency of intreaty with Burleigh, whose daughter he had married, to prevail on him to procure his pardon; but not suc ceeding, he was so incensed against that Minister, that in most absurd and unjust revenge (though the cause was amiable) he swore he would do all he could to ruin his daughter ; and accordingly, not only forsook her bed, but sold and con sumed great part ofthe vast inheritance, descended to him from his ancestors." But Strype had long before disputed this account of things. "It is neces sary," he says, in his Annals, under the year 1571, "here to vindicate the Lord Burghley from an imputation given out in some of our later historians concerning him ; viz. that the reason of the extravagancies of this Earl, and his squandering away his patrimony, was a distaste taken against his father-in-law, for refusing, when it lay in his power, to save the life of his beloved and entire friend, the Duke of Norfolk, condemned for dealings with the Scottish Queen. And this story is taken up in a book not long ago printed, and from thence in the book called the Baronage of England. Whereas,, this is a surmise and imagination, borrowed from the Papists, as smelling of their malice to blur the memory of 78 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY.. [1577.- that excellent wise Statesman. They that know any thing of those matters, know that that Lord did whatever he could to bring that Duke into favour, and did it ; until again imprudently meddling in that affair, the treason became so apparent, he was condemned by his Peers; and the^Queen would not pardon, since her own crown and life was in hazard thereby." We can neither confirm nor refute this story; it may be true or not true; but that Lord Oxford was capable of acting as is above represented, we can believe, from the character given of him by different writers. It is but doing justice, however, to Lord Burghley to observe, that in his letter to the Queen, he declares that he had never omitted to do him any good, nor had he even in thought ever imagined any thing offensive to him ; that on the contrary, he had been as diligent in all causes* for his benefit, as for his own. As for his daugh ter, the Lady Oxford, he asserts (which by all accounts he well might do) that he had never seen in her behaviour, in word or deed, or even could perceive by any other means, but that she had always used herself honestly, chastely, and lovingly towards him. "And now, upon expectation, of his coming, is filled with joy thereof; so desirous to see the time of his arrival approach, as in any judgment no young lover rooted or sotted in love of any person, could more excessively shew the same, in all comeliest tokens. " Now when after his arrival, when some doubts were caused of his accept ance of her, her innocence seemed to make her so bold, as she never cast any care of things past, but wholly reposed herself vvith assurance to be well used by him. And with that confidence and importunity made to me, she went to him, and there missed of her expectation : and so attendeth, as her duty is, to gain some part of her hope." This is certainly a very striking and high-drawn picture of a faithful, chaste, and affectionate wife, slighted by a richly endowed worldly husband, of fascinat ing manners, but without principle ;f wholly undeserving of such conjugal * As Master of the Wards. — See also his vindication of himself to the Earl. Strype's Annals, ii. Part ii. pp. 179, 180. t Strype calls him " a humourist, unkind, and a great embezzler of his estate." " His dis obliging carriage, and his wild way of living/' he continues, " was a great affliction to the Lord Burghley, his father-in-law, who had deserved so well of him." On which occasion, Sir Thomas Smith, the Secretary, his friend, in the year 1576, wrote thus to him: "That he was sorry to hear. of the undutiful and unkind dealing of the Earl of Oxford towards his Lordship, which he was sure, must very much grieve his Honour, since he had such a love towards him from his childhood, being brought up in his house. That his Lordship's benefits towards him, and great care for him, 1577.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. ?Q attachment, and yet, capable, as to all external accomplishments, of exciting it. We shall probably find more to say of this unfortunate couple. The attention of the Court was this year principally directed to the Nether lands, where things were in great confusion, from an extraordinary competition of interests. "Don John of Austria," says Rapin, " came info the Low Countries the beginning of the year 1577 with his head full of vast projects. He was a Prince of a great genius, and of an ambition suitable to his birth. The condition of a subject was to him a burden which he would have been very willing to be eased of. All his views tended to sovereignty. His first project was to make himself King of Tunis; that failing, he thought of marrying the Queen of Scots, and thereby of becoming Sovereign of all Great Britain. Camden affirms he had this from the mouth of Antonio Perez, who told him moreover, that the project had been imparted to Pope Gregory XIII., who approved of it, but that it was concealed from King Philip.* This was probably the subject of Don John's conferences at Paris, with the Duke of Guise. So that when he arrived in the Low Countries, he had two grand designs in his head. First, to subdue the Netherlands entirely : secondly, to-become master of England arid Scotland. Elizabeth was not ignorant of the first, but the second was still a secret to her." How long the latter remained a secret to her, does not exactly appear, but from Camden's account, she had information of it before Don John expected. In fact, the Prince of Orange, who had penetrated into these designs, informed her of it, so that she knew all about it when she first sent to congratulate Don John on his arrival in the Netherlands. She had also intimation given her of a design on the part of the Duke d'Alencon to bring an army into the Low Coun tries, for the purpose of expelling Don John, under a hope, that if they changed their Sovereign, he might himself be chosen. Lord Burghley, who passed much of his time this year at Buxton, whither the accounts of foreign matters were sent to him by Secretary Walsingham, seems to have consoled himself with the hope, that the attention of France and Spain mio-ht be diverted from England in some measure, by the projects on foot, and as to any ill likely to ensue from Don John, who meant evil, he trusted deserved a far other recompense of duty and kindness." And he charged this evil upon his counsellors and persuaders whoever they were, and concluded with this sound advice, " sed haB sunt procellse domesticae sola prudentia sustinendse." * Camden says, Don John treated with the Pope about deposing of Queen Elizabeth, marrying the Queen of Scots, and conquering England. HO MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. Providence might infatuate his Italian or Spanish practices. But as there were very strong rumours afloat in the summer, of attempts to be made to convey away the Queen of Scots, of which he was informed on his return to the Court, he thought it proper to write to Lord Shrewsbury about it, who was then with his charge at Chatsworth, not only expressing his full reliance on the vigilance and attention of that Noble Lord, but vouching for the quiet state of the country, during his visit to those parts, adding, however, that " although time did try these rumours, for any thing already done, to he false, yet the noise thereof, and the doubt her Majesty had of secret hidden practices, to be wrought rather by corruption of some of that Lord's servants, in whom he trusted, than by open force, moved her Majesty to warn him, to continue or rather increase his vigi lance if it might be, so that he might not be circumvented therein."* This is a very perplexed portion of history, as the historians themselves differ much from each other ; Camden, speaking of a treaty which the Queen made with the States, of which Grotius makes no mention, only observing, that she so took her measures as to prevent the States coming to any important resolution without giving her notice : upon which Rapin makes this reflection, " The truth is, it was very much for her interest to order it so, that the war which was only beginning in the Low Countries, should be carried on in such a manner, that Don John of Austria should not be able to execute his projects upon England. These projects were not the chimerical inventions of the Prince of Orange, on purpose to draw in Elizabeth to defend the Netherlands. Strada makes positive mention of them in his history ; he even says Gregory XIII. sent a Nuncio to Don John with the sum of 50,000 crowns to be laid out in the expedition pro jected against England ; but that he was forced to use it, in his war with the States." Elizabeth supplied the States with money, assuring Philip that it was to * There is rather a remarkable passage in this letter, which may serve to shew the uncertainty of Mary's destination at this time, as far as Lord Burghley's knowledge went. After observing that for his own part he was bold to make small account of the rumours which had so agitated the Court and perplexed her Majesty in his absence, he says, " Surely, in my opinion, although I know many are desirous your charge should be at liberty, yet I see no reasonable cause to move me to think that she would adventure herself to be conveyed away by stealth; both for the sundry dangers that might light upon her, but specially for that being at liberty, if her friends should attempt any thing by force for her against this realm, she might provoke the Queen's Majesty, arid the states of the realm to work matter to bar her of the interest which she supposeth she hath." 1577.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 81 prevent their desperately throwing themselves into the arms of France. This, indeed, might be one reason, but Rapin observes, " In all appearance, Philip was not very well pleased with these reasons ; but he made as if he were, that he might not induce Elizabeth to do more."* Her great object, however, must have been, not to suffer the States to be so oppressed, or the Protestants so entirely subdued, as that either Don John of Austria, France, or Spain, might be able from Flanders, to carry on without impediment or interruption/any designs against England, for that they all severally or jointly harboured such designs, there could be no doubt. In August, Lord Burghley, writing to Lord Shrews bury, tells him, " Sir John Smith is come out of Spain, who reporteth that the King there hath great lack of treasure, whatsoever hath been said to the con trary : I wish he had plenty of treasure, so as we were sure he had plenty of good will towards us." — Lodge's Illustrations, ii. No. cxviii., at which very time also, Lord Sussex, writing to Lord Burghley at Buxton to inquire after his health, expresses his opinion to be, that the only hope of quiet to England, was * Rapin seems to contradict himself here, since it follows, " Whilst Elizabeth assisted the Con federates of the Low Countries with money, under colour of hindering them from submitting to France, Philip returned this favour by endeavouring to raise a rebellion in Ireland. This, it seems, was partly a scheme ofthe Pope's, who wished to help his son Jacomo Boncampagno to the crown of that kingdom." — See Rapin, viii. 501, 50?. where may be seen the whole account of Stukely's strange project, which seems certainly to have received encouragement both from the Pope and Philip. Stukely was armed with Indulgences by Gregory XIII. to be granted to all who should assist in the reduction of England and Scotland, and in the delivery and preservation of Mary Queen of Scots, as may be seen in Strype's Annals, ii. 191, 192. The Earl of Desmond being the Pope's Champion in Ireland, p. 194. In England, at the same time, much was supposed to be passing, to prepare the Catholic subjects of the Queen for an invasion, either by the King of Spain or Don John. — Of these practices, an account may be seen in Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer, who had received an account from Dr. Wylson, the Queen's Ambassador in the Low Countries, that there were ten Priests dispersed of late into different parts of this kingdom, and one of these, named Meredith, appeared to have fallen into the Bishop's power, of whom Strype gives a long account in the place referred to. So persuaded, indeed, was this learned Prelate (who was well acquainted with the wiles of Popery) that pains were taking to prepare the Catholics for an invasion and conquest ofthe kingdom, that he wrote thus earnestly to Lord Burghjey upon the subject : ",I speak to your Lordship, as one chiefly careful for the State, and to use more severity than hitherto has been used: or else we shall smart for it: for as sure as God liveth they look for an invasion, or else they would not fall, away as they do." In fact, about this time, many Papists who did before outwardly conform, withdrew from the Church, and refused the oath of supremacy, and many wavering Protestants were turned to Papacy by the seminary Priests. VOL. HI. M 82 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. to keep the Continental powers as equally as possible opposed to each other; for, that if the balance or equality be at any time broken, so that " one be clearly down and the other set up over high," the burden would be the heavier for England.' — Ib. letter cxix. The affairs of the Church were in no small confusion this year, from the singular circumstance of the sequestration of no less a person than the Arch bishop of Canterbury (Grindal); who had given great offence to the Queen by not obeying her injunctions to put down the prophesyings or exercises as they were called, of which we have spoken before. The Bishops in general were undoubtedly placed in very awkward circumstances, having to watch the Papists and restrain the Puritans; thereby occasioning heats and jealousies, not only among the common people, but the gentry, openly or secretly connected with either of those parties, and many of whom being magistrates,, were willing enough to dispute the Episcopal authority, wherever the jurisdic tions seemed to clash. The more the Bishops were pressed by those who were thus jealous of them, the mqre they must have felt the want of a learned Ministry, to afford them adequate support ; and Protestant learning, or in other words, Protestant theology, may be said to have flowed in upon England after the termination of Mary's reign, from Switzerland and Germany. Unfor tunately, with those who returned from the former country, a strong bias towards a popular government was also imported, which the Queen could not like ; and which, in fact, endangered the existing laws. The prophesyings or exercises, might "have a tendency to improve the qualifications of the Ministry; but in so contentious an age, and where Protestants themselves were known to be divided in opinion, the hazard must have been very great, of increasing rather than allay ing the disposition to Non-conformity. Many of the Bishops had themselves been refugees, and the guests of learned Divines abroad, whose opposition to the Church of Rome, had been carried farther than was the case in England. But as far as the Queen herself was concerned, she had a just right to think that the law had provided sufficiently for the Church, in the careful compilation of a public liturgy, with preaching in the Church by such ministers as were able, and by the supply of a book of Homilies, for such as should be less learned, till by their own diligence and the promotion of the study of divinity in the Universities, a Ministry universally competent should be raised up— and this her Majesty fully expressed to be her feeling upon the subject, and the object of her wishes, in a letter she addressed nominally to the Bishop of Lincoln but 1577;] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 8.3 interided probably as a circular for the direction of all the Bishops. In this letter, she speaks of " the presumption of some who by singular exercises in public, after their own fancies, wrought no good in the minds of the multitude, easy to be carried away with novelties, and in a manner schismaticatly divided among themselves into variety of dangerous opinions, which, for divers good respects, therefore, she judged requisite to be forborne. Letting him know, that she, desiring to have God's people under her government guided in an uni formity as near as might be, charged and commanded him, to take order through the diocese, that no other exercise should be suffered publicly than preaching in fit time and place, by persons learned, discreet, conformable, and sound in religion : and reading the HomilieSj set forth by authority, and the injunctions appointed, and the order of the Book of Common Prayer."— It is not right to misrepresent purposes so openly and publicly expressed and avowed ; and yet Neal, in his History of the Puritans, has the assurance to say, that " the Queen put down the prophesyings or religious exercises for no other reason, but because they enlightened the people's minds in the Scriptures, and encouraged their inquiries after truth." Having, in our first volume, given an account of the extreme care taken, in compiling the Book of Common Prayer, in ordaining rites and ceremonies, and composing a Book of Homilies, for the use of the less learned in the ministry, at a time when from the necessity of the case, in the great changes on foot, a learned ministry could not be found to supply all cures, we must confess the Queen appears to have been quite right in upholding the laws, and not exposing the Church to the confusion arising from Non-conformists, bent upon following their own fancies ; and, as Barnes, Bishop of Durham, wrote to Lord Burghley this very year, "questioning every proclamation, decree, or com mandment, that came forth from her Majesty, by advice of her Council, in order to examine and determine, whether, with safe conscience, they might or ought to obey the same ;" i. e. whether, being in the ministry, they ought not rather to disobey, or resist such orders and injunctions; for this certainly lay at the bottom of their proceedings. It was the use made of the Churches, for such public exercises, and with the sanction or connivance of the Bishops, to which the Queen so greatly objected ; nor should it be forgotten, that there were Papists always at hand, ready if they could, to prevent that very uniformity, which the Queen wished to see established, "as near as might be," as she expressed herself in the letter above cited. Grindal declined to suppress these exercises in his 84 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. province, and thereby incurred the Queen's displeasure, to a certain extent, by a partial sequestration from the duties of his high station, and which continued till the year 1582. Lord Burghley, as usual, seems to have been generally addressed, if not con suited, upon all these points ; and no man indeed could be expected to have a judgment better informed, upon the questions in agitation ; no man knew better than himself what provisions had been made for promoting that uniformity in the service of the Church, which the Queen seemed to have so much at heart ; he knew how his old friends, Cranmer, Ridley, and others, not excepting perhaps Bucer and Peter Martyr, had laboured to compile an unexceptionable form of Common Prayer, for the Protestant Church of England, the care that had been taken to settle the faith in Homilies and Articles, and how little they deserved to be disturbed by novelties imported from abroad ; and yet, perhaps, no man lamented more than he did, the ignorance and incompetency of many, who, almost of necessity, had been admitted into the ministry ;* nor could any man * From a letter to be seen in Murdin, addressed to Lord Burghley, by Archbishop Grindal, soon after his removal to Canterbury, it would appear that the Lord Treasurer had been inquiring into the dilapidated state of the Churches, in Romney Marsh. As more than two centuries and a half have passed since this letter was written, and the condition of that large tract of land remains as nearly as possible in the same state, it is too curious a piece of local information, to be omitted in a history written not far from the spot, and by an author having an interest there, as incumbent of one of the largest parishes in the Marsh, with a population still below 300. The Church, however, ip spacious and in good repair. " From the Archbishop of Canterbury, February 7, 1576-7. " Concerning the declined Churches in Romney Marsh, upon the causes alleged in the articles your Lordship sent me, I have been heretofore informed, and have given charge to my officers to see the same reformed, as far as may be by jurisdiction ecclesiastical. Herein has been the difficulty, the law bindeth the inhabitants to repair their parish Church ; presuming that the soil is in their occupation, as of reason it ought to be ;* in the Marsh, those that occupy the soil, dwell out of the parish, and having pulled down most part of the best houses in the parish, they leave only cottage houses, and the inhabitants that remain are only bubulci et opiliones, and never able to repair the Church. So groweth a question, whether the owners of the soil be not chargeable to the repairing of the Church, &c. ? wherein the temporal lawyers stand against us, &c. &c. It is a hard case diruere loca sacra extra casum necessitatis. — God keep your Lordship. "To the Right Honourable my very good Lord, the Lord " Edmund Cantuar." Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England." There can be no doubt but that the comparative depopulation of so large a portion of one of the richest and most beautiful counties in the kingdom, must have arisen from the unhealthiness of the situation, which in many parts still prevails to a great and distressing degree; so that 1577.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 85 be more desirous, probably, of encouraging whatever might be reasonably expected to improve the Clergy in knowledge. So far, like many of the Bishops, he may appear to have beenwavering at times, wishing if he could, to reconcile the two great objects, of providing a more learned ministry, and upholding what had been sufficiently settled and established, by the judgment of the wisest of his contemporaries, and the sanction of the laws. There is a remarkable letter preserved, upon the very subject of Archbishop Grindal's suspension, from Cox, Bishop of Ely, to his Lordship ; which, as it carries us back to the very beginning of Lord Burghley's political life, and to the times of our first truly Protestant Sovereign, Edward VI.,* Cox's pupil, we shall copy. " To the Lord Treasurer Burghley, "Sir, — I write unto, non sine anxietate cordis ; her Majesty adeo indignata suo primo sacerdoti, cujus indignatio mors est. Deus meliora. Sacerdotem vero tam clementem Principem, et religionis sincera fautricem, irritare, fontem lacry- marum merito ex oculis elicit. " Since the beginning of our acquaintance,! both, you and I (God's blessed name be glorified) have constantly, through many brunts, a dextris et a sinistris, persevered, and you especially. Now at this pinch, esto fortis, et viriliter age, et confortetur cor tuum.\. " Iunderstand of late, the matter is touching a conference, which hath been used, or rather abused, and not by public authority established; and therefore not unworthily by authority abolished, which I trust no man doth maintain. But I trust hereafter, the thing being deeply and considerately weighed, her Lombard's account, which is as old as the Archbishop's letter, almost as well applies to the pre sent condition of things. " It is bad in winter,'' says he, " worse in summer, and at no time good ; only fit for those vast herds of cattle, which feed all over it." * Grindal himself had been one of Edward VI. 's Six Preachers. — See vol. i. t Temp. Henrici Octavi. — See our first vol. J So much was Lord Burghley looked up to by the Bishops at this time, that Strype gives the following account in his Life of Bishop Aylmer. "And when about the year 1577, great fears were in all men's hearts from the joint conspiracies of Popish Princes abroad, and the Scotch Queen's accomplices at home, against the peace and quiet of England; the Bishop, knowing what a great Minister of State the Lord Treasurer was, and what a chief hand he had in the counsels and government, fell to his prayers, and most earnestly beseeched God to give that great Counsellor, ' the eyes of angels, and the wisdom of Solomon ;' styling him ' God's great and good instrument in this poor Ark of Noah, in these dangerous times.'" — Life of Aylmer, 183. 86 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. Majesty's seeking especially the glory of God, and the quiet and needful edify ing of her people, may be moved to have further consideration of this matter; and when the great ignorance, idleness, and lewdness, of the. great number of poor and blind priests in the Clergy shall be deeply weighed and considered of, it will be thought most necessary to call them and to drive them, to some tra vail and exercise of God's holy word ; whereby they may be the better able to discharge their bounden duty towards their flock. I trust I shall not need, either with words or reasons* to move your righteous heart to mitigate her Ma jesty's displeasure and indignation against her Archbishop, who I doubt not will use himself with all dutiful submission. " I have written to her Majesty after my humble manner, absit ut tam grave exemplum edatur in Ecclesia Angiicana, quam tantopere Romana tyrannis infes- tare et devorare satagit, Sec. Thus the Lord Jesus bless you with increase of health, and with all goodness that your heart can desire. From my house at Dodington, the 12th of June, 1577. "Your Lordship's assuredly, "Richarde Ely."* At this time there came out a translation of the Decads of Bullinger, the worthy and hospitable divine of Zurich, of whom we have often before had occasion to speak. These were practical discourses on the chief heads of reli gion, and intended, like the Homilies, for the use of such Ministers as could not make sermons for themselves. In the preface to this book, there is so good an account given of the state of the Church, that we cannot forbear transcribing some parts of it. Speaking of the inability of Ministers, the 'publisher, a person of eminence, observes, " that the cause of this great want was not then to be disputed. But in very deed, any man might judge how impossible it was for so populous a kingdom, abounding with so many several congregations, to be all furnished with fit and able pastors, and that immediately after such a general corruption and apostacy from the truth ; for unless they should suddenly have come from * So weary was this good Bishop of his honour, that he heartily wished this year to resign his charge, and to that effect applied to his old friend, the Lord Treasurer ; pleading that he was now in fine uetatis, and therefore desired, speaking classically, to have his discharge. " You are the only man," he tells the Lord Treasurer, « to relieve me of my desire." His letter is dated from his palace at Ely, the 10th of November, 1577, and he signs himself, " Your Lordship's assured, Rich. Ely. Manu vacillante." 1577.} MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 87 heaven, or been raised up miraculously, they could not have been; for the ancient preachers of King Edward's time, some of them died in prison ; others perished by fire ; many, other ways. Many also fled into other countries, of whom some there died, and a few returned, which were but as a handful to furnish the whole realm. The Universities were also at first so infected, that many wolves and foxes crept out who detested the ministry ; wrought the contempt of it everywhere, but very few good shepherds came abroad. And whereas, since that time now eighteen years, the Universities being well purged, there was good hope that all the land should have been overspread, and replenished with able and learned pastors, the devil and corrupt pa trons had taken such order, that much of that hope was cut off; for patrons now-a-days search not the Universities for a most fit pastor, but they post up and down the country for a most gainful chapman ; he that hath the biggest purse to pay largely, not he that hath the best gifts to preach learnedly, is presented. The Bishops bear great blariie for this matter ; and they admit, they say, unworthy men. See the craft of Satan, falsely to charge the worthiest pillars of the Church, with the ruin of the Church ; to the end that all Church-robbers and caterpillars of the Church, may lie unespied. There is nothing that procureth the Bishops of our time more trouble and displeasure, than that they zealously withstand the covetousness of patrons, in rejecting their insufficient clerks." — There is certainly a great deal of truth in the above picture of the times. The Lord Treasurer was not inattentive to the unpleasant situation, in which the Archbishop was placed ; but after he had been in disgrace for the space of six months, sent a private and kind message to him, as Strype writes, by Good man Dean of Westminster, to acquaint him with what would probably be the course of proceedings upon the business in the Star Chamber ; and giving him advice and special directions under his own hand, how to act so as best and soonest to restore himself to the Queen's favour. But as the paper he had drawn up seemed to call for more submission and compliance, than the Arch bishop could reconcile to his conscience, he did not quite accede to its contents, but sent a petition to the Lords of the Star Chamber, in terms submissive enough in themselves, but in no manner acknowledging himself to have been in fault ; it is no wonder, therefore, that it had not the effect his friends could have wished, and Lord Burghley had contemplated. What made it so much a matter of conscience with the Archbishop, appears to have been a mistaken 88 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. notion, that the Apostle's injunction, 1 Cor. xiv. 29. laid a positive obligation , upon him to encourage such exercises.* Strype, in his Annals, under the year 1577, has given an account of the.dis- tress and sufferings of a half-brother of the Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain, Egremond Radcliffe, who having early in life been engaged in the rebellion of 1569, had endeavoured to get himself restored to the Queen's favour, but in vain. After being imprisoned in the Tower, for returning to England with out her permission, and instead of receiving, as he hoped, pardon for his offences, banished afresh ; he was executed in Flanders, by order of Don John, under a suspicion of his being employed to take away his life-t We mention this case, as a fresh instance of the confidence with which every person in trouble seems to have applied to the Lord Treasurer, in preference to any other person about the Court ; in this particular case, in preference even to the suf ferer's own brother, for Mr. Radcliffe in his several letters to Lord Burghley, as earnestly implores him to get him reinstated in the good opinion of. Lord Sussex, as of the Queen herself. As far back as in the year 1574, he wrote from abroad, begging the Lord Treasurer to be a means to my Lord, his brother, that he would pardon his offence, which God knew proceeded of youth and ignorance, not of malice; therefore, he humbly besought his Lordship, even for God's sake, to deal with his brother in it ; for that if he persevered still in his indignation against him, he knew it would be his destruction, &c. And to this application Lord Burghley appears to have paid great attention, for in 1575, before he took the imprudent step of neturning to England, without permission, he wrote from Calais, to the Lord Treasurer, " that if small benefits did bind good natures, how much ought he to think himself bound unto his Honour, since by his only friendship he had recovered grace at her Majesty's hands, and good liking of my Lord, his brother." * That the Archbishop was not singular in his interpretation of the above passage, may be seen by the paper introduced by Strype into the Appendix of his Life of Grindal, No. xii. pur porting to be a discourse concerning prophesying, from 1 Cor. xiv. 29. " Prophetse duo aut tres loquantur, &c. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge." But as St. Paul was writing to the Corinthians expressly, to guard them against confusion in their public meetings, and the prophets he alludes to were expected to wait for a revelation, ver. 30, the cases seem to have been exceedingly different. Bishop Aylmer was much troubled with these Precisians, and wrote to the Lord Treasurer about them ; wishing them removed from his diocese of London, to more distant counties, where he thought they might be of use, " to draw the people from Papism and gross ignorance." This was in 1577.— See Strype's Life of Aylmer, ch. iv. W t See Camden on this, p. 226, 227. 1577.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 89 It seems, therefore, that at that time Lord Burghley had effectually befriended him, and his own haste and imprudence ruined him afterwards. For in April of this year, 1577, he wrote from the Tower to his Lordship, complaining of his mise rable state and long imprisonment [about two years] : praying him, according to his accustomed goodness and consideration towards him, to understand the extremity he was in. And that he doubted not God would so work in his noble and pitiful heart, that he should find, by some suit made unto her Majesty in his behalf, a remedy of his sorrows ; wherein he pined and consumed, as one weary of life, and utterly void of consolation. He tells him, that he had no power to compass this benefit, but only by his Lordship' s favour and aid : to whom he was already so much bound, as he knew not how he might be ever able to acknow ledge the least part of his noble dealings towards him. In May, her Majesty continuing quite inexorable, he writes again to thank Lord Burghley for having endeavoured to serve him with her Majesty; for the which and a number of other favours shewed to him, he rendered his most humble thanks : acknowledging himself obliged to him during\his life, &c. From these letters it certainly appears, that the Lord Treasurer did all he could do for this unhappy man, though he had been in the rebellion of 1569, and connected with the very men who had combined to ruin his Lordship if they could have done it ; being besides still a Papist, and a pensioner of foreign Courts ; so desirous does Lord Burghley seem to have been of reclaiming and restoring any penitent rebel, where it might be done with any degree of pru dence. In this instance, the Queen seems to have mistrusted the prudence of Radcliffe, or perhaps his near relationship to Sussex, and Burghley's kindness, made Leicester his enemy. It would seem, as if the Lord Treasurer, though advanced at Court, con tinued to discharge the duties of all his former appointments. He still received as many supplicatory letters from distressed and needy persons, as when he held his first office of Master of Requests, and as many letters on political and state affairs as when he was Secretary of State. We find the Recorder of London this year making his report to him of condemned prisoners ; and the prisoners themselves sueing to him for pardon. Of criminals there seem to have been a sad number, consisting principally of the different gradations of thieves and robbers, or in the language of the times, "cozeners, cheats, and cut-purses ;"* • One who was under condemnation at this time, gave information to the Recorder of a design to rob the Lord Treasurer's house, in particular, but it seems to have been avery imperfect story. VOL. III. N 90 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. receivers of stolen goods, horse-stealers, fabricators of false money,* and dealers in magic. In November of this year the Lord Keeper Bacon, taking, as it were, a clear but comprehensive view of the dangers with which the nation was threatened, addressed a letter to the Queen, expressly to unfold to her his apprehension^, and to advise her of what he judged to be the best remedies against impending evils. The great powers arrayed against her he represented to be France, Spain, and Rome. France might be expected to attack her from Scotland; Spain by the Low Countries ; and Rome by its emissaries amongst the disaffected at home. He therefore strongly, admonished her Majesty carefully to look to Scotland, to give support to the Protestants, and before France could gain a footing there by pensions and gratuities, to offer such to the chiefs of the King's party, who would be more ready to receive them at her Majesty's hands, without any sacrifice of their religion, than at the hands of France, with such a sacrifice, and all its bad consequences. Against the Spanish designs, he recommended a prudent and close com munication with the Prince of Orange, in order to discover the best means of supporting the States against the tyranny of Spain, or any usurpations on the part of France : and against the Pope, he urged upon her Majesty the wisdom of giving countenance and credit to all her Protestant subjects, and to have Casimir in readiness to give his aid in case of emergencies. — The whole letter may be seen in the Appendix to the 2d vol. of Strype's Annals, No. vii. b, ii. Of the Queen's progresses and visits this year, we have to record, that on the 14th of May she was at Theobalds with the Lord Treasurer, and seems to have gone from thence to Gorhambury, the seat of the Lord Keeper, whom she had often visited before, but at this time her visit was the more noticeable, because he had fallen into some fresh disgrace on the old suspicion of favouring the claims ofthe Suffolk family to the crown, in preference to that ofthe Queen of Scots ; but it would appear, that while the Queen was at Theobalds, Lord Burghley had managed to procure a reconciliation. The expenses of her Majesty's visit to Gorhambury fell very heavily on the Lord Keeper ; an account of them may be seen in Nichols's Progresses.— It seems to have been upon • These were not destitute of the countenance and encouragement, even of certain of the Gentry, in many counties, as one reported to the Lord Treasurer. He offered also to impeach many who dealt in magic, and being then actually under condemnation, he speaks of his (Lord Burghley) having « preserved many condemned criminals to amendment of life." 1577.] MEMOIRS. OF LORD BURGHLEY. 91 this occasion that he made that ready reply to the Queen, upon her observing to him that the house was too small for him, — " Madam," said he, " my house is not too small for me, but your Majesty has made me too great for my house." Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, were the counties selected this year for her Majesty's usual summer Progress, and great preparations were in many parts made to receive her ; insomuch, that at some places where she was expected, there was likely to be a great dearth^ of provisions. Lord Buckhurst, in par ticular, was apprehensive of being put to difficulties, and absolutely wrote to the Lord Chamberlain (Lord Sussex), to know whether her Majesty would visit him or not, because, if she were to come, he had been so forestalled by the Lords Arundel and Montague, that the three counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, could not supply what would be wanted at Buckhurst, and that he should have to send to Flanders for a due supply of provisions. — The letter. is dated July 4, 1577. Lord Burghley, however, was not in the way to attend upon her Majesty before September, having occasion to go to Buxton, for which purpose he quitted Theobalds, July 22, and proceeded to Burghley House, Northamptonshire; thence, by Derby and Ashbourn in the Peak, to Lord Shrewsbury's at Chats worth, and so on to Buxton,* where he appears to have continued till towards the end of August. It is remarkable, that in the month preceding Lord Burghley's visit to Chatsworth and Buxton, Lord Leicester was at both those places ; and, indeed, received with such singular attention, respect, and hospitality, by Lord Shrews bury at the former place, as to draw from her Majesty a very particular letter of thanks, being from the form a regular state paper, as follows : "Elizabeth, " Our very good cousin, — Being given to understand from our cousin of Leicester, how honourably he was not only lately received by you our cousin, and the Countess at Chatsworth, and his diet by you both discharged at Buxton, but also presented with a very rare present ; we should do him great wrong (holding him in that place of favour we do), in case we should not let • He was accompanied by his son, Mr. Thomas Cecil. — See Lodge, ii. p. 158. He was enter tained at Chatsworth with the utmost hospitality, attention, and respect ; the Queen, indeed, had offered to write herself to Lord Shrewsbury, to bespeak his care, but as Lord Burghley wrote to that Lord, he thought " his own credit sufficient for more than this." 92 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1577. you understand in how thankful sort we accept the same at both your hands, not as done unto him, but unto our own self: reputing him as another, ourself, and therefore you may assure yourself that we, taking upon us the debt, not as his, but our own, will take care accordingly to discharge in such honourable sort, as so well deserving creditors as ye are, shall never have cause to think ye have met with an unthankful debtor." On the 12th of August this year, Lord Burghley lost his old friend Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State, of whom Strype has written so largely as to preclude our saying more than that, as an able and well informed Statesman, and many ways learned, he was a great loss to his country.* He was succeeded in the Secretaryship by Dr. Wylson, who survived him but a short time. * See Camden, 224, 225. and our first volume, where an account is given of the early acquaint ance subsisting between Sir Thomas and Lord Burghley. His work on the " Common v/ealth of England," is read to this day. For a short account of his successor, Dr. Wylson, see Lodge's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 250, note. CHAP. VI. 1578. Twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1577. Entries in Lord Burghley's Diary — Bad state of his health — Magicians — Quacks — Mr. Edward Stafford's Mission — Affairs of the Church — Archbishop of York — Strype — Letter from Archbishop Sandys to' Lord Burghley — Case of Feckenham — Decree of Lord Burghley against excess of apparel among the Students at Cambridge — Address from the Vice Chancellor, fyc. — Mr. Gilbert Talbot's letter to his Father from Charing Cross — Foreign affairs — Letter from Lord Sussex to the Queen concerning the Due d'Anjou — Lord Sussex's letters to Lord Burghley concerning Lord North — Death of Don John — Affairs of the Continent — Death of Sebastian King of Portugal — Stukeley — Death of Sir Nicholas Bacon — And of Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk — Queen's Progresses — The University of Cambridge present a book, perfumed gloves, fyc. to the Queen at Audley End — Account of the Queen's reception at Norwich — She visits the Earl of Surrey — Letter from Topelyffe to Lord Shrewsbury concerning Rookwood — Papists — Puritans. If we were to take our measure of the public transactions of this year from Lord Burghley's own Diary as it is printed in Murdin, we should not have much to say, for his entries are very few, and none of them of great importance. The first, indeed, relates entirely to himself, and to the inveterate complaint of the gout, with which, at this period, he seems to have been greatly afflicted, and which some new practitioner, it would appear,* had undertaken to cure. In the then imperfect state of the medical art, and the fondness that seems to have prevailed for nostrums, and remedies distinct from all scientific principles, it is a wonder that his life lasted so long, considering the hazards attending any injudicious treatment of that capricious disorder. From letters and papers still preserved, as we have before had occasion to notice, it may be seen how much his private friends were, concerned at the bad state of his health, and how eager they were to supply him with any prescriptions they were taught to believe * " 1578. March 25. One Dr. Heth offered to cure me ofthe gout." 94 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. might help to remove and mitigate his complaints ; some of them being ex tremely curious, as indicative of the low state of Physiology, Pharmacy, &c. in those times, comparatively with the extensive knowledge since acquired by modern practitioners,* in every branch of those very curious studies. It must, indeed, have been the general ignorance of these things, that gave scope to the practices of magicians, conjurers, &c. of which some remarkable instances are recorded as belonging particularly to the year 1 578, one being detected in casting three waxen images, to take away the lives of the Queen, Lord Leicester, and Lord Burghley ; and another who was suspected of having similar designs in hand, by means of conjuration, fell down dead before the magistrate. Foreign physicians also, through the same general ignorance, were able to obtain credit for very simple cures (as the tooth-ache for instance, from which the Queen herself happened this year to suffer), and also for skill in poisoning, which was the case with one Dr. Julio Borgarucci, in great favour with Lord Leicester, (and of whom, as stories go, says Strype, that Lord made great use.) He seems to have been a man of abandoned character, though not on that account the less agreeable to Leicester, who is said to have alienated the Queen's mind from Archbishop Grindal, in resentment of that Prelate's condemnation of Dr. Julio's marriage with another man's wife. — See Lodge, ii. 157; but we ought, however, to add that Strype, in his Life of Grindal, where is a long account of Borgarucci, questions this latter story. Quacks and empirics of ali kinds abounded also at this time, with Egyptians and Jews, who told fortunes and used charms. The next entry is on May 15, and relates to the mission of a proper person [Mr. Edward Stafford] to take account of the levy of forces by the Frenph on the frontiers toward the Netherlands, of whose entry into that country there was great cause to be jealous; of this, however, we may have more to say hereafter. The Church occupied the attention of the Lord Treasurer at the early part of this year rather more than the State. The Bishops, in their respective dioceses, particularly at the time of their visitations, had such opportunities of procuring correct information of the principles and temper of the people around them, that the intelligence they had to supply from different parts of the kingdom, could not fail to be of great importance to such a Minister •See some curious remarks on this in the notes to the account given of Dr. Bulleyn, who died in 1576, in the Biograph. Britannica, art. Bulleyn. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 95 as Lord Burghley, " whose eye," may be said to have " been every where," as the most vigilant servant of the State. Had the notices sent to him by the Bishops, been mere matters of information, his trouble would comparatively have been but small, but it was information not to be gathered or communi cated without much hazard of ill-will, followed often by spiteful accusations, and very perverse, if not rude opposition. In April of this year, the Arch bishop of York fell into no small difficulties of this nature, of which a full account is to be seen in Strype, and which were not brought to a termination, indeed, till nearly two years afterwards ; but as he was slandered and mis represented* at Court, he might have suffered greatly in his reputation, had not " his good friend the Lord Treasurer," as Strype relates, " stood up for him there, and undertook for him, that if the Council thought fit to send for him up to answer this matter in person, he would be able to justify himself, and would be ready at the Council's command to come up." — The Arch bishop, he goes on to say, well saw the hand of the Puritans in all this trouble given him, by their suggestions unto their friends at Court. It is very well known who were their principal friends there, and of what power and weight they were ; and it must, therefore, greatly redound to the honour of Lord Burghley, that while he was in constant communication with those great and powerful friends of the Puritans, and even with some of the most learned Divines of that very party, yet, that while he sat at the board, the Bishops did not feel themselves to be destitute of a friend, an advocate and an impartial judge, of which this very case of Archbishop Sandys affords us a proof; for when his Grace had fresh occasion given him to address the Council at large, he wrote at the same time to Lord Burghley, lamenting the bad impressions his enemies had been able to raise against him : " It hath created me much dis pleasure, I hear, but I bear it more quietly, having the testimony of my con science, that I have dealt uprightly and have given no just offence to any man. I have written to the Lords somewhat more at large to the like effect. / would * See Strype, as to the particulars ; the Archbishop's was a complicated case, as arising out of a provincial, and not a merely diocesan visitatidn. This brought him into a sad conflict with Whittingham, the Dean of Durham, whose orders he questioned, to the great offence of the Puritans, as reflecting upon their favourite Church of Geneva. Lord Huntingdon, the Lord President of the North, happened to take the Dean's part, which made the Atter more bold. This Lord, as -well as the Archbishop, made his representations to the Lord Treasurer, but the death of Whittingham put a stop to the proceeding, before the case was fully decided upon. 90 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. wish your Lordship should be at the board, when those letters shall be read. Thus acknowledging, how much I am bound unto you, for your honourable constant favour towards me, I humbly recommend your good Lordship to the good direction of God's Holy Spirit."* Another case was communicated this year to the Lord Treasurer, by his old friend Cox, Bishop of Ely, relating to a person of no small notoriety in the reigns of Edward and Mary ; we mean the celebrated Feckenham, late Abbot of Westminster ; of whom we have often had occasion to speak in our preceding volumes-! This deposed Papist, according to the custom of those times, and to save him the mortification and trouble of a common imprisonment, had, by the Queen, been committed to the custody of the Bishop of Ely, at whose own table he was invited to dine ; and the Queen, it seems, knowing the Abbot to be a man of learning and temper, had expressed a wish, to have him brought, if pos sible, to acknowledge her supremacy, and attend the Church ; but he would not be wrought upon, as the Bishop wrote to the Lord Treasurer, expressing on that account a desire to be relieved of his guest, suggesting that it might be well to send him to one of the Universities, to "be examined and tried in open con ference, but not as good Cranmer, good Latimer, good Ridley, and others more ; from disputations to the fire. "J But the Dean of Ely, Dr. Perne, wished to have some trial of Feckenham, as well as the Bishop; and he judged, that he had brought him to make some concessions, proper to be made known to the Lord Treasurer, to whom there fore he thought fit to render an account of what had passed. These concessions related to the Queen's supremacy, which in many particulars he granted ; to the service in the vulgar tongue, which, if allowed by the Pope, he could very well approve, and to the inoffensiveness ofthe Book of Common Prayer, which'only did not go far enough, so as to include prayers to the Virgin and Saints, and for the dead. yBut he could not be prevailed on to subscribe any such confes sion, or to write letters to the Queen, or to the Lord Treasurer, as desired, to acknowledge what he had allowed. But he answered to this effect ; " That he • See also the letter of the Bishop of Bath and Wells to the Lord Treasurer, Appendix, No. xv. Nov. 21, 1578, in which he consults him in a case between himself, as Bishop, and the Lord Thomas Powlet, the Queen being on the side of the latter, "having," as he says, "no other refuge to whom I may resort for better advice." t See vol. i. ch. xlvi. J This letter, Aug. 29, 1578, is dated from Ely, " that unsavoury isle with turves and dried up loads," as the Bishop calls it. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 97 was persuaded of a singular good-will, both that her Majesty and his Honour [the Lord Treasurer] bore to him, if he should shew himself any thing conform able. . That he thought verily, that if it were not for Aer Majesty and his Honour, that it would have been worse with him and others of his sect, than it was that day. For the which, he said, that he did daily, and was bound to pray, for the long preservation of her Majesty, and also for his Lordship's ho nourable estate, but yet he must refuse to subscribe, for if he should yield in one thing, he had as good to yield in all ; which, as the Dean told him, was no fair conclusion. For to yield to that, which he confessed plainly in his conscience before God to be true, was the duty of every Christian man ; but to confess that which he was not so persuaded of, he would not enforce him to do against his conscience." This passage deserves to be transcribed, as the testimony of a very extraordi nary man, at such a time, and on such an occasion ; one who, like Lord Burghley himself, had grown up, as it were, with the English Reformation, had seen its commencement under Henry, had taken a conspicuous part against it under Edward, had been in great favour with Mary, and finally, after struggling hard to resist the alterations under Elizabeth, as long as he was permitted to retain his seat in the House of Lords,* was yet willing to bear his testimony to the lenity he experienced under the latter Government, and to acknowledge that what was established, was not wrong as far as it went, but only deficient in those very things, which he could not conscientiously abandon ; and which, therefore, we must be allowed to add, he was not pressed to abandon. What Feckenham, however, could not be persuaded to do this year, he did two years afterwards, having in 1580, subscribed " a true note of certain articles confessed and allowed by him at divers times, by conference in learning before the Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of Ely, Dr. Perne, Dean of Ely, Master Nicholas, Master Stanton, Master Crowe, Mr. Bowler, Chaplains to the Bishop, and others." It may be seen in the Second Appendix of Original Papers, Strype's Annals, vol. ii. part ii. No. 28. In this note he states his reasons for not attend- * See his speech in Parliament, anno 1559, on the Act of Uniformity.— Somers's Tracts, vol. i. In this speech Strype charges him with reflecting very unworthily on the Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, Zuinglius, Calvin, as well as on our own martyrs, Cranmer, Ridley, &c. He was the last .mitred Abbot that sat in Parliament. Camden speaks highly of him, as " a learned and good man, who lived a good while, did a great deal of good to the poor, and always solicited the minds of his adversaries to good-will." VOL. III. O 98 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. ing the service of the Church of England, to be, first, the want of unity in it ; " some being therein Protestants, some Puritans, and some of the Family of Love ;" secondly, that the service wasnot set forth by the authority of a General Council ; thirdly, that he could see nothing sought, in our Reformation, but by the spoil of the Church, and of Bishops' houses, and of College lands, " which maketh many to pretend to be Puritans seeking for the fruits of the Church." For an account of what was passing at Court* in the early part of this year, we may refer to a very curious letter of Mr. Gilbert Talbot to his father, Lord Shrewsbury," dated from Charing Cross, May 3, 1578. " There is of late come from the King of France, one Monsieur Gundie, j" who on May-day had audience in the chamber of presence, and delivered his mes sage to her Majesty, with the King's letter. I hear that the King sendeth him hither to have license to have access to the Scottish Queen, and from her to go into Scotland, and that the King's letter is only to that end ; howbeit, I hear her Majesty as yet hath denied him, but whether he shall obtain leave or not * We have not dwelt on all the particulars to which Lord Burghley's attention was called this year, as relating either to the Church or the Universities, because Strype with his usual diligence has considEred them so much at large ; but we ought perhaps to notice two papers to be found in his Appendix, Nos. xvii. xviii. The former is a decree in the name of William, Lord Burghley, High Chancellor of Cambridge, for the restraint of excess of apparel among the scholars and students there, said to be drawn up by himself ; the latter an address from the Vice Chancellor and Heads of Colleges there to his Lordship, complaining of the impeaching of their free suffrages in their election of Fellows, by letters procured from the Queen. The beginning of the letter, indeed, is so complimentary to his Lordship, that it ought not perhaps to be wholly passed over. " Facile facit Academia quod semper facit (Illustrissime Burleiensis) ut ad tuam semper humauitatem confidenler accedat ; ut in omni sua petitione tuam protenus opem sedulo imploret ; et in tuo quasi sina omnes suas curas et cogitationes profuse effundat. In quo sane admirabilis qusedam elucet humanitas tua ; quem neque tua ipsius negotia, neque universi hujus imperii multiplex sane procuratio unquam impediit, quo minus importunitati libenter vacares, et petitioni nostra amanter concederes. Hac spe freti venimus ad te hoc tempore, sicut ad parentes filii solent accedere." But having had occasion to speak of this address before, under the year 1575, we shall say no more of it here, except that their " loving Chancellor" [so Strype calls him], neg lected not to lay their petition before the Queen, and to obtain from her even a promise, that she would be more sparing of her mandamuses for the time to come ; such, however, was the influ ence of others of her Courtiers, that they only became more frequent, so as to give occasion to a fresh address and remonstrance. + Albert de Gondy, Count and afterwards Duke de Retz, and Marechal of France. He had been sent to Elizabeth by Charles the Ninth, five years before, to palliate that horrible stroke of policy, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, of which he had been one of the advisers Lodge. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 99 hereafter, I cannot tell ; but I wish your Lordship would have every thing in such order as you would desire, lest he should come of a sudden, as this other did who is now with your Lordship's charge from the Duke of Ascoyte,* whereof I never understood till he was gone : Mr. Secretary Wylson's man, who is gone with him, is his chiefest Secretary, and held to be a wise fellow : I was but eleven days in town, following the matter of the Burnells, in which time this fellow was dispatched, and so could not give your Lordship notice thereof. For this other, Monsieur Gundie, he seemeth to be a man of great account and port, and was very richly apparelled in jewels this other day at the Court ; and if he should get leave, it would be looked for that his entertainment should be very great ; and I think there will be some other Gentleman sent from hence with him down, if he go." [The continuation of this letter is too curious to be passed over.] " On May-day I saw her Majesty, and it pleased her to speak to me very gra ciously. In the morning, about eight of the clock, I happened to walk in the Tilt-yard, under the gallery where her Majesty useth to stand to see the running at tilt, where by chance she was, and looking out of the window, my eye was full towards her, and she shewed to be greatly ashamed thereof, for that she was unready, and in her night-stuff; so When she saw me at after dinner, as she went to walk, she gave me a great fillip on the forehead, and told my Lord Chamberlain, who was the next to her, how I had seen her that morning, and how much ashamed thereof she was. And after, I presented unto her the remembrance of your Lordship's and my Lady's bounden duty and service ; - and said that you both thought yourselves most bounden to her for her most gracious dealing towards your daughter, my Lady of Lennox ; and that you assuredly trusted in the continuance of her favourable goodness to her and her daughter :f and she answered that she always found you more thankful than • Duke of Arschot and Aremberg, a little Sovereign of the Austrian Netherlands. Lodge, ii. 170. f Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the Countess by a former husband, had married in 1574, Charles Stuart, yonnger son of the Earl of Lennox, and brother of Darnley. His descent from Henry VII. through his mother, and near relationship to James VI. excited some jealousies in the mind of Elizabeth, and caused a temporary suspension of her favour towards the Earl and Coun tess. In Lodge's Illustrations of History, vol. ii. No. xcviii. is a letter from the Earl to Elizabeth, deprecating her displeasure, and accompanied with one to Lord Burghley, to implore his media tion, concluding, " No man is able to say so mueh as your Lordship of our service, because you have so carefully searched it." It is remarkable, as Mr. Lodge has observed, that Mary should 100 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. she gave cause : and so without saying any thing more thereof, asked of both your healths, and so went on and spake to others. "My Lord of Leicester threateneth to come to Buxton this summer: if it would please your Lordship to write something thereof to him in your next letter, I think that he would take it in very good part, and yet I imagine it would neither much further his coming or tarrying. " Your Lordship's most humble and obedient loving son, " Gilbert Talbot. " On Monday or Tuesday next, her Majesty goeth to my Lord Compton's house at Tottenham, and so to my Lord Treasurer at Theobalds, and there tar- rieth three or four days." In regard to foreign affairs this year, it must have been extremely difficult to decide what might be the wisest course for Elizabeth to pursue. In the year pre ceding, the Lord Keeper, as we have shewn, took the pains of communicating to her Majesty in writing, his thoughts upon the aspect of affairs, and the dangers that threatened from France, Spain, and Rome ; and we shall find that in the month of August, of the year 1578, she had a similar address made to her by the Earl of Sussex, from his house at Bermondsey. This letter, indeed, which may be seen in Lodge, ii. No. cxxvi, related chiefly to the marriage on foot between her Majesty and the Duke of Anjou ; but being written in consequence of a particular communication he had had with a French agent of that Duke, it dis covers a good deal of the complicated state of things on the other side of the water, particularly as regarded the Netherlands, whither the Duke of Anjou was prepared to lead an army, but for what purposes, remained to be known. The agent, with whom Lord Sussex conferred, told him that at that time the Duke was willing to be governed entirely by the Queen, but that his condition had been rendered so uneasy in France by the jealousies of his mother, and brother, King Henry III., that he was compelled to look out for a settlement elsewhere ; or, in the very words reported by.Lord Sussex, " to seek greatness abroad, to continue thereby his greatness and surety at home ;" which Lord Sussex understood to imply> that he had determined to make himself great, either by marrying her Majesty, or obtaining possession of the Low Countries, or both ; in which, he have been suspected of promoting this match with a Lennox. The unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart was the issue of this marriage. It appears from Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer, that in the course of this year, the Queen of Scots was reported to have been attacked by the palsy P. 28, 29. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. j()l was likely to be assisted rather than prevented, by his brother's Court, through the desire they had to get him removed from France. But if the Queen should decide to put him from the hope of accomplishing either of these purposes, that he would then assuredly join himself to Don John of Austria, and cultivate a friendship with the King of Spain, to the utter ruin and subjection of the States; and that in this case also, the French would wink at his proceedings, for the sole end of keeping him occupied from home. Instead of venturing upon any posi tive or direct advice, his Lordship appears to have fallen exactly into Lord Burghley's method, or the method of the times, of discussing the "commodi ties and incommodities," of whichever decision her Majesty might come to, on these three several points ; namely, of the marriage ; of the alienation of the Low Countries ; and of the French assisting Don John. As the letter* may be read in the place we have referred to, it is not neces sary to dwell upon it any longer at present ; our only object being to shew the extreme perplexity of the politics of Europe at this time, and how difficult a part Elizabeth had to act, in order, if possible, to prevent the Low Countries falling entirely into the hands of some bad and too powerful neighbour, whe ther French or Spanish. One of those, however, who was supposed to be actu ated by personal motives of the most dangerous tendency to her repose, was in the course of the year removed by death ; we mean Don John of Austria, who died * Lord Sussex suffered no small vexation this year, from the practices of Lord North, a crea ture of Leicester's, and of whom we have had occasion to speak before. In November, Sussex wrote to Lord Burghley to communicate his suspicions of that Lord's dealings with the Queen, knowing that he had said he would be stronger at Court than Sussex ; who thus expresses his indignation to Lord Burghley, in a style characteristic of the times : " Therefore, my Lord, to be plain with you, if he come to the Court before he be made to know his fault, I will either forbear to come there, or if I do come, I will come in such suit as I will not fear partakers against me ; which perhaps may offend her Majesty, whereof I would be very sorry, and yet my honour driveth me to it. — My paper is little ; your Lordship is wise ; and therefore I trust this shall suffice to your Lordship as my good Lord, to understand my meaning, and so I take my leave of your good Lordship. — Your most assured, Sussex." On the very next day, viz. November 5, 1578, he wrote to Lord Burghley again on the same subject, and in the same highly indignant and spirited man ner ; and concludes his letter, with lamenting that Lord Burghley himself had been evil spoken of, adding, " And truly, my Lord, whosoever they be, or wheresoever it toucheth, I rest at your devotion, with heart and hand to stand by you as by myself, and upon all occasions to stick as near to you, as your shirt is to your back. And so I take my leave of your good Lordship."— Lodge, ii. 199. from the Cecil Papers. 102 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLF.Y. [1578. on the first day of October, in the camp near Namur, in the height of his glory, being only in the 32d year of his age ; of which Lord Burghley sent an account to Lord Shrewsbury as soon as the news arrived, in the following words : " By letters received within these three hours,* at London, I am certainly advised that Don John de Austria is dead of the plague, and the Duke of Parma chose Lieutenant;" which we copy, because in his Lordship's Diary in Murdin, his death is imputed to another disorder, f The arrival of the Duke of Parma, the celebrated Alexander Farnese, with an army of Spaniards early in the year, had induced Don John to break through all the engagements he had entered into, by the misnamed Perpetual Edict, and to resume offensive operations ; and a great victory he obtained at Gemblours, produced so general an alarm through^ out the provinces, as to incite them to apply for aid in all directions ; to the Queen of England, the Duke of Anjou, and the German Princes. The former, as we have shewn, sent money ; the second agreed to lead an army to their assistance ; and Casimir, the son of the Elector Palatine, with the aid of Eng lish gold, passed the Rhine with a considerable armyjof German Protestants ; — but the States were not satisfied with the confederates they had chosen. The Protestants under Casimir offended the Catholics, and led them to renew their allegiance to Don John; and the Walloons, who had previously agreed to receive the Duke of Anjou, resisted his entrance; the several States were at variance among themselves on the ground of religion, and occasioned great embarrass ment to the Prince of Orange ; even the Duke of Anjou refused to join the army of the States, unless Prince Casimir withdrew, and thus contributed to add to the confusion : the death of Don John, and the succession of the Duke of Parma, altered the course of thino-s. About the time that Don John died, Sebastian, King of Portugal, lost his life in Africa, as Lord Burghley informed Lord Shrewsbury, in the very letter in which * The letter is dated from Theobalds, 8th of October, 1578. t Poison also has been assigned as another cause of his death ; and two Englishmen {Radcliffe and Grey) executed for avowing such a design, as the Spaniards alleged ; but as this was contra dicted by the English who attended them in their last moments, we should be much more inclined to suspect (if his death were not natural) his unfeeling brother of Spain, who was indeed suspected at the time. I In the month of June, this Prince published a manifesto, in German and Latin, setting forth the causes which led him to undertake the expedition. It may be seen in Strype's Annals, ii. 161 . 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 103 he spake of the former event: "The report ofthe death of Sebastian, King of Portugal, and of two kings of Fez is true ; a Cardinal named Henry, of the age of sixty-seven, is to succeed, but he dare not take possession of the crown until the Pope shall license him." Sebastian was killed at the battle of Alcazar, August 4, 1578, in a foolish and romantic expedition, undertaken to re-instate Muley Mahomet, the dethroned Emperor of Morocco. Muley Mahomet himself also was killed, and his rival the usurper died of a fever during the engagement. These were the " two kings of Fez," to whom Lord Burghley alludes in his letter. Sebastian was preparing to take the command of a force of Spaniards and Por tuguese, to be sent against Elizabeth ; and it is remarkable that Stukely, who had undertaken to conduct them to the conquest of Ireland, under a commission from the Pope and Philip of Spain, and who had actually sailed from Civita Vecchia, with an Italian fleet for that purpose, should have entered the Tagus just as Sebastian was preparing to set sail for Africa ; and being persuaded to accompany the King, with the consent of Philip, was one of those who, as well as Sebastian, fell in the battle of Alcazar. — Philip, having an eye to the succes sion of Portugal after the Cardinal Henry, who took the crown upon Sebas tian's fall,* totally relinquished the project of conquering Ireland, much to the disappointment of Gregory XIII., and greatly to the annoyance of the Spanish Government in the Netherlands, who, being unsupported, could no longer resist the efforts of the Prince of Orange, to secure the emancipation of that oppressed country. — See Turner's Reign of Elizabeth, ii. 241, and note 19. In the obituary of the year 1578, we ought perhaps to include the death of Lord Burghley's very eminent relative, the Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon; and of the Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. As the former, however, took place on February 20th, 1578-9, it maybe considered as belonging rather to the year ensuing. It is not material, however, to insist much in this instance upon the diversity of reckoning, as it regards only an individual ; and one of whom so much has been collected and recorded, by others, that it would be a waste of time and writing, to do more than refer to such authorities ; particularly Mal let's Life of the Lord Keeper Bacon, and the Biographia Britannica, which in * The body of Sebastian never having been found after the battle, rendered his death a matter of doubt, and gave birth to the pretensions of two false Sebastians, who gave no small trouble to the Portuguese Government, but who ended their lives, one on the scaffold, the other on board the gal lies. — Diet. Historique, art. Sebastian. > 104 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. some instances corrects the former.* — We proceed to the Queen's Progresses.: this year. We have already spoken of her visit to the Lord Treasurer, in May, and of her abode there three or four days ; from thence it appears that, making two short visits in her way, she proceeded to.Wanstead, then in the possession of Lord Leicester; where she was entertained by a dramatic interlude composed for the occasion, by his Lordship's nephew, the celebrated Sir Philip Sidney, which may be seen in Nichols's Progresses, and is printed at the end of the early editions of the Arcadia, The subject is a contention. between a Forester and a Shepherd, for the may-lady. In July her Majesty was at Hunsdon, and purposing to pass from thence to Sir Ralph Sadler's, Lord Burghley, who remained at Theobalds, wrote to Ran dolph, in attendance on the Queen, to say that as his house lay in the way, he should much wish to have the Scottish Ambassador, who was come to wait upon her Majesty, to dine with him on his road, and to see his house, as he had been informed he had a desire to do (for a fame went, says Strype, of my Lord's splendid buildings there). Lord Hunsdon, it seems, had promised to meet him there, and the Queen was privy to the invitation.-]" One of the Queen's chief resting-places on this rather memorable Progress was Audley-End, where the University of Cambridge waited on her, with speeches and disputations ;J the subjects of the latter being previously sub mitted to Lord Burghley as Chancellor, who approved of one of the questions, but doubted about the other. The University had prepared a book also to be presented to her Majesty, which Lord Burghley requested might have " no savour of spyke," her Majesty disliking such strong scents ; and which the book binders, it appears, were very apt to use as a perfume. The book to be pre sented was, as it is said, Robert Stephens's first edition of the New Testament in Greek. For the particulars of the attendance of the University at Audley-End, we feel compelled to refer the reader to Mr. Nichols's book of her Majesty's Pro- * He died at his house near Charing Cross, called York Place, and was buried in St. Paul's Ca thedral. He was twice married, and his eldest son by the first marriage, Nicholas, had the honour of becoming the premier Baronet of England, on the first creation of baronets, in the year 1611. Of his two sons by his second marriage, Anthony, and Francis (the celebrated Lord Verulam), we shall have more to say hereafter. t The letter is dated July 21, at night, 1578. % The Vice Chancellor was apprised of all her Majesty's intended movements by Lord Burghley, that he might not in any instance be taken by surprise^ 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 105 gresses, as it would far exceed our limits to attempt to transcribe what is there so copiously recorded. Lord Burghley's close connexion, as Chancellor, with all that passed, would otherwise have induced us to give a detailed account of this curious ceremony, but in the work referred to, as nothing seems to be omitted, we may surely reasonably be excused a repetition of what, in these days, is not altogether so engaging or interesting as it must have been at that time. Perfumed gloves seem to have been the rarest and most costly presents the University had to bestow ; her Majesty appears to have been much struck with those she received, and Lord Burghley himself had the honour of having a pair given to him in the name of the whole University, of the value of 20*. whereon were his arms worked in colours, and verses annexed to them. Lord Leicester, as High Steward, had also the same,* with some others of the Court. In the disputations, Lord Burghley took upon him the office of Moderator, and often interposed, saying, " Loquorut Cancellarius, disputa dialectice et syllogistice." From Audley-End her Majesty passed into Suffolk and Norfolk, where she was in all parts most courteously received, and splendidly entertained, as may be seen in the often-cited Book of Progresses, by Mr. Nichols, a work neither to be copied or abridged ; nor, indeed, would these summer progresses of her Majesty fall very regularly within the scope of our researches, if Lord Burghley had had less to do with them than appears to have been the case ; but he was generally one of the company, and at her Majesty's right hand ; nor is it out of our way to notice the effect of her Majesty's good government of the country with the aid of his wise counsel,"f since the loyalty displayed on these occa sions was so great as to lead one who wrote at the time, to observe, " what well affected subjects the Queen's Majesty hath within her dominions : to whom * The verses were generally puns on their arms, mottos, and crests. + In one of the speeches made to her Majesty on her departure from Norwich, the following short notice is taken of the great care of her Counsellors to espy dangers at a distance, and effec tually guard against them ; to disappoint and frustrate secret snares and concealed practices, and to suppress all rebellious enterprises with the least possible tumult and disturbance, and that for the space of twenty years : — "Quid enim referam viginti jam totos annos in tanta nos pace, tanta tranquillitate vixisse, quantum non solum haec aetas nunquam vidit, sed ne omnium quidem seculorum ac gentium annates vetustatisque monumenta memoria. prodiderunt ! quid commemorem longe velut a speculo prospectas tempestates, prarvisa simul et anticipata consilio gravissima pericula, clandestinas insidias non tam vi quam arte obrutas, omnes denique nefarios conatus maximo cum applausu extinctos, nullo aut sane perexiguo motu populari ?" VOL. III. P 106 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. t»578. goods, lands, friends, kindred, or life, none of these severally, nor all jointly, are so precious and dear, but for her sake, they can find in their hearts to esteem them as dung."* There was certainly something very extraordinary in the cordiality of these receptions, especially considering the great trouble and expense of them ; at Norwich particularly, as one described matters, " the Prince had her pleasure, the Nobility their desire, the whole train such entertainment, as for the time of her continuance there, Norwich seemed (if any such there be) a terrestrial para dise — but when the frowning Friday followed, which called her Majesty thence, I leave the dolour there was, to the report of them that did see it."t And yet her Majesty was travelling all this while through a county, not long past in a state of rebellion, and not likely to be in good humour either with herself or her company, if the unfortunate but imprudent Duke of Norfolk had appeared to have been punished beyond his deserts ; indeed, one of the visits she paid was to the son and heir of that very Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, who, we * Amidst the fooleries of the mythological shows and devices prepared for the occasion by some of the proficients in the art (of whom three are very remarkable, Ferrers, Goldingham, and Churchyard), her Majesty was, with great propriety, shewn the different processes of the woollen manufactures, for which Norwich was already celebrated; and she had the satisfaction of receiving a particular address from the Minister of the Dutch Church settled there, for the behoof of the Protestant refugees from Holland and Flanders, who, being driven from home by Spanish tyranny, had been hospitably received in England, and under the Queen's immediate patrpnage encouraged to take up their abode in England, to the great advancement and improvement of our own manufactures. t See the letter to Sir Owen Hopton, Nichols, ii. 137. — The Queen's approach to Norwich is well described by an eye-witness : — " Within one hour or little more after the attendance of the city officers, who went to meet her Majesty, she came, says the Reporter, in such gracious and princely wise, as ravished the hearts of all her loving subjects, and might have terrified the stoutest heart of any enemy to behold. Whether the Majesty of the Prince, which is incomparable, or joy of her subjects, which exceeded measure, were the greater, I think would have appalled the judgment of an Apollo to define. — The acclamations and cries of the people to the Almighty God for the pre servation of her Majesty rattled so loud, as hardly for a great time could any thing be heard : but at last, as every thing hath an end, the noise appeased ; and the Mayor saluted her Highness with the oration following." With every allowance that can be made for flattery or compliment, an eye and ear witness of such a scene must have committed himself, had he gone beyond the truth in his public relation of so extraordinary an exhibition. The Mayor's speech, which was in Latin, serves to shew, that her Majesty's visit was in consequence of a petition, or rather repeated earnest petitions from'the citizens, that they should receive that honour. " Post longam spem et ardentissima vota," is the expression ; which was rendered petitions at the time. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. I()7 are told, " did shew most sumptuous cheer, in whose park were speeches well set out, and a special device much commended." His Lordship, as Collins tells us, was "a most zealous Roman Catholic" into the bargain, which bespeaks the greater confidence in his loyalty on the Queen's part, whatever other feelings might interfere ; at all events, it ought to make us cautious how we pretend to judge of the actual feelings of individuals, either in regard to public or private transactions, in a state of society so entirely different from any thing to which we have been accustomed. Lord Burghley has been particularly accused of dealing treacherously and unkindly by the Duke of Norfolk, and yet, previous to his execution, that unhappy Nobleman commended his children in a very remarkable manner to the care and guardianship of the Lord Treasurer ; and even on this Progress, though the Queen, in some instances, seemed to place a confidence in her Catholic subjects, certain severities took place which have been differently accounted for ; one, at whose house even she had been received and entertained, was soon after cast into prison, and what was ac counted an idol (intended for an image of the Virgin) burnt by the Queen's command. This person was the owner of Euston Hall, and the particulars are to be found in a letter addressed to the Earl of Shrewsbury, by the celebrated hunter of recusants, Topclyffe* — Some passages we shall transcribe. After speaking of the Queen's health on the Progress, he writes, " The next good news (but in account the highest), her Majesty has served God with great zeal and comfortable examples; for by her counsel two notorious Papists, young Rook wood (the Master of Euston Hall, where her Majesty did lye upon Sunday now a fortnight), and one Downes, a Gentleman, were both committed, the one to the town prison at Norwich, the other to the county prison there, for obstinate Papistry, and vu. more Gentlemen of worship were committed to several houses in Norwich as prisoners." In some accounts, these severities are said to have been inflicted upon them merely because they were Papists ; and the Queen's conduct is arraigned in no measured terms, for so unfeeling a requital of the hospitality with which she had been treated. But we are inclined to suspect that some deception had been practised on her Majesty, from the fol lowing passage in the same letter : — "This Rookwood is a Papist of kind newly crept out of his late wardship. Her Majesty, by some means I know not, was lodged at his house, Euston, * So noted was this person in the ungraciewts. department, alluded t»-, that, to, hmU a recusant. was called Topclyfficare. 108 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [157S. far unmeet for her Highness, but fitter for the blackguard. Nevertheless (the Gentleman brought into her Majesty's presence by like device) her excellent: Majesty gave to Rookwood ordinary thanks for his bad house, and her fair hand to kiss ; after which it was braved at ; but my Lord Chamberlain, nobly. and gravely understanding that Rookwood was excommunicated for Papistry, called him before him ; demanded of him how he durst presume to attempt her, real presence, he, unfit to accompany any Christian person : forthwith said, he was fitter for the stocks ; commanded him out of the Court, and yet to attend her Council's pleasure ; and at Norwich he was committed." It is easy to collect from this, that Rookwood was not committed for mere Papistry, but for some indiscretions betokening a contempt of the Court, which the Lord Chamberlain was moved to resent. He appears to have drawn the Queen to his house, rather to insult than honour her, if not worse,* and to have made a mockery of her very Courtiers. He had evidently been in hold before, and incurred a sentence of excommunication, for extreme obstinacy; and if the conjecture of Mr. Lodge be true, that this was probably the same Rookwood who suffered death in 1605, for his concern in the Gunpowder-plot, we may surely conclude that he was no common recusant, but a very bold and dangerous one, and in association with other suspicious persons at the very time. And it should always be remembered, that the offence of recusancy became much greater after, than before the Pope's excommunication of the Queen, prior to which, Papists had little or no objection, in conformity with the laws, to attend the Church, where, indeed, there was scarcely any thing to be heard or seen, that * It was in her way to Norwich, that her Majesty was lodged at Euston, and in the verses addressed to her in that city, I find two lines plainly intimating some design on foot against her, on her way thither. Texuerant remoras discrimina mille Papistae, Ne captum Princeps continuaret Iter. Which were thus Englished at the time: A thousand dangers and delays the Papists had devised, To thende our Princesse should abridge her Progresse enterprisde. Mr. Hallam, who copies Topcliffe's letter in his Constitutional History of England, as " an almost incredible specimen of ungracious behaviour towards a Roman Catholic Gentleman," possibly had not considered the probability of a snare being Iaid for the Queen, as the ground of such behaviour:— ungracious enough it was, at all events, but we think it may not have been fully understood. 1578.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 109 could offend them, the great difference between that and their own Church consisting chiefly in omissions. At all events, it must be known, that the Queen had in her Court, those who, upon the Puritanical principle,* were ready so entirely to confound indulgence to Papists with Papistry itself, that her Majesty herself could not escape the imputation; our own idea is, that both Papists and Puritans might have lived under her Government, in much greater, if not in perfect quietness, had they in all instances, where they could not conscientiously! comply, forborne to question the authority of the laws, and incite resistance; but between the two, it was extremely difficult to find a middle course that might afford the slightest prospect of general satisfaction. We shall end, therefore, our account of these mysterious proceedings, with the following passage from Lord Bacon's short tract In Felicem Mernoriam Elizabetha Anglia Regina.\ He had as fair means as any man of knowing the truth, and wrote it when there were many yet alive to contradict him had he falsified facts; nor does he deny; what certainly must be allowed to have occurred, particular instances of great severity; he merely attempts to vouch for certain distinctions, which others have as strongly asserted. " Quod ad moderationem in religione attinet, haerere videbimur, propter legum in subditos religionis pontificae latarum severitatem : sed ea proferemus, quae nobis et certo nota et diligenter notata sunt. Certissimum est, hunc fuisse istius principis animi sensum ut vim conscientiis adhibere nollet, sed rursus, statum regni sui pra- textu conscientia et religionis in discrimen venire non permitteret. Ex hoc fonte, primum duarum religionum libertatem et tolerationem auctoritate publica in populo animoso et feroce, et ab animorum contentione ad manus et arma facile veniente, admittere, certissimam perniciem judicavit. Etiam in novitate regni," cum omnia suspecta essent, ex praesulibus ecclesiae, quodam magis turbidi etfactiosi ingenii, auctoritate legis accedente, sub custodia libera habuit: reliquis utriusque ordinis, non acri aliqua inquisitione molesta, sed benigna conniventia, praesidio fuit. Hie primus rerum status. Neque de hac dementia, licet excommunicatione Pii Quinti provocata, (quae et indignationem addere, et occa- tionem praebere novi instituti potuit) quicquam, fere mutavit ; at sub vicesimum * The writer of the above letter was evidently a Puritan, as may be seen by his notice of the liberty granted to the good preachers who had been commanded to silence, for a little niceness, and by his ridicule of the French Ambassadors, whom he calls " Monsieurs youths ;" the Puritans being so adverse to the match with the Due d'Anjou, which they were come to solicit.- + His Lordship's near relationship to Lord Burghley, or rather to Lady Burghley, renders it the more appropriate. 11Q MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1578. tertium regni sui annum, rerum commutatio facta est." This charge he wholly attributes to the inordinate ambition of the Spaniard to make a conquest of England, and the insidious designs and efforts of the Pope and his emissaries, to prepare the way for him, by alienating the minds of the Queen's Popish sub jects, and by virtue of the Bull of Excommunication, totally absolving them from all their bonds and vows of allegiance ; but the whole paper deserves to be read and considered.* * Bacon's Works, vol. x. p. 276. London Edition, 1815. CHAP. VII. 1579. Twenty-first year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1578. Account of Duke Casimir's visit to England — Mistakes of Strype — French Ministers in England — Mr. Talbot's letters concerning M. de Simier, and the Queen's marriage — The Clergy denounce the marriage — Stubbs' book — The Queen's proclamation — Letter and address from Sir Philip Sidney to the Queen against the marriage — Leicester's duplicity about the Queen's marriage — The Duke d'Anjou arrives secretly at Greenwich — Returns shortly lo France — Indecision of the Queen and Privy Council with regard to the marriage — Opinions of different members of the Council on the subject — Extract from Murdin concerning the Pope's bull against Elizabeth, and concerning Mary — Affairs of the Church and Universities — Dispute at Christ's College, Cambridge — Books enjoined to be read to the Oxford Students — Case of dilapidations referred to Lord Burghley — Dispute between Archbishop Sandys and the Dean of York — Letter from the Archbishop to IjOrd Burghley — Letter from Lord Huntingdon to the same — Sermon preached by Archbishop Sandys at York, on the Queen's entering the twenty-second year of her reign — Extract from another sermon of the Archbishop on a similar occasion — Bishop Cox applies to Lord Burghley — Letter of Lord Burghley to Bishop Aylmer — Several Bishops refer to Lord Burghley on different points relating to their sees — The Family of Love — Death of Sir Thomas Gresham and George Ferrers — Queen's Progress in Essex and Suffolk. The attention of Lord Burghley this year would appear to have been in a great measure divided between the negotiations on foot for the Queen's marriage, and some very unpleasant disputes relating to the Church, or rather, among the Prelates and other dignitaries of the Church ; which must have occasioned him great trouble and uneasiness. Before we proceed, however, to notice these transactions, on which Strype, with his usual care, has written very largely, it may be proper to mention a visit paid to the Court by Duke Casimir ; Strype having spoken of it in a manner likely to mislead the reader, from the very con fusion of dates to which we have so often referred, and which seems even to have baffled the care and general accuracy of that indefatigable historian. At the very beginning of the year 1578, he writes, "Duke John Casimir, 112 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1679. son ofthe Elector Palatine of the Rhine, was now come to the English Court." " He was highly favoured by the Queen when he came, and at his departure, which was in February, 1578, she presented him (by the desire of her Minis ters) with two cups of gold" (of greater value, it may be observed, than her Majesty quite liked). He mentions other very sumptuous presents he received from divers ofthe Nobility,* speaks ofthe obligations he lay under to England, of his great zeal for the advancement of true religion, and concludes with an account of a manifesto he put forth "in the month of June this year" written both in German and Latin, shewing upon what great reason he undertook his expe dition into the Low Countries ; and which manifesto, indeed, bore date June 22, 1578. The mistake is this ;f Duke Casimir did not come into England till seven months after the publication of the above manifesto, nor till some time after the failure of the expedition to which it alludes ; in fact, not till January of the year 1578-9 or 1579, when he probably, as Camden remarks, took the journey on pur pose to explain to the Queen and Government the causes of that failure, for it was with the money of England that he had been enabled to undertake it. That his explanation of matters was well received, we may conclude from the extraordi nary attentions shewn him. He was even complimented with the order of the Garter, which the Queen herself buckled on his leg.J He was conducted into London from the Tower-stairs, on his arrival, by the Lord Mayor in person, and by torch-light, it being seven o'clock in the evening, and conveyed to Sir Thomas Gresham's house, while the chief of the Nobility were in preparation to attend him to the Court. Great entertainments were made for him while he stayed, and persons of quality appointed to accompany him to Dover when he de parted. § But as his expedition took place, as Camden says, " In a sharp and snowy * All taken from the letter of Mr. Gilbert Talbot to his father, to be seen in Lodge, ii. 203. Lord Leicester (as the Duke was a great sportsman), gave him hounds, horses, hawks, wood- knives, falchions, horns, cross-bows, and broad-cloth for hunting dresses. + The mistake is the more extraordinary, because Camden rightly enough begins the year 1579, with the arrival of Casimir, " who," as he says, " had the last year brought an army of Germans into the Netherlands." t He had formerly been a suitor to her Majesty. § The Duke was accompanied upon this occasion by the celebrated Herbert Languet, the tutor and great friend of Sir Philip Sidney; and who wrote an account of the visit, for the information of the Elector of Saxony, in which he speaks feelingly of the hospitality of the English, and the happiness of their country. " Their humanity towards me," saith he, " hath almost restored me 1579.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. li;j winter,"* he had to encounter some difficulties both in going and coming. A few years after his visit to England, his brother the Palsgrave (Lewis VI.) died, leaving an infant for his heir, to whom Casimir became guardian ; a change judged by some to be of great importance to the Protestant interests ; the late Palsgrave being suspected of a leaning towards Popery .f The handsome reception of this German Prince was entirely intended as an encouragement to the Protestants in general, whose cause he very bravely supported, and was so well understood by the representatives of the Catholic powers, that the French and Spanish Am bassadors repined greatly at the favours heaped upon him. But to come to the negotiations on foot for the Queen's marriage. In the summer Progress of 1578, her Majesty had been attended by more than one Minister from France, with a retinue, as Topcliff called them, of to health." " I have nothing more to write concerning them, than that they are by far the hap piest nation in Christendom." And in one of his epistles he calls England, " Beatam Angliam, tanquam domicilium quietis et humanitatis." * Though Camden is an author well known to all historians who have written of this particular period, yet Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, expressly says, That it was in the autumn of 1578, that the Duke judged it necessary to come over to England. But it was certainly in winter, and his departure was attended with many hindrances and unpleasant circumstances, being first detained at Dover for want of a proper wind, and afterwards, according to a letter from Topcliff to Lord Shrewsbury, " He had a long time upon the seas, and could not land for weather ; within these eighteen hours he rid at Blackness, near Bullogne. I write this that your Lordship may remember how much England may boast, to have in this little island such a Prince, envied by the Pope, the French, and Spain, and his departure known, and he to depart from hence in one of her Majesty's royal ships, in despite of them all, and in his way homeward, the weather, as it were, becalls them all to execute their malice." t To shew how hazardous it is to trust to the most approved and apparently accurate histories, we must here notice another mistake of Strype's [Oxford Edition, 1824], in citing the letter of Mr. Talbot to his father, he writes, "That it was said, that his elder brother, the Palsgrave [Frederick III.], was dead." And then he adds, " The news of the Palsgrave's death proved true." Now it was not Frederick III., but Lewis VI., whose death at this time was expected. Frederick died in 1576, and so far from its having proved true, as reported, that the Palsgrave Lewis VI. died at this time, he did not die till 1583, when Casimir became guardian to his son, and Regent. Even Mr. Talbot is judged, by Mr. Lodge, to have mistaken the Palsgrave's cha racter ; see his note, vol. ii. 210. and Koch's Tableau des Revolutions de l'Europe, torn iv. table Ixxxv. Another mistake frequently occurs in Strype, though not of much importance, he calls Lord Shrewsbury's second son, Lord Gilbert Talbot. Gilbert Talbot, after the death of his brother Francis, became Lord Talbot, but the letters in Lodge preceded that event ; and at all events, as an Earl's son, Lord Gilbert Talbot could not be right. VOL. III. Q 114 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. £1579. " Monsieur's youths," as before observed. Monsieur de Basqueville was one, and Nicholas d'Angennes, Marquis of Rambouillet the other ; but in October, came the most accomplished and engaging suitor of all, M. de Simier. He seems to have possessed all the vivacity, agreeableness,. wit, dexterity, and shrewdness, peculiar to a Frenchman ; with that talent for delicate flattery, which was likely, above all things, to work on a female mind, but especially on one which, through a very extraordinary kind of weakness, was not proof against flattery ofthe grossest kind. In February, 1579, Mr. Talbot, in a letter already referred to, thus speaks of this ingratiating minister : " Her Majesty continueth her very good usage of Monsieur Simier, and all his company, and he hath con ference with her three or four times a week, and she is the best disposed and pleasantest, when, she talketh with him (as by her gestures appeareth), that is possible. The opinion of Monsieur's coming," he goes on to say, "still holdeth, and yet it is secretly bruited that he cannot take up so much money as he would do on such a sudden, and therefore will not come so soon." On the 5th of March, he writes again, of Simier, and the marriage : " My Lord of Leicester is now at Wanstead, and this day Monsieur Simier and his company do dine with him. My Lord Treasurer was made a little afraid with the gout, but he intreated him so discourteously, as he is departed from him till a better oppor tunity ; belike his Lordship is not at leisure to entertain him now, insomuch as he is now afoot again, and cometh abroad." And on the 4th of April, speaking of the Council generally, he says, " Their leisures are very little, for these five days last past, they have sitten in Privy Council, from eight of the clock in the morning till dinner-time ; and presently after dinner, and an hour's conference with her Majesty, to Council again, and so till supper-time : and all this, as far as I can learn, is about the matter of Monsieur's coming hither, his entertain ment here, and what demands are to be made Unto him in the treaty of marriage." It appears that the French Ambassadors came furnished with regular instruc tions, to propound, on the part of Monsieur, certain marriage articles, which bear date, June 16, 1579; and which, being accordingly laid before the Queen's Council, received such answers as the latter were prepared to give ; the articles proposed, with the answers to each, may be seen in the Appendix to the 2d vol. of Strype's Annals, No. xviii. b. ii. As the marriage never took place, it is unnecessary to dwell upon them ; but while it was in agitation it. kept the nation in great confusion. Some of the 1579.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. H5 Council were unquestionably desirous that it should proceed, being anxious about the succession, and looking probably to the great change it might make, with regard to the Queen of Scots, if Elizabeth should have an heir, and be strengthened besides by a powerful foreign alliance to support his rights; while others of the Council, in the interest of Leicester, were probably very insincere in urging the Queen to marry, and the apprehensions awakened, of a return to Popery, by a marriage with a French Prince, disposed the Clergy generally, to denounce the match as full of danger to the Church and to the spread of the gospel. The pulpit resounded with such denunciations, and the press also was put in requisition to set the people, not only against the match generally, but against the person, and character of the royal suitor. This was in a great mea sure the purport of the Puritan Stubbs's book,* for which he paid the forfeit of his right hand, while the Clergy were under restraint by a proclamation, vindi cating the Duke's character, and that of his envoys, and shewing how much the Queen felt her honour touched, by the many false reports made of danger to the Church, the State, and her own person, by such intended marriage. Strype, who inclines to call this curious State Paper, a declaration on the part of the Queen to her subjects, rather than a proclamation, moved by the silence of Stow, Hollinshed, and Camden, has inserted it at length in his Annals pf the Reforma tion, to which we must refer the reader, as well as to the same learned author's Life of Archbishop Grindal, Appendix, No. xiii., for the Council's letter to his "Grace upon the same subject, signed by Lord Burghley, October 5, 1579. But what seemed to turn her Majesty most aside from the match, was a pri vate letter and address she received from Sir Philip Sidney, at this time, which * See Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer, p. 40. and his Life of Archbishop Grindal, 359, 360.— The title of the book may serve to shew the style of that party ; viz. " The discovery of a gaping gulph, whereinto England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the Banns, by letting her Majesty see the sin and punishment thereof." Stubbs himself, however, seems to have, been much respected by persons of learning, and character, one of his chief friends being Mr. Hicks, of Lincoln's-Inn, afterwards one ofthe Secretaries of Lord Burghley. Some years after the publication of this unfortunate book, Stubbs was employed by Lord Burghley himself, to answer Cardinal Allen's abusive book, called " The English Justice." Spenser, the Poet, was a friend of Stubbs ; the celebrated Puritan, Cartwright, married his sister. He under went the sentence of the law, November 3, 1579 ; his speech on the scaffold, before the cutting ofF his hand, may be seen in the Nugoe. Antiquce, iii. 179. as well as the speech of his fellow-sufferer Page, p. 182. and Stubbs' letters to the Queen, during his imprisonment, p. 202. and to the Privy-Council, 208. 116 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1579. letter is to be read in so many books,* that we may well stand excused from transcribing any part of it here; only observing, that whatever credit he may have acquired, for the solidity of his judgment, "wisdom in counsel, skill in politics, acquaintance with the Roman history, knowledge of foreign states and kingdoms," &c, it seems suspicious that such an address should have proceeded from the nephew of Leicester, at the very time that his insidious uncle was pre tending, as earnestly as possible, to persuade the Queen to go forward with the marriage,! as her greatest security; %— writing, however, occasionally to Lord Burghley, from Kenilworth and other places, of the extreme joy of the Papists, at the prospect of such a union ; protesting to him "before God, that he wrote this to his Lordship simply and plainly, as manifest cause enforced ;" and in another letter, offering to go into exile sooner than be suspected of being a hin- derer of a match, which all the world seemed to desire. To do her Majesty justice, she seems to have been very explicit with the French Ministers, in assuring them, that she would abide by the religion In which she was crowned, and allow of no innovations nor alterations in the reformed Church.§ But to the Ministers alone, the negotiation this year was * See Strype's Annals, vol. ii. Appendix, No. xix. Cabala, 363, &c— See also in Strype's Appen dix, No. xx, a letter to the Queen from some person of quality, from a copy endorsed by Lord Burghley, " The Queen's marriage, February 10, 1562." ; f We do not mean to affirm that Sir Philip himself, was actuated by any wrong motives ; he had, as it has been well observed, "beheld with his own eyes the horrors of the Paris Massacre; he had imbibed, with all the eagerness of a youthful and generous mind, the principles of his friend Hubert Languet, one of the ablest advocates ofthe Protestant cause ; and he had since, on his embassy to Germany and Holland, enjoyed the favour, and contemplated the illustrious virtues of William, Prince of Orange, its heroic champion ;" (Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, ii. 74.) but the suspicion falls upon the Queen and Leicester. The former might be pleased to find Leicester's nephew adverse to the match, and Sidney might well suspect that his uncle was not sincere in urging it. In the Life of Leicester, however, (London, 1727), it is expressly affirmed, that Sir Philip was set to work by his uncle, p. 108. Many parts of the letter are certainly very good. Buchanan, who was still living, in a letter addressed to a particular friend of Sir Philip's, when the marriage of the Queen was in agitation a few years back [1574], affirmed it to be his opinion, that the French Prince would murder the Queen of England, and marry the Queen of Scotland. " Quorsum ad Britanniam eo ? ad nuptias ais ; et ego credo'; ad quas ? cum regina vestra ? alii, Ut volunt, accipiant. Ego prorsus ejus consilium esse reor, ut vestram trucidet, nostram ducat, forma, setate, et amicorum opibus florentem, et expertse jam fcecunditatis." — Epist. Lond. 1711. X Strype's Annals, ii. part ii. 229. § See the letter ofthe Minister Malvesier, Cott. MSS. Titus, b. 2. 1579.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 117 not entirely entrusted, the Royal Suitor himself having found the means. and opportunity of passing over to England, and visiting her Majesty in person ; in Lord Burghley's Diary, we find the following entry in the month of September : "Mons. the Duke of Alanson* came to Greenwich secretly, and lodged at Mr. Light's House ;" in truth, the Duke seems to have come as unexpectedly as secretly ; having arrived at the very gate of the palace before he was known to be coming, and accompanied with very few attendants. He is supposed to have seized upon the opportunity of Leicester's being under a temporary dis grace, for his rude treatment of Simier, and for his marriage with Lady Essex, which Simier had ventured to discover to the Queen; and which, according to appearances, had nearly cost him his life, being fired at while with the Queen in her barge on the river.f It seems to be generally admitted, that of the private conversations between the Queen and the Duke, at Greenwich, on occasion of this unforeseen visit, nothing has transpired. The Duke soon returned to France, and in the next month, the Council had many meetings, to consider the perils and advantages of each alternative, that is, of her Majesty's marrying, or not marrying; a full statement of which, with the several opinions ofthe prin cipal Counsellors, is to be seen in Murdin, taken from a copy in Lord Burgh ley's own hand-writing. J It is very certain that the Duke was well received by the Queen, and that in the way of personal liking, the visit did not turn out to his disadvantage, but the absolute decision seemed to be involved in greater perplexities than ever; the Queen appearing to wish to be guided by her Coun cil, and the latter evidently inclining to leave the issue to her Majesty; so that after sundry debates and conferences, in which every member of the Council present seems to have delivered his opinion, no more certain conclusion was come to, than what is contained in the following words : ." Every Counsellor wisheth and liketh her Majesty to marry, and to have chil dren to succeed her, and do think it more surety for her, than any other provi- * This mistake is so common, that it may be well to explain the circumstances of the case ; some writers having been led to suppose, that the Duke of Anjou who addressed her Majesty at this time, was the same that addressed her before ; not observing that the title of Alencon was dropped, on Henry III. becoming King, and the title of Anjou assumed by his younger brother, with the title of Monsieur, as next heir to the Crown. In the entry immediately above, Lord Burghley rightly calls him, Monsieur le Due d'Anjou. + This story has been differently related, some thinking it quite accidental, others strongly insi nuating that Simier was chiefly aimed at; at all events, there must have been great danger to the Queen, whose presence of mind seems to have been conspicuously displayed, and her mercy in pardoning the offender, after he had been brought to the gallows. X Murdin, pp. 319—338. 118 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1579. sion. And because her Majesty hath had an interview with the Duke of Anjou, whereby her Majesty doth best know, whether she hath liking to him or not, therefore all Counsellors do offer to her Majesty to favour the same with all their services, and powers, if her Majesty shall like to marry him." Of the particular opinions of such members of the Privy Council* as were concerned in the debates referred to, the following is a pretty fair statement : " The Earl of Sussex was still, as ever, strongly in favour of fhe match ; and chiefly, as it appears, from an apprehension that France and Spain might other wise join to dethrone the Queen and set up another in her place. Lord Hunsj don was on the same side, as was also the Lord Admiral (the Earl of Lincoln), but less warmly.'f Lord Burghley laboured to find arguments in support of the measure, but evidently against his judgment, and to please the Queen. J Leicester openly professed to have changed his opinion, ' for her Majesty was to be followed.' Sir Walter Mildmay reasoned freely and forcibly against the measure, on the ground of the too advanced age of the Queen, and the religion, the previous public conduct, and the family connexions of Anjou. Sir Ralph Sadler subscribed to most of the objections of Mildmay, and brought forward additional ones.§ Sir Henry Sidney approved all these, and subjoined 'that the marriage could not be made good by all the counsel between England and Rome ; a mass might not be suffered at Court,' meaning probably that the mar riage rite could not by any expedient be accommodated to the consciences of both parties, and the law of England." — It is added in Lord Burghley's account, that Sir Henry " affirmed all Mr. Mildmay's speech." The whole statement is certainly very curious, as a history of the perplexed state of Europe, and which seems very well to agree with all other histories, though in this instance applied to a particular purpose. One passage is, we think, of considerable importance, as tending to shew, that the cause of Mary Queen of Scots' detention, was the Pope's Bull against Elizabeth ; and we * The Privy Council, at this fime, appears to have consisted of about eighteen members. [Annals, b. ii. chf xix.] t He did not like that the Queen should be made to apprehend perils either way ; affirming the realm to be strong enough to withstand them. X Lord Burghley's own argument is to be seen in Murdin, 335. From a paper in his own hand writing, the sum of it agrees with the conclusion above; namely, that except her Majesty would; of her own mind, incline to the marriage, he would never advise her thereto— probably on account of the disparity of ages. § The following could not be very agreeable to her Majesty: "In years, the Queen may be his mother." " Doubtfulness of issue more than before ; few old maids escape." 1579,] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. ng really think it was so : — " And to satisfy that which may be objected, that it is no good example that her Majesty should aid other Princes' subjects, lest the like should be attempted against her; the difference is this, that first her Majesty professeth no enmity against any of those Kings, as to the deprivation of them from their crowns, as they do by their profession of their obedience to Rome, from whence her Majesty is, by Bulls, and such like, published to be unlawful Queen, and her realm given to those Kings, or to any other that will seek it for the Queen of Scots ; so as these Kings have no cause to fear any evil from her Majesty, nor therefore to aid her subjects against her." This is an admirable remark, and being actually the remark of Lord Burghley himself, may deserve to be insisted upon here. Elizabeth professed to assist persecuted Protestants, but not with the smallest design of wrenching the crowns from the heads of the Kings either of France or Spain ; while they, as professed subjects of the Pope, could consistently have nothing less in view than the dethroning of Elizabeth, to the setting up of Mary Queen of Scots, if they could ever get the latter into their power. — The Pope's Bull absolutely left no alternative to any of the Catholic states, or Catholics in general. The delivery of Mary, and consequent dethronement of Elizabeth, was the great object held out to them,, as the prize to be contended for ; the reward of all their hopes and wishes. Having given this account of the negotiations relating to the Queen's mar riage, which appear to have greatly occupied the time, care, and attention of the Lord Treasurer, and indeed more so than was the case with any others of her Majesty's Council (for all the papers relating to it seem to have been drawn up by him),* we shall turn to the affairs of the Church and Universities,"]" where • The following entry in his Diary seems to intimate, that articles were agreed upon in Nov. of this year: — "Nov. 22. Articuli concordati pro matrimonio Franc. Ducis Andium per D. de Burghley thesaur. D. Suss. D.Leicest. etD. Wilson pro Regina, et Jo. Symyerspro Duce Andium." f In the University of Cambridge a difficulty arose in Christ's College, relating to a fellowship there, granted to the College by King Edward VI. The case was continually submitted to the judgment of Lord Burghley, as Chancellor, though finally settled (not, however, before the year 1581) by those who might have decided it at first, namely, the Vice Chancellor and two other Heads of Colleges, in whom it rested to determine the sense of any Statute in doubt ; and this was a case of that nature. The dispute lay between the Master, Dr.Hawford, and a minority of the Fellows, and Hugh Broughton, King Edwardi Fellow, and the other members of the foundation. It was finally adjudged in favour of Broughton ; one of the greatest scholars in Christendom, for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Talmudical learning. In the University of Oxford, for the extirpation of all heresies, and better instruction of young 120 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1579. much was passing that equally demanded his attention, during almost the whole ofthe year 1579. — The first case being one of dilapidations, in regard to which. it is very extraordinary, that both the Metropolitans should have agreed to submit their particular differences (Grindal having been translated from York to Canterbury) to the sole arbitration of the Lord Treasurer Burghley.* But the Archbishop of York (Sandys), " that good and peaceable Arch bishop," as Strype, after due consideration, calls him, had other troubles upon his hands, particularly in a contest with the Dean of York, upheld by the Lord Huntingdon, President ofthe North. "This business," says Strype, "stuck exceedingly upon his mind, insomuch that he wanted a wise friend at Court to disclose his troubled thoughts to, and reckoned none so proper to break them to, as the Lord Treasurer, to whom therefore he wrote, saying, ' My heart greatly desireth to speak with your Lordship. I have matter of great import ance, and that toucheth me near, to pray your Lordship's advice in. I must hang upon your help.' " The Lord Huntingdon also wrote to Lord Burghley, anxious to have all differences settled by his means, but the Archbishop, it seems, mistrusted the Earl's motion towards a reconcilement, and therefore wished to have the means of making the case properly known to the Queen ; but, as he told Lord Burghley, " to open this matter to her Majesty, he dared to trust none, [no, not Leicester] except it were his Lordship, whose hearty and con stant favour towards him he knew, rejoiced in, and gave God thanks for it." — His great desire was, that the Dean of York, with whom he had great contention, should be removed ; but the Dean, as well as the Archbishop and Lord Hun tingdon, threw himself upon the judgment and consideration of the Lord Trea surer, calling him his " special good Lord always ; nay, receptus ab imbre, et latibulum a vento, for all injured persons to fly unto." The Lord Treasurer however, could not well settle this difference by the Dean's removal as the Archbishop proposed, for he continued at York to the very year of the Arch bishop's death, 1589. On the 17th day of November this year [1579], when the Queen entered students, the following books were enjoined to be read to them, Novel's larger Catechism in Latin and Greek ; or, Calvin's Catechism in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; or, Hyperius's Elements of the Christian Religion; or, the Heidelberg Catechism ;— the choice being left to the readers or tutors— To these might be added, Henry Bullinger's Catechism, Calvin's Institutions, the Apology for the Church of England, or the Thirty-nine Articles, with an exposition, to be drawn from the Scriptures and testimony of the Fathers.— Collier, ii. 568-9. * Strype's Annals, ii. part ii. 247. .1579.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 121 into the 22d year of her reign, and therefore properly enough called, the " Queen's day," the Archbishop preached a sermon at York, setting forth the praise of the Queen, and the happiness of her subjects under her government ; extracts from which may be seen in Strype, who concludes his remarks upon it, in these iWords : "The character of that excellent Queen, here given, may the rather be depended upon, both because of the preacher's protestation against flattery," (for the Archbishop had said, ' I speak not this in flattery, which thing be far from me, but in an upright conscience ; not of guess, but of knowledge,') " and speaking from his own personal knowledge and experience ; having long known . the Queen, and being well acquainted with the Court and her proceedings." But we cannot refrain from transcribing another passage, from a sermon of the Archbishop on a similar occasion, since the compliments (very just ones) paid to the Queen, are equally due to her great Minister, by whom all the great national benefits enumerated, were principally secured, as history sheweth.— " If any church, any people, any nation in the world, have cause to praise the Lord for their Prince, this land hath more than any, in respect of the wonderful blessings wherewith God, by the ministry of his handmaid [Queen Elizabeth], hath enriched us, far beyond all that we are possibly able to conceive.- — Look upon other Princes at this day. Some are drawn with the poisoned cup of that harlot [Rome], whose venom her highness doth abhor. Some have embrued themselves in blood : wherewith her Majesty did never yet stain the tip of her finger. When they tremble in wars, she sitteth in peace. When they break oaths and covenants, she keepeth promise. Therefore God hath blessed the work of her hands. She found this realm in war; she hath established it in peace. She found it in debt, which she hath discharged. She hath changed dross into silver and gold. She hath, by living within compass, and sparing wasteful expences, without pressing the people, or seeking more than ordinary and useful tribute, furnished this land with so great a navy, with store of armour and warlike munition, both for defence and offence, as England never had in former times. This I speak, not of flattery (it was never my fault), but rather in sincerity, testifying the truth; that seeing your happiness, you may be thankful." In the course of this year, Bishop Cox also, as well as the worthy Archbishop Sandys, had great cause to apply to his old friend Lord Burghley, quasi anchora firmissima, to use the Bishop's own words. The causes are to be seen in Strype, where also is a full account given of the Bishop's earnest entreaty to the Queen, vol. in. R 122 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1579. through the Lord Treasurer, to be permitted to resign his troublesome bishopric, in which Lord Burghley seems to have stood his friend, though not to the full accomplishment of all he desired, for he continued Bishop to the day of his death, anno 1581.— The Bishops of Norwich, Peterborough, London,* Roches ter, Lincoln, and Chichester, had all of them, as it appears, special occasion to address his Lordship this year, upon certain points touching their: sees, which they did constantly with the greatest possible deference, to his judgment and decision upon the cases referred to him, as their "only refuge, whom this age and time did acknowledge to be the chief patron and stay, next under her Majesty, unto the Church of England." — As one, "who, if he did but once * Aylmer Bishop of London wrote to him about a book that had been found in the possession of a printer, entitled the innocence of the Scottish Queen, in French, and in which the execution of the Duke of Norfolk was inveighed against, the Northern rebellion defended, and much said against the Lord Keeper and Lord Burghley ; this happened in December, but earlier in the year, this Bishop had written very sharply to the Lord Treasurer, expostulating with him for not having sufficiently supported him, in the exercise of his episcopal authority, and wishing to be discharged of Ris trust, but as his temper was hot, he afterwards repented of what he had written, and begged to have it forgotten and forgiven ; lamenting that he had been so moved by the grief he felt/that the Lord Treasurer should have a discontented mind towards him, whose friendship he valued above all. Lord Burghley however had answered him; and as Strype justly enough con siders his letter to be a fair specimen of the " most admirable, wise, and serene temper his Lords- ship was master of," it is fit that we should transcribe it. " My good Lord,— Your Lordship's letter is too full of choler for me to answer directly without adding of choler ; and so I should, addere oleum igni, add oil to the fire, but I am otherwise dis posed, both for reverence to your spiritual vocation, and for charity to mine own familiar acquaintance. For the opinion by you conceived of me, as not bearing you good will, surely your Lordship therein doth misinform yourself: and for answer, coram Domino, I protest that I bear you no kind of disfavour. That I have said to you of your, wasting of timber, I spake as a public officer, and will speak the like upon like occasion to any of your estate, how dearly soever I shall love them. " For reprehension of the common misusage by Bishops, Chancellors, Commissaries, Summoners, and such like, I say, with grief of mind, that I see therein no true use of the discipline meant at the first erection of those officers (which Fallow well of), but a corrupting of them to private °-ain, and not to the public benefit, and edifying of the Church. And it grieveth me to see the fond, light, pretended reformers, to have occasion ministered unwisely to condemn the officers, where they should condemn the misuse thereof. " And so, my Lord, lest in much writing I should by heat of argument stir your choler, I end, and pardon your taunts sparkled in your letter. " Your Lordship's, with reverence and Christian charity, " Westminster, May 26, 1579." « w> Burghley." 1579.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 123 know the truth fully, would see redress had without their requests, even for the pity of the poor that God had planted in his heart ;" — as " the common patron of the Bishops and all others in distress." — With many passages to the same purport, too numerous, and too frequent, to be particularly noticed. Great trouble was given to many Bishops this year by the sect which called itself the Family of Love* as may be seen in the Annals of the Reformation so often referred to, and which iadeed Was the occasion of Lord Burghley being so frequently written to, particularly by the Bishop of Norwich, in whose diocese they seem to have abounded. For the principles, erroneous doctrines, and enthusiastic proceedings of this sect We must refer to Strype. Colchester seems to have been the place of their first association. This sect of Familists,\ as they were called, appears to have been kept on foot till towards the middle ofthe ensuing century. In the obituary of this year, besides Sir Nicholas Bacon, who, dying on the 20th of February 1578-9, has been already mentioned, we find Sir Thomas Gresham, and the celebrated George Ferrers, Master of the King's Pastimes, in the time of Edward VI. — Of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange in London, and the useful negotiator of foreign loans, so many accounts are extant, that we need not say more about him, than that he died in great favour with the Queen, very rich, the fruits of which are to be found to this day, in many of our city charities and public endowments. Of George Ferrers a short account may be seen in Miss Aikin's entertaining account of the Court of Queen Elizabeth ; he was a contributor to that very curious work, " the Mirror for Magistrates ;" of which a very interesting account is to be found in the eighth chapter of the same work. The Queen's Progress in the summer of the year 1579, seems to have been confined to the counties of Essex and Suffolk, but as nothing occurs in the accounts remaining of it, that can be said particularly to relate to Lord Burghley, we shall think it quite sufficient to refer the reader to Mr. Nichols' celebrated work. In Scotland and Ireland many things occurred this year, which were of great importance in themselves, but of which we shall have a better opportunity of speaking under the year ensuing. * See Camden. f Of which the Libertines were a branch. — See an account of them, Annals, ii. part ii. 287, 288. and vol. iii. 63, 64. CHAP. VIII. 1580. Twenty-second year of Queen Elizabeth's reign commenced November 17, 1579. Inaccuracy of Strype— The breaking off the Queen's marriage with the Due d'Anjou— Arrival of the Prince of Conde— Letters of Lord Burghley and Lord Sussex concern ing the Prince of Conde — Papists — Gregory XIII. — Seminaries — Popish Missionaries — Parsons — Campian — Queen's first proclamation — Queen's second proclamation — Rapin — Camden — Allen — Dr. Bilson — Dr. Lingard' s account of Parsons and Campian — Designs of the Pope — Lord Burghley's letter to the Vice Chancellor, fyc. of Cambridge — Sanders's letter to the Irish — Lord Burghley on Fasts — Oxford — Leicester's Com monwealth — Catherine Duchess of Suffolk — Mr. P. Bertie — Queen's strange conduct to the Shrewsbury family— Mary Queen of Scots — Affairs of Scotland — D'Aubigny — ¦ Remonstrances of Randolph — James Stuart — Ireland — Fittmorris— Attempts of France and Spain on Ireland — Lord Burghley on Irish affairs — Confession for the Reformed Churches — Drake. We have again to complain of the inaccuracy of Strype in regard to dates ; he begins the history of the year 1580, with the departure of Monsieur from England, as though he had continued with the Queen many months after his very sudden and unexpected arrival at Greenwich, in the autumn of 1579, whereas he very quickly returned to France at that time, and never came again till the year 1581 ; in fact, what he has written in his Annals of the Refor mation at the beginning of the year 1 580, of Monsieur's departure for Flushing, with a great attendance of English Nobility, belongs entirely to the year fol lowing, as may be seen bythe very letter to which he refers, since published by Mr. Lodge.* We may impute such mistakes probably to the circumstance of Strype's having consulted the original manuscripts, where the dates are not always fully expressed, the day of the month often appearing without that of the year, as seems to have been the case with the letter in question ; such mis takes, however, in works of known repute, are exceedingly embarrassing to other * Lord Talbot to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Illustrations, vol. ii. No. cxliv. 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 125 explorers of history, and ought to be noticed when they occur. We have been the more anxious to follow Strype, because no other author has written so much of Lord Burghley ; though chiefly indeed upon points relating to the Church or Universities, the chief subjects of his many useful works. We shall pass by also what is said by the same diligent writer of the pro ceedings in Parliament and Convocation, under the year 1580, it being much more easy now to follow the historical than the civil reckoning; and to carry on these matters, therefore, to the year 1581, since, in truth, though Strype begins his twenty-first chapter, b. ii. in the following manner: "A reformation of several abuses in the Church was moved again in a session of Parliament this year," viz. 1580, which commonly passes for the twenty-second year of the Queen's reign, the Parliament did not meet till the 16th of Jan. 1581 , being the third month of the twenty-third year of her reign.* It would seem from a paper in Murdin, p. 338, that though, on the Due d'Anjou's departure in 1579, the Queen seemed very favourably impressed with his visit, and disposed towards the .marriage, yet, that as early as the month of Jan. 1579-80, either of "her own disposition, or by persuasion of others whom she trusted," as the paper expresseth it, she did " not hold in the same mind." It was judged necessary, therefore, to be prepared against the perils that might ensue upon breaking off the match, and the paper referred to, after Lord Burghley's usual manner, discusses all these points : first, stating the principal dangers to be apprehended, and secondly, the likeliest means to avert those dangers, in which every particular of defence, by ships, soldiers, fortifi cations, and alliances, is distinctly dwelt upon ; and due attention paid to the securing of numerous vents and markets for the sale or barter of English goods, by means ofthe Low Countries, Emden, Hamburgh, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Muscovy, Portugal, Italy, Barbary, and Turkey, so that if the traffic with some should happen to be stopped, it might remain open with others, that " the lack • * It is surprising how much confusion of dates might have been obviated, by the adoption of a very curious canon in Ptolemy's Tables, by which every King's reign was made to concur with the current year, by carrying back the day of his accession, happen when it might, to the preceding thoth or new-year's-day, all the odd months of his last year being carried forward, and included in the first year of his successor. — See Hales's Analogy of Chronology, vol. i. 171, and Clinton's Fasti Hellenici. In this manner the whole of the year 1558 might have been called the first of Elizabeth, though she actually came to the throne not quite two months before the conclusion of that year. Camden, indeed, and others have made it so, but confusedly enough. 126 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580, of the rest might be the better borne." I question, however, whether this- paper was not rather drawn cup by Lord Sussex than by Lord Burghley from its con clusion. — Decidedly like most others of the same age and description, it is well calculated to give the reader a view of the perplexed state of European politics at the time, and ofthe difficulty of deciding between many different: expedients as the paper itself sets forth: "Which of these may be best done alone by itself, or how every of them in some parts may be linked with its fellows, asketh a long time of thinking of, and a great time of deep consideration ; because the ill that may grow by every of them, lyeth open before the eyes of all men ; and the good of all men, and the good of any of them, must be searched for very deep. Thus doth your Majesty see the objection of perils and shows of remedies; which I do pray to God not to fall out to be but shows indeed. Whereas your marriage, if you had liked it, might have provided you more surety with, less peril; and for myself I humbly beseech your Majesty, that I may be the first man that may be employed to spend my blood for your service, in the place where yousthink to be your first peril, without exception of persons, time, place, or matter." In the summer of this year, the Prince of Conde came into England, to solicit the Queen's assistance in behalf of the King of Navarre, his brother, and the French Protestants; a circumstance which seems to have excited some jealousy in the Court,, to judge from the letters that passed between the Lords Burghley and Sussex. The first from Lord Burghley begins as follows, written from Norwich : " My very good Lord, with thanks for your letter and messenger, who, on Friday, met one coming from Theobalds, I came yesterday hither about five of the clock ; and repairing towards the privy chamber, to have seen her Majesty, I found the door, at.the upper end. of the privy chamber, shut; and then understood that the French Ambassador had been a long time with her Majesty, and the Prince of Conde also. Where there were none other of the council but my Lord of Leicester and Mr. Vice- Chamberlain Hatton, Mr. Secretary Walsingham being sick in his chamber ; and so, about seven ofthe clock, the French Ambassador, being ready to depart towards London, came to me, and told me a great part of their proceedings, being pleased well with her Majesty for her temperate dealings, but no way contented with the Prince of Conde, in whom he findeth more disposition to move troubles in France, than to enjoy peace; and he addeth, that he verily thinketh that these troubles in France, and the Princes 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 127 coming hither, are provoked from hence. Wherein I know nothing of certainty, but should be sorry it should be so in truth. Nevertheless, he augmenteth his suspicions upon the sight he hath of the great favours shewed to the Prince of Conde by certain Counsellors here, whom he understandeth have been many times, both on Friday and Saturday with him at the banqueting-house where he is lodged. " By her Majesty I perceive the just cause of his coming is for money in this sort : that is, after this rate ; the charge to be borne : viz. a part by the King of Navarre and his part : another by Casimere and certain Princes Protestants : and a third, is required from her Majesty. What they may prove I know not. I wish her Majesty may spend some portion to solicit for them some peace, to the good ofthe cause of religion, but to enter into a war, and therewith to break the marriage ; and so to be left alone, as subject to the burthen of such a war, I think no good Counsellor can allow. It is likely that the Prince shall depart to-morrow by sea to Flushing. " Your Lordship's most assured,* " June 1580." « W. BURGHLEY." On the first of July,f Lord Sussex wrote to Lord Burghley as follows : " My good Lord, sending this bearer to see how her Majesty doth, I would not omit to write these few lines to you. I have never heard word from my Lord of Leicester, Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, or Mr. Secretary 'Walsingham, ofthe * Strype's Annals, vol,, ii. Appendix, No. xxv. ; but the letter is introduced again in vol. iii. part i. p. 15. under the year 1581, which must be wrong. f Mr. Lodge has published a letter from Lord Sussex to Lord Burghley, of a date only three days previous to this, which reflects such honour on the latter, that it ought, not to be omitted : " My good Lord, — I have seen a letter which it pleased your Lordship most honourably and kindly to write to my wife, greatly to her comfort when she was grieved, for the which I do think myself more bound to your Lordship than I can write ; and so I beseech you to conceive, and therewith to make certain account that both she and I do love, honour, and reverence you as a father, and will do you all the service we can, as far as any child you have, with heart and hand, and so pray you to dispose of us both. " The true fear of God, which your actions have always shewed to be in your heart ; the great and deep care which you have always had for the honour and safety of the Queen's most worthy person; the continual trouble which you have of long time taken for the benefitting of the commonwealth : and the uprigty course which 70U have always taken, respecting the matter and not the person, in all causes (which be the necessary fruits of him that feareth God truly, serveth his Sovereign faithfully, and loveth his country dearly), have tied me to your Lordship in that knot which no worldly frailty can break ; and, therefore, I will never forbear to own any fortune that 128 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. coming of the Prince of Conde, or his expectation, or to seek to know my opinion what I thought fit to do in his causes : whereby I see either they seek to keep the whole from me, or else care little for my opinion, or will wrest the Prince, and the rest of that sort, to think I am no friend to their cause : which of these so ever it be, I do not weigh, any more than they weigh the making of me a stranger to the matter; and therefore if your Lordship have not already acquainted any of them with your writing to me in that matter, I pray your Lordship let them not know of it, and perhaps at my coming, some of them will mislike I am made such a stranger, though not in respect of myself, yet in respect of her Majesty's service ; wherein I do not doubt but both her Majesty and the world do conceive I can give as sound an opinion as the best of them, and so have done in all cases hitherto. " Thus I am bold to scribble my mind to your Lordship, being very lothe to see my Sovereign Lady to be violently drawn into war, which I know is naturally against her heart, and all the world doth see is more than she shall be able to maintain, and therefore must of necessity be perilous to her. " Your's, most assured, " T.Sussex." From these letters we may perceive that something was going forward, con trary to the wishes of these two great and honest Counsellors. It appears, however, that the Prince was sent back without any stipulated aid ; but that the may serve you, and further your honourable dealings in these your godly actions. And so, my good Lord, forbearing to trouble you with words, I end ; and wish unjo you as unto myself, and better, if I may. " At Newhall, June 28, 1580. Lodge, ii. No. cxlvi. p. 229. » T. Sussex." We cannot forbear noticing one passage in the above • letter, namely, the credit given by this worthy and honourable Nobleman to Lord B. for " respecting the matter and not the person in all causes." The same credit is given to him by abundance of other persons who knew him well: an honour so much the greater, because we find it absolutely noticed in a Homily set forth on occasion of the earthquake this year, that in some courts there was so much corruption, that it had become a common by-word, that " as a man is friended, so the law is ended;" and though it is recorded among the chief glories of Elizabeth's reign, that justice was never so well administered, or the Courts of Law under better regulation, yet, it cannot be doubted, that there were great abuses. See, among other instances, the complaint ofthe suffragan Bishop of Dover, ofthe release of a murderer by bribing the Lord Chief Baron.— Strype's Annals, iii. 391, 392 ; and the letter of Fletewoode, Recorder of London, to Lord Burghley, relating to the " Gyntyl- men'* of London, who expected to be exempt from all indictments or punishment in consideration of their quality.— Ellis's Original Letters, vol. ii. 291, 292. First Series. 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. ]29 Queen promised to write to the King of France, and do all that a Christian Prince could do, to " accord things amiss ;" but the King of Navarre stood upon his defence. It became necessary this year to look narrowly after the Papists ; England appearing to be subject to a systematic attack from Popish missionaries, whose designs became so apparent to the friends of Protestantism abroad, as well as at home, as to induce them to send over many very serious warnings of the mischief they suspected. " The good friends of*England and the English Church/' says Strype, " I mean the divines of Switzerland (with whom, and our Bishops, was maintained a con stant good correspondence, ever since they were harboured kindly and friendly with them, in Queen Mary's bloody reign), gave intelligence of the Popish dili gence at this time." One letter from thence was sent to the Bishop of Ely, who dispatched notice of it to the good Lord Treasurer, beginning with these words : "Antichristi incendium accenditur Roma, et in omnem fere orbem divulgatur: as we have lately heard from our true friends, and who heartily favour both our king dom, our Queen and our Nobility, that the Pope's bull by the means of Alexan- drini Cardinali, was to be published against the Queen, and 500 copies of it to be printed, in order to be dispersed in those parts of the world that were judged most Catholic." The original in Latin, as given by Strype, Annals, ii. Appendix, xxxvii. and Life of Whitgift, Appendix, b. ii. No. iii., expresses these things better, but it is not necessary to enlarge upon what was mere matter of rumour,* since facts maybe adduced to prove the efforts at this time making by Gregory XIII. to disturb in every way that he could, the peace of England, by a regularly organized army of Jesuits prepared for every practicable deception. It is impossible to be totally deceived about these things, though being mixed up, as the case was, with religious prejudices and partialities, it is difficult even now, so to write, as to gain universal credit. To any unprejudiced mind, indeed, if such can be found, the mere history of the establishments abroad^ at this period, justly denominated seminaries,^ might, one would hope, convey sufficient information to lead to the knowledge ofthe exact truth. * Gualter, of Zurich, wrote to the same effect to both the Archbishops, Grindal and Sandys ; advising them of a fresh publication and dispersion of Pope Pius's bull, and of the preparations ofthe Pope and Spaniard to invade England. + As the Popish Priests died off in England, new ones were to be sent over from these Col leges, " To sow," as Camden says, " the seeds of the Romish religion in England." But they VOL. III. * 130 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. Of the beginning of these seminaries, Strype gives the following account, under the present year 1 580. " The fautors for the Pope, and for restoring of his religion and authority in this kingdom, were active now also ;* and to further these their designs, the English Popish Clergy who had fled into Flanders, by the instigation of Wil liam Allen, a Jesuit, t a man of notable parts, and great esteem among the fugitives, [had] assembled themselves together at a town there, called Doway ; and there set up a school. [A. D. 1568.] The Pope gave them an annual pen sion or rather a maintenance ; purposely to plot and contrive ways to expel the Queen, and demolish, the Church of England.^ After they had tarried there some years, upon some troubles they removed most of them to Scotland ; where the Queen of Scots allowed them a pension, and liberty to set up another school for the education of English youth who would come thither. Here they were taught all manner of ways to divide the Protestants of England, in principles of religion, as also to withdraw them from the form of prayer established. And there was an oath the scholars of this College took ; viz. I, A. B., do acknowledge the ecclesiastical and political power of his Holiness and the Mother Church of sowed other seeds also, if there be any truth in history. It is the remark of Lord Burghley himself, .that " although their outward pretence be, to be sent from the seminaries to convert people to their religion, yet without reconciling of them from their obedience to the Queen, they never give them, absolution." — See Birch and Macdiarmid. * See in the Annals, ii. pp. 355, 356, the names of some of the principal fautors of the Pope, as discovered by A. Monday ; to whom a priest at Rome is reported to have spoken thus of Queen Elizabeth and her Council : " That proud, usurping Jezebel, whom God reserveth to make her a public spectacle to the whole world, for keeping that good Queen of Scots from her lawful rule., But I hope ere long the dogs shall tear her flesh, and those that be her props and upholders. Such speeches were not very likely to mollify the heart of Elizabeth, or do Mary any good, but that she was often so spoken of by the Papists we have no doubt, and that the threatened vengeance was always preparing, could they have once got Mary into their power, is as little questionable. f This is a mistake ; Allen was not a Jesuk. — See Strype corrected, Biographia Brit. Note M. art. Alan. X " To be at that fime a Catholic, and to think Elizabeth an usurper, and Mary the rightful Queen ; and to desire to have a Catholic Sovereign on the throne of England, were inseparable circumstances. There was not perhaps one member of the Romish Church in Europe, who had other sentiments."— Turner. With the author just cited, and in regard to every thing in these volumes relating to the unfortunate struggle between Mary and Elizabeth, I must say, in Mr. Turner's own words, " I wish not to press any one to a harsh opinion on this subject, but feel that I ought not to conceal the unbiassed tendency of my own." 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 131 Rome, as the chief head and matron, above all pretended Churches throughout the whole earth. And that my zeal shall be for St. Peter and his successors, as the founder of the true and Catholic faith, against all heretical Kings, Princes, States, or powers, repugnant unto the same. And although I, A. B„ may pretend, in case of persecution, or otherwise, to be heretically disposed, yet in soul and conscience I shall help, aid, and succour the Mother Church, &c." As we generally follow Strype, we have copied this account, though we are not prepared to say that the whole of it is quite correct, but it is very certain that one of the first seminaries, established on the Continent, by English fugitives, was at Douay,* where Allen endeavoured, all he could, to collect together a school of English Students, who should be instructed to oppose heresies, to justify the Romish religion, and to answer all such books as should be written in defence of the Church of England. In this College, according to Rapin, while the Duke of Alva was Governor of the Netherlands, all the 'plots, in favour of the Queen of Scots, were hatched and formed. And as to the oath, said to have been administered to the Stu dents, it is entirely certain that many who were sent into England from these foreign seminaries, to sow division among the Protestants, had special licenses from the Pope, to assume any character they chose, and act as the oath states, as though they " were" themselves " heretically disposed ;" not merely to avoid persecution, which might have been comparatively justifiable, but to create con fusion among the Reformed, and thereby facilitate, on the part of the state, a return to the authority ofthe Church of Rome. From Douay, towards the year 1569, the seminary was removed to Rheims; Allen being made a Canon there, through the influence of the Guises, and the College of Douay broken up, by an order of the Governor, Don Lewis, Com- mendator of Requesens, for all English fugitives to depart from his Government, in return for the exclusion of the insurgent navy of the Low Countries, from the English ports. The object of the Students of the Douay College, says Dr. Lin gard, was " to study Theology, to receive orders, and to return to England, that a constant succession might be maintained. In the course ofthe first five years, Dr. Allen sent almost one hundred missionaries into England." The great question between the opposite parties to this day, relates to the employment of these missionaries in England. What is imputed to them, of evil practices, * 1568.— See Camden. 132 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. tending to disturb the peace ofthe kingdom, weaken the Queen's authority, and endanger her crown, and her life, and re-introduce the Romish religion, is, with the exception ofthe last, by all Romanists discredited, as the mere invectives of the Crown Lawyers, during the trials of the missionaries ; but there are surely sufficient proofs enough still extant of their dangerous purposes ; at all events, Popish missionaries could scarcely fail to fall under suspicion, while the bull of Pius V. was known to be in operation, and indulgences from Rome a cover for . all insidious practices. We are called upon still, to trust to Allen's " Apologies and True Declarations of the Institution and Endeavours of the two English Colleges," but we must have leave to trust much more to the facts upon record, to the contrary. Nothing, we think, can be more certain, than that under colour, as Rapin says, of administering the Sacraments to the Catholics, many came into England at this time, for no other purpose, but to preach sedition and rebellion. " So long," says he, " as the Court imagined these men only admi nistered the Sacrament in private to those of their religion, no notice .seemed to be taken of it, but it was discovered at length that they were diligent in spread ing pernicious principles, which might be attended with ill consequences. They maintained that the Pope had by divine right, full power to dethrone Kings ; and Elizabeth being excommunicated, and deposed by Pius the Fifth's bull, her subjects were freed from their allegiance. Four of these dangerous emissa ries were condemned and executed, for daring to maintain publicly, that the Queen was lawfully deposed. This did not hinder the two seminaries from continually sending incendiaries into England, with whom were joined Robert Parsons and Edmund Campian, Jesuits,* who were the first of that order em ployed to preach the fore-mentioned dangerous tenets. They obtained of the Pope, a bull, dated the 14th of August, 1580, declaring that Pope Pius's bull did for ever bind Elizabeth and the heretics, but not the Catholics, till a favour able opportunity should offer to put it in execution.^ These two Jesuits had pro fessed the Protestant religio'n, and even borne offices in the University of Oxford. After that, withdrawing out of the kingdom, they returned from time to time, appearing one while like clergymen, another while like soldiers, or in some * Compare Camden, who knew both these persons, and describes the former to have been " a violent fierce-natured man, and of a rough behaviour ; the latter well-polished, and of a sweet disposition. Parsons was of Baliol, Campian of St. John's College." t Compare Camden; — "but only hereafter when public execution of the said bull may be had." 15800 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 133 disguise,* and frequented the houses of the Catholics, under pretence of instructing and comforting them, but in reality to inspire them with sedition and rebellion." This is the account Rapin gives of the proceedings of the Papists, under the year 1580, and which led to what may be called the Queen's first proclamation, to call home the children of those who had gone abroad for edu cation,-]" and to forbid the harbouring any Jesuits or Priests, sent forth from the seminaries of Rome or Rheims, on pain of being punished as favourers of rebels and seditious persons. ( Rapin proceeds, — " Shortly after, printed books were dispersed, intimating, that the Pope and King of Spain had conspired to conquer England, and restore the Catholic religion, and exhorting the English Papists to encourage the design. Whereupon the Queen issued another proclamation, declaring she was not ignorant of the practices of her enemies, but by the blessing of God, and the help of her faithful subjects she was able to withstand their attacks both at home and abroad : J that moreover, as the plots which were contriving were not only against her person, but also against the whole kingdom, she did not intend to be cruel to the good, by sparing the bad ; and therefore such as would not for the future keep within the bounds of duty were to expect no favour." He goes * See Camden. + '* To these seminaries,". says Camden, " were sent daily out of England by the Papists, in contempt and despite of the laws, great numbers of boys, and young men of all sorts, and admitted into the same, making a vow to return into England. Others also crept secretly from thence into the land, and more were daily expected with the Jesuits, who at this time first came into Eng land. Hereupon, there came forth a proclamation, &c." Ofthe use made of the children sent over, the same author gives the following account : " Out of these seminaries were sent forth into divers parts of England and Ireland, at first a few young men, and afterwards more, according as they grew up, who were entered over hastily into holy orders [Strype calls them boy-priests dis guised], and instructed into the above-mentioned principles. They pretended only to administer the Sacraments of the Romish religion, and to preach to Papists ; but the Queen and her Council soon found that they were sent underhand to seduce the subjects from their allegiance and obe dience due tp their Prince, to oblige them, by reconciliation, to obey the Pope's commands, to stir up intestine rebellions, under the seal of confession, and flatly to execute the sentence of Pitts Quintus against the Queen, to the end that way might be made for the Pope and the Spaniard, who had of late designed the conquest of England." J " And to that purpose had mustered her forces both by sea and land, and had them now in readiness against any hostile .invasion." — Camden. Of the attention paid to these things by those who thought the country in danger, and were anxious to provide for its security, see the account of a Tract presented to the Queen, by a military gentleman, of the name of Hitchcock. — Annals, ii. p. 368. 134 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580" on, by a reference to the proceedings in Ireland, to shew, that " the menaces of the Pope and King of Spain were not entirely vain." We mio-ht .have transcribed nearly the same account from Camden, but as Rapin wrote a century after, and has often been at the pains to correct Camden where he judged him to be wrong, we may conclude that Camden's account, who lived ' and wrote so near the very time, had sufficiently stood the test of criticism and inquiry, to induce Rapin to adopt his relation of matters; for in many points, as we have shewn by our notes, the two authors perfectly agree : Rapin besides, has the support of his diligent contemporary Strype, and though a modern Catholic writer, Dr. Lingard, writes, that "Camden has given an account of the seminaries, which appears to be taken from the declamatory invectives of the crown lawyers, during the trials ofthe missionaries, but that they universally denied these charges ; which were victoriously answered by Dr. Allen in a tract intituled, 'Apology and True Declaration of the Institution and Endeavours of the two English Colleges,' &c. yet the reader should still be told that Dr. Allen's victorious answer, did not pass without a reply from the pen of Dr. Bilson, Warden of Winchester, who wrote in 1585, and whose book was designed to shew the " true difference between christian subjection and unchristian rebellion," which book, as Strype says, " seasonably met with Dr. Allen's Apology and True Declaration," &c. r — as well as with another book of the same stamp and character, called', "a Defence' of the English Catholics that suffer for their faith." — It is impossible to refer to all these writers in a work like the present, though the case is one, which particularly affects the reputation of Lord Burghley, and his friend Sir Francis Walsingham, both of whom may be reckoned among the writers* who took upon them to refute * See Lord Burghley's Treatise on the Execution of Justice, written in 1583, and Sir Francis Walsingham's admirable letter to Monsieur Cretoy, Burnet's History ofthe Reformation, vol. ii. In citing these two works, we do in no manner seek to excuse the cruelties actually inflicted on Popish and other recusants, much less the use of torture, which, till the Queen put a stop to it, was certainly judged to be, under certain circumstances, a good political engine ; we merely intend to shew, that the object contemplated was decidedly the restraint of treasonable conspiracies ; and interference with the Laws. — It is certainly melancholy to think that any person of any age, could write or speak of torture with a degree of indifference, as though it could under any circumstances, be rendered a just mode of proceeding, but as Lord B, had certainly the character of being a humane man in all private, and most of his public concerns, we can only plead the spirit of the age and rejoice that we are more civilized. Mr. Hallam has some excellent observations upon this in his Constitutional History of England, where he does what he can to save the credit of 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 135 the calumnies of Allen ; whereby the Queen's government was charged with no less crimes than heresy, tyranny, and blasphemy. We shall now subjoin Dr. Lingard's own account of the coming of Parsons [Persons] and Campian into England this year. After speaking of the execution of certain Papists, whom he represents to have suffered, not on any satisfactory evidence, but merely on presumptions, he proceeds as follows : " The experience of ages has proved, that such severities cannot damp the ardour^of religious zeal. Missionaries now poured into the kingdom. Gregory XIII. established an additional seminary in Rome, and Mercurianus, the general of the Jesuits, assented to the request of Allen, that the members of his order might share in the dangers and glory of the mission. For this purpose he selected Robert Persons and Edward Campian, two Englishmen of distinguished merits and ability. Their arrival awakened the suspicion of the Queen and the Council : it was believed, or at least pretended, that they had come with the same traiterous object as Sanders, who in the preceding year had animated the insurgents of Ireland to oppose the authority of the Sovereign : and the pursuivants were stimulated with promises and threats, to seek out and apprehend the two Missionaries ;" he then mentions the proclamation before spoken of, and the proceedings in Parliament, where " the Ministers called on the two Houses for laws of greater severity, to xlefeat the devices of the Pope." But as these things belong, according to our arrangement, rather to the year following, we shall, at present, offer no farther observations, than such as relate to the suspicions raised in the breasts of the Ministers, of the devices of the Pope, and we cannot, upon this head, refrain from remarking, that if they had not suspected that the designs of Gregory lay deeper than what was ostensibly declared by his emissaries, they would have deserved to have been removed for ever from the Queen's confidence. It may be quite true that the ardour of religious zeal is not to be damped, by excessive severities ; but why then, it may be asked, were two such able and noted Jesuits sent from Rome, even on the Pope's own Lord Burghley, upon the points alluded to, and in the fairest way imaginable ; namely, by citing one of his own memorials addressed to the Queen, nearly at the same time, in which he displays sentiments and feelings, both just and tolerant, and as Leicester and Walsingham were chiefly blamed by the Catholics, and the Queen ordered torture to be disused, and inter posed to soften some of the rigours of punishment, as Mr. Ilallam allows, we would hope, that Lord B. had no small share in suggesting such amendments. — It is reasonable to think so on various accounts. 136 ' MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. shewing, if it were not to prevent the ardour of the English Catholics being damped by the severities described, and why was that religious ardour to be kept up, but to force back upon England a discarded faith, a renounced authority, and a government less obnoxious to the Pope ; the dangers they courted, were the proclaimed penalties of treason and sedition ; they must have known that, in the face of such proclamations, they could not be harboured or entertained in England, without hazard rather, than help to their friends and adherents there, or without practising some disguise to elude suspicion.* Presumptive proofs indeed are no favourites with us, especially where the life of man is concerned, but where the presumption rests on the avowed designs and undoubted purposes of a party ,f the mere denial of such designs and purposes, * I must again refer to Mr. Turner's book for a corroboration of the view I have taken of these things, had I been furnished with it in time, in compliance with my own desires, I might have been spared much trouble of investigation. t As Dr. Lingard has himself mentioned Sanders, it may not be amiss to see what were his avowed designs and undoubted purposes, as a Popish emissary, transcribed from his own original letter to the Catholics in Ireland, written in this very year, 1580, and urging them to rebellion. " To the right honourable and Catholic Lords, and worthy gentlemen of Ireland, N. Sanders D.D. wisheth all felicity. " Pardon me, I beseech you, if upon just cause I use the same words to your honours and worships, which St. Paul wrote sometime to the Galatians ; who hath enchanted you not to obey the truth? for if ye be not bewitched, what mean you to fight for heresy against the truth, for the Devil against God, for tyrants that rob you of your goods, lands, lives, and everlasting salvation, against your own brethren,- who daily spend their goods and shed their blood, to deliver you from these miseries? what mean you, I say, to be at so great charges, to take so great pain, and to put yourselves in so horrible danger of body and soul, for a wicked woman, neither begotten in true wedlock, nor esteeming her Christendom, and therefore deprived by the Vicar of Christ, her and your lawful judge ; forsaken of God, vrho justifieth the sentence of his Vicar ; forsaken of all Catholic Princes, whom she hath injured intolerably ; forsaken of divers lords, knights and gentlemen", of England, who ten years past took the sword against her, and yet stand in the same quarrel? See ye not, that she is without a lawful heir of her own body, who may either reward her friends or revenge her enemies ? See you not, that she is such a reproach to the crown, that whoso is indeed a friend to the crown, should so much the more hasten to dispossess her of the same ? See you not, that the- next Catholic heir to the crown (for the Pope will take order by God's grace that it shall rest in none other but Catholics), must account all them for traitors that spend their goods in maintaining an heretic against his true title and right? what will ye answer to the Pope's Lieutenant, when he, bringing us the Pope's and other Catholic Princes' aid (as shortly he will), shal) charge you with the crime and pain of heretics, for maintaining an heretical pretensed Queen, against the public sentence of Christ's Vicar ? can she with her feigned supremacy (which he Devil instituted in Paradise when he made Eve Adam's mistress in God's matters), absolve and 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 137 on the part of individuals, provided with secret instructions, indulgences as well as pardons from an infallible judge, for all sorts of prevarications and deceptions in the pursuit and accomplishment of such designs and purposes, mere denials I repeat, could scarcely have been received as any proof of innocence, in the then state of Europe and of England. But we shall have more to say upon this under the ensuing year. For the present, we must grant, that the English precautions appear to have fully equalled the Pope's diligence, and to have succeeded in checking the mischief intended against the Queen and her govern ment, in the councils of Madrid and Rome, to say nothing at present of France, the Guises, and the League.* Much as these things must have occupied the attention of Lord Burghley, he was by no means free from care and trouble, appertaining to his high office of Chancellor of Cambridge, the particulars of which are related by Strype ; but as he had occasion to write two letters upon the cases referred to him, which contain some passages, illustrative of his feelings upon certain points of impor tance, we feel compelled to advert to them. The first relates to two graces, obtained surreptitiously as it is alleged, against the Masters and Heads of Col leges, by the Vice Chancellor and Doctors of the town, and infringing a public statute. Though the letter is a much longer one than we should wish to intro duce into the body of this work, and has been already printed by Strype from aquit you from the Pope's excommunication and curse? Shall ye not rather stain yourselves and your noble houses with a suspicion of heresy and treason ? In which case if the Catholic heir to the royal crown call upon the execution ofthe laws ofthe Church, you shall for the maintenance of heresy, lose your goods, your lands, your honours ; and undo your wives, your children, and your houses for ever. ' God- is not mocked.' The longer it is before he punish, the more hard and severe shall his punishment be. Do you not see before your eyes, that because King Henry the Eighth brake the unity of Christ's Church, his house is now cut off and ended? and think you that maintaining the heresy which he began, you shall not bring your own houses to the like end that he hath?" — Feb. 21. 1580. — Mr. Ellis, who has printed this letter in the third volume of his 2d series of Original Letters, has noticed another in the same collection of MSS. from some unknown person to the King of Spain, entreating his interest with the Pope to procure Sanders to be made a Cardinal. He has printed the Pope's Bull for James Fitz-Moris, indorsed by Lord Burghley, " Bulla contra Reginam." 1577. • Whatever credit the Ministers of Elizabeth may deserve for counteracting the intrigues and designs of her many enemies, they were yet not capable of entirely guarding against deception, as may be seen in the case of Parry, who, in the course of this and other years, was evidently practising with Lord Burghley himself, as may be seen in Strype, though at present we cannot enter further into the history of his deceptions. VOL. III. T 138 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. the original, yet, as it is eminently calculated to shew the great care, prudence, and resolution, with which he [Lord Burghley] interposed in the affairs of the learned Society over which he'presided, we cannot avoid copying it at length, as one specimen out of many. His Lordship had previously referred the matter to the judgment of Archbishop Grindal, who, in the answer he returned, had written, "Now when your Lordship is desirous to know mine opinion for quieting and ordering of this contention, I know your Lordship of yourself can best do it; and I count the University happy that it hath you for Chancellor in these unquiet times.— Your wisdom and authority may work more good with them than could be done otherwise.— I do greatly commend the sentences of humility and submission contained in the letters of the University to your Lordship. Lambeth, June 30, 1580." " To the Vice Chancellor and Heads of Colleges, &c. " After our very hearty and loving commendations, we wish unto you all, in general and particular, the grace of God's Spirit, to lead and conserve you in concord and peace. So as the knowledge of God may increase among you, that by your altercations and dissensions, the enemies of learning and the gospel have not just occasion to rejoice thereof; and spread abroad slanderous reports to the defamation of the whole body of your famous University. " And not without cause do I simply begin to write, that from the bottom of my heart, perceiving as I have done by late letters received, sealed with your common seal, and subscribed in the name of you, the Vice Chancellor and senate ; and other letters also from all the Heads and Masters of Colleges, sub scribed with their own proper names ; that there has arisen some cloud, con taining a matter of some tempest of controversy among you. Which, if by some favourable wind of admonition, in God's name, the Father of peace, if it be not blown over, or dispersed, is like to, pour out upon the whole body of that University some contagious and pestilent humour of contention, sedition, or some worse thing than I wUl name. "And upon the receipt of these contradictory letters, and perusing the grounds and causes thereof, I was somewhat comforted, in that both parties had so courteously and reverently (which I mean in respect of the office I have, to be your Chancellor) referred the order and direction of all these begun contro versies to my censure. Wherein although I think by direct laws, ordinances, and ancient customs of that University, I might challenge to myself such a power so to do ; yet I cannot but very thankfully and comfortably accept this 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 139 your courteous and loving manner of yielding to be ordered by me. And there fore, I have been more careful how to discharge myself herein. For which purpose, without using any prejudicial conceit of judgment, by mine own con sideration of the cause, I did, by my special letters, partly recommend this con troversy, and the whole cause to the most reverend father in God, my very good Lord, the Archbishop of Canterbury's grace ; requiring him both to con sider of your letters, and to hear as well Mr. D. Barrow, coming with the letters from you, the Vice Chancellor; as Mr. D. Howland, master of St. John's College, coming from all the Heads of Colleges ; and to peruse the statutes mentioned in this controversy. And to call to his Grace also some persons of experience in such University matters. Which I perceive, and so. Mr. D. Bar row can inform you, his Grace hath done very diligently and painfully, as by his letters his Grace hath signified ; declaring to me, at good length, what either party hath alleged for maintenance or disallowance of the two motions called graces ; whereupon the controversies have principally arisen. And thereupon his Grace hath plainly imparted to me what he thinketh thereof. Wherewith, after some further consideration of the particular chapter of the statutes, against which the graces have been preferred, I do concur. And so, although verbally I have pronounced mine opinion to be, the foresaid doctors being the messengers at this time, whom I think sufficient to declare the same unto either part ; yet I have thought myself not discharged in conscience and office, without also expressing my censure and determination, as your Chancellor and chief officer. In writing which I most earnestly require you per omnes charitates to accept, as from one that herein am touched with no particular affection towards any person ; but in the sight of God, whose assistance by the Spirit of peace I have invoked, I do declare my mind as followeth : which, as your Chancellor, I re quire to be obeyed and allowed. "I do think and judge it meet and necessary, that the two late graces should be reputed as void and none. Whereof one was a motion to have all other Doctors that are Heads of Colleges, in the pointing or pricking of officers ; though by the statutes the same be expressly limited to the Heads. The second was, that Doctors in divinity should be compellible to preach as frequently as other younger divines. Which two, called by you graces, though indeed dis graces to the Queen's Majesties statutes, may percase not be in precise words well avouched ; because the same I have not present with me at the writing hereof; yet my meaning is manifest unto you, that I do deem and adjudge 140 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. them to be void, and not to be accepted, as things to bind any person thereby. And though I have and do see many reasons to move me hereunto, whereof I have expressed some to Mr. D. Barrow, and that I hope there will be none so unruly among you as to impugn this my sentence ; yet as briefly as I may in a letter, I will touch to you a few reasons, as followeth. " First, I cannot allow to have any decrease attempted, to please a multitude, to the violation or alteration of any her Majesties statutes, so lately with great deliberation and advice made ; and by that whole University accepted and ap proved ; except there shall be better consideration aforehand had, then was in those proceedings. Wherein I may not forget to remember you, that in respect of the office I have to be your high officer, and have never shewn myself care less of your causes, it had been at this lime meet and convenient, and so here after ought to be, to have made me first acquainted ; and to have had my clear consent, as well to the violating or changing of your statutes, as I was at first the principal author to procure them to be made. And though I perceive, and hear by some report, that some of you have in your defence alleged that you had heretofore on your part moved this matter to me, as indeed you did, and that I had allowed thereof, which is not so ; I omit words of worse sense, to control such reporters. And some hath, as I hear in open assembly alleged, that I did to that end write my letters to Mr. D. Howland, then Vice Chancellor, which he was charged to have supprest ; I am sorry in this my common letter to you all, to be constrained to use some sharper speech than my nature alloweth of, to be contained in a letter from a Chancellor to his loving scholars, as gene rally I esteem you to be ; my speeches shall only touch the private persons, who have forgotten their duties, to allege an untruth against me. And not content to speak of me untruly, being absent ; but have hazarded rashly their credit against D. Howland, that was Vice Chancellor, charging him with suppression of my letters. But in few words I affirm, that I never did consent to this mo tion; neither did I write any such letters to D. Howland for that purpose. " When Mr. D. Hatcher, and I think his son-in-law D. Lougher, and D. Bar row, as I remember, moved me herein; and added another matter, that the Vice Chancellor and Heads of Colleges did not use to make the Oppidan Doctors acquainted with the University causes ; I answered, that I thought it reasonable they should be called, -as other of their degrees were, to be made acquainted with the causes of the University. But to have authority with the Heads in causes against the statute, I never asserted. But I said I would speak with the 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 141 Heads of Colleges therein ; as I did, and found good cause in my opinion, as yet I do, to the contrary. And that is principally, because I think the statute very good, as it is, to reduce the nomination of these kind of public officers to be done by a number ; neither too few, for lack of consideration ; nor committed unto too many, for fear of confusion. And none other can I think than the Heads of Colleges, or in their absence their vicegerents; who are to be thought to have best knowledge of their companies, both for discretion and learning ; and fewer do I not think, than all the Heads of the Colleges, lest some Colleges might lack preferment. And contrariwise to increase this multitude by foreign Doctors, that have not domicilia fixa, but are here and there at their pleasures; and have not either special care or certain knowledge of the learning and dis cretion of scholars in colleges, must needs carry- an absurdity two ways. The one is, that the number of such extraordinary or extravagant Doctors may ex ceed the number of the Heads, to control their censures grounded upon know ledge. The second is, that there may be by faction drawn a devotion of scholars from their Heads, to serve the appetites of foreigners ; and so leave their own fathers for step-fathers. " But because I see I should exceed the limits of a letter, if I should prosecute this matter, I will alter my purpose with concluding my former sentence for both the graces : which wjthout the allegations of any arguments ought to be accepted in favour of continuance of laws, against any that will take the office to abrogate : which you know how in some commonwealths were so disliked, as they were ordered to speak thereof with ropes about their necks : you can tell why. And yet I do not, like a stoic, maintain this opinion ; but I do know how the same may be limited in times and places. " As for the intention of your last grace, to compel Doctors to preach more oftener, than by constraint they need ; I like well of all voluntary actions ; especially in such action as preaching is. Wherein I think admonition more convenient than to make new laws so suddenly against laws in use. And so far forth am I moved to have them preach, as I wish them to lose the name and preferment of Doctors, that will leave the office of Doctors ; which is by etymo logy to teach. " I must now add with my most hearty exhortation to move you all to concord ; and to shew your earnestness in observing the laws which you have ; and especially to be more careful for government of the youth, being by common report far out of order, in following all sensuality in sundry things that I will 142 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580, not now name. For I should then speak of sundry things ungrateful to hear ; and yet not unknown to you that are Heads of Colleges, nor to you that by marriage are heads of families." The other case referred to his particular judgment and decision, related to an order sent to the Vice Chancellor by the Bishop of Ely for the observance of a public fast, which some of the University fancied could not be complied with, without offence to her Majesty, as savouring too much of Puritanism. The occasion seems to have been, according to Strype, " the mighty preparations making abroad by the Pope, and his sworn confederates of the Holy Land, to invade this land, of which news came from all parts, and to this Bishop in particular, from his friends in Helvetia." Without pretending to be fully informed of all the circumstances, and adverting only to the great duty of fasting and occasional abstinence, his Lordship thus expresses himself: " If the same may be done, as his Lordship writeth, in all order and comeliness, I think that there can be no just offence taken thereat. I were greatly overseen, if. I should not allow both of fasts and exhortation thereto : and I think the same ought to be accompanied with two elder sisters, although I find no mention thereof in the Bishop's letter : that is, oi' prayers, which are for all persons to use ; whereas fasting is not expedient for all persons ; and the second is alms in relieving the poor ; which is the action of the rich, and therein I think my Lord himself will begin the example most abundantly. " I, as a public Counsellor of the realm, cannot warrant by my directions in the Church, but that which I find established by the laws of the realm, or by the usual practice of the Church ;* as by direction from the Metropolitan, or by * We find him expressing the same feeling with regard to a fast proposed to be kept at Stamford, a place peculiarly belonging to him, and of which he had received information from the Alderman of the town, to whom he wrote accordingly, that " although he commended the preacher's zeal towards that town, to move them to such divine actions, as fasting and hearing of sermons, yet, considering this was an action that might seem an innovation in the orders of the church ; which were known how they were established by Parliament, without any other inno vation to be admitted ; at the least no such, matter should be attempted to be practised by any private person, outof the diocese and place where he hath cure ; nor yet in any other Bishop's diocese, without the prescription of the Bishop, or ordinary, or their permission. That he had thought good for the avoiding of offence, and because the borough of Stamford was his inheri tance, to require and advise him to give the preacher (Mr. Johnson) warning to forbear from any such attempt in that town, though if he were disposed there to preach, he might do so, if he had, as by likelihood he might have, license of the Bishop of the diocese, as any other might do, 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 143 Synod, approbated by the Queen's Majesty's authority, as head governor. And if the form which my Lord of Ely shall prescribe, or his delegates shall devise, may accord with any of these authorities, I wish it should take place, and wish it good success : to move Almighty God to mercy, and to forgive us by the means of the three actions: that is our offence in gluttony by fasting: our general in all, and particularly, abusing the plentifulness of his word, by invocation and repentance in public prayers : and thirdly in abuse of our wealth, by distributing alms to the poor. " All which three actions I think so necessary, as without we be by some means more moved thereto, than I can see we are yet disposed of ourselves : surely we ought by God's justice to fear the withdrawing of all that wherein we now abound ; that is, in all bodily and ghostly food ; and, thirdly, in worldly wealth. " But in what sort these good exercises shall be begun and continued, I must leave to the direction ofthe preacher, who can best tell how to apply the same, not all in one sort, for as I said, I think every person, without difference, is not to be enjoined to fast, for I am sorry to consider how many poor people are forced to fast for lack, and among the scholars, I know a great number are very near the same, for lack of allowance of diet ; as I think there are in some Colleges a number that have too great an allowance : and if I were to give my advice, surely such would be moved to abstinence, and to employ their increase of allowance to such as lack, and so at one time there should be both fasting and alms exercised.* As for prayer and invocation for mercy, I know there is none to be excepted or exempted. Well, good Mr. Vice Chancellor, bear with my hasty writing : for I cannot but wish well to this action, and hope that the preachers will do herein their offices as preachers and exhorters, not as devisers or commanders of new orders in the church, lest thereby, in meaning well, they having license ; adding, that if the said Alderman found it meet, he might do well to exhort men to fast and pray, being two necessary actions for Christian men to use." * These remarks on the duty of fasting are certainly very noticeable as proceeding from the pen of Lord Burghley, and at such a time, many having totally abandoned that religious exercise, in consequence of the abuse of it by the Papists, and the. Puritans stretching the points, in some cases, too far the other way, so as to give offence, by the too great preciseness of their obser vances, and some novelties introduced. Lord B. has wisely shewn the necessary adjuncts of a sincere abstinence and humiliation, and left a reasonable liberty to persons in the observance of a duty, that ought to be in itself, as to any really good purposes, free and voluntary. 144 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. may yet by novelty give cause of offence. From Richmond, the 15th of September, 15S0. " Your friend, " W. Burghley."* Oxford at this time appears to have been in much worse repute than Cam bridge, " all good order and discipline despoiled ; the fervour of study extin guished ; the public lectures for the most part abandoned ; the taverns and ordinary tables frequented ; the apparel of students grown monstrous ; the statutes and good ordinances of the University and Colleges infringed ; scholar ships and fellowships sold for money." This account is taken from a book, indeed, which we should be loth to cite as of absolute authority, we mean Leicester's Commonwealth, which appears to have been published about, this time ; but as the author appeals to facts supposed to be notorious, and past con tradiction, it is impossible not to suppose that he had some warrant for what he so strongly affirms, otherwise his prejudice against Leicesteris so marked, that it might seem invidious to deduce any particular testimonies in favour of Lord Burghley, from a work that imputes all the disorders of Oxford, " to the chief Governor thereof [Leicester'!"], who being an Atheist himself," says the author, " useth the place only for gain and, spoil;" and, in a comparison he draws between the two Chancellors, he thus speaks of both : " If there were not other things to declare the odds and differences between him [Leicester, Chancellor of Oxford], and him [Burghley, Chancellor of Cambridge], which he cannot bear ; so that every way he [the Earl of Leicester], sees him to pass him in all honour and virtue ; it were sufficient to behold the present state of the two Universities, whereof they are heads and governors. Let the thing speak for itself. Consider the fruit ofthe garden, and thereby you may judge of the gardener's diligence. On the one side look upon the bishoprics, pastorships, and pulpits of England, and see whence principally they have received their furniture for the advance- * Lord Burghley was written to also by the Bishop of Ely, to have the new statutes prepared for St. John's College (of which his Lordship had been a member, and was still a great friend and patron to it), finished and established, the College being in much disorder for the want of them. The Bishop apologises, in his letter, for troubling him in such matters : " Scio enim quam undique maximis variisque negotiis adhuc obrueris atque involveris." t Leicester was chosen Chancellor of Oxford, December 3, 1564, on the resignation of Sir John Mason, and continued Chancellor till his death, in 1588. At one period of his Chancellorship, he certainly had the credit of attending much to the promotion of learning there. — See Zouch's Life of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 30, from Nichols's Progresses ; see also Life of Leicester, 1727. London, 30, 31, &c. 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 145 ment of the gospel ; and, on the other side, look upon the seminaries of Papistry at Rome and Rheims, upon the Colleges of Jesuits, and other companies of Papists beyond the seas, and see whence they are especially wrought."* In our first volume, ch. xxii. anno 1549, and in ch. xlix. under the year 1554, we had occasion to speak of that excellent woman Catherine Duchess of Suffolk, as a friend of Lord Burghley, and one who was under obligations to him for particular attentions during the reigns both of Edward and Mary; as she was constantly ready to acknowledge. We spoke also of her troubles in the trying times of the Marian persecution (vol. i. p. 646); of her being com pelled to leave the kingdom with her second husband* Mr. Bertie, and being delivered of a son, whom, in allusion to their wanderings and sojournment in strange places abroad, she had christened Peregrine. The Duchess inherited the estates of the Lord Willoughby of Eresby, her father, and Mr. Bertie her husband had claimed the title, to qualify him for services due to the Bishop of Durham; but the Queen would not allow of it. This year (1580), on the death of the Duchess, the controversy seems to have been revived, and Mr. Peregrine Bertie the son, actually assumed the title, and applied to the Lord Treasurer, to reconcile the Queen to it, if possible, and, as he wrote, " to pilot him over the tempestuous sea" he had to pass. " In case your Honour," as he wrote, " shall of your friendly disposition towards me, and justice, safely pilot me over this tempestuous sea, you shall confidently account, that thereby you have erected a pillar in your own building, which shall never shrink Or fail you " for any stone whatsoever." His Lordship appears to have interested himself greatly for him, as the Queen consented to admit him to the Barony, and to the place and honour thereunto belonging, even iri the life-time of his father, " by the mouth of Sir William Cecil, Knight, Lord Burghley," as Collins states it, and of the other Commissioners who had been appointed to examine his claims. — Collins, art. Bertie, Duke of Ancaster. * This seems to be confirmed by a reference to the history of the times. The most active of the seminary Priests appear to have been Oxford men ; the most eminent among the Bishops from Cambridge. Of Lord Burghley's great attention to men of learning and merit, a proof occurred this year, in the promotion of William Whitaker, B.D. of Trinity College, Cambridge, to be Chan cellor of St. Paul's ; and this, as it would appear, unexpectedly, and partly in compliment to that eminent divine, Dr. Alexander Nowell, whose nephew'he was. See his letter of thanks to Lord Burghley, dated from Trinity College, 15th September, 1580, in Strype's Annals, ii. 392. VOL. III. U 146 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. This young Nobleman had been early recommended to the notice and care of Lord Burghley, "by the earnest desire of his' pious mother the Duchess," who, in her anxiety about him, had, so lately as* in the year 1577, entreated Lord Burghley to get him from the Court, where he was leading rather a wild life; "to give him good counsel, bridle his youth, and help dispatch him to his father in the country, while (as she trusted) all was well." Not that he was by all accounts much addicted to the Court, as a Court ; on the contrary, he used to boast that he was none of the reptilia, and that it was not his element. — See Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia. Being warlike and militarily disposed, as Strype says, he made a considerable figure afterwards, as we may have occasion to shew. The Queen does not appear to have taken her usual Progress this year, being unwell in July, or perhaps for other reasons. Mary Queen of Scots was wanting to go again to Buxton, but it seemed very difficult to obtain leave. It appears to have been first proposed by Lord Shrewsbury in a letter to Lady Burghley, delivered to the latter by Lord Shrewsbury's agent in London, Bawdewyn, and who was commissioned to make the following reply : that Lady Burghley had communicated with Lord Burghley upon the subject, who had told her that the Queen was not disposed to such a journey, and that for his better satisfaction, she had desired Lord Burghley himself to speak with him, who gave him an account of his having moved the matter to the Queen, whom he found reso lutely bent against the going to Chatsworth,* and "by reason of the busy affairs wherewith she was troubled, and her sickness, the opportunity did not serve to proceed any farther on that behalf, which he would (otherwise) very willingly do." And the writer adds, " Howbeit he gave me this advertisement, that if her Majesty should perceive that either your Honour [Lord Shrewsbury] or my Lady were earnest suitors to obtain licence, she would conceive a mis- like of you for the same, and so did wish me to let you understand." We may, however, collect from a letter written by the Earl to Lord Burghley, that before the month was out, he had arrived at Buxton with his charge. — Lodge, ii. 239. The taking her to Chatsworth seems to have been the chief difficulty. The Queen's conduct with regard to the Shrewsbury family at this time, was certainly very extraordinary, and has something mysterious in it to this day, as Mr. Lodge, in his Illustrations of English History, has very rightly observed.-!" • Chatsworth as well as Buxton was mentioned. t Lodge, ii. p. 244, note f. 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 147 It plainly appears from many of the Earl's letters, that after his eleven or twelve years' hard service in the " painful and careful" charge committed to him, he was now to be straightened in his allowance, to his great loss* and incon venience, and as he apprehended, to his discredit with the world, f as he tells Lord Burghley in a letter dated July xxvi, two days only before his removal with the Queen of Scots from Sheffield to Buxton.J Having spoken of this unhappy Princess, it may not be amiss here to take a short view of what was passing at this time in her disturbed country, in judging of which we ought to look not so much to the persons principally concerned, as to the objects at stake. It is often made a reproach against Elizabeth and her Council, that they could not only openly support the King against his mother, and the King's party against the Nobility on the Queen's side, but the Regency and government of so bad a man, as Morton, against all. — But, Morton's character perhaps had little or nothing to do with the course taken by the English Government ; the great object undoubtedly was to keep the King on the side of the Protestants, and out of the hands of the avowed enemies of England. From the time of Henry VIII. as we took some pains to shew, in our first volume, the struggle was not between the English and Scots, but between the English and the French in Scotland ; Scotland was looked to by both countries as the stepping-stone of France towards England, in the early part of the century, and it remained so to the very end, and with regard to the Government of James or Mary, the great point to be considered was, which might be most likely to keep up an amity with England, and resist, as a national concern, all foreign influence. Under Murray, Lennox, and, if not so certainly under Mar, under Morton as his successor, the young King was likely to continue in friendship with England, and on the side of Protestantism. The contrary of which must have taken place, in the natural course of things, had Mary been restored; England could have no other right to detain or depose her but the right oi self -defence. It is true, there was another competition on foot, between England and France, as to their * Among his losses Lord Shrewsbury reckons the spoiling and wilful wasting of all things provided for the service of the Queen of Scots. t In Murdin, 346, some reasons are given for the curtailment of certain expenses at this time, arising out of the Irish and Scotch affairs. X At the outset of this journey the Queen it seems had an ugly accident from the starting of her horse, which occasioned her to fall, whereby she hurt her back, of which, says his Lordship, " she still complains, notwithstanding she applies the bath once or twice a day." 148 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. several connexions with and claims upon Scotland. France stood upon the ground of an ancient alliance, to give her a right to interfere with the internal concerns of Scotland, England on a feudal superiority : neither of these can be considered now as very solid claims, but perhaps the latter would never have been so insisted upon during the sixteenth century, except to counteract the plea and pretence of France. If France upon the claim of alliance would interfere, to the hazard of England, it was natural in the latter to revive a plea also for interference, and the claim of a paramount authority, was not altogether so unfounded a claim as many have pretended. Still, however, the competition and contest was with France ; and perhaps, it might rather be said, with all the Catholic powers of Europe. As long as the King could be kept on the side of England, there was a strong Anti-gallican party there, and a Protestant party ; and these were the main objects; Mary's principles were all the other way, hence the danger to be apprehended from her release ; a danger undoubtedly reaching to the crown, and consequently to the life of Elizabeth, as well as to the Protestant Church of both kingdoms. But about the time of which we are now writing, some alarming circumstances occurred in Scotland, chiefly affecting the King ; though directed in the first instance against Morton, who had rendered himself justly odious by many, most tyrannical acts ; and was the more to be dreaded, because he might be expected to depend much on the continuation of his Regency, the King being only in the twelfth year of his age, when the first im portant movements against him took place in the years 1577, 1 578 ; and when the King, by the advice and support of a large confederacy of Nobles, was induced to take the government into his own hands ; on which occasion, making a virtue of laying down his office, he procured an act to be passed, approving of his previous government, accompanied with a pardon from the King for all past offences, crimes, and treasons ; but this did not avail him in the end, though for a time it enabled him to recover some degree of power, through the unpopularity of several of the other party, and to get possession once more of the King's person, by a stratagem. There had lately come into Scotland from France, a very suspicious-person, qualified in many ways to obtain an influence over the mind of the young King, and adverse in all likelihood to the hopes and prospects of England. Such was the celebrated Esme Stuart of the house of Lennox; D'Aubigny, as he was called in France, a title drawn from a territory granted to his ancestors in the time of Charles VII. and continued in the Lennox familyto this day; he was nephew to the 1580.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 149 Regent Lennox, and therefore nearly related to the King; he was a young man, if not of depraved, yet of rather dissipated manners, with all outward accom plishments, calculated to turn the King aside from the austerities of the Scotch Kirk, and make him sensible of the restraint put upon him by the power of the Regent. Though by extraction Scotch, the young d'Aubigny was by birth a Frenchman, and on his first coming into Scotland, an undoubted Papist ; he was besides notoriously connected with the Guises, Mary's powerful but bigoted relatives, the great adversaries of Elizabeth in all points of view. A writer,* much on the side of Mary, affirms, that he was actually sent over, by the Guises, at the express desire of the captive Queen, to be near her son, and Dr. Stuart also allows that he had a commission from the heads of that family, who were losing their power in France, to undermine the Earl of Morton and the English interest. The clergy, as might be expected, evinced great concern, lest he should positively convert the King; to obviate which suspicions, he pretended to have been, on the contrary, converted to Protestantism, but as letters of dispensa tion from Rome had been intercepted, permitting Roman Catholics to make profession of any faith they chose, to carry on their purposes, of secretly advancing the interests of the Roman See, it seemed impossible to regard his conversion as sincere. He was not long in so fascinating the mind of the young King, as very visibly to turn him away from all his former pursuits, purposes, and connexions ; while honours and appointments were heaped upon himself. He was made Lord Aberb roth wick, Earl, and lastly Duke of Lennox, Lord Cham berlain, and Captain of Dunbriton, or Dunbarton Castle, a place admirably situated either to receive strangers from abroad, or convey the King away.t It is impossible for us to enter so far into the history of these occurrences, as to convey any adequate idea of the confusion occasioned by his coming, the influence he obtained with the King, and the party he formed there. But the aspect of affairs as regarded England may be judged of from the remonstrances of the English minister Randolph, as they are to be seen in many books ; and though the interference of this able Minister, with the affairs of Scotland, will never be forgiven by those who do not see deeply into the designs, perpetually and incessantly on foot, during the reign of Elizabeth, against all that English men (and we may surely add Scotchmen) now pride themselves upon, yet by * Scott. f It was very much expected, that a plan was on foot to procure the King to leave Scotland, and to marry him to a Papist. 150 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1580. those who are willing to acquaint themselves with the hidden as well as the avowed purposes, of the Continental Catholic powers, at this period, the English state papers of all descriptions will be perused with great attention, as the best remaining clues not only to what was actually passing, or effectually brought to pass, but to what, by being timely checked or counteracted, never came to pass. The remonstrances of Randolph against what was now visibly me that there are 1 0,000 men levied secretly about Poictou and Gascony, to surprise the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde, or do some other mischief thereabouts, whilst the Queen Mother is in conference with them. This fellow, being of some judgment in those matters, is assured, that as well here, as in Scotland, and in Flanders by Monsieur, there is a great piece of treason in hand. It is said that there is newly come forth a protestation of the true religion in Scotland, against the Romish, procured by d'Aubigny, * Hume. 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 187 to keep them still in good opinion of him, till he hath wrought his purpose for which he was sent thither. Here (at Paris) is no talk but of murdering and combats every day by the courtiers ; and that the pulpits ring against her Majesty and country for the death of the Jesuits, whereof there is a discourse newly re-printed, with the Kings privilege, and in every street is cried by those that sell pamphlets, Les cruautSs d'Angleterre, notwithstanding our new league, &c. &c." But the influence of the King's new favourites hourly increasing, Morton was marked out as the victim of their intrigues, and a pretext was found for reviving the whole subject of Darnley's murder, to which the King's pardon, before men tioned, was not held to extend. By the exertions of Stuart of Ochiltree, Morton was brought to trial, convicted of having been a party to the King's death, and sentence being passed upon him, he was carried to execution, on the 2d of June, 1581, and beheaded. Elizabeth, unwilling to abandon one who had contributed so much to uphold her influence over the King, interposed, but in vain ; even her minister, Bowes, was insulted, for his endeavours to get Lennox removed from the Council, which attempt, indeed, probably hastened the end of Morton ; and though Elizabeth, through Lord Burghley, resented, in strong terms, the insults offered to her minister, Bowes, yet it was too late to save the fallen Regent. The Prince of Orange remonstrated against what was going forward, plainly seeing in it new attempts, on the part of the Popish Princes of Europe, to dissolve the union between the British nations, which all the Protestants of Europe beheld with pleasure. But, for a more circumstantial account of all these proceedings,* and of the character of this last Regent of Scotland, we must refer the reader to other books. Stuart of Ochiltree, who brought him to the block, confessed, afterwards, that in order to arrive at the truth, he had sub- * In a conversation holden with Drury the very day he died, a manuscript account of which is to be seen in the British Museum [Harleian MSS. xxxvi. 43], the Earl confessed that Bothwell communicated to him his designs, and told him that the' Queen willed it ; but for the latter he could obtain no warrant in the way of proof, though he seems not to have doubted the fact, saying that " she was the chief doer thereof" That he had the Queen's commandment to sub scribe to her subsequent marriage with Bothwell : that he had never been a pensioner of England, nor had any other dealings with Elizabeth, than such as tended to the good of the King, his country, and his subjects. The MS. ends thus : " However he might have lived, those who saw him die, must confess that he ended his life, as a good man, and not as his foes allege, that having lived proudly, he died proudly." 188 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. jected many persons, the relations, friends, or dependants of the Earl, to torture ! Not long after the death of Morton, the two favourites, d'Aubigny (made Duke of Lennox), and Stuart of Ochiltree, who had, strangely enough, become Earl of Arran, became jealous of each other ; and falling into disgrace with many ofthe principal persons in Scotland, a conspiracy was formed against them, the principal object being to seize upon the person of the King first, and thereby to overthrow the power both of Lennox and Arran. Such was the extraordinary attempt of what has been called the Raid of Ruthven (the family name and seat of the Earls of Gowrie), where, by a very extraordinary mode of interposition, James was effectually separated from his obnoxious companions, and persuaded, as it was thought, to abandon them. Lennox, indeed, soon quitted Scotland ;* but the Earl of Arran was not so easily to be disposed of. Though much the worse and most dangerous man ofthe two, he found means to re-establish himself in the King's favour, and to have his revenge of the Earl of Gowrie. The delivery of the King, however, from the pernicious counsels of his two favourites, by the bold attempt of the Raid of Ruthven, was so approved by England, the Clergy, and a Convention of the Three Estates, as to secure the conspirators from all immediate judicial proceedings. It was at this time, and upon this occasion, that Mary, conceiving her son to be almost as much in a state of personal thraldom as herself, wrote an expostulatory letter, to Elizabeth, which is more to be admired for its vigour, and the unsubdued spirit it breathes, than for its wisdom or prudence ; and, indeed, if the history of Europe, during, not only the reign of Elizabeth, but pf her father, brother, and sister, did not supply some answer to it, it could only remain for ever as a most dreadful charge against England, and against one of its most renowned Sovereigns. We say the history of Europe, because it has been our constant * He passed through England on his way to France, being compelled, by illness ; but was received with great attention there, being even admitted to the Queen's presence, who, in very mild terms, reproached him, as it is said, for his misgovernment of the affairs of Scotland. That he had made inroads upon the Reformed Church, is very evident from the following passage, in a letter from Lord Burghley to Sir George Cary, Sept. 13, 1582, published by Mr. Ellis. " I hope the credit ofthe Ministers ofthe Gospel will help to build up the breaches that the Duke and accomplices made in that Church and realm." Soon after his arrival in France, he died, affirming himself to be a sincere Pretestant. James has the credit given him of sincerely lamenting his death, and being kind to his family.— Robertson, Hume, and Stuart. 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 189 care to look there for the public motives of Elizabeth's conduct, as well as of the conduct of her Ministers, in this most deplorable business ; entirely believing that a great deal too much of it has been attributed only to private motives, to the blackening of the characters not only of Elizabeth herself, but of her great minister, Lord Burghley, who is scarcely ever allowed to escape the censures passed upon Elizabeth. Mary's letter, to which we now allude, as written from one female to another, from one Queen to another, and most of all from a Queen persecuted and oppressed, as the world believes, to her chief persecutor and oppressor, can never, we are persuaded, be read by persons unacquainted with the true history of things, without horror, and the liveliest resentment of the wrongs insisted upon; and, indeed, we cannot wish to weaken the force of it by any other remarks, than as it deserves to be considered, that it was addressed to a person disinherited, almost before her birth, of all regalrights, by the man at Rome,* and whose crown and whose life were never safe from the machinations of those who were watching every opportunity of setting Mary in her place. To one, besides, who had been bred up pretty well to know and to understand what * We allude to the Bull of the irascible Paul III. against Henry Vill. in which all the descendants of that Monarch stood proscribed, as entirely incapacitated to succeed to any of his dominions, honours, dignities, or possessions. Elizabeth was scholar enough to be able to weigh the force of all the terrors of proscription in the original. Such as " Omnes et singulos Henrici regis filios, aliosque descendentes (nemine excepto, nullaque minoris setatis, aut sexus, vel ignorantiae vel alterius cujusvis causae habita ratione) dignitatibus, dominiis, &c. privates et ad ilia ac alia in posterum obtinenda, inhabiles esse decernimus, et inhabilitamus. Decernimus quod Henricus Rex, — necnon preefati descendentes, ex tunc infames existant, ad testimonia non admittantur, testamenta facere non possunt, &c. — See vol. i. 69 ; and Burnet's Collection of Records, History of the Reformation, vol. i. This Bull was published in 1535. Had it been possible for Elizabeth to have forgotten it, when she ascended the throne, the Pope then reigning, Paul IV., may be said to have very carefully reminded her of it, by pronouncing her to be a bastard and an usurper, and Mary of Scotland the right Queen of England ; and, as if this were not enough to put her on her guard, Pius V., in the year 1569, undertopk to discharge all her subjects from their allegiance, and, as " Prince over all people and all kingdoms," to '' deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended title to the kingdom." This could be little likely to incline her heart to give full liberty to the very person Pope Pius, as well as his predecessor, had declared to be the rightful inheritor of the crown she wore ; and yet, as though intended to do Mary all the ill it could, in the eyes of Elizabeth, and the English Protestants, it appeared not only in the second year of her abode in England, but in the very year when a rebellion was raised in the North for her delivery out of the power of Elizabeth. Let us add to the above, the extreme ignominy with which the memory of Elizabeth's mother had been loaded, by Popes, Cardinals, &c. 190 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582- penalties she had incurred in the eyes of all the Catholic Powers of Europe, not only by the part she had taken in religion, but by presuming to grasp the sceptre of England, as the unworthy daughter of the much reviled Queen Anne, and to the immediate prejudice of Mary. Could we be expected to grant that the letter expresses not only what Mary did feel, but what she had a full right to feel in regard to the hardships she had endured, yet it certainly does not express what Elizabeth probably knew, namely, that had Mary never been exposed to those hardships, in impediment of her designs, or of the designs, of her partizans and Adherents, the English crown would not have remained so long on her own head. The competition, in short, between these two extraordinary women seems to us to have been of such a nature, from the moment Elizabeth ascended the throne of England, that it is not to be wondered, that there should have been a common feeling, that the liberty, if not the life of the one, depended on the bodily restraint or death of the other. Vita Maria, Mors Elizabetha ; Vita Elizabetha, Mors Marice, &c. Of Elizabeth's extreme hardness of heart, and cruelty, we have great doubts, especially with regard to Mary. We believe that England was at the first a shelter to her from the fury of her own subjects, and we believe that, to the very last, Elizabeth was averse from shedding the truly royal blood that flowed in Mary's veins, if, consistently with her own safety, it could have been avoided. As we draw nearer and nearer to the last scene of this deep tragedy, we cannot help feeling more and more deeply for the credit of Lord Burghley, as connected with that of his royal mistress. We cannot bring ourselves to believe that they were the worst people in the world,* though we have, in our researches, had to endure the pain and mortification of being compelled frequently to read of them as such, in works of too great repute, as we think, with the world in general. It seems to have been very much overlooked that Mary had another enemy, destitute of all fair excuses Tor her enmity, a female too, and a Queen, one to whom she might more reasonably have looked for succour when she was compelled to quit Scotland,* than to Elizabeth. We mean, of course, Catherine * It is recorded, to the honour of Henry the Great of France, that he imbibed no *ice but gal lantry, in the profligate court of Charles IX. " for never was there more vicious and corrupt impiety, Atheism, magic, nay, even the most disgusting and filthy depravity, with base cowardice and perfidy, since poisons and assassinations reigned there in a sovereign degree." The same author gives Henry credit for having preserved a generous and humane heart, amidst such horrors and abominatie-as.--See Henry the Great and his Court. 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 191 de Medicis, under whose eye she had been brought up ; and, if we may trust Conaus, with such grateful returns of filial attachment, and such exemplary obedience, as to render it one of the brightest periods of Mary's life. And yet Catherine is known to have borne a mortal hatred towards her, for what she could no more help, than she could have helped being born Queen of Scotland, we mean her connexion with the Guises. This Queen did not hesitate to maintain, and to teach her sons, that cruelties were just and allowable, if politically useful ; and sure enough she made the experiment in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, as her own daughter, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, has 'informed us ; for she was a witness of the preparations in the very interior of the palace, yet so ignorant of her mother's horrid purposes, that when Catherine ordered her to go to bed, she obeyed, though her sister, the Duchess of Lorrain, who was more in the secret, hung upon her with tears, and in the very presence of her mother, besought her not to go. — [See the Memoirs of Marguerite de France, Queen of Navarre.] Elizabeth has been blamed for fomenting divisions among her enemies, but Catherine, to preserve her own power, encouraged dissensions at Court, and even among her children, and so embar rassed Henry III. by these quarrels and contentions, as to render it impossible for him to govern the realm without her. She had, nevertheless, strong points in her character, and knew how to render herself popular ; but by no means by such truly royal and patriotic acts as was the case with Elizabeth. Our great Queen is often spoken of as a paragon of dissimulation ; but Mary's own mother (otherwise a good woman) excelled in this art, and even boasted, as we have observed before, when she abandoned the Protestants of Scotland, that no faith was to be kept with heretics or rebels; and that Princes' promises were not always to be holden. Such were some of Elizabeth's contemporaries ; royal contemporaries, for they were all Queens I It is not fair to judge Elizabeth or her Ministers by a more modern standard of excellence, unless all the other parties be brought to the same test. Knox, who, though rude and uncourteous in manner, has the credit of being honest, has told us that, in his conferences with Mary, " he never discovered such art in woman before." The author of the Court of Henry the Fourth of France, after detailing many horrid circumstances of ferocity, in politics, warfare, love, and gallantry, sums up the whole with saying, that, " in short, at that period, every sentiment was charac terised by the most vehement passions,/ vol. i. 149, 150, &e.; and, indeed, the following story may serve to shew, that Mary herself was not free from such 192 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. emotions : when Knox was put upon his trial for treason, Mary entered the court, and seeing him stand at the foot ofthe table, uncovered, burst into a loud fit of laughter. " That man," said she, " has made me weep, and shed never a tear himself : I will now see if I can make him weep ;" and her active keenness against him, when she thought she had him in her power, gave offence even to her own Ministers, and the Judges ofthe cause. But we are still as much as ever inclined to believe that the true history of Mary Queen of Scots begins, where we began it, in our first volume, namely in the reign of Henry VIII., when France interposed to embarrass the two great divisions of our British island, and rudely snatched away the prize which seemed, by an act of Providence, to be falling into the lap of England, in proud defiance and mockery of the father, the brother, and the country of Mary's subsequent competitor, Queen Elizabeth. We are fully prepared to maintain, notwithstanding all Mary's pathetic and interesting complaints, that she was not the victim of English cruelty but of French interference, Spanish jealousy and resentment, and the most unappeasable Popish vengeance; perhaps we might add, to the above, to the indiscretions of her Minister, the Bishop of Ross. For one who lived and wrote at the time has not hesitated to impute to that busy and artful Prelate, the increased rigours of Mary's captivity ; cap tivity indeed he is unwilling to call it, till rendered so by the officiousness and indiscretion of Mary's own friends ; after remarking that Elizabeth had refused to deliver her up to those subjects who had been the first authors of her disgrace and renunciation of her crown, he observes, that she [Elizabeth] did, with ex treme sorrow, lament both their fortunes ; to each other so adverse and so un comfortable, and that they should seem fatally born to be authors of their own woe, being so near a-kin, so near neighbours, so equal in years, sex, and degree ;* and next, speaking of the first years of Mary's sojournment in England, he observes, " I call it her abode, and no captivity, nor scarcely a restraint; where, in effect, the greatest part of the realm was her prison at large, (having some eye to her safe custody,) and the finest palace of every shire the place of her residence ; where she might hunt and hawk, and use all other princely disports, at her pleasure;, and was allowed honourable com pany and attendance, great entertainment, costly diet, and rich presents ; free * The same writer affirms, that Elizabeth did often lament the case of absolute Princes, who were not suffered, when the weal of their people was at stake, to follow their own inclinations to mercy. 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 193 access of her people to her, conferences with whom she would, apd liberty to give and receive whatsoever intelligence from any part of the world by her secretaries or messengers: finally, for her greater comfort and repu tation, an embassador leiger to negotiate matters with her Majesty, &c, which continued many fair years, until the foul abuses of the Bishop of Rosse gave just cause why that friendly course of negotiation should be discontinued and interrupted." Many of these remarks are corroborated by the public papers of those times. The charges of her household were very great : one of the first Peers of the realm dwelt in the same houses ; and which, indeed, might comparatively be called palaces. She seems not to have been stinted as to many remarkable expenses ; for, as we have before observed, she bathed in wine. Her hunting and hawking were so noticed by the French Court, that she was scarcely re garded there as a captive; and as to her intercourse with foreign states, she often let Elizabeth know what she could do, if she chose, by her correspondence with Spain, France, and her own party in Scotland. In the very letter of which we are speaking, Mary beseeches Elizabeth to " reassume the natural kindness of her disposition." The same author, in another part, writes, that the Queen was careful of Mary's health. " When ill, she sent her own physician, and the most precious drtfgs and preservatives that could be gotten, for the recovery of her health and prolongation of her life :* albeit, her Majesty was not ignorant that her death had been a great deal more for her safety, the present contentment of her people, and future tranquillity of the realm." We have taken the opportunity of speaking of this letter, because it was par ticularly connected with the Raid of Ruthven, and was designed to engage Elizabeth to liberate James from the bondage in which he seemed to be held ; but, as Rapin has observed, " she took a very improper way to obtain this favour, since her letter is full of reproaches for the barbarous usage she met with." And indeed, if the same author is right, Elizabeth's concern in the busi ness is very curious, for he states, that she had received advice from Henry III. that the Guises were plotting something in favour of the Queen of Scots, and • We cannot forbear calling the attention of the reader to one circumstance pretty generally believed at the time, namely, that had Elizabeth chosen to have Mary poisoned, (so common a crime in those days,) Leicester is said to have had a physician ready for such purposes ; but Eliza beth did really send her own physician, for more honest and honourable purposes. VOL. III. 2 c 194 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. were about to embark troops in Normandy, pretended to be for Flanders, but destined as he thought for England or Scotland.* This intelligence had inter rupted some negotiation on foot With Mary, through Sir Walter Mildmayjf who was now recalled, and an English minister sent to the King in Scotland, at the very time that another was known to have repaired thither from the King of France, to give support, if possible, to the two favourites, " knowing those who seized the King were all friends to England."^ From which we may perceive, * See also Strype's Annals, iii. 112, 113. In Lodge's Illustrations of British History, vbl. ii. p. 274, Elizabeth is said to have received this information from Henry IV. of France. This could not be ; and probably, as Henry III., as Rapin observes on the occasion, had no reason to be pleased with Elizabeth, it was only his jealousy of the Duke of Guise that induced him to in terfere. See also Camden, 274. t It is impossible to be too circumspect in the examination of this portion ofthe English His-' tory; and we might reasonably add, the Scottish. A proposition seems to have been 'made by Mary, in the latter end of the year 1581, to admit her son to a share at least of royal power, or to have him acknowledged as King, to rule jointly with his mother, in subjection to the wUl of Eliza beth ; and Beale and Sir Walter Mildmay were sent to Mary to confer on these subjects ; but it is exceedingly certain, that at this very time endeavours were making in Scotland to draw the King away from England, and liberate his mother if they could. All this was in hand, and carrying forwards, by persons notoriously in the French interest, on the side of the Catholics, and inveterate enemies to Elizabeth. This was the period chosen by Mary to make her proposals*; and there can be very little doubt but that the Duke of Guise was at the bottom of it, and Lennox and Arran his accomplices or agents ; and the other enemies of England prepared to take advan-. tage of any success the former might meet with. Their plan was, to persuade James to permit his mother to a participation of the regal authority. — Lodge, ii. 280. Mary's letter is highly plausible, but there is not a sentence of it which would not admit of such an elucidation, from a correct view of the affairs of Europe, as might turn the scale on Elizabeth's side ; at least, in point of policy and self-defence. Morton's confession had encouraged Mary to insist again on herpes feet innocence ; but Morton's confession only went to the length of acquitting her of giving any written authority for the proceedings against Darnley. Mr. Lodge, in his notes, recommends this letter strongly to the perusal of those who would wish to " ohtain a clear knowledge of Mary's true character, and of Elizabeth's detestable conduct towards her in the last years of her imprison ment." We confess we have been compelled, by the course and drift of our researches, to 'read more ofthe History of Europe at the period referred to, than will allow us to subscribe to Mr. Lodge's opinion. We do not think any man competent, in these days, to decide upon the true characters either of Elizabeth or Mary. Though we have a very high respect for Mr. Lodge and his labours, we think his Illustrations of British History would have been more valuable, if afew of his own illustrations had been suppressed— not all, certainly. X It was not uncommon to designate the trig's party as " the faction in the English interest," as if that party could have no patriotic designs in hand, or any other interest in view, but that of 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 195 that the contest England had in Scotland, was still with France or Spain, who, in all they were doing, had their views upon England, not merely for the rescue of Mary, but, if possible, to turn the King aside from that alliance, and from his religion ; for could they have got him once into their power, it is presumed they intended to match him with some Catholic Princess. But as we are break ing in now upon the transactions of another year, we shall terminate here our consideration of the affairs of Scotland, observing only, that from a particular passage in one of Lord Burghley's letters to Sir Francis Walsingham, August 10, 1581, it would seem that his Lordship was not much consulted upon what was passing in that kingdom at this period. The passage we allude to is as follows : — " In Scotland, the King pretendeth to keep amity ; yet, by Ashton, secretly I learn, that he will be wholly guided by her Majesty, whereof she con ceiveth hope. I pray God she be not deceived therein ; and hereby I fear her Majesty will be slower to hearken to the assistance with France ; and yet her Majesty uttereth not to me these Scottish matters, but I learn them other wise."* The Lord Treasurer, indeed, would seem to have had more to do with the affairs of the Church this year, than of the State,f from what occurs in Strype. His first care was in respect to an unpleasant dispute on foot relative to the Chancellorship of the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, in which the Bishop (Overton), having fallen under the displeasure of Leicester, was compelled to seek justice at the hands of Lord Burghley, " as one of those whom he (the Bishop), judged to have great care of the public causes," and " always wont in England ; both countries, however, had one great interest in common, namely, emancipation from Popish tyranny and foreign influence. As we had no opportunity of being acquainted with Mr. Turner's sentiments concerning Scotland, when we had occasion to discuss some of Lord Burghley's earliest advice, on Elizabeth's accession, we beg leave now to refer to what he has said of the interference of England with the Scottish affairs, in the nineteenth chapter of the second book of his History of the Reign of Elizabeth, vol. i. pp. 584, 588. * Digges, 373. t The Queen, however, held communications with the Protestant Princes of Germany, in the course of the year, as well as with the city of Geneva, oppressed by the Duke of Savoy, which communications were chiefly carried on through Lord Burghley ; see in Strype's Annals, iii. 127, 128. and Appendix xv. xvi. the letters addressed to his Lordship by Wierus, the city of Geneva, and Beza ; the latter of whom speaks of that kindness and benignity in his Lordship, of which all foreigners were wont to speak. See, for a fuller account ofthe case of Geneva, Strype's Life of Grindal, b. ii. ch. 14. Ann. 1582. 196 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. these and other his suits to give him honourable countenance." " I would not," he says, " Willingly have named in these my letters, my Lord of Leicester, but that he hath gone about, as your Lordship knoweth, to draw you from me by hard information ; which forceth me to write, to say more than otherwise I would gladly do." " His Lordship (Leicester) hath given, and doth still give, great countenance to those that work me all my sorrow ; a Nobleman, as your Lordship knoweth, far above my power and ability to withstand ; and therefore right sure to undo me, if he will ; if 1 should hold out and have no stay.'' " I received, in King Edward's time, by your Lordship's means, when I was a scholar in Oxenford, one of his Highness's exhibitions, given out of the Abbey of Glassenbury to my great relief and comfort. I obtained, in the beginning of the Queen's Majesty's reign that now is, by your Lordship's means, one ofthe best Prebends in Winchester. I had given me of her Majesty not long after, by your Lordship's means, the parsonage of. Rotherfield, in Sussex, a thing better worth than 200/. by the year. Let my Lord of Leicester shew any one thing worth twopence, that ever I had by his means, either of the Queen, or of any body else, and I will confess myself his debtor for all. And as for the bishop- rick I now have, if it be any benefit to me, your Lordship knoweth and I know, and must confess, I had it as much by your Lordship's means as by his : although I must needs say, first intended unto me by him." " His Lord ship hath cast me off without cause, and I will win him again by your Lordship's means if I can; only I must crave pardon of his Lordship, if I bear a dutiful heart unto others that have deserved of me as much, and more than he hath done." But Lord Burghley had a more distressing case than this, to adjust for his old friend Sandys, Archbishop of York, who had been shamefully used by one Sir Thomas Stapleton, a Knight of Yorkshire, bringing against him false accusations, in order to extort from him a good lease of lands, and a large sum of money ; and who, besides having some interest with the Queen, had procured letters from her Majesty to his Grace, to further his purposes. In this dilemma the Arch bishop knew not whither to turn for help, but to the Lord Treasurer. The case is fully related in Strype, but as it was one in which the Archbishop appears to have had to contend with her Majesty, as well as with his bad and cruel neigh bour, Sir Thomas Stapleton, we cannot forbear transcribing some parts of it, in justice to Lord Burghley, who so effectually stood his friend, as to bring the worthy Prelate out of all his troubles. 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 197 The Archbishop had thus written to Lord Burghley, in the midst of his distress. " My good Lord, — In rebus adversis amicus certus cernitur. I find myself more bound unto you than to any man living. At a dead lift you are my most faithful friend. I have need of your present help : otherwise like to be op pressed with great and shameful wrong. False informers have prevented me. I was upon the way fully purposed to have opened unto you their treachery, and to have prayed your aid for their condign punishment. My only fault is, that I have concealed the thing so long. Hereof, my Lord, assure yourself I am in this matter, wherewith they chiefly charge me, most innocent from all criminal fact; so that you need not fear to defend my just cause. — I know your Lordship in respect of God's cause, and in respect of innocence, and somewhat of me, your old poor well-wilier, will not suffer these wicked men to escape condign punish ment." And, indeed, no sooner had his Lordship made the Queen thoroughly acquainted with the vile and base conspiracy contrived against his friend, than she expressed her great anger and resentment of so notorious a crime ; and forth with sent letters from the Court, to summon the culprits to answer the accusa tions laid against them. The issue of which was, that by the Treasurer's great care, every thing was discovered, and the wickedness of the conspirators brought to light, insomuch, that the Queen sent to her Vice Chamberlain, Sir Chris topher Hatton, to signify her consent to all the proceedings ; who, in a letter to Lord Burghley, thus discharged his commission. " My very good Lord, — I thank God from my heart that your trouble in this great cause hath brought forth so blessed an effect. Innoceney is delivered. Truth hath prevailed, to God's glory, and due commendation of your wisdom and goodness. Her Majesty rejoiceth exceedingly in it, and yieldeth her most gracious thanks to your Lordship, for your so grave and wise proceeding in it. My Lord of Leicester hath her Majesty's direction to signify thus much of her pleasure, with some further matter unto your Lordship. Feb. 24, 1582." The Archbishop also wrote to him in the most grateful terms : " My honourable good Lord, I cannot requite your great goodness to me, but by most earnest prayer. All the rest that is in me is not able to answer unum pro mille. Without your constant favour and present help, doubtless mine innocence should have been condemned, and the wicked justified. But my God has raised you up to stand in the gap, for the trying further of this treachery, and the clearing of mine innoceney. May the Lord Jesus requite you seven-fold in your bosom." Stapleton acknowledged his abominable treachery, being, indeed, convicted 198 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. thereof before the Council ; but, as the Archbishop wrote, " not penitently but threateningly." In fact, he seemed still to harbour ill designs against the Arch bishop, who was obliged, therefore, again to apply to the Lord Treasurer, and he, as soon as he heard it, sent his servant, Maynard, to Lord Leicester, to -desire him to acquaint the Queen with it ; who forthwith informed his Lordship that he had done so, and that her Majesty highly resented Sir Thomas's obstinacy ; and would have him committed to the Fleet ; that she feared his Lordships (Lord Burghley's) sickness might hinder it, which his Lordship's travail had brought to so good pass. So earnest, said the Earl, was her Majesty to have the matter truly well handled, for the trial of the truth, and purgation of the Bishop. " Thus," the letter concludes, " have I done her Majesty's commandment, touching this matter : being loth and sorry to trouble your Lordship, knowing how much troubled you are otherwise, but ber Majesty reposeth great confidence in your discretion. " R. Leycester." A fresh commission after this was sent down to examine witnesses, and bring the case to a better issue. This produced another letter from the Archbishop to Lord Burghley, in which he says, " If your Lordship had not stood stoutly at the stern, to break the violent charges of the sea, doubtless ere this, I had suf fered shipwreck." Stapleton, however, behaved so ill, even in the management of his confessions, of which he made a sort of mockery, that he was finally not only fined, but committed to the Tower, where he remained nearly two years, being driven himself to implore the aid of Lord Burghley, to get him released. In the sixth chapter of Strype's Life of Bishop Aylmer, it may be seen, .how earnest Lord Burghley was, to : assist that learned Prelate, not only with his assistance, but with his advice ; which latter, tending to moderate his proceedings against the Puritans,how kindly and submissively it was taken by the Bishop, may be seen by the letter he wrote the Treasurer, assuring him that he "agreed with his Lordship in judgment, as one by whom he had even desired to be directed, and would be still, if it pleased him to grant him that favour that he might. For his wisdom, zeal, experience, learning, and godliness (he thanked God), he accounted to be such, that he would think himself happy to be directed by him in all points." The Bishop met with troubles at Court, through the resentment ofthe Puritans, who, having Leicester and others on their side, raised complaints against him for injuring the revenues of the bishoprick, by felling wood [a becoming complaint from that party, who would, if they could, have divided all the Epis- 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 199 copal revenues among themselves]. In all these cases the Bishop sought the aid of Lord Burghley, who did all he could do to help him, and procure him justice, as appears from the following letter from the Bishop himself to that Lord. " My good Lord, I cannot but honour you for carrying yourself with so great equity before her Majesty in my late cause. You have so won my heart (though God is my witness you had it before), that you shall be the man to whom I will trust (under God), whom I will only choose for my judge in all cases, and honour as my most noble friend at all times ; and in some part be thankful as I may? but never as you deserve." " Thus," says Strype, " did this good man's soul run out, as though it had been melted down with the seasonable kindness of this noble person ; whose uprightness was such, that he used not to favour any, but those whose innoceney or other circumstances required it." As this celebrated Bishop professed himself so ready to follow the advice of Lord Burghley, it may not be amiss to mention another instance ofthe same nature, in the case of Dr. Matthews, nominated to the Deanery of Durham, this year, though not immediately inducted ; to whom, on his departure from Court, being comparatively a young man, Lord Burghley gave, as his manner was, much good counsel, in regard to the discharge of his duties there ; the Dean acknowledged his kindness by assuring him in a letter he wrote back, " that he did promise and desire, if any defect should appear, to be reformed by his authority, and directed by his wisdom therein, and in all things else, even as by the Socrates, or Solomon of his age." This learned divine became afterwards Bishop of Durham, and Archbishop of York. Others of the Bishops, as Peterborough, Lincola, and Hereford, were also brought into difficulties or trouble, and obliged severally, to apply to the Lord Treasurer for assistance, or to procure justice to be done to them. To all of whom he paid attention ; being, as Strype calls him, " the Clergy's chief patron, to whom they usually applied in their distresses and hardships."* * It was Jabout this time that Strype supposes Archbishop Grindal's sequestration was taken off, see his Life of that Prelate, 403. His Grace was now become quite blind, and feeling hinv- self unfit for the duties of his high station,' obtained her Majesty's permission to resign, which he had before sought. He had the gratifteatron of knowing, before his retirement, that lie had reco vered the Queen's favour, her Majesty having sent him, by the hands of Lord Burghley, u hand some piece of plate, as a new year's gift, -and which he soon after bequeathed to that Noble Lord, in requital of his constant and unalterable friendship:; to whom, next to her Majesty, he acknow ledged that he stood indebted for all his preferments. The forrris of resignation finding some hindrance and delay, this good Prelate terminated his life, after all, as Archbishop of Canterbury, 200 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. In the course of this year the chief-justiceship ofthe Court of Common Pleas being vacant, Serjeant Anderson was appointed to succeed to that high office. A report was circulated that there had been an endeavour made to obtain the post by bribery, but that it was defeated by " the just Lord Treasurer." Certain it is, that Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, writing to Lord Burghley, not only mentioned the report in his letter, but added, " that it was almost in every man's mouth, that his Lordship, after he had understanding of the offering of such a mass of money, was the means of keeping him (the briber), from that cushion," concluding, " Truly, my Lord, it was well done."* We cannot avoid inserting the following acknowledgment of Strype in this part of his great work, as appertaining so much to the subject we are handling ; "What passages of remark I meet with," says that diligent historian, "con cerning that great and wise Statesman, Lo kd Burghley, I frequently enter, to preserve his memory to grateful posterity."f It was towards the close of this year that Lord Burghley had the misfortune to lose his son-in-law, Mr. Wentworth, who died in the month of November. Lord Burghley being obliged to leave London on account of the plague, found him dead at his house at Theobalds. His Lordship received many kind letters of condolence on this occasion, from Secretary Walsingham, the Lord Cham berlain, the Lord Leicester, and the Vice Chamberlain, Sir Christopher Hatton. The Queen also sent to his Lordship Mr. Manners, the Earl of Rutland's son, " under great sorrow, to comfort him from herself." The Lord Wentworth also, wrote to him in the most friendly terms upon the common loss they had sus tained in the death of his son : " Many crosses had fallen upon him," says the afflicted father, " but none like this." There was a curious book published this year, of which we feel ourselves dying on the 6th of July, 1 583. Before he died he besought the Lord Treasurer and Sir F. Wal singham to be overseers of his will, in which were many charitable bequests. In the Journal of a London minister of those dayst Strype found an entry of his death, with the following short character subjoined, Vir pius, mites, castus et bonus. * Anderson gave great offence by his severity against the Puritans. In the Biographia Bri tannica the case is considered at length ; in some instances he seems to have been unjustly cen sured by Pierce and Neal. . + In a letter from Whitgift, Bishop of Worcester, to Lord Burghley about this time, we find the following passage : " There is none with whom we of the Church either are or may be so bold as with your Lordship ; neither is there any that may better make our case known to her Majesty— and therefore we rest in you." 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 201 called upon to give some account, as it was particularly dedicated, in a handsome Poem, to Mildred, "the learned Lady and Consort of Lord Burghley;" the title of the dedication running thus : — " Adpr3enobilem,et in primis eruditam fceminam, utriusque literaturse et Grsecse et Latinse peritissimam, dominam Mildredam, dynastse Burghljei, magni Anglise thesaurarii, conjugem laudatissimam." The book had a Greek title, viz. Etprjvap^ia sive Elizabetha, and was the work of one Christopher Ockland, sometime Master of the Free School in Southwark, and afterwards of a school at Cheltenham. It was written in heroic Latin verse, and consisted of two books ; the one entitled Anglorum Pralia, beginning at the year 1527, and ending with the year of the Queen's accession, 1558; the second, entitled Elizabetha', describing her life and happy reign to 1582. In this book the author gives characters of all that Queen's great Ministers ; we are bound to copy the lines upon Lord Burghley himself, and are the more glad to have an opportunity of doing it, in vindication of ourselves, since they carry us back far into the history of his life, and while they speak of him as the earliest of Elizabeth's chosen Counsellors, very justly observe, that he was then a practised Statesman, and that his political eminence began long before her reign* " Nee jam consiliis pollens florescere primo Coepit, in Edvardi defuncti claruit aula Regis, consultor prudens juvenilibus annis." They also speak of his conduct under the trying reign of Mary, and what is of greatest importance, they may be regarded as presenting us with a picture of his life, person, habits, and character, originally submitted to the judgment of his own contemporaries, sanctioned and approved by them, and that in a remarkable manner; for the book was made a school book by order ofthe Privy Council, con veyed in a letter to the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and signed by the Lords Lincoln, Warwick, Leicester, Sir James Croft, Sir Francis Knollys, Sir Christopher Hatton, f and Sir Francis Walsingham. We are aware that it may be objected, that a book containing passages complimentary to all these great per- * See Volumes first and second. f Sir Christopher Hatton's copy, we are told, had his name written in it by his own hand, in more places than one. His character appears in the following lines: " splendidus Hatton Ille satellitii regalis ductor, ovanti Pectore, Maecenas studiosis, maximus altor Et Fautor veras virtutis, munificusque." Sir Christopher was Vice Chamberlain to her Majesty.at the time, VOL. III. 2 D 202 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1582. sonages, as well as the reigning sovereign, might be expected to receive such encouragement as the above, but still Lord Burghley had a prior claim to all of them, and had the compliments paid to him been more than he deserved, the distribution and circulation of the work would scarcely have been promoted by some of his immediate rivals. It is rather remarkable, that though Leicester's name appears to the order above, we look in vain for those of Burghley or Sussex. We proceed now, therefore^ to the lines on Lord Burghley : — Ante alios, istosque omnes, instante sinistra Fortuna, cujus princeps, instante periclo Est experta fidem, sineero corde profectam ; Primus adest, ducens fidos Cecilius heros, Complures secum ; ac in sacrum voce senatum Principis eligitur primus, nunc grandior sevo, Confectus senio, studiis maceratus, et seger Saepe suis pedibus, graviora hegotia canos Ante diem accersunt crin'es, curvamque senectam, Qui quater est decimus vix tunc* expleverat annum. Somni perparcus, parce vinique cibique In mensa sumens,f semper gravis atque modestus, Nulliusque Ioci;X semper sermone retractat * At Elizabeth's accession, Lord Burghley was only thirty-eight years of age. t " He was of a spare and temperate diet, eating never of but two or three dishes, drinking never but thrice at a meal, and very seldom wine." — Life by a Domestic. X That no mistake may arise from these words, which perhaps were meant to signify rather that he was not given to raillery, than that he was any enemy to innocent mirth, we shall extract the following passage from Fuller's Holy State, p. 257. speaking of Lord Burghley ; " No man was more pleasant and merry at meals, and he had a pretty wit-rack in himself, to draw speech out of the most sullen and silent guest at his table, to shew his disposition in any point he should pro pound. Hottoman, in his description of an Ambassador, witnesseth so much, who had been at his table." The following occurs also, in Peacham's Complete Gentleman : " Augustus had always his mirth greater than his feasts. And Suetonius says of Titus (Vespasian's son), he had ever his table furnished with mirth and good company. And the old Lord Treasurer Burghley, howsoever employed in State affairs, at his table would lay all business by, and be heartily merry." p. 224. In his Life by a Domestic, there are many passages to the like effect; " If he could get any of his old acquaintance, who could discourse of their youth, or of things past in old time ; it was notable to hear what merry storyies he could tell." " Above all things, what business soever was in his head, it was never perceived at his table ; where he would be so merry as one would ima gine he had nothing else to do ; directing his speech to all men, according to their qualities and capacities ; so as he raised mirth, out of all men's speeches, augmenting it with his own." He adds, however, " These his speeches, though they^ were merry, yet were so full of wisdom, as 1582.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 203 Seria ; sive silet, meditatur seria semper. Religionis amans veree, studiosior eequi ; Ad magnas natus res nostra aetate gerendas, In patriam cujus studium propense voluntas, In cives amor, atque fides insceptra tenentem. In magnis regni solers sapientia rebus, Ultra Europam illi peperit memorabile nomen Nee jam consiliis pollens florescere primo Ccepit, in Edvardi defuncti claruit aula Regis, consultor prudens juvenilibus annis. Inter primores regionis quando procellis Exortis, cautus studuit sedare tumultus. Dumque alii sulco subsidunt gurgitis imo, Et puppim feriunt stridenti flamine venti, Prona ruit celeri lapsu pars una deorsum, Ipse decus, sedemque suam, nomenque tuetur. Quo pacto Maria prudens se gesserit Anglis Imperitante, focos velo obducente, quod alto Pendebat malo, (magnis quia cedere prsestat Fluminibus, contra niti aut obstare furori Currenti, certum et parit exitiale periclum) Denotat indiciis hominem apparentibus ilium Vere prudentem, mediis quod in hostibus annos Sex totos Cayphee multum exosusque cohorti Degeret illeesus, per vicos, compita et urbem Se ostendens populo, cum pars bona longius exul Tempora contereret, Deus hunc servavit in almas Principis obsequium, nostrique in commoda regni. Regum Legatos orantes audiit aure Attenta ; responsa quibus dedit ore diserto. Nestor Consiliis, qui nunc Burghleius heros Sylvis, preediolis latis, et ab arce vocatur, Et fisci custos seraria pub'lica' curat : Cognoscens causas summo (res digna relatu est) Et studio, et cura lites secat ocyus, ut non Praestolans spatium bidui triduique moretur : Omnes exuperans hac laudis parte priores ; Ni poscat plures magni res ponderis horas, Nee queat exculpi longo sine tempore verum, Jure sit heec magni laus prima et vera dynastse." many came rather to hear his speeches, than to eat his meat; thus he loved to be merry himself, and liked and recommended all others, that were of pleasant natures, being discreet withal." 204 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. An attempt was made this year to assassinate the Prince of Orange, but the assassin being taken with two of his confederates, they were strangled and quartered, and their heads and limbs exposed, which the Catholics afterwards, under the Duke of Parma, caused to be taken down, and buried with every mark of respect and veneration.* About this time Gregory XIII. published his famous Bull for reforming the Calendar, by cutting off at once ten days of the current year. It is much to be lamented, that any prejudices should stand in the way of the progress and improvement of real science ; but it was certainly the case in this instance, the Protestants refusing to comply with the ordinance, merely because it came from Rome, thereby producing two other distinct reckonings, or the old and new stile, scarcely got rid of to this day.f Even this change produced some trouble to Lord Burghley ; See Strype's Annals, ii. 526, 527. and for an account of the calculations on which it was founded, Hales's Chronology, London 1830, p. 51, 52. The Gregorian correction of the Julian year was not adopted in our own country before the year 1751. It is remarkable, that the correction is so accurately adjusted now, as to answer all the purposes of chronology and astronomy for 6000 years to come. 1583.] — We need not conceal from the reader, that through the whole course of our undertaking, the affairs of Scotland have been to us a continual source of uneasiness and embarrassment — prepossessed from the very first with the general impression, that the case of the unhappy Queen of that Country, as a case against Elizabeth and her great Minister Lord Burghley, was one that not only admitted of no clear excuse, but was even incapable of palliation, it may be easily conjectured with how great pain we turned to those books and writings, in which no measure of censure and abuse has been spared to blacken their characters, and hold them up to posterity as monsters of wickedness and cruelty. It struck us, however, that by pursuing our researches, if we could not succeed * Watson's Philip II. t Very early in this year, died the Countess of Lennox, the mother of the Lady Arabella, and daughter of that strange woman, Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury. Mr. Ellis, -vol. iii. 2d Series, has printed two letters, written by Lord and Lady Shrewsbury to Lord Burghley, on this occa sion. Nos. CCIV. CCV. Mr. Ellis seems to suppose that Lord and Lady Shrewsbury called her daughter in these letters, because Gilbert Talbot, Lord Shrewsbury's son, had married her eldest sister Mary ; but in truth, Lady, Lenox was their daughter, as born of the Countess, by her second husband Sir William Cavendish. 1583.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 205 in lessening the horror with which it has been usual to contemplate this sad period of English History, something might be discovered that might help us to account better for what undoubtedly came to pass, than the old romantic story, with which the world has been, we will not say deceived, but in a considerable degree misled, for the long space of nearly three centuries. The great point upon which, as it appears to us, the main question may be said to turn, as a charge against the two illustrious persons referred to, is this : Were the hardships imposed upon Mary, the mere effects of uncontrollable passions, groundless fears, and insidious artifice, or were they the result, almost regular result, of the confused state of Europe, which seemed to render the liberty, if not the lives of both Queens, absolutely incompatible 1 Much more of course must have been known to those persons, immediately concerned at the time, in the government of the two Countries, than can now .ever be known to, or discovered by the most diligent inquirers. This indeed must always be the case ; but if it were ever true ofthe transactions of any given century, it must have been eminently so with regard to those of the sixteenth, when spies were rendered almost indispensably necessary, by the covert dealings, and deceptions, of most of the governing powers of Europe. It is rather to the credit of England, that in having recourse to this otherwise obnoxious system she was the most marked object of attack, and that in her case therefore the system was a defensive one. The misfortune has been, that in consequence of Mary's having fallen into the power of Elizabeth, instead of the latter having fallen into the power of her numerous enemies, Mary has been always looked upon as the harmless and persecuted victim, Elizabeth, as the wanton and ferocious persecutor ; while the Ministers of the latter, instead of obtaining credit, for the vigilant precautions to which they had recourse, to preserve to her, her crown, her liberty and her life,* (all of which we firmly believe to have been constantly in jeopardy,) have been branded as paragons of deceit, cruelty, and state-craft. * The following story may deserve to be repeated in a life of LordBurghley. The Poet Waller being-in the King's closet once, with James II. , his Majesty asked him how he liked a particular picture hanging there? "Sir," said Waller, " my eyes are dim, and I know not who it is." "It is the Princess of Orange," said the King. " Then," replied Waller, " she is like the greatest woman in the world." " Whom do you call so?" answered the King. " Queen Elizabeth," said Waller. " I wonder you should think so," replied the King, " but I confess she had a wise Council." " And Sir," said Waller, " did you ever know a fool choose a wise one?" 206' MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. It so happens, however, that no period of history perhaps, has supplied so many documents for the elucidation of the events that were passing on the Stage of Europe, as the sixteenth Century, and in a great measure, through the great care, and incessant attention of Lord Burghley. It is hard that he should suffer from . the preservation of papers, which no man perhaps had a greater power of destroying ; we can only account for his careful preservation of some of them, from the belief, that either he knew more of their real purport, than those who have come after him ever will know, or that in truth, he felt satisfied that he was most conscientiously doing his duty, whatever construction may have been since put upon his actions. To return however to the affairs of Scot land, with which we feel ourselves called upon to begin our account of the year 1583. The Queen of Scots' " long letter," as Lord Burghley himself calls it in his Diary, was written, or at least dated, on the 8th of November, 1582. It is reported to have had a great effect on Elizabeth, and it would have been little to her credit had it been otherwise ; for the complaints of hard usage which it contains, true or false, are very striking; But it appears, from the researches we have been able to make, that there was, at this very time, a deep double game playing against Elizabeth, by means of the French Ambassador, M. La Motte Fenelon. The double game to which we allude, seems to have been this ; that Mary in England should make a merit of consenting to acknowledge her son as King, while James in Scotland, in order to procure her release, should propose to admit her to a share of the Government ; while there were those at hand, in the case of any such arrangement, ready to persuade James to marry a French or Spanish Princess, and restore the authority, or rather, the tyranny of the Pope : and what might have ensued from this, to the danger of Elizabeth, we leave to the reader's own conjecture. As La Motte Fenelon had obtained the Queen's leave to repair to Scotland, on the part of the King of France, it was judged necessary to have some English Ministers there also, and Bowes and Davison were accordingly dis patched from the Court. Fenelon was soon found to' be unmindful of his promises made in England, which were, to endeavour all he could to settle things in peace and quietness ; instead of which, exceeding his pretended. commission, he sought to disturb matters by drawing the King away from his present Counsellors, to return him, no doubt, into the hands of those more averse 1583J MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 207 to the interests of England : of the suspicions entertained at the Court of these designs, an account may be found in Murdin, 372, in a copy of her Majesty's letter to Mr. Robert Bowes and William Davison, 13th January 1582-3. But of the objects of this French embassy, we will take the account of a writer very adverse to Elizabeth, Dr. Gilbert Stuart: " Henry III.," he says, " commanded Monsieur de Fenelon, his resident in England, to take the road to Edinburgh ; and lest the English Court should fall upon a pretence to interrupt his jouf ney, orders were given to Monsieur de Mainingville to embark for the port of Leith. His instructions to both were, to engage in measures to effectuate the liberty of Jairies, to allure him to cordiality and friendship with France, to urge the association of Mary with him in the Government of Scotland, and to dissolve and weaken the English faction." These were the very objects England had been struggling so earnestly for many years to prevent, namely, to keep James clear of French influence, and firm in the interests of England. As to the terms, " English faction," we have treated of them before; they mean, indeed, no other than the Protestant party in Scotland, friendly to a perfect amity between the two divisions of the British island, and to a final and decisive renunciation of the Pope's authority, and the Romish religion. The designs of the French were seen through, and easily understood, by the Scottish Protestants, particularly the Clergy, and the Ambassadors of Henry had a hard task to defend themselves from the insults and abuse of the populace. The return of Mary upon the proposed principle of association, was loudly declaimed against, as dangerous to the Protestant interest, and James, to all appearance, began to perceive his error ; but a sudden turn of affairs setting him at liberty again, and throwing him once more into the hands of Arran, he resolved to take vengeance upon the Lords of Ruthven, as they were called, and though most of them found means to make their escape, Gowrie himself Was seized, and notwithstanding the King's previous pardon, tried, condemned, and executed. It cannot be supposed, that such a state of things could plead much with the English Court in favour of Mary ; in fact, the intrigues of the French becarne too manifest and intelligible, to leave any doubts on the minds of the Queen's Council in England, that the old objects of dispute and contention were revived, and that there was on the part ofthe French as great a struggle on foot as ever, to gain possession of the King, and through the King, of the kingdom, to the restoration of the Catholic Religion, the dissolution of all amity with England, and in case of Mary's release, a fresh attempt probably to obtain for 208 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. her the Crown, which Elizabeth was held by all foreign Catholics to have usurped. Many, we know, will be disposed to deny these conclusions, as not regularly deduced from the premises, but we must confess we can put no other construction on the mission of Fenelon; connected as it appeared to be, with many movements among the Papists, and seminary Priests in England, who were every where skulking about at this time, especially in the North parts, as Archbishop Sandys judged it necessary to intimate to the Bishops of his province, * that they might be on their guard against them. But to leave these things for the present ; the Papists were not the only persons who gave disturbance to the Bishops and Magistracy at this time ; it was a very busy time with the Puritans (if it be fair to call them any longer by that name). Archbishop Grindal dying this year, was succeeded by Whitgift, Bishop of Worcester, the great opponent of Cartwright, a Prelate therefore not very likely to connive at the practices of those who set themselves against the Church and the Laws, by breach of the act of Uniformity ; who pretended to be maintainers of the discipline of God, in opposition as it was considered to the established discipline ; and were not prepared to submit to certain articles put forth by the new Archbishop and the Bishop of London, which were likely to bring many of their pastors and preachers into trouble, by requiring their subscription, as a test of conformity. The Archbishop is thought besides to have had especial instructions from the Queen, to " hold a strait rein, to press the discipline of his Church, and recover his province to Uniformity*." — Collier. It would take up too much of the reader's time, if we were to attempt to go far into the disputes on foot at this period, though Lord Burghley appears to have paid great attention to them, not only as one of the Council, but privately and individually ; being evidently embarrassed, to know how to bring things to any settlement, though extremely anxious to do so if he could ; for he soon dis covered that, as is commonly the case, those who dissented from the Church, differed as much among themselves; and that in truth any general and universal agreement was not to be expected ; he took account, in the way of private memo randums, of the opinions and doctrines of those who refused to subscribe the new Articles put forth by the Archbishop, particularly in his own diocese of Canterbury, whence it appears that the sum of their objections was as follows : * Strype's Annals, iii. 242, 1583] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 209 " No more holidays than Sundays ought to be— no days to be named by saints — ¦ no fast to be appointed to saints' evens — none of the Apocrypha to be read in the Church — the attire for ministers to be as it was the second of Edward the Sixth, is against the commandment ofthe Holy Ghost — the length ofthe Liturgy hin- dereth sermons — the book [viz. of Common Prayer] is imperfect, containing extraordinary prayers against war, famine, pestilence, &c. and containeth jiot prayers of thanksgiving — at J;he communion, the communicants, being private persons, do pray with the Minister, where the Minister only ought to pray, and the communicants only to say, Amen. — It is not well said that all children bap tized are saved — the book allows to the Clergy a superiority, and establisheth not the authority of Elders — it is contrary to God's word, to order these degrees in the Church, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." — These were copied from Lord Burghley's own manuscript notes, who had also obtained a paper, entitled " Sentences and Principles of Puritans in Kent," which he thus indorsed, "These sentences following, are gathered out of certain sermons and answers in writing made by Dudley Fenner;" but we must not attempt to copy them.* They may be seen in Strype's Life of Whitgift, and for information relating to the practices of Papists this year at home and abroad, collected by Lord Burghley, or com municated to him by sundry persons, and from divers places, on the Continent, see Strype's Annals, iii. b. i. chapters xvi. xvii. " The eyes of the Queen and her friends," says the historian, " were now open, and saw well the treacherous designs of the English Papists, to overthrow her and her Government, and to place the Scots' Queen on the English throne ; assistance also being expected from Spain, and other Popish countries.; and how busy the seminaries were every where, drawing away the Queen's subjects to Popery." Among other artifices ofthe Papists, we may reckon their publication ofthe Rhemish Testament this year, an English translation got up at Rheims, not with any view of providing a vernacular Testament, for the use of their English fellow Christians, but in order to counteract, if possible, the effect of the other English versions. The cele brated Puritan Cartwright, applied himself to expose this insidious measure of the Seminarists, but in doing so, as might be expected, greatly favoured the * At the end of the sentences was the following prayer, particularly aimed at Whitgift: "Ye shall pray also that God would strike through the sides of all such as go about to take' away from the ministers of the gospel, the liberty which is granted them by the word of God." There is a note also of names given in baptism by Dudley Fenner, as " joy again," " from above," " more fruit," and " dust." VOL. Ill, 2 E 210 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. - [1583. Geneva discipline. The errors in this translation were detected and ably pointed out by Dr. Fulk. It was, in fact, no translation of the original Greek, but of the Latin Vulgate. The extract above, while it serves to shew what were some of the objections made to the forms of the Established Church and its Orders, may satisfy the reader of the great attention paid by the great man whose life we are writing, to every thing relating to the peace and quiet of the Church and nation* The following passage, however, from Collier's Ecclesiastical History, deserves to be added, as admirably expressive of the difficulties of the case as they appeared to that noble Lord : — " The Archbishop being inflexible and steady to the Constitution, some of the Courtiers made an essay upon the Dissenters. They tried to bring this party to a temper, and draw some concessions from them : that this lessening the differences, and advancing towards the Establishment, might set the Con formists more at ease, and make way for an accommodation. And here the Lord Burghley made the first proposition. This Nobleman, upon some com plaint against the Liturgy, bid the Dissenters draw up another, and contrive the offices in such a manner as might give general satisfaction to their brethren. Upon this overture, the first Classis struck out their lines, and drew mostly by the portrait of Geneva. This draught was referred to the consideration of a second Classis, who made no less than 600 exceptions to it. The third Classis quarrelled the corrections of the second, and declared for a new model. The fourth refined no less upon the third. The Treasurer advised all these reviews, and different committees, on purpose to break their measures, and silence their clamours against the Church. However, since they could not come to any agreement in a form for Divine Service, he had a handsome opportunity of a release; for now they could not decently importune him any farther. To part smoothly with them, however, he assured their agents that when* they came to * One who was anxious to procure some moderate changes in the Church services and cere monies, Withers, Rector of Danbury in Essex, thus begins a long letter addressed to Lord Burghley upon the subject : " You may justly marvel what toy hath taken me in the head to trouble you that are so greatly pressed with weight and multitude of the common affairs, with these also tour ecclesiastical contentions. But the general care of the Church, which you have evidently declared to the whole world, and chiefly the importunity of friends, hath enforced ine to pass my bounds, and to be too bold with your Lordship, in writing these few lines, concerning our Church controversies." 1583.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 211 any unanimous resolve upon the matter before them, they might expect his friendship."* It is well known that those who scrupled the habits and other ceremonies, had their friends in the Council, so that the Magistrates were sometimes at a loss how to act, while those who favoured that party in particular, were encouraged to appeal against the Bishops and the Queen's Commissioners, to the Council at large : an address of this nature was sent up from the county of Ssaffolk this year, where many non-conforming Ministers had been informed against, indicted, and arraigned. A few passages from this address may deserve to be copied, for the singularity of the style, and the allusion to other Non- confer mists : — " If it be lawful to speak but truth for ourselves, this is our course : we serve her Majesty and the country; not according to our fantasies, as the world falsely bears us in hand, but according to the law and statutes of England. We reverence both the law and the lawmaker. Law speaketh, and we keep silence. Law commandeth, and we obey. Without law, we know that no man can possess his own in peace. By law we proceed against all offenders. We touch none that law spareth ; we spare none that law toucheth. Hinc ilia lacryma. We allow not of the Papists their treacherous subtleties and hypo crisies. We allow not of the Family of Love, an egg of the same nest. We allow not of the Anabaptists, nor of their community. We allow not of Browne, the overthrower of Church and Commonwealth. We abhor all these. No, we punish all these." The following should be added, as matter of complaint, and in justice to the complainants : — " We beg leave to advertise your Lordships, how the adversary has very cun ningly christened us with an odious name, neither rightly applied, nor surely rightly understood. — -It is the name of Puritanism. We detest both the name and heresy. It is a term compounded of all other heresies aforesaid. The Papist is pure and immaculate — he hath store of goodness for himself, and plenty for others. The Family^ cannot sin : they be so pure, that God is hominified in them, and they deified in God. But we, thanks be to God, do cry, Peccavimus cum patribus nostris. We groan under the burden of our sins. * Eccles. Hist. ii. 586. Lord Burghley certainly befriended many of the Non-Conformists, where they did not prevent it by their own violence or indiscretion. See an instance in the case of the celebrated Preacher, Smith, called the silver-tongued Preacher, as inferior only to Chry- sostom (the golden-tongued). — Chalmers' Biog. Diet, xxviii. 115. f Of love. >212 -MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. We confess that there be none worse before God, and yet before the world we labour to keep ourselves and our profession unblameable; this is our Puri tanism."* In the course of this year, Lord Burghley appears to have been a good deal disgusted with the state of affairs ; to have become weary of the burdensome post he held, and to have wished to lay down his office, leave the Court, and retire to a private life. Many conjectures have been formed as to the exact cause of these cares and anxieties ; but, from the strange letter the Queen wrote to him, to divert him from his purposes, it would seem that he had had some affront put upon him at Court, to which he did not like to submit, and probably in the Council, by some of Leicester's party, if not by Leicester! himself, who differed * In justice to ourselves, we would wish to observe, that, disliking all opprobrious appellations and party distinctions that involve any violation of the truth, we should, perhaps, henceforth abstain from the use of the term Puritans, but that it is a term now historically established, and need not, indeed, carry with it any such insinuation as is hinted at above. The Puritans of Queen Elizabeth's days, were those who thought the Reformation not carried far enough, and that the services of the Church would become more pure, as they became more simple, and freer from ceremonies. At all events, it was an appellation they brought upon themselves, by the very terms they used, of " sweeping the Church clean," calling their brother Protestants of Germany, the enemies of their own purer religion, and their forms and doctrines obnoxious to all the purer Churches ; that is, the Calvinistic. t " At such a distance of time," says the author of the Bibliotheca Britannica, " it may be impossible to guess what were the principal causes that made the Lord Treasurer, at this time, so very uneasy ; and yet, considering the vast number of histories, annals, memoirs, and political treatises, relating to that reign, this would seem but an indifferent excuse. We will, therefore, use our endeavours to give the reader some hints of what might probably create in the Lord Trea surer a design of retiring. In the first place, the Spanish and Popish faction clamoured against him loudly, at home and abroad, representing him to be the sole author of their persecutibn in England ; and the Puritans also were very little satisfied, because of his great regard for the Bishops, his preserving the revenues, and supporting the authority of the Church upon all occa sions. In the next place, there was a strong party against him in the Queen's Council, who made false and malicious comments upon every thing he advanced or approved ; which party he began now to fear, more especially as Leicester had set himself openly at their head ; and, lastly, he thought the Queen herself did not sustain him in things of great importance, — sometimes affecting to suspect him of a secret friendship for, and intelligence with, the Queen of Scots ; in the same manner as b fore she had hinted at his great affection for the Duke of Norfolk; and yet, after that Nobleman was beheaded, placed that to his account, as we shall hereafter see she did the death of the Queen of Scots." All this appears to us to be very reasonable, especially as avowed to be collected from a comparison of Camden, Hollinshed, Stowe, and the private me moirs and state papers of the reign. .1583.] .MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 213 with him in regard to the Netherlands. The Queen evidently wished not only to retain him, but to restore him to his wonted good humour, by turning the affair into ridicule, and so rallying him upon it, as to make it pass for a matter of no moment. We cannot say much for her Majesty's wit, as displayed in her letter, but as it still may be seen indorsed by Lord Burghley, as received by him on the 8th of May, 1583, and some have pronounced it to be a " noble testi mony of her own good sense and the Treasurer's merit," it ought not (how ever otherwise well known) to be omitted upon this occasion ; it begins, " Sir Spirit* — I doubt I do nick -name you, for those of your kind (they say) have no sense. But I have of late seen an Ecce signum, that if an ass kick you, you feel it so soon. I will recant you from being a spirit, if ever I perceive that you disdain not such a feeling. Serve God, fear the King, and be a good fellow to the rest. Let never care appear in you for such a rumour : but let them well know, that you rather desire the righting of such wrong by making known their error, than you to be so silly a soul as to foreslow that you ought to do, or not freely deliver what you think meetest, and pass of no man so much, as not to regard her trust who putteth it in you. God bless you, and long may you last, omnino. " E. R." That her Majesty's letter had the effect she desired, of restoring harmony where it had been interrupted, we may conclude, from her taking the opportunity immediately afterwards of visiting Theobalds, with a large retinue, and passing five days there, to the honour (as it was always esteemed, though certainly much to the cost) of those who had to receive her in such state. Amongst her attendants, on this particular occasion, were the two brothers, the. Earls of War wick and Leicester, the Lord Admiral, the Lord Howard, Lord Hunsdon, Sir Christopher Hatton, and many others ; as may be seen by the allottment of the several chambers and apartments still existing, as drawn out by Lord Burghley himself, and to be found in Murdin, Nichols, &c. ; a " bed-chamber in a turret," being allotted to her Majesty, with a withdrawing-chamber, presence-cham ber, &c. &cf" Having had occasion to notice this visit, it may perhaps be * See this appellation explained, or noticed, in a letter from Lord Burghley to Sir Robert Cecil, Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i. b. v. No. vi. f It was on the occasion of this visit, that her Majesty is said to have observed to the Lord Treasurer, that " His head and her purse could do any thing." It should, perhaps, have run, her purse directed by his head, for without his management, her purse would never have accomplished the things it did accomplish ; it would have been closed where it should have been opened wide, 2U MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. well, at this time, to copy what we find in the Life, by a Domestic, as it appears in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, of her Majesty's several visits to Theo balds, and other houses of Lord Burghley. " His Lordship's extraordinary charge in entertainment of the Queen was greater to him, than to any of her subjects ; for he entertained her at his house twelve several times ; which Cost him two or three thousand pounds every time ; the Queen lying thete, at his Lordship's charge, sometimes three weeks, a month, yea, six weeks together. Her Majesty sometimes had strangers and Ambassadors come to her at Theo balds ; where she has been seen in as great royalty, and served as bountifully and magnificently, as at any other time or place, all at his Lordship's charge ; with rich shows, pleasant devices, and all manner of sports, to the great delight of her Majesty, and her whole train, with great thanks from all who partook of them, and as great commendation from all that heard of it abroad." He built three houses : — One in London for necessity ; Cecil House, since Exeter Exchange, where the Queen " supt with him, July 14, 1560, before it was fully finished, and came by the fields from Christ Church ;" and where, " July 6, 1564, her Majesty stood God-mother to his daughter Elizabeth." Another at Burghley, of competency for the mansion of his barony ; and another at Waltham, [Theobalds, in the parish of Cheshunt, purchased March 5, 1570,] for his younger son, which at the first he meant for a little pile, as I have heard him say ; but after he came to entertain the Queen so often there, he was en forced to enlarge it, rather for the Queen and her great train, and to set the poor in order, than for pomp or glory ; for he ever said, it would be too big for the small living he could leave his son. He greatly delighted in making gardens, fountains, and walks, which, at Theobalds, were perfected most costly, beauti fully, and pleasantly ; where one might walk two miles in the walks before he came to their ends. When Lord Burghley fell sick, he wrote to the Queen for and if left to be opened by others, as they chose, have had its contents squandered upon unpro fitable objects. How well these things were managed by Lord Burghley, may be seen in Mac- diarmid's Lives of British Statesmen, where it is exceedingly well shewn, that the most trifling aids (comparatively with our own times), by his wise management, were rendered efficient; allies sub sidized without impoverishing the nation ; doubtful friends aided only upon good securities and with such cautious foresight, as to prevent, as far as possible, in that deceitful age, the Queen's supplies being turned against herself. To shew that Burghley's head was necessary sometimes to keep the Queen's purse closed, the same author observes, that upon an estimate made by Lord Burghley himself, she appears to have lavished on Essex zs much as three hundred thousand pounds. 1583.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 215 leave to Jay down his offices : her Majesty visited and comforted him. The servants at the chamber-door desiring her to* stoop, (on account of her high head-dress,) she generously answered, ' For your master's sake I will stoop, but not for the King of Spain.' " We shall also take the opportunity of adding what Camden has said of Theo balds in his Britannia, as containing more of its history than would otherwise fall within the scope of our undertaking, especially as it may serve to ppnnect the times of which we are writing, with our own times, in a vety remarkable manner, by the circumstance of the estate and house of Hatfield being at this time in the possession ofthe immediate descendant of that younger sm, of whom the account above makes mention, viz., the first Earl of Salisbury, a statesman little less cele brated than h_is father, and his successor in two of his great offices ; being, perhaps, in his time, both Secretary of State and Lord Treasurer. The following is Camden's account of Theobalds. He calls it " a place than which, as to the; fabric, nothing can be more neaf; and as to the gardens, walks, and wildernesses, nothing can be more pleasant. Yet Sir Robert Cecil, to whom his father left it, much improved it. When King James I. came out of Scotland to take possession of the throne of England, in April, 1603, he made a stay at this house for refreshment, on the 3d of May ; and Sir Robert Cecil, the owner, gave him a noble reception, the Lords of the Privy Council attending to pay their homage. The King stayed there one night, and the next day made several Noblemen (English and Scots) of his Council, and created twenty-eight Knights. Sir Robert Cecil himself was at this time created Lord Esingdon in Rutland. This King took so great delight in this seat, that he afterwards gave the manor of Hatfield Regis in ex change for it to the Lord Cecil (Esingdon), whom he the next year created Viscount Cranburne, and the year after Earl of Salisbury. The said King often visited this his palace, enlarged the park, and inclosed it with a brick wall, ten miles in compass, and at last died there, 27th of March, 1627. In the rebellion of 1651, this noble palace was plundered, and so much defaced, that it is now become a little village of a Prince's habitation." — Britann. Antiq. But to quit this digression — In the course of this year, 1583, a very illustrious foreigner visited England, of whom we have an account not to be disputed, in a letter from Mr. Faunt, of the Secretaries' Office, to Mr. Bacon (Lord B'irghley's nephew). This eminent person was Albert Alasco Count Palatine of Sirad in Poland. " His family," says Mr. Faunt, " you shall read to be the best in his country, and of which 216 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1583. the Kings have heretofore been most commonly elected ; and for his personage, very rare, and surpassing'all that I have seen of his years, which are fifty-six, or thereabouts. He hath been General in more than forty fought battles, and yet is of that lustiness and strength, that he is able to lead many more, before he be ready, in man's judgment, for the grave. He is very civil, and speaketh the Latin and Italian very well ; but the Sclavonian, and other languages there abouts, very naturally. He hath in his time greatly annoyed the Turk. He is of great revenues, and liveth here at his own charges, having refused her Ma jesty's offers in that behalf, who taketh great delight to talk with him, and hath already, in one week since his coming, given him her presence twice. And her Majesty meaneth this next week to carry him to Nonsuch, and some other places, where he shall be feasted and entertained according to his quality." In June, 1583, he visited the University of Oxford,* and was received there with great and peculiar honours ; and from thence he went to Kenilworth. * See a particular account of these things in Nichols, vol. ii. CHAP. XI. 1584. Twenty-sixth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began November 17, 1583. Power of the King of Spain — Mendoza — Waad — Plots of the Catholic Princes — Associa- ciations formed to protect Elizabeth — Disturbed state of England and Scotland- —The Prince of Orange shot — His Daughters — Atrocious acts and designs of the Papists — Affairs of the Netherlands — Don Antonio — Letter from Lord Burghley to Henry IF. — Visit ofthe Prince Palatine and Duke Casimir to England — Letter from Mary to Lord Burghley — The Pope and Papists — State of Affairs as regarded the two Queens — Books published against Elizabeth — Letter from Mary to Sir F. Englefield — Letters from Sir F. Englefield to the Courts of Spain and Rome — Parliament meets — Lord Leicester's letter to the Burgesses of Andover — Complaint of the want of able Pastors in the Church — The Decads of Bullinger — Bishop Aylmer — Correspondence between Archbishop Whitgift and Lord Burghley — Of the Affairs of the Church, as brought before Parlia ment — The Queen's Speech to the Parliament at the end of the Session — Letter from Archbishop Whitgift to Lord Burghley. So many things of importance seem to have pressed upon Lord Burghley this year, that it is almost incredible that any individual could have strength sufficient to sustain the burthen, or a mind capable of applying itself to so great a variety of public concerns. Strype, whom we generally follow for reasons before given, begins with the alarming power of the King of Spain, copying Camden, who describes all Italy to be at his beck — the Pope wholly addicted to him — the ablest persons both for war or peace, his pensioners — the house of Austria, and its many family branches, at his sejvice — his wealth and strength greater than ever by the recent acquisition of Portugal and its Eastern Settlements, and in short, with the exception of the opposition sprung up in the Netherlands, more formidable to Europe than ever his father Charles V. was. It must be very evident, that under these circumstances England had but little hope, if he should regain the Low Countries. The disturbances in that VOL. III. 2 F 218 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584,, portion of his dominions, in so near neighbourhood to England, being to all appearance the only barrier against this formidable enemy of Elizabeth, of whose lively resentment and bitter malice there could be no doubt, however concealed under the usual compliments and friendly assurances of diplomatic communications ; but, in truth, the very rules and regulations of diplomacy appear to have been violated in the case of Spain, by the machinations of Mendoza, the Spanish minister in England ; whom it was found necessary to banish the kingdom at any hazard of offending his too potent master. The charge against him was that of fostering and encouraging treasonable practices against the Queen's person, and from which he certainly did not sufficiently clear himself, as an accredited minister of a friendly power. The Queen, how ever, sent a special embassy to Philip to explain the circumstances of his dismissal, and caused a declaration to be drawn up at large, for her vindication both at home and abroad. Strype has inserted a translation of it in the Appendix to the third volume of his Annals, No. xxvi., and supposes it to have been written by Lord Burghley himself; it was entitled "Declaratio eorum quae circa Mendozae,* Catholici Regis legati, missionem acciderunt : una cum responso et ejusdem objecta contra suam majestatem ;" and it was endorsed, "A Declaration of sundry unkindnesses offered her Majesty by the King of Spain." But neither of these things had the effect of mollifying the anger of Philip. The Queen's Minister Waad, was refused an audience of the King, on his arrival in Spain, and the charges against Mendoza not entered into before the Spanish Council, to whom Waad had been referred, through a disdain of the King's neglect of him. It is impossible for us to give a full account of the plots supposed to be on foot this year for depriving her Majesty of her crown, and setting it on the head of Mary ;| we say, supposed to be on foot, because suspicions have been * To shew how dangerous a man Mendoza was esteemed to be, Sir Edward Stafford, the English Minister at Paris, wrote home, that on his (Mendoza's) arrival in France, the Queen Mother there " stormed marvellously, and told the King the dangerous disposition of the man, and both of them would fain be rid of him if they could." t The following is Strype's account: «« The Popish party were very busy hereunto this year ; and now more and more. Many Englishmen of that religion became bigots, and were employed in plots for the deliverance of the Scots' Queen, though it were with the assassination of their natural Queen Elizabeth : actuated and encouraged by foreign Princes too. Such were Throg morton, Lord Paget, his brother Charles, under the name of Mope, Lord Arundel, and among 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 219 entertained of very foul practices in the detection of such plots, and insinuations thrown out against the evidence adduced in proof of several of them ; but, it is not we think possible to doubt, as many historians have confessed, of a general design to that effect, amongst the Catholic powers of Europe, par ticularly the King of Spain, the Pope, and the Leaguers in France, having the Duke of Guise at their head, and which led to that memorable association for the protection of Elizabeth, which Mary is said to have regarded as her death- warrant. It may be expected that Mary will always be forgiven for any devices she could form, for escaping the trammels into which she had most unfortunately fallen, but it does not follow from thence, that there was any thing very wrong in the association to preserve Elizabeth, and which is said to have been brought about by Leicester's means ;* a suspicious agent no doubt, but no bad judge, probably, of the dangers to be apprehended. Elizabeth's enemies were, at all times, numerous, powerful, and in their resentments, as we verily believe, quite unappeasable. Those resentments seemed now to be getting tp a head, and no wonder that it should be so ; to the alarm of both Queens. The greater wonder. perhaps is, that Elizabeth could have been protected so long, or her miserable captive not wrested out of her hands by a force much superior to any she could raise, in the many years that had now passed of Mary's restraint and thraldom. In the mean while, England had been constantly improving in strength and wealth, and Elizabeth had always so confidently expressed her reliance on the attachment and support of her subjects, that it is certainly to the credit of the latter, that they stood forth, upon this occasion, to prevent her and her kingdom the rest the false Welshman, Parry ; and besides a great many priests and seminaries had been discovered and taken up, and remained now in divers prisons. Whom yet the Queen would not put to death (as many had been already for examples), but now chose rather to rid the land of them and banish them. De Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador here, was a great and busy instrument in these mischievous designs, so he was discharged and sent away; but remained in France, following his practices there against England." * Camden, Rapin, &c. — See also Paget's letter to the Queen of Scots, Murdin, 436. In this letter Paget affirms that Leicester had told a friend of his, that he was resolved to be avenged of Mary, for that he knew she had been privy to the book that had been set forth against him. Though Leicester, however, might be the author of this association, it does not follow that it was the less necessary as a public security to Elizabeth. " Surely," says Bishop Carleton, in his curious little book, the Christian Remembrancer, " this association was useful, and held many in order." 220 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. being overwhelmed by the power of Spain ; and, in fact, to keep the crown upon her head, in opposition to the designs that were, undoubtedly, on foot, to wrest it from her. The two Queens themselves, however, in this extraordinary and threatening posture of affairs, seemed willing to make another experiment at negotiation. Elizabeth has even the credit given her, of being, upon this occasion, sincere in wishing Mary to be set at liberty.* But those who looked more narrowly into the probable, or at least possible, consequences of such a revolution in the state of affairs, could not be brought to concur in thinking it expedient. Elizabeth's Ministers could not be satisfied as to the securities proposed, and the Protestants in Scotland could not be brought to see in the admission of Mary to any parti cipation in the Government of their country, any thing less than the conversion of the King and the utter overthrow of their religion. It may, indeed, be col lected from the letters sent to Mary, from abroad, that the overthrow of every thing that' had been done either in England or Scotland, towards the Reforma tion, was in contemplation, if Mary could be set at liberty ; thus Paget wrote to her, suggesting a plan for her escape, at the end of this year ; " knowing," as he tells her, " that the only part of good to come to the state of England and Scotland, is to be by your mean ;" i. e. by making her Queen of both coun tries, and bringing her son over to the Catholic religion. — See his letter in Murdin, p. 438. It has been insinuated that the English Ministry, in order to find a pretence for detaining Mary, even at this time, had procured the Clergy of Scotland and King's party, to raise all possible objections to her return. We really think there was no occasion for this ; we consider it to have been the duty of Elizabeth's Ministers to weigh well the securities propounded, and if they could not in conscience believe them to be such as might, with perfect safety, be accepted, to prevent Elizabeth, at so momentous a period, acceding to the pro posals on Mary's part. And we do also verily believe, that the clergy of Scotland were sufficiently aware, without any excitement, that the Kirk would have been shaken to its foundation, had Mary returned, while the King was half converted,! * Camden, 301. + As to what was going on in regard to the conversion of James, at this time, the letters in Murdin, from Paget and Morgan at Paris, should be carefully examined. See under the years 1584, 1585, 1586; where may also be found the course of communication managed, principally through the means of Morgan, between Mary and her adherents ; and which appears very extraordinary. 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 221 and rendered suspicious of England. The disturbance in both countries was very great, and the crisis awful. But we must still say, and we cannot avoid it, that if all public confidence, were shaken, it was the work of the Papists. Sir Edward Stafford, writing from Paris at this time, says, in a letter to Secretary Walsingham, " I dare not warrant any thing, the world being now.a- days so full of deceit." — Could any thing possibly be more atrocious, than Philip's proscription of the Prince of Orange, with the deliberate offer of a reward of 25,000 ducats, to whomsoever should kill him. Could the Ministers of Elizabeth be expected to be careless of securities for her person, when in the month of July of this very year, that Prince was actually shot in his own hall, the assassin having previously confessed himself to a Jesuit Priest of Treves, and dis covered to him his desperate and wretched design ?* The Prince was aware of his danger, though he could not sufficiently guard against it, but it is remarkable, The ciphers found in the possession of Mary, are still to be seen in the State Paper Office, being many in number. Some of Lord Shrewsbury's servants appear to have betrayed their trust, but we have the authority of Sir Ralph Sadler, for the fact, that even at Tutbury, it was impossi ble to prevent an intercourse being clandestinely carried on, between Mary and her agents and friends in France. — See his state papers, 1584, 1585. His letters, for the short time he was at Tutbury, are certainly very curious. He had his hawks and his falconers there, and Mary partook of the sport ; " sometyme a myle, sometyme ii myles, but not past iii myles from the castell ;" as he wrote to the Secretary. But in this, he was judged to have run too great a risk. The case, however, had been exaggerated ; Elizabeth had been informed, that they went to the extent of six or seven miles from the castle. * L' Auteur des Troubles des Pays-Bas remarque, page 403. " Que 1' assassin acheta les pistolets dont il se servit pour commettre son crime, de 1' argent dont le Prince 1' avoit gratifie quelques jours auparavant. Selon le meme auteur p. 405, on conserve a Bruxelles des Lettres patentes du roi d' Espagne, datees du 4 Mars 1589, portant anoblissement de Balthasar Gerardi (nom de 1' Assasin),|de ses freres et scaurs, sous le nom de tyrannicides." — Koch Tableau des Revolutions de V Europe, torn. ii. 56, 57. The Prince was murdered in the presence of the Princess, whose first husband, and father, the Admiral Coligni, had fallen amongst the victims of the Parisian massacre. — Voltaire. We may perhaps add another royal victim to Protestantism, in the case of Philip's own son Don Carlos. A French avocat, Lewis d'Orleans, in a work published in 1588, and intituled, Reponse des vrais Catholiques Francois a 1' avertissement des Catholiques Anglois, asserts, that Philip's eldest son was put to death for heresy. Of the sentiments avowed by this Romish Lawyer, and of his denunciations of Elizabeth, as a bastard, an usurper, a Jezebel, a heretic (and as such, worse and more detestable than a Turk, Pagan, Jew, or infidel), finally, as an excommunicated, and thereby deposed Princess, Mr. Turner has given a curious account in his reign of Elizabeth, b. ii. ch. xxxi. 222 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. that among the preparations he made for his expected death, one was to recom mend his daughters to the care of Elizabeth, who, when the horrid event.of his assassination had taken place, did not neglect them, but was careful to recommend them, by a letter to their near relative the Due de Monpensier, to the superintendence and guardianship of different Ladies of high distinction and respectability on the Continent, taking to her own charge, the one to whom she had been godmother. The beginning of this letter, still extant, may very well serve to shew the jeopardy in which the Protestant Princes of Europe stood with regard to the hidden, concealed, or disguised practices of the Papists* " Monsieur mon Cousin,— Comme le feu Prince d'Orange, prevoyant le danger imminent, auquel il etoit toujours subject par les secretes menees et embusches que lui tendoient ses enemys, nous eust de son vivant, &c !" The secret designs here spoken of, were actually accomplished, consummated, and brought to an issue. Here, therefore, there could be no possible doubt of the evil purposes, wicked intentions, and deliberate malice of the Papists. We may call it religious infatuation, fanaticism, or what we please, but the effect was the same. — Elizabeth was, from the first moment of her accession to the English throne, a person proscribed by the Pope, and Popish Courts. The Prince of Orange also incurred the same proscription, and fell in the course of this very year by the hand of an assassin. Was not this a pretty fair warning to Elizabeth, and one likely to increase rather than relax the vigilance of her Ministers, and attached subjects? The Admiral Coligni had also been pro scribed by the Catholic powers and horribly murdered. Surely it will be confessed, this was a strange time to offer Catholic securities to Elizabeth ? and what had Mary to offer but Catholic securities, and her own word and promise, which according to the very lesson she might have been taught by her mother, were not, in any case of emergency, affecting the See of Rome, to be kept with heretics 1 , „ Bishop Carleton, alluding to the confessions of Hart about this time, says, * Sir Edward Stafford, in a letter to the Court from Paris, July 22, 1584, writes, " Don Antonio sent to speak to me the last, day in great haste : where declaring the affection he had to her Ma jesty, he disclosed to me a very certain advertisement he had from a very good place, and besides out of the Spanish agent's house, that the same practice that hath been executed upon the Prince of Orange, there are practisers more than two or three about to execute upon her Majesty, and some other, and especially her Majesty, and that to be done within these two months." 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 223 " We find by these things that France and Spain and the strength of the Pope were here all combined against the Queen Elizabeth and King James, for no other cause but for their religion, because Queen Elizabeth and King James had established the same religion. Against which religion all the great powers of the world were combined. — If a man shall consider the counsels, the policies, the strength of these great powers which were set against these two Princes, it is a matter to be wondered at, how they should stand against so deep and desperate dangers. Here I wish that a Papist of any understanding would take this matter into his consideration, and look but a little farther to the end and event of things, what man purposed, what God wrought? i. e. in the pre servation of both Elizabeth and James, and the union of the two crowns in the person of the latter." As this Protestant Bishop, when he wrote, was living under the government of James, we must surely conclude, that his representa tion of the Popish Confederacy, including the Great Plot to which Mary alluded, was no exaggeration, and that in truth, Elizabeth, as well as James, stood in the situation of regularly proscribed victims, had things taken a diffe rent turn. But it is time to enter a little more into the detail of the events of this busy year. — If we follow Strype, it would appear that the first care of Lord Burghley was, to look to the affairs of the Netherlands ; to Don Antonio, the pretender to the throne of Portugal ; and to any others who had distinct quarrels with Spain, and to afford them such assistance as might give occupation to Philip, without an absolute breach of peace. The information given to Lord Burghley upon these heads by Hawkins, Treasurer of the Admiralty, may be seen in the Annals, vol. iii. ch. xviii. Proposals were made to the Queen a second time by the States of Holland, to be taken under her Majesty's protection, in pre ference to the King of France, who had laboured to be accepted as their Lord in general ;* and at length this proposal was acceded to. Among the correspondents which Lord Burghley had at this time may be reckoned Henry the Great, as he was afterwards called, at this time only King of Navarre. His Majesty had a hard task to defend himself, and his small kingdom, and the religion, as the Profession of Faith among the Hugonots was called, against the Leaguers, the Duke of Guise and his party ; and he had * See an abstract taken by the Lord Burghley out of the instructions given to Monsieur de Gryces and Ortal, agents from Holland to the Queen, to take on her their protection, in four papers.— -Strype's Annals, iii. Appendix, No. xxxvi. 224 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. often occasion, therefore, to address himself to Lord Burghley, as the Queen's principal Minister. Many of his letters had passed unanswered, Lord Burgh ley's excuse being, that he judged it presumptuous to write to his Majesty, where no answer was strictly needful ; but a servant of that King being now about to depart from England to his Master, Lord Burghley was induced to write as follows : " Sir, I have received sundry letters of your Majesty divers times ; wherein I confess myself greatly beholden unto your Majesty for your good opinion expressed therein, of me and my actions for the cause of the Gospel, more largely than my power can deserve, though my will, according to my bounden duty, is not less than your Majesty is pleased to express. And though I have not used to write to your Majesty again in answer of your Majesty's letters (which I have foreborne, as judging it some kind of presumption to trouble your Majesty with my writings, where my answer was not needful), yet at this time, the tender of a Gentleman of Scotland, named Mr. Weemes, now belonging unto your Majesty, hath very earnestly required me, for his discharge, to certify you, that he brought to me your letters, which in truth he did ; and being a Gentleman worthy of great commendation, I could not deny him so reasonable a request; which is the cause of my present writing, praying your Majesty to accept the same, as from an humble devoted servitor of your Majesty, not so much for your kingdom, which I do honour greatly, but for your mag nanimity and constancy in the true religion of Christ, wherein I pray God to assist you with his graces, to the confusion of Antichrist, and of his members." The Prince Palatine and his brother Duke Casimir came this year to England, and received the greatest attentions from the Queen and her great Counsellor the Lord Treasurer, which, after their return, was gratefully acknow ledged, in a letter to his Lordship from Wierus, who has been mentioned before. We have already observed that both Queens, being under some alarm at the threatening aspect of affairs, Elizabeth at the great confederacy of foreign powers against her, and Mary at the association formed to take extraordinary care of that Queen's and the kingdom's welfare, had opened some fresh com munication tending to an amicable adjustment of subsisting differences. With regard to the Association itself, Rapin says, ".It was impossible not to see that the Queen of Scots was directly aimed at, for whose sake all the plots^ 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 225 on foot were contriving. Wherefore, very probably, from this time her death began to be determined ; the two Queens being no longer able to subsist toge ther. The Council of England at least was of this opinion. Mary doubted not that the. law was enacted against her. Perhaps she would have prevented the fatal effects of it, could she have renounced all correspondence in the king dom, and in foreign countries. But she had not the prudence to take this wise course, or perhaps to avoid the snares laid for her ; or was not quick- sighted enough to perceive, that she only served for a blind to her pretended friends to execute other projects." Mary, however, wrote to Lord Burghley in the following terms, requesting him to favour her cause with the Queen, and to assist M. Mauvisier, the French Ambassador, in pursuit of the same object. " Monsieur, le grand Thesaurier. — Ayant ecrit ses jours passees a. la royne, ma dame, ma bonne sceur, pour lui ramantenoir la sincerite de mon intention vers elle, et la grand necessite que j'ay de son octroy en mes requestes passees ; je pancjois par mesme moyen vous faire ce mot pour vous prier me y etre favourable en son endroit, en tant que selon son service, et ma commodite, elle pouroit me favouriser, et d'avantage obliger a. elle. Mais me trouvant un peu mal, et laschee de ma- depesche je fus contreinte de la remettre jusques a. present, ayant prie cependant le sieur Mauvesiere ambassadeur du roy tres Chrestien, Monsieur mon bon frere, de vous communiquer le tout, et im- petrer votre ayde et support vers la ditte dame, ma bonne sceur. En quoy m'as- surant qu'il n'aura manquer, ne vous troubleray de plus long discours, si non vous prier d'avoir, esguard a. ma longue captivite, et a. la verite de tout ce que Ton a. voulu me mettre a, subs, et si je ne suis privee de tout sense ce que je puis pretendre pour mon meilleur, et de ce que j'ai le plus cher voiant l'estat ou je suis, et a. l'heure je m'assure tant de votre sagesse, que vous jugeray aise- ment, que je ne tands a meriter d'estre tant soupsonnee, et en cet endroit je finiray, par mes recommendations a, votre bonne grace, et de celle de ma dame de Barley votre femme : priant Dieu vous donner a, tout deux le contentement que desirez. De Shefield, ce xx de Novembre. Votre entierement bonne amye, "Marie R.*" How much it were to be wished that such a letter could have had its full and desired effect, and that the dreadful catastrophe to which we are now fast approaching could have been avoided, and the pages of our history not stained with so foul a blot. But we must proceed ; and, as we have before observed, * Strype's Annals, iii. Appendix, No. xxxviii. VOL. III. 2 G 226 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. what we cannot excuse, endeavour to account for. " This year," says Strype, " an earnest treaty was in hand betwixt the Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth, for her liberty ; the said Queen Mary professing to enter into a strict amity; and Queen- Elizabeth being inclinable to release her. But the wise men about her knew there could be no security in such an act." On this, then, we may believe (for circumstances seem to prove it), the whole question at this time turned. Security for Elizabeth, and security for the independence of the kingdom in church and state, was, we may be sure, the chief consideration with Lord Burghley ; and he could not bring his mind to believe that it was attainable in the way sought. It is much to be lamented, certainly ; but it may serve to relieve him from the charge of wanton and premeditated cruelty. He probably saw too far into the con sequences of things to be able to determine on the side of mercy. If we should be asked why, we should deliberately say, Because Mary was too closely con nected with the Catholics, to be upon any terms of sincere friendship with Elizabeth, and because, whatever number of worthy individuals there might be among the Catholics at this time, as well as at all other times, the Pppes had managed to destroy all confidence in public characters, whether Princes, Ministers, the Clergy, or the laity.* The dispensations ofthe Court of Rome had enabled the greatest potentates in Europe to break their promises, violate their oaths, free themselves at once from the obligations of the most solemn compacts and treaties, and to dissemble to the utmost limits of deception, nay even perjury, to uphold the authority of the See of Rome, and the cause of Catholicism against heresy. We appeal to history for our proofs, as to these charges against the Head of the Church, and his ecclesiastical army of Jesuits ; we appeal to their own authors, their own avowed maxims and principles ; to the conduct of assassins acting upon these maxims and principles, in a variety of instances during * Mr. Turner, in his history of Elizabeth's reign, published since the above was actually pre pared for the press, has very well shewn that it was the influence of the Popish Clergy that was to be dreaded. The laity would have been more quiet, and had even proved themselves to be so, for many years, so as to give offence at Rome by their supineness, and provoke the Pope to dis solve at once the pretended bond of allegiance which connected them with a heretic ; but for this authoritative reproach and interference, the loyalty of the Popish laity, and the submission of various well-disposed individuals, might, and probably would, have been trusted and confided in by the Government, but the Pope, it was known, could cancel or disturb at once all such good principles by his anathemas and ecclesiastical censures; and many indeed confessed that they were so wrought upon. 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 227 the long reign of Elizabeth ;*- one case of that nature, if not more, belonging to this very year, as we have shewn in the murder of the Prince of Orange ; which case, indeed, is a remarkable proof of the reality of the dangers impending over Elizabeth, in the estimation of her Ministers, had they not kept a wary eye upon the Pope's emissaries. Elizabeth was preserved ;' and therefore it is as serted by those of the contrary party, that she was never in danger, and that the persons executed as the Pope's agents, had no treasonable designs in their heads, that their own denial of such designs should have been implicitly believed, and deserves to be so to this day ; but there is a paper extant upon this head, which, in our own estimation, sets the matter in so full a lightj that though it be too long to transcribe, and might perhaps be better read in Strype, where it may be seen, some passages appear so fully to justify the suspicions upon which Elizabeth's Ministers acted, that they ought to find a place in a work purporting to treat of Lord Burghley's administration. The object of the paper was to shew, "That such Papists as of late times had been executed, were, by a statute of Edward III., lawfully executed as traitors." The statute of Edward III. saith, " That if any man shall compass or imagine the King's death, or shall levy war against him, or shall probably be attainted to have been an adherent to the King's enemies, he shall be adjudged a traitor." Now, let us consider the Papists' dealings. Pius V., (the father in his time of them all) calleth her Majesty's interest in the crown pratensum jus; he de- clareth her deprived, by his authority, of the kingdom ; he absolveth her natural subjects from their oath of obedience; he curseth all that yield her any princely duty. And yet, not herewith content, before the Bull was generally published, he sent one of his ministers into this land, to signify, apostolica auctoritate certis viris illustribus, what was done at Rome ; how Elizabeth was a heretic ; that she had lost her crown ; and that they did owe her no kind of obedience. Whereupon the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, with sundry other gentlemen, persuaded by Morton, the Pope's principal agent, Catholicos omnes summis viribus illis affuturos esse ; [i. e. that all Catholics would assist them with their chiefest strength] they took up arms, and sought by force to have subdued her Majesty. And Sanders yieldeth this reason of their ill success * For the casuistical subtleties and loose moral principles of the Jesuits, we would refer the reader to Bayle's Diet., art. Loyola, and the Lettres Provinciates of the celebrated Pascal. 228 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584i therein, quia Catholici omnes nondum probe cognoverunt Elizabetham hareticam esse declarandam [i. e. because all the Catholics did not yet well know that Elizabeth was to be declared a heretic] ; but for the attempt, saith he, how soever it fell out, tamen laudanda illorum nobilium consilia erant ; [i. e. never theless the counsels of those Noblemen were to be commended.] Now, as Morton and his companion, by the Pope's apostolic authority, wrought in England, so did Sanders, by the same authority with his Holiness' soldiers, as you all know, work in Ireland, &c. ; whereby I trust that the matter is evident, that the Pope is the Queen's enemy ; and that by the statute of Ed ward III., Morton, Sanders, and all their fellows, were rebellious traitors. But to proceed and come nearer my purpose. These rebellions repressed, and greater regard being had of the Pope's seditious fire-brand, another course was taken, no less mischievous and dangerous than the first. When they could not devour like lions, now for a time they must play the foxes. Sanders, Morton, and their adherents, professed themselves, as you have heard, her Majesty's enemies ; and hoping of a sufficient number to have vanquished her, moved her subjects to open rebellion. But now the Jesuits and seminary Priests, which of late years came over, had learned a new lesson. They all confessed, indeed, and that stoutly, that their coming over was to increase the number of Catholics (as they term them), the Pope's retinue and subjects ; and that they had employed their endeavour, by masses, confessions, reconciliations, and relics, for that purpose. For her Majesty, they said they honoured her, and she was their sovereign, their lady, and they Aer subjects. You hear now here a sudden alteration. " Fistula duke canit volucrem dum decipit auceps." In fact, it was proved that they had special license to hold out all these fair pretences, notwithstanding the Pope's Bull, rebus sic stantibus, or donee publice ejusdem Bulla executio fieri potest; i. e. until the execution of the said Bull could be done publicly. This was the rod constantly held over Elizabeth and her Protestant adherents, had they but been allowed an opportunity of putting their threats in execution. But the whole paper should be read to justify its conclusion, which is as follows: " So that if ever Prince in Christendom had cause given of severity and care of guard, it is her Majesty."— Strype's Annals, iii. Appendix, No. xlvii. Can we wonder that the « wise men about Elizabeth" should distrust all 1584.] n MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 229 proffered securities at such a period, and between parties not less opposed to each other than the Court of Rome itself to heresy; or, in other words, to Protestantism. The writers of romance have transformed this true his tory of political competitions into a mere detail of female jealousies, female rivalry, petty resentments, and wanton cruelty; but it was a competition be tween two crowns, two kingdoms, two religions ; or rather, between one crown, one kingdom, and one particular church, opposed to many crowns, [with the Tiara at their head,] many kingdoms, and, by pretension, the church universal. This was the contest most in the view of Lord Burghley, we shall venture to say, whenever, as one of Elizabeth's " wise men," he was compelled to give counsel against Mary. It was not against a miserable female captive, but against the cause and the adherents of the Queen of Scots, that he delivered his opinion. It was not, we verily believe, congenial to his nature to oppress the innocent; but he had a Sovereign to protect, per fas, and weare almost inclined to add, per nefas, for so it seemed to turn out. That is, to avert the nefarious designs of others against the proscribed and insulted Sove reign he had to preserve, for it was also at this very time that books were pub lished and circulated, denouncing Elizabeth as the Jezebel of the age, and urging her own maids of honour to serve her in the same manner as Judith did Holofernes, and render themselves, by such an action, worthy ofthe applause of the church throughout all future ages.* We must refer to Strype for another passage, touching the plots on foot this year, as bearing also on the negotiations between the two Queens : after speaking of the non-conformists among the Puritans — " The Popish faction," says he, "the other enemy to the Church, were now playing their game, for the dispossessing the Queen of her throne, and for the rescuing Mary, Queen of Scots, and to set her in Queen Elizabeth's place, if they could ; for the compassing of which purposes, were combined together, the Pope, the Guises in France, and Philip King of Spain (which was called the holy league), and the said Queen of Scots holding a correspondence with them; which was discovered by letters seized, for letters passed between Sir Francis Englefield, a pensioner in Spain, and her; viz. of him to her, and her to him. There were, at this very time, letters between that Queen and the Queen's Majesty, but what thoughts she (Mary) had of any * Rapin. — Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. ii. 62. — Camden ; and see the account of the very books, written by Martin of St. John's College, Oxford, a contemporary of Campian.— Strype's Annals, iii. p. 407. 230 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. good success of it, with other matters by her letters to that fugitive Gentleman, may appear. — A copy of which was indorsed thus, by the Lord Treasurer's own hand ; viz. The Queen of Scots to Sir Francis Englefield, October 9* 1584, and seems to be copied from the cipher. " Of the treaty between the Queen of Englarid and me, I may neither hope nor look for good issue ; whatsoever shall come of me, by whatsoever change of my state and condition, let the execution of the great Plot go forward, without any respect of peril or danger to me. " "And further, I pray you, use all possible diligence and endeavour to pursue, and promote, at the other King's hand, such a speedy execution of their former designments, that the same may be effectuated some time this next spring, which is the longest time the same can be expected ; and failing then, it cannot be avoided or prevented but that' we fliall see forthwith an extreme and general overthrow of our whole cause, never again to be repaired and set afoot in otir days* " Of the 12000 ducats, long since promised to myself, I have yet received no penny; nor my son, but 6000, of 10000 promised unto him; wherewith he is not a little grieved and discontent, and yet, as well inclined to our designment as before ; and in the rest of his doings and proceedings to direct his course as I will advise him ; he is now dispatching a Gentleman of his, called Gray, to the Court of England, chiefly to have occasion to visit me, and by mouth to impart unto me his resolution in all our affairs ; the Gentleman is Catholic, God grant he may be permitted to come to me; solicit with all diligence, that the 12000 ducats for myself be sent with all speed. October 9, 1 584." The letters of Sir Francis Englefield, to the Courts of Spain and Rome, inter cepted at the same time, contain some very noticeable passages, and particularly the one in which, alluding to the newly formed association, and Mary's being removed from the custody ofthe Earl of Shrewsbury* to that of Sir Amias * Of the disagreements in the Shrewsbury family at this time, much is to be found in Lodge, &c. It would take us too much out of our way to enter into the particulars, especially as we are not prepared to decide upon the different accounts to be found in books, of the strange behaviour of Lady Shrewsbury; some referring her conduct to an actual jealousy of Lord Shrews bury's intimacy with Mary, others to a mischievous design of ruining Mary, and acting as Eliza beth's spy. Of the scandal raised against Lord Shrewsbury of an improper intercourse with his unfortunate prisoner, see Strype's Annals, iii., under the year 1584. ; Collins's Peerage, ii. 56 ; Lodge, ii. 296. and Lingard, vol. v. 655. note (x). Lady Shrewsbury and her sons were said to 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 231 Paulet, and repeating the above letter of Mary, he writes, " It is by these doings very probable, and in effect manifest to such as have had experience of the English Government, that the Queen and Council of England have made a secret resolution, not only to deprive and disinherit the said Queen of Scotland, but also to ruin and take away her life, if the Pope and the King of Spain shall not, within the time prescribed, find some means either to deliver her, or at least so to occupy and molest the Queen of England, that she shall conceive and find, as hitherto she hath done till of late, that the life and safety ofthe Queen of Scots is and hath been her own principal security and assurance."* This letter also touches upon the King of Spain's title to the crown of England, being accounted next to that of Mary by the Catholics, and urging him therefore not to incur the blame of suffering her to perish, in order to make the way more plain and open to his claim and interest. The extraordinary circumstance in all this business, is the clandestine corres pondence, constantly carrying on, notwithstanding the extreme vigilance of Elizabeth's Ministers, by those who were plotting her ruin; and though Sir Francis seems to intimate, that the safest way for Elizabeth was to save Mary, yet the great plot discovered to be on foot, must have been more likely to acce lerate her end, as evidently removing the greatest obstacle to Elizabeth's quiet continuance on the throne. Many of Elizabeth's own subjects, probably, who might have been desirous of Mary's rule, being wholly set against that of Philip, as Elizabeth seems to have found in the memorable year 1588, as we shall have occasion to shew. Towards the close of the year, and after the beginning of the 27th year of her Majesty's reign, viz. Nov. 23, a sessions of Parliament began, which lasted, allow ing for one adjournment at Christmas time,f four months, from the 23d of Nov. 1584, to the 29th of March 1585. At its commencement, by the special care of have countenanced, if not propagated the scandal ; but, upon an application from Mary to Eliza beth, to have the Countess compelled to give her reasons for making such a charge, she was put tp her oath, and totally denied it, as well as her sons. Dr. Lingard attributes the scandal to Topcliffe, the noted persecutor of the Catholics ; but in Fleetwood's report to Lord Burghley, the principal culprits are represented to have been one Walmesley, an inn-holder at Islington, and Dr. Meredith Hanmer. Lord- Burghley appears to have been very anxious to clear his friend Lord Shrewsbury from the imputations cast on him. * This letter was dated Jan. 8, 1585. f This adjournment by. a Commission from the Queen, having something singular in it, is noticed by D'Ewes, p. 318. 232 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584, Lord Burghley, some good regulations were made for the reading of Bills, according to ancient usage, and which may be seen exemplified in D'Ewes' • Journal.* This Parliament was much taken up by affairs of religion, complaints being made to it of the great want of able pastors, and very particularly in a supplication, supposed to have been drawn up by Sampson, late Dean of Christ Church, a preacher under King Edward VI., and therefore well known to Lord Burghley, with whom he still corresponded.^ We have before shewn how difficult it was at this time to procure proper pastors for all the churches of the kingdom ; the changes of late years had been so great, that in consequence of the ejection of Popish incumbents and ministers, the alienation of much of the church property, and corruption of patrons following thereupon, cures were ill provided for, and learned ministers not easily to be found.J This gave great scope to the non-conforming Ministers, to ingratiate themselves with the people, and to resist the interference of the Bishops. One of their main complaints being, that for want of preaching Ministers, the people were obliged to put up with those who could only " read out of a printed book," being destitute of " the gift of teaching;" but it ought to be observed, that to supply the want of " a gift of preaching," which might turn out to be a very precarious and questionable qualification,^ those who were contemned by the puritanical party * It is rather curious to see in this Journal, how many proxies were sent to the Earl of Leicester • a courtly compliment probably, and no more : but the following letter of that great Earl, to the burgesses of Andover, is still more extraordinary. — " After my hearty commendations, Whereas, it hath pleased her Majesty to appoint a Parliament to be presently called ; being Steward of your town, I make bold heartily to pray you that you wbuld give me the nomination of one of your Burgesses for the same ; and if, minding to avoid the charges of allowance for the other Burgess, you mean to name any that is not of your town, if you will bestow the nomination ofthe other Burgess also upon me, I will thank you for it, and will both appoint a sufficient man, and see you discharged of all charges in that behalf. If you will send me your Election with a blank I will put in the names. From the Court, October 12, 1584. • " Your loving Friend, « R. Leycester." f In the preceding year, as well as the present, he appears to have very particularly submitted to the judgment of Lord Burghley, the grounds of the petition he wished to have presented to Parliament. — See Strype's Life of Whitgift, b. iii. ch. x. X A learned writer, alluding to those hindrances and impediments to the general supply of able and sufficient pastors, says, " For unless they should suddenly have come from heaven, or been raised up miraculously, they could not have been." «, Lord Bacon, in his Essay on Church Controversies, speaks very reasonably of the stress laid upon preaching by the Puritans ; « They have made it," says he, '< in a manner of the Essence of 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 2:13 as simple readers, were exceeding well supplied with doctrine, through those very printed books so lightly spoken of, as the Homilies, and even Calvin's Institutions, &c. : but above all, perhaps, the Decads of Bullinger, the chief minister of Zurich in Switzerland, which, being translated into English, came out this very year, for the express use of the unlearned pastors of the Church, the editor in his preface observing, that " it could not be denied, but that a homily or sermon, penned by some excellent clerk, being read plainly, orderly, and distinctly, did much move the hearers ; teach, confirm, confute, comfort, &c. even as the same pronounced without book." * A learned ministry was unquestionably desirable, and the Bishops were generally exerting themselves to procure such as soon as it might be done ; nor should it be overlooked, that if any of the puritanical pastors were removed from their charges, it was not in depreciation of their learn ing, or upon any question of their godliness, much less through any disregard of the spiritual wants of their congregations, but in consequence of the confusion arising from their non-compliance with the laws, and their well-known desire of introducing their own platform, if they could, to the superseding the discipline established.^" The papers to which we have alluded, may be seen in the the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to have a sermon precedent ; they have, in a sort, annihi lated the use of liturgies and forms of divine service, although the house of God be denominated of the principal, Domus Orationis, a house of prayer, and not a house of preaching. In the meantime, what preaching is, and who may be said to preach, they move no question ; but as far as I see, every man that presumeth to speak in chair, is accounted a preacher." — " Let them take heed J.hat it be not true which one of their adversaries said, ' That they have but two small wants — knowledge and love.' " He is not less severe upon their high pretensions to zeal, .con science, sincerity, and reformation ; observing, that there are as well schismatical fashions as opi nions, tam sunt mores schismatici, quam dogmata schismatica, " be a man endued with great virtues and fruitful in good works," says he, " yet if he concur not with them, they term him, in deroga tion, a civil and moral man, and compare him to Socrates or some heathen philosopher: whereas the wisdom of the Scriptures teacheth us otherwise ; namely, to judge and denominate men religious according to their works of the second table, because they of the first are often counterfeit, and practised in hypocrisy." He notices also their groundless objections to King Edward's reformation^ * This Preface is of great importance, and should be read by all persons desirous of under standing the precise state of the Church at this period. + See as to the book " De Disciplina Ecclesiastica," supposed to be written. by Travels, the great antagonist of Hooker. — Strype's Life of Whitgift, b. iii. ch. ix. 1584. This was the ground and model of the Puritan discipline, so laboured to take place in the Church, in the room ot Episcopacy by law established. r The Bishops, in what they did, had often to contend with the Council, in which the Puritans, as has often before been observed, had many friends. It may be seen in Strype's Life of Aylmer, VOL. III. 2 H 234 MEMOIRS OF LORD BUJIGHLEY. [1584. Appendix to Strype's third vol. of his Annals, Nos. xxxix.xl. ; the former con taining the original thirtytfour articles of .complaint, the latter, the same reduced in the Commons to sixteen in number, with answers by the Bishops to the several articles propounded. Sir Francis Knollys, Treasurer of the Queen's Household, seems to have been the chief mover, or promoter, ofthe business in the House of Commons, Sir Christopher Hatton taking the contrary side ; but that that prelate had two cases before him. this, year, in which the Council interposed. In one case, the Bishop stood firm; in the other; believing he had been mis-informed, the deposed Mi nister was restored ; ' but the Bishop, to escape the censures of the Council in the former case, wrote to Lord Burghley, to " interpose a seasonable word for him, as he knew he would do, in all matters of justice and equity." — Life of Aylmer, ch. vii. The Lord Treasurer's situation, as the referee of all parties, was a very distressing one, especially after Whitgift became Archbishop, who felt himself- bound, in obligation to the Queen, to exert himself in defence of the laws, and thereby in defiance of some of her great Courtiers; as in particular, Lord Leicester and Sir Francis Knollys. Thus he wrote to Lord Burghley, that " his conscience bore him witness, that he did nothing which in duty he ought not to do — that the laws were with him, whatsoever Mr. Trea surer (Sir Francis Knollys), and some lawyers (whose skill he said was not great), said to the contrary. That her Majesty moved and earnestly exhorted him thereto, with strict chnrge, as he would answer the contrary. And yet, nevertheless, some others (said he), who must seem to rule and overrule all, must have their wills." Lord Burghley, however, was certainly among those who thought this Archbishop was rather, too rigid, exacting too much in the way of subscrip tion, though, as he wrote the Archbishop word, even with regard to those for whom he was inclined to plead, "he had strongly admonished them, that if they were disturbers in their churches, they must be corrected." Of the Lord Treasurer's embarrassment, the following passage from one of his letters to the Archbishop, is certainly strong to the purpose ; it is dated July 1, 1584. " I am sorry to trouble your Grace so often as I do ; but I am more troubled myself, not only with many private petitions of sundry Ministers recommended from persons of credit, for peaceable persons in their ministry; and yet, by complaints to your Grace, and other your colleagues in commission, greatly troubled ; but also I am now daily charged by counsellors and public persons, to neglect my duty, in not staying of these your Grace's proceedings, so vehement and so general against Ministers and Preachers; as the Papists are thereby generally encouraged, all ill-disposed sub jects animated, and thereby the Queen's Majesty's safety endangered. With those kind of arguments I am daily assailed, against which I answer, that I think your Grace doth nothing, but being duly examined, tendeth to the maintenance pf the religion established, and to avoid schism in the Church." But for the Lord Treasurer's remonstrances, and the Archbishop's replies, we must refer to Strype's Life of that Prelate, book iii. ch. vii. viii., &c. with the letters and papers in the Appendix there referred to, and from which we think it will appear, that though Lord Burghley occasionally took the part of the recusants, the Archbishop never lost his confidence in him as a sure friend to the established order of things. In this part of his work, Strype will be found to correct Fuller. 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 235 the best account of the whole of these proceedings, as affecting the Church, is to be found in Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift, who corrects Fuller, and supplies what is wanting in D'Ewes— particularly the speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, which seems to have been no otherwise reported, than in the heads of it, communicated afterwards by his Grace himself to Lord Burghley, among whose papers it was found. The speech of Archbishop Sandys, also, is well reported by Strype, but may be likewise seen in D'Ewes's Journal, not among the proceedings of the House of Lords, but of the Commons, p. 359, where the Lord Burghley is represented to have answered generally, " that the Lords did conceive many of these articles which the House of Commons had proposed to them, to be unnecessary, and that others of them were already provided for, and that the uniformity of Common Prayer had been established by Parliament."* His Lordship certainly conducted himself through this arduous business with as much impartiality and moderation as possible. For though he allowed Sampson and others of his party to communicate to him their wishes and com plaints, and though he certainly judged the Archbishop to be somewhat too hasty in his censures, and not legally correct in some of his proceedings,'}" yet no sooner had the House of Commons presented the articles of their petition to the Upper House, than the Lord Treasurer sent a copy of them to the Archbishop, requiring his judgment of them. His Grace judged it proper to make a full answer to them, which he presented to the Queen herself, not omitting, however, to transmit a copy to the Lord Treasurer, with a letter, setting forth the great danger of the proposed Articles, as tending to innovation, which her Majesty loved not to hear of, wherein she did, in his opinion, both graciously and wisely; in this letter he thanks his Lordship, for his great care in sending to him the heads of the petition, hoping he would impute what he did to no other cause, than for conscience sake, and duty to the Church ; and as for all the hard speeches^ uttered against him, he had learned through God's goodness * An able answer to these petitions was also drawn up by the Bishop of Winchester, which may be seen amongst the other proceedings at this time, in the Life of Whitgift, b. iii. ch. x. f See Neal's History of the Puritans, 1584. Lord Burghley, however, certainly expected the Archbishop might have much to allege in his own vindication. J Among these hard speeches, may be reckoned the clamour raised against the Archbishop, for - reviving in his county a Popish tyranny, and thereby endangering the Queen ; for the Church at this time had two enemies to encounter, though perhaps Puritanism was the worst, in as much 236 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584, patiently to bear them, assuring himself of his Lordship, for whom he would not cease daily to pray. Though we have now broken in upon the year 1585, according to the common reckoning at this time, we shall conclude what we have to say of this session of Parliament,* by observing, thai besides the Petition before- mentioned, other bills relating to ecclesiastical matters were devised and brought into the Lower House, " all to clip the Bishops' wings," as Strype says, " and to weaken (if not to destroy) their Courts ;" and this took place while the Convocation was sitting, and employed in framing good regulations forthe Clergy, f and in contempt, as it were (for indeed the Speaker excused them afterwards), of the Queen's prohibition, who, judging it to trench upon her Ecclesiastical Supremacy, charged them not to deal in causes of the Church. The Archbishop did all he could do, to stop these proceedings of Parliament, Laws being so different from Canons Ecclesiastical in the adjustment of ecclesiastical matters, since whatever was passed in Parliament, could not afterwards be altered but in Parliament, what necessity soever might urge thereunto, as he wrote to the Queen; but indeed, her Majesty herself was sufficiently moved at these proceedings, and desirous of securing to the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation, the right of judging and deciding upon such points, so that though the proposed bills in a great measure came to nothing this session, yet she could not part with her Parliament without some reproof from her own mouth, in a speech, some passages of which are very curious : " There be some fault finders," said her Majesty, " with the Order of the Clergy, which so may make a slander to myself and the Church, whose over-ruler God hath made me, whose negligence cannot be excused, if any as in its great enmity to Popery, it was always forward to confound the Church with the latter thereby weakening its defence against Popery, while it lay open to their own attacks. By this division amongst the Protestants themselves, the interest against Popery, which required their united strength, was greatly weakened. * In the course of this session, to shorten long arguments, some impatient members had recourse to such coughing, spitting, and other interruptions, that Sir Francis Hastings made a regular motion to suppress such rudenesses. Quaere, are they yet suppressed ? + See the Decreta Cleri, Cantuariens, in Synodo Londinensi, Feb. 1584, which the Archbishop sent to Lord Burghley. -Life of Whitgift, Appendix, xviii. and Bishop Sparrow's Collections, in which latter is an alteration, supposed to have been suggested by Lord Burghley himself. 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 237 schisms or errors heretical were suffered : thus much I must say, that some faults and negligences may grow and be (as in all other great charges it happeneth), and what vocation without ? all which, if you my Lords of the Clergy, do not amend, I mean to depose you ; * look ye therefore well to your charges, this may be amended without heedless or open exclamations. . I am supposed to have many studies, but most philosophical, I must yield this to be true, that I suppose few (that be no professors) have read more, and I need not tell you that I am so simple that I understand not, nor so forgetful that I remember not ; and yet amidst my many volumes I hope God's book has not been my seldomest lectures, in which we find that which by reason (for my part) we ought to believe ; that seeing so great wickednesses and griefs in the world in which we live, but as wayfaring pilgrims, we must suppose that God would never have made us but for a better place, and of more comfort than we find here. I know no creature that breatheth whose life standeth hourly in more peril than my own; who entered not into my state, without sight of manifold dangers of life and crown, as one that had the mightiest and greatest to wrestle with. If I were not persuaded that mine [i. e. my religion] were the true way of God's will, God forbid that I should live to prescribe it to you. I see many over bold with God Almighty, making too many subtle scannings of his blessed will, as lawyers do with human testaments. The presumption is so great, as I may not suffer it (yet mind I not hereby to animate Romanists, which, what adversaries they be to mine estate is sufficiently known f) nor tolerate new-fangleness. I mean to guide them both by God's holy true rule. In both parts be perils, but of the latter [i. e. the new-fangled sort] I must pronounce them dangerous to a kingly rule [i. e. monarchy]. To 'have every man according to his own censure to make a doom [i. e. pronounce sentence] of the validity and privity of his Prince's government, and that with a common * " 'Tis plain from this," says Collier, " the Queen was led into a mispersuasion concerning the Regale ; she delivers herself as if she had an apostolical commission within her dominions, and her power was paramount to the Episcopal College," ii. 595. + It is very cuiious that Elizabeth should not only have been accused of Popery by the Puritans of her own days, but very' long after by their champion Mr. Neal, who affirms, that though they were her greatest enemies, she had a peculiar tenderness for them ; " one would have thought," says, he, "these formidable conspiracies of the Roman Catholics should have alienated the Queen's heart from them." It is, however, still more curious, to find the Catholics quite as ready to reproach her for her barbarous treatment of their party. 238 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. veil and cover of God's word ; whose followers must not be judged but by private men's expositions. I pray God to defend you from such a ruler who so evil will guide you."* — Odd as many passages of this speech must sound to modern ears, there is in it much of good sense and true history. The Puritans, in their zeal against the hierarchy of the Church, accused her Majesty of a leaning towards Popery, though she had not in the world greater enemies than the Papists, and that as much as anything from her not leaving things in the state she found them on the demise of her sister ; that is, subjected once more to the authority of the See of Rome. The system of the Puritans, their platform and discipline of Geneva, was to England new-fanglenes^, connected with political principles so bordering upon democracy Or popular government, as to leave no hereditary monarch safe ; while as to doctrine, as well as dis cipline, her Majesty was undoubtedly competent by her reading, including particularly a study of the Fathers, to judge between all parties, more perhaps than any other Prince in Europe, and much more than the generality of her sex; we ought to consider besides what was the part her Majesty really took upon this occasion ; Leicester was against her, Walsingham, Sir Francis Knollys (who had been a great friend of Knox), and others high in her councils; Lord Burghley not so strict against the Puritans, as her Metropolitans and some other Bishops, and yet she was decidedly on the side of those who were for upholding the laws and defending the Constitution in Church and State. We cannot help giving her the credit so well expressed by Whitgift himself in his letter to Lord Burghley, that "her Majesty wished not to hear of innovations; wherein she did, in his opinion, both graciously and wisely; especially seeing the laws and orders already established were such as could not justly be impeached." Whitgift had certainly a right to say so, from the situation he held, his great learning, the part he had taken against Cartwright, which must have led him * At the conclusion of the session the Speaker also, Serjeant Puckering, delivered a speech not to be found in D'Ewes, but which Strype has printed in the third volume of his Annals, from minutes of the Lord Burghley, the whole being as he tells us " methodised by a form drawn up by the head and pen of his Lordship."— See book i. ch.xxiv. sub ann. 1585. Strype professes to have copied the speech in order to shew (alluding to the association) what a good understanding there was between the Queen and her people, and how dear she was to them ; and what a value they had in those times for the religion rescued from Popery.— Vol. iii. 432. The whole speech may be seen in the Appendix, No. 51. 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 239 to inquire diligently into, all the subjects in dispute between them, and because his conscience seems clearly to have led him to say so, in the face of all at the Council Board who were disposed to censure his proceedings, not excepting Lord Burghley himself, who certainly had questioned the prudence of the Archbishop in so strictly requiring subscription to his twenty-four articles, much to the concern, though; by no means to the intimidation of the worthy Prelate, who professed, at any hazard of the loss of friends, to be " determined to dis charge his duty and his conscience without fear ;" this he wrote in a letter to the Lord Treasurer himself,* the beginning of which, for the credit of both, de serves to be transcribed.. Being dated July 15, 1584. — " My singular good Lord, — God knoweth, how desirous I have been from time to time, to satisfy your Lordship in all things, and to have my doings approved by you. For which cause since my coming to this place (the- See of Canterbury), I did nothing of importance without your advice. I have risen early, and sat up late, to write unto you such objections and answers as are used on either side. I have not done the like to any man ; and shall I now say that I have lost my labour? or shall my just dealing with two ofthe most disordered Ministers in a whole diocese (the obstinacy and contempt of whom, especially of one of them, yourself would not bear in any subjected to your authority) cause you so to think and speak of my doings and myself? No man living should have made me believe it.— My Lord, an old friend is better than a new ; and I trust your Lordship will not so lightly cast off your old friends for any of these new-fangled and factious sectaries : whose endeavour is to make division wheresoever they come, and separate old and assured friends." Thus earnestly and feelingly did the Archbishop write to his old friend upon this trying occasion ; for very trying it was to both* these great personages. Lord Burghley was probably looking to have more peace, not absolutely per- * We feel that we are doing some justice to the Archbishop upon this occasion, if not to Lord Burghley also, by noticing the letters of the former, because Macdiarmid has copied Lord Burgh ley's remonstrance in such a manner as to leave an impression on the mind of his readers, that Lord Burghley was as adverse to the hierarchy ofthe Church, as the' most violent of the Puritans, which was certainly far from being the case ; he would have brought both parties to an agree ment if he could, and was always for mild measures. "In Council," says' Macdiarmid, "he always appeared the strenuous advocate of mild, moderate, and conciliatory measures ;" but this does in no manner, prove that he sacrificed his own opinions to those of Elizabeth, in giving coun tenance to Episcopaqy, as that writer would insinuate ; who, in his censures of Archbishop Parker, seems to forget that he was actually made a Primate upon the particular recommendation of Cecil. 240 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. haps by concession, but connivance, until a better and more regular set of con forming ministers could be provided ;* the Archbishop looked straitly to the duties of his high post ; " I have taken upon me," as he wrote to the same Lord, " the "defence of the religion and rites of this Church ; the execution of the law concerning the same ; the appeasing of the sects and schisms therein ; the re duction of the ministers thereof to uniformity and due obedience. — Herein I intend to be constant : which also my place, my person, my duty, the laws, her Majesty and the goodness of the cause requireth of me ! and wherein your Lordship and others (all things considered) ought, as I take it, to assist and help me." This was plain and honest, and it may be lamented, that the schisms and sectaries to which he alludes, affected the peace and quiet of the Church, at so trying a time, so much as they did. But we must add, that the Archbishop kept his word, " who," as it is written of him, " seeing the great danger of the overthrow of the religion happily reformed at ,first, viz. of the doctrine of it by Papists, and the discipline and constitution of it by the new Reformers, devoted himself, his pains, his studies, his learning, his interest, to the preserving of it, wherein he had success to the end of his days, though through much op position." Lord Burghley, indeed, had foreseen what would happen, when, even on her Majesty's accession, he had reckoned this among the dangers that might ensue upon the proposed alteration of religion, that " Many such as would gladly have the alteration from the Church of Rome, when they shall see, perad ven ture, that some old ceremonies shall be left still, or that their doctrine which they embrace, is not allowed and commanded only,! and all other abolished and * See in Strype's Annals, iii. Appendix, No. x'lix. a curious letter to Lord Burghley, half Latin and half Greek, from Fox the Martyrologist, to obtain the Queen's confirmation of his prebend in the Church of Sarum, written about this time. t It deserves very much to be attended to, that the Puritans would make no allowances for Lutheranism; what was at all contrary to the Geneva platform, was unreformcd Papistry ; though nothing can be plainer than that in King Edward's Reformation, now restored, there was much of Lutheranism introduced, which gave as great off n e to the Puritans, as Papistry itself. But as the Lutheran sense of the articles was not forced upon the Puritans, it was (as has been well observed), unreasonable narrowness in them to be displeased, that the Calvinistic sense was not imposed upon the Lutherans. Yet displeased they were, which must shew, that whatever out cries were raised by the Puritans„for a larger tolerati n, they were not prepared to make any such allowances for others. The comprehensive character of the articles, in an age when religious toleration was no where rightly understood or practised, deserves to be regarded, as a consider- 1584.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 241 disproved, shall be discontented and call the alteration a cloaked Papistry, or a mingle-mangle." All this, indeed, was now exemplified, and became a sad addition to the other troubles which agitated and disturbed the nation. We have given the Pri mate credit for a most conscientious firmness and steadiness in discharge of what he held to be his duties, as enumerated above. Lord Burghley's letter to the Archbishop, which called forth the answer alluded to, may be seen in Strype's Life of the Archbishop, Appendix, No. ix. b. iii. He judged the Archbishop's twenty-four articles to be too inquisitorial, and such as should not be propounded indiscriminately to all Ministers, though not amiss for such as might be suspected of any notorious offences in Papistry or heresy. His Lordship adds, " I desire the peace of the Church. I desire concord and unity in the exercise of our religion. I favour no sensual and wilful recusants. It may be, the Canonists may maintain this proceeding, by rules of their laws, but though omnia licent, yet omnia non expediunf* This then, we may hope, was the chief able step towards it, on the part of the Church of England. But it is very remarkable, that because- in hopes of leaving a door open both for Papists and Lutherans, some latitude as to the real presence, was charitably left to persons known to be of different persuasions, on a point so inexplicable, even Sampson and Humphrey, otherwise very learned and wise persons, com plained of the omission of the explanatory article, as having rendered Elizabeth's Prayer-Book inferior to Edward's; whereas, it was an omission which gave liberty, by putting no arbitrary con struction upon a tenet, to the exclusion of those, who might be conciliated by only leaving it undefined. In fact, it was quite unreasonable in the Puritans, to quarrel with the Bishops for upholding the established discipline of the Church, when they themselves would not admit any to the Sacrament, who would not "fully consent to the doctrine, and implicitly submit themselves to the discipline of their own Church." * Neal, in his History of the Puritans, having curtailed Lord Burghley's letter, it is but doing justice both to his Lordship and the Archbishop, to supply what is wanting. " When the Lord Treasurer Burleigh," says Neal, " had read over the interrogatories, and seen the execution they had done upon the Clergy, he writ the Archbishop of Canterbury the following letter." But he is careful (and Macdiarmid the same), to suppress every thing in the letter that looks favourably to the Archbishop ; particularly the following clause : " Against which," [the complaints made of the Archbishop], " I answer, that I think your Grace doth nothing, but being duly examined, tendeth to the maintenance of the religion established, and to avoid schism in the Church. I have, also, for example, shewed upon your papers sent to me, how fully the Church is furnished with preachers, and how small a number there are that do contend for their singularity." The Arch bishop's answer too, which Mr. Strype calls "a wary, wise, and resolute letter," Neal passes over, merely saving; that the Archbishop wrote a long answer. This is not fair, though the answer itself certainly did not, in all points, satisfy the Treasurer. Whitgift will never be forgiven by the VOL. III. 2 I 242 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1584. ground of difference between these two very eminent men ; namely, the expedi ency of the Archbishop's measures. We are bound to believe that both desired " the peace of the Church ;" " concord and unity;" but as to the exact mode of accomplishing these great objects, upon some points they certainly differed. In the mean while, it seems to have been difficult to get at the exact truth of things, and Lord Burghley, in some cases, appears to have been deceived, espe cially as to the conduct and characters of persons for whom he was led to interpose, as the Archbishop, in one of his letters, strongly intimates. " If they otherwise report to your Lordship, they report untruly ; a quality where with this sect is marvellously possessed ; as myself, of my own knowledge and experience, can justify against divers of them." Puritans, nor Cecil by the Papists, but we believe that both were very conscientiously doing what they felt to be their duty ; the one in support of the crown, the other of the laws ; both of which were subjected to equally rude and violent attacks. CHAP. XII. 1585. Twenty-seventh year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, commenced November 17, 1584. Designs of Philip — Letter from Adrian Saravia to Lord Burghley — Lord Leicester appointed General in the Low Countries — Extract from Bishop Bedel's letter — The Queen's declaration — Death of Parry the conspirator — Letter from Cardinal Como to Parry — Difficulties and dangers to which Elizabeth and England were exposed — Seditious persons and books come to England — Strict watch kept on all parts of the coast, — Cardinal Allen's, book — Affairs of the Church and Universities — Vintners at Cambridge — New printing-press at Oxford — First book printed there — Lord Lumley's books — Return of Cartwright from abroad — Contest between Hooker and Traversfor the Mastership of the Temple — Lord Burghley slandered — His letter to his friends — Cor respondence between Lord Burghley and Leicester. In order to account for the politics of the English Court from this time, we must look to the projects and designs of Spain. The power and disposition of Philip were equally formidable to England ; whatever his power might enable him to accomplish against Elizabeth, his disposition was likely to incline, prompt, and invite him to do. The delivery of Mary was an excuse sufficiently plausible to the Catholics in general, though, perhaps, nothing was less in the scope of Philip's own contemplation than her safety, and restoration to the throne of her ancestors, whether in Scotland or England. If, by the destruction of Elizabeth, and fall of Mary in the struggle, he could find his own way to the vacant crown, it is scarcely to be doubted but it would have been to him the most gratifying issue to which things could be brought. Mary was too closely connected with France, by her birth, to be trusted by Philip, even in her own kingdom of Scotland, whatever he might pretend to the contrary. He had often before wished and endeavoured to make himself King of England ; and as his power increased, the more grasping he became. He was, at this very time, by means of the league, looking to the chance of becoming King of 244 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. France; and could that have been accomplished, to the prejudice of Henry. of Bourbon, the Protestant King of Navarre, it is naturally to be concluded that the small dominions of the latter would soon have been added to his other acquisitions. It appears to have been pretty generally suspected, even at this time, that he had some grand project on foot, though the precise object seemed to baffle the skill of diplomatists, and other state spies,* to discover. The effect upon Elizabeth, however, was clearly to hasten her connection with the States, and to accede to their proposals, so often repeated, of putting themselves under her protection,'}" trying even to tempt her and her Ministers by expectations of great profit. In one proposal submitted to the Lord Treasurer, it was calculated that her Majesty might gain 10,000/. monthly, and Lord Burghley himself 1000/., if England would but administer to the States the aid they1 asked. It is to the credit of Lord Burghley that, in taking the proposal into consideration,- he positively disclaimed and renounced all profit to himself, engaging to look only to the interests of the common cause. The assistance asked, however, was at length granted, and a very able and powerful declaration put forth, drawn up, as it is conjectured, by Lord Burghley * Being continually obliged to speak of the employment of spies, by the Ministers of Elizabeth, it may not be amiss to shew, that, in those days, the knowing how to tamper with such instru ments was judged to be a most praiseworthy accomplishment, even in an accredited Ambassador. In the preface to the embassies of the celebrated French minister, de Noailles, the following occurs in praise of Francois de Noailles, Bishop of Acqs : On voit dans les dep&ches de l'Eveque, avec quelle habitude il decouvroit les desseins secrets de cette Princesse (Mary of England), et du Roi son Mari (Philip II.) qui avoient resolu de joindre le'urs forces et de surprendre les frontieres du royaume. II gagne un espion qu'on avoit charge d' examiner les fortifications des principales places de Normandie, qui, a son retour, fit un rapport conforme aux interels de la France, et tel que ce Ministre le lui avoit present." f In a letter written by the celebrated Adrian Saravia to Lord Burghley, from Leyden, June 9, 1585, he considers the safety of England, and even the life of the Queen, to be dependent on the issue ofthe contest in Holland. *' Eoque magis, quod salus et vita Sereniss. D. nostra Reginae, et regni Angliae incolumitas cum pariculo nostro conjuncta videatur" " qui nobis inimici sunt, non sunt vobis amici." " Consilia communium hostium quotidie magis et magis patefiunt ; et quo spectent videre potestis — expectandum non est donee perierimus. Nam casus harum provinciarum trahet secum ruinam Angliee." He judges it to be quite necessary, from the aspect of things, that the friends ofthe Reformation should unite in one general confederacy, and particularly that Elizabeth should either form a close alliance with the Hollanders, or accept the government of their country. " Quorum posterum," he adds, "turn tutissimum, turn utilissimum utrique est futurum." 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 245 himself,* stating the causes which moved her Majesty to give aid in " defence of the people oppressed in the Low Countries." As soon as this was fairly determined upon, Davison was sent over to condole with them on the loss of Antwerp, which had just been surrendered to the Duke of Parma, to make all necessary arrangements for the supplies of men and money to be sent, and adjust the stipulated securities ;f while Lord Leicester was appointed the Queen's General in those parts, to assist them with advice and authority, carrying with him 5000 foot and 1000 horse : it being agreed that he should have a place in the Council of State, and that no peace should be made but by mutual consent. His nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, was nominated Governor of Flushing, and Sir Thomas Cecil, the Lord Treasurer's eldest son, Governor of the Brill, with a positive assurance that the objects of the Queen's assistance being attained, no attempt would be made to keep longer possession of the towns thus placed under her guard, for the access and recess of troops, &c. and that the Governors appointed should exercise no authority over the inhabitants. To shew upon what terms her Majesty might reasonably form this alliance, on the advice of Lord Burghley, we cannot do better than insert, in addition to what may be found in the declaration referred to, a few passages of the answer given by Bedel, an Irish Bishop, to one Waddesworth, a Jesuit, who had thrown great blame on the English for assisting subjects against their lawful Prince ; a consideration which had before much deterred her Majesty from interfering as she was requested to do. " Do you think," said he, " subjects are bound to give their throats to be cut by their fellow-subjects [set over them by their Prince] or by their Princes, at their mere will, against their own laws and edicts ? You would know, quo jure, the Protestant wars in France and Holland are justified. First, the law of nature, which not only alloweth, but inclineth and enforceth every thing, to defend itself from violence. Secondly, that of nations, which permitteth those that are in the protection of others, to whom they owe no more than an honourable acknowledgment, in case they go about to make themselves absolute Sovereigns, and usurp their liberty, to resist and stand for the same : and if any lawful Prince (which is not yet lord of his subjects' * This declaration is to be seen in Hollinshed, and in Burnet's Histony of the Reformation, vol. iii. Part ii. 472. f His instructions, which are printed in the Appendix to the Annals, B. i. No. Iiii. are said to have been drawn up by Lord Burghley, being in the hand-writing of one of his secretaries. 246 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. D585- lives and goods), in this attempt to spoil them of the same, under colour of reducing them to his own religion, after all humble remonstrances, they may stand upon their guard; and, being assailed, repel force by force, as did the Maccabees under Antiochus : in which case notwithstanding, the person of the Prince himself ought always to be sacred and inviolable, as was Saul to David. Lastly, if the enraged Minister of a lawful Prince [such as Due d' Alva was in Holland] will abuse his authority, against the fundamental laws of the country, it is no rebellion to defend themselves against force ; reserving still their obedience to their Sovereign inviolate." We have copied this, because, in truth, the fundamental laws and ancient liberties of the states and cities of the Low Countries had been so notoriously violated by Philip IL, that he had, by his own act, discharged his subjects from their allegiance,* broken the compact, and thereby forfeited all his claims and titles to the Sovereignty. They were really therefore not rebellious subjects, but discharged, and left to their own resources. It is true, the Pope had dis solved Philip from the obligation of the oath, by which he was bound to defend their rights, liberties, and privileges ; but what was this dispensation in the eyes of those who, in renouncing Philip, renounced the authority of the Pope also, which was the case with the Northern Provinces at the least, to which pro vinces Leicester was now sent ? * See the Queen's Declaration as above ; in which the dealings of the Spanish Minister, Men doza, are more fully disclosed, evidently tending to an invasion of England, by Spanish and other forces, introduced into the Low Countries contrary to the laws and privileges of the States; as at the commencement of the Queen's reign, foreign forces were in like manner introduced into Scot land, through the influence of the Guises, for the conquest of the Crown of England, in behalf of their niece Queen Mary. " A matter most manifest to the^common knowledge of the world." — The Declaration concludes with a succinct statement of the Queen's views in the following terms : — " To procure for the States a deliverance from war, by the Spaniards and foreigners ; a restitution of their ancient liberties and government, by some Christian peace ; and thereby a surety for our selves and our realm, to be free from invading neighbours ; and our people to enjoy in those countries their lawful commerce, and intercourse of friendship and merchandize, according to an cient usage and treaties." Her Majesty was judged to have committed herself so far by this measure, and with such bold defiance of Philip's great power, that the King of Sweden is said to have pronounced, that she, by so doing, had taken " the diadem from her head." At the- foot of this declaration may be seen an answer also, to a scurrilous work, published at Milan, entitled Nuovo Adviso, reflecting greatly on the Queen. 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 247 But as this did not take place very early in the year, we must for the present advert to other public transactions. And the first we have to mention is the death df Parry the conspirator, the man who appears notoriously to have de ceived Lord Burghley,* whom it was not very easy to deceive, and to have clearly designed to murder the Queen. The account of this man has been so largely written by other historians, that we need scarcely do more than refer to Strype, Camden, Rapin, &c, or to Dr. Lingard, one of the latest writers upon the subject, who generally follows Camden ; not, however, without some in sinuations against Lord Burghley, and the Queen, which strongly bespeak the prejudice of a party ; but which we should certainly not stop to notice, if they were not accompanied with remarks tending to invalidate proofs on which preceding writers have placed great reliance in general. That we know any thing of Parry, though he was in Parliament and a Doctor in the Commons, is entirely attributed to his " real or supposed crime, or rather the use that was made of that crime" but the evidence which Dr. Lingard most disregards, and slurs over, is the celebrated letter from the Cardinal de Como, which Parry, in the presence of Burghley and Walsingham, shewed to the Queen, in proof that he had been solicited by the Pope to murder her.f Dr. Lingard says, " This, however, proved to be no more than a civil answer to a general offer of service; neither his letter [the nuncio Ragazzoni,] nor that of the Cardinal, contained the remotest allusion to the murder. The indulgence mentioned in it was that which was given to persons on their reconciliation — a remission of canonical censures incurred by former offences." — This is the Historian's account of a letter which was supposed at the time to contain all the mischief in the world, and which Parry himself actually produced in proof of the mis chief intended, though afterwards, with very reasonable confidence, he defied Topcliffe to find any thing in the letter to criminate himself, or the Pope, or the Cardinal. But see Parry's own interpretation of it in the State Trials, " whereby," these are his own expressions, " I found the enterprise, (i. e. of the Queen's murder) commended and allowed, and myself absolved, in his holi ness' name, of all my sins, and willed to go forward in the name of God." Parry confessed, that he had entertained a design of passing over to England * See Lingard, v. 414. note 79. ¦j- His object in shewing this to the Queen, was not merely to ingratiate himself in her favour, by making the discovery, but thereby the more readily to gain access to her person for the purposes he had in view. 248 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. to murder Elizabeth; but doubted whether it could be made to appear to be lawful before God. He consulted two Jesuits upon it, a Scotchman and an Italian, Creigh ton and Palma, whose names deserve to be recorded, for they are said to have refused to listen to his proposals; the latter, however, who by Parry's own confession approved his designs, presented him to Campeggio, the Papal minister ; from whom he requested a passport, to be procured him from Rome, having matters of importance to communicate to the Pope. Before the passport arrived, he took some alarm, quitted Italy, and went to Paris, where he. found Morgan (of whom more hereafter) who introduced him to the Nuncio Raggazoni, to whom he gave a letter for Cardinal Como, the Roman Secretary of State, receiving a promise from the Nuncio, that the answer should be for warded to him in England, which answer he did receive accordingly, as pro mised, and which we shall now transcribe : — " Sir, — His Holiness has seen your letter of the first, with the certificate included, and cannot but commend the good disposition and resolution which you write to hold toward the service and benefit public. Wherein his Holiness doth exhort you to persevere, and to bring to effect that which you have pro mised. And to the end you may be so much the more holpen by that good spirit which hath moved you thereunto, he granteth unto you his blessing, plenary indulgence, and remission of all your sins, according to your request, assuring you, that beside the merit that you shall receive therefore in heaven, his Holiness will further make himself debtor, to acknowledge your deservings in the best manner he can ; and so much the more, in that you use the greater modesty, in not pretending any thing. " Put therefore your most holy and honourable purposes in execution, and attend your safety ; and to conclude, I offer myself unto you heartily, and do desire all good and happy success. " From Rome, the 30th of January 1584, at the pleasure of your Signorie "N. Cardinal or Como."* It is true, indeed, there is not in this letter any direct (we cannot say the re motest) allusion to the murder, it would have been very strange if there had been ; but then we are certainly kept agreeably in the dark, as to the precise object of that " good disposition and resolution for the service and benefit public," for * The original, in Italian, is still to be seen. It will be found also in the State Trials. 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 249 which the cardinal gives him credit; that "promise" which remained to be " brought to effect," and to which he " had been moved by the good spirit ;" of " the plenary indulgence," not " for former offences," but to which he was to look for " safety," in " putting in execution his most holy and honourable pur poses," and to which the cardinal himself desired " all good and happy success." Surely this letter contains something more than a " remission of canonical cen sures for former offences," and a reconciliatory indulgence. It is asserted, we know, that Parry only wrote to the Pope to say he was returning to England, and hoped to atone for his past misdeeds by his subsequent services to the Catholic Church, and that in this letter also there was no allusion to the design. We must confess we are too well read in the transactions of the Church of Rome, during the sixteenth century, to be easily persuaded, that under the circumstances mentioned above, the cardinal's letter to a person, whom after all Dr. Lingard allows to have deserved the punishment he received, or, to use his own words, " the death that be suffered" (that is, deserved to be hanged), did not contain " the remotest allusion to the murder," contemplated by Parry. We can scarcely conjecture how a letter from Rome, from the Pope's own secretary, could have been written, more directly encouraging any covert design in the breast of Parry — a plenary indulgence seeming to apply to things to come ; and his own letter refers, at least, to subsequent services to the Catholic Church. To expect any very intelligible allusion to a deed so foul, in a letter or letters which, according to the common course of things in those days, might have to run on the passage every chance of being intercepted, is very little consistent with the plainest dictates of common sense. After all, Parry was, by his own account, confirmed in his resolution of killing the Queen, by Cardinal Allen's book, which had pronounced it to be not only lawful, but honourable, to kill Princes excommunicated. It is merely our regard for the exact truth of history which induces us to enter into such strictures. The author we have just cited may, as a Papist, have his prejudices, as we ourselves have our prejudices in favour of Protestantism, and of our early Reformers ; prejudices greatly strengthened, we must confess, rather than relaxed, by what we have read of the temper, spirit, and dark designs of Popery, during the struggle on foot in Lord Burghley's time. God forbid we should be expected to prove that the Protestants were blameless in all they did ; but, though the latter were occasionally driven to very sad and lamentable measures of defence, and obliged sometimes to carry things to extremities upon VOL. III. 2 K 250 - MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. presumptive proofs only, and suspicion of intended misehiefs, yet we must say, from all that is actually known to have happened under the Popish Regimen in France, England, the Low-Countries, &c, the balance of craftiness, as well as cruelty, appears to be greatly on the side of the Romanists ; and it is only to prevent that balance being slily made to preponderate against England, and her very able, though not perhaps immaculate statesmen and divines of the sixteenth century, that we enter sq far as we sometimes do into transactions of the above nature. Dr. Lingard, in his account of Parry, thinks he deserved to be hanged long before he suffered as a traitor ; but is careful to insinuate, at the same time, that probably it would have been so, had not Lord Burghley interposed to save him. Now this is only matter of suspicion ; he gives no proof at all of the fact. We do not mean to say it was not so, but as Lord Burghley was certainly deceived in him in many instances, he might be so in this. What we complain of, is the way in which Lord Burghley's name is unnecessarily introduced, in order to insinuate a wilful confederacy with a condemned culprit. Parry, in his confes sion, acknowledged that he had been condemned, but that not to have pardoned him on that occasion, would have been cruel and tyrannical. — Camden, 307. There are other suspicions thrown out, which indicate a pretty strong bias upon the historian's mind.* The worst is, all who write of those times have a great difficulty to find out the real truth, from the very common practice of recalling or revoking confessions.'}" Parry confessed very largely what had been the scope of his intentions, the parties with whom he had communicated, and the en couragement, as well as the encouragement he had received : but he revoked his * The aecount Dr. Lingard gives of the execution is very striking : " Being told to hasten, he repeated the Lord's Prayer in Latin, with some other devotions ; the cart was drawn away ; and the executioner, catching him at the first swing, instantly cut the rope and butchered him, alive ;" and he quotes Strype for the authentic account as given to Lord Burghley, " when his heart was, takeu out, he gave a great groan." It is certainly very horrid* but the sentence for treason was, " to be hanged, and let down alive, and the entrails taken out and burnt in his sight." The exe cutioner therefore did his duty ; but what is this to some of the cruelties of the Inquisition ? — protracted sufferings ; stow fires ; and a Catholie king present, of his own good will, to witness the miseries inflicted;, as. was the case, undoubtedly, with Philip II. f " When Throckmorton was brought upon his tqial, he depied what he had confessed at His examination, affirming, he had invented it pn purpose to avoid the rack ; but after his condemna tion, upon the evidence of his own letters, to the Queen of Scots, and the papers found in his coffers, he owned all, and even made a more circumstantial declaration than at first ; and yet, when he came to the gallows, he denied again whatever he had confessed."— Rapin. 1585-] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 251 confession afterwards, and protested his innocence. Yet parties are divided. Those who insist upon his having received encouragement, do not deny that, in some instances, he was discouraged ; while those who deny the encouragement, as the Papists do, insist upon the reality of the cases of discouragement, which, in fact, is to acknowledge his purposes. — For a full account, however, of the whole case, we must refer the reader, as before, to Strype, Camden, Rapin, with Hollinshed, and the State Trials. It is the more necessary to clear these points of history, even at this distant period, as far as it can be done, because the policy of England during the sixteenth century was constantly dependent on the policy of most of the other states of Europe, not in regard merely to peace and war, but to the affront put upon Rome, from the days of Luther, and which had excited a resentment not to be appeased, but by the hope and prospect of another revolution, through the united efforts of all the powers who still continued in subjection to the See of Rome, by which revolution they hoped to be able to bring all things back into their old channel, and probably would have succeeded, could they, at that critical moment, have been able to get the British island into their power, by transferring the crown from the head of Elizabeth to that of a Catholic Prince. England had been guilty of a double offence in the eyes of Ronle. After an attempt at refor mation, it had been recovered to Rome ; Elizabeth's was a second revolt, and nothing perhaps could exceed the anger with which her conduct was viewed by the Catholic powers. Lord Burghley, who had been a party to the preceding reformation under Edward, and a spectator of the return to Popery under Mary, in which so many of his friends and co-adjutors had perished, well knew the risks Elizabeth would incur by declaring herself a friend to Protestantism, and to the restoration of things to the state in which her brother had left them ; and he was careful to place them all before her eyes, at the very moment of her accession, so that her Majesty might well say, in a speech We have so lately referred to, that she" entered not into her state without sights of manifold dan gers of life and crown, as one that had the mightiest and greatest to wrestle With;" nor was she wrong, probably, in observing that she knew "no creature breathing, whose life stood hourly in more peril than her own." We must confess, for Our own parts, that we believe this to have been entirely true, though some would question it, because, as we have so often intimated, dangers averted, in course of time naturally come not to be believed ; but besides this, there is great reason why, on the part of those opposed to Elizabeth, to her ministers, and to 252 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. the reformation generally, the dangers then averted should be discredited, as it alters the whole complexion of things, and gives a turn to the history of our own country at that time exceedingly disadvantageous ; for if the intrigues of the Court of Rome against Elizabeth, her crown, and dignity, against her kingdom, and the Protestant Church of England, are not to be believed, the policy of the country must appear to have been inexcusably harsh, cruel, and severe ; but if they are to be believed to their utmost extent, the case is entirely changed, and we must look upon whatever came to pass as a series of extreme cases to which the Government was driven, to ward off impending and indis putable dangers. We may now proceed to observe, that such information appears to have reached the Court in the summer of this year from abroad, of persons to be sent over to practise some great mischief, that it was judged necessary to send to all parts of the coast, to institute the most careful and diligent search and inquiry, in regard to individuals resorting to the kingdom. Some of the particulars of this information are contained in the following passage : " That Savage was sent to assassinate the Queen, and that Throckmorton, Paget, and other refugees were creeping into England; joining with the Guises in the Holy League, and by bringing in war into this kingdom, to depose or murder Queen Elizabeth, and to place Mary the Scots' Queen in her room." And foreseeing how necessary it was to be ready against any invasion, general musters were made, in which the young gentlemen of the several counties were, as far as possible, to be included. The Intriguers, in the mean while, to pre pare their way, were careful to send into the kingdom books calculated to excite throughout the nation a feeling that Elizabeth was not the rightful pos sessor of the throne, and that she lay under such an interdict of the Pope of Rome, as was of validity to discharge all persons from their allegiance, one such book being Cardinal Allen's "Apology and true declaration* of the institu tion and endeavour of the two English Colleges." These Colleges being the Seminaries of Rome and Rheimes, set up at the Pope's charge, " That capital envier of the State, disturber of the Queen's peace, and pursuer of her person," * See the trial of Thomas Alfield, a Jesuit, arraigned for bringing this book into the Realm.— Annals, hi. 449. He confessed that he had brought over five or six hundred copies of this book, but maintained that it was a loyal book, though it spake of the Queen as not the lawful Queen of England, for two reasons— her birth, and her excommunication- and that she sought (that is, at the Pope's hands) neither dispensation for the first, nor absolution for the last. 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 253 as he was called by a learned writer of those times, to allure young persons from England, to be educated there, and sent back under sworn agents of the Pope, and bound to all obedience to the See of Rome. — Over the College at Rome, Cardinal Allen himself presided ; his book now brought into England, as was shewn by Dr. Bilson, Warden of Winchester, in a work entitled, " the true difference between Christian subjection, and unchristian .rebellion,"* charged the Queen's Government with no less crimes than heresy, tyranny, and blasphemy; "debasing and traducing the right of her authority, and band of obedience ; as if the sovereignty used by her highness were a thing improbable, unreasonable, unnatural, impossible ; and the oath of allegiance intolerable, repugnant to God, the Church, her Majesty's honour, and all men's consciences." — But of this literary contest between the Popish accusers of our country, and England's defenders, more may be seen in Strype ; nor should we indeed dwell so much upon them as we do, were there not still a disposition prevalent, to depreciate, or dispute, the dangers to which this Queen's person and govern ment were continually exposed, and thereby to stigmatize all that was done for her protection, and for the protection of the constitution in Church and State, as an undeviating system of fraud, persecution, and cruelty ; though, upon as full an investigation as we have been able' to give to the subject, it appears to us to have been quite otherwise ; severities indeed were practised, but not till they were provoked by the conduct of Elizabeths great enemies; open rebellion was openly put down, but the greatest dangers to which Elizabeth was exposed, being of an insidious, treacherous, and deceitful nature, as all the practices of Rome, Spain, France, Flanders, and Scotland really were, the policy of England must be exposed to misrepresentation, as long as it is in the power of those who take a contrary part, to deny that what was prevented, was ever intended. On the determination of one question all the merit of Elizabeth's truly faithful Counsel lors may be said to depend, but of Lord Burghley particularly ; it being his constantly professed and avowed object, to defend his Sovereign, and maintain her on the throne, which he most conscientiously judged to belong to her, which she had attained to principally through his care, prudence, and good judgment, and which was mainly connected with all his wise plans for the advancement of England in wealth, power, glory, freedom, and independence. As to the affairs of the Church and Universities this year, which always • Printed at Oxford, 1585. 254 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [i58fi. brought some addition of care and anxiety to Lord Burghley,* we may, as on former occasions, be reasonably content to refer our readers to the diligent compilations of Strype, noticing, as briefly as possible, a few only of those par ticular cases in which Lord Burghley was called upon to decide or take a part.f We have already noticed the communications between the Archbishop and himself upon the subject of puritanical non-conformity ; in which the Arch bishop appears to have been somewhat more firm and decided than his friend, though the views and wishes of both appear to have been the same.J Of their good dispositions in the midst of these particular struggles, a remark able proof occurred this year in the return from abroad of the Archbishop's celebrated antagonist, Cartwright, who had been several years absent on the Continent, in consequence of the troubles he had created in the Church, by his * Bishop Aylmer observed to Lord Burghley upon one occasion, that his Lordship might justly say, not only Reipublicce, but, with St. Paul, Mihi incumhit cura Omnium Ecclesiarum. f In regard to the Universities, Lord Burghley was called upon to settle a question of privilege at Cambridge, about the nomination of vintners there, with the regulation of the prices of wines, which was judged to rest entirely with the University. In the course of the year, Lord Lei cester, as Chancellor of Oxford, caused a new printing-press to be erected there ; the first book printed was dedicated to the Chancellors of both Universities, Lord Burghley being asso ciated with Leicester in this honour; it was a book, of ethics, by one Case, entitled, "Speculum quxstionum Moralium." There was something of a contest on foot between the two Universities, at this time, on the score of antiquity, which, in the above book, was recommended to the notice of the two Chancellors,- as a childish and trifling contest, considering how united the two bodies were upon cases of greater importance. As we have lived to see a most harmonious association of both Universities in the metropolis, we cannot forbear copying a passage from this book, which might well apply as an inscription for this admirable institution: " Non de nugis, non de anti- quitatis titulis et umbris inanis gloriosse contendimus. Quippe nunc utrinque in utriusque corpus numerose inserti, una, ut ita dicam, Academia sumus, Oxonia Cantabrigiensis, et Gantabrigra Oxoniensis." The two Universities were this year rivals, for the attainment of some books- belonging to the Lord Lumley, which he was disposed to bestow upon one of them ; he was High Steward of Oxford, but had been a scholar at Cambridge ; the latter University seems to have obtained the preference. It is cutious in these days to know, that the books thus contended for amounted only to about 89, as the following entry in the University catalogue shews : " Hono- rabilis Dominus Lumley dedit libros 89 aut circiter." We must add what follows : " His accen- sendi sunt hon. vir dns Nic. Bacon magni sigilli custos, et dfis Guil. Cecil," who together gave 200 books, Latin and Greek \. whereof Sir Nic. Bacon gave 103. t Leicester and Walsingham, as well as Lord Burghley, professed to be as anxious for' the unity of the Church as the Archbishop, yet would continually interfere to get deposed ministers restored, and oftentimes with little regard to their learning. The most steady friend the Arch bishop had, was Sir Christopher Hatton. 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 255 writings and readings in the University and elsewhere, against the established order of things; but now being desirous of returning to his native country and friends, but apprehensive of what might happen, he addressed an elegant Latin epistle to the Lord Treasurer, praying him to use his interest with the Queen for his safety; a necessary precaution, and which, as it turned out, had its effect; for he was kindly dealt with both by Lord Burghley and the Arch bishop, for which the latter received the special thanks of Lord Leicester. This was the year in which the celebrated contest took place for the Master ship of the Temple, between Travers and (to give him the distinction long appropriated to his name, the " judicious") Hooker* author of the great work on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The life of this very learned man by Isaac Walton, is so generally known and so much read by all lovers of biography, that it would be impertinent to do more than refer to it, for the whole history of the contest (and subsequent controversy) to which we have alluded, and which we are compelled to acknowledge, as far the Mastership was concerned, was decided against Lord Burghley, who befriended Travers, as a good Preacher, " well learned, very honest, and well allowed and loved of the generality of that House," as he wrote to the Archbishop, having been inquired of by the Queen about him; Travers, it seems, had often preached before his family. The Archbishop had recommended Dr. Bond, the Queen's Chaplain, of whom Lord Burghley also had a good opinion, but the Queen doubted his sufficiency in point of health and strength ; to Travers the Archbishop objected greatly, as a turbulent member of the University of Cam bridge while he presided there, and as the author of the book De Disciplina Ecclesiastica, spoken of before ; nor was. he disposed to approve his orders taken at Antwerp. Hooker obtained the situation not at all on his own request, or by his own desire, but on the nomination of Archbishop Sandys, the father of one of his earliest friends and pupils ; Travers was continued in the office of Lecturer, till the great difference of opinion between himself and Hooker pro duced a separation. In the controversy which was carried on between these two eminent men, we do not find that the Lord Treasurer took any other part, than that of receiving from the hands of Travers certain articles of false doctrine objected to Hooker, and which his Lordship very justly and honourably appears to have immediately communicated to the person accused, that he might con- * S'chismatonem Malleus. — See Br', King's* Letter to Walton. 256 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. sider and make a reply to them. The case, however, affords us a particular opportunity of setting forth the extreme impartiality of Lord Burghley, in regard to the controversies then on foot. In the contest for the Mastership, he befriended and supported Travers ; Hooker, however, obtained it, Travers con tinuing Lecturer, thereby having it in his power to preach every Sunday a doctrine different from that of the Master, and which he is represented care fully to have done, so that the Templars were doomed to listen to one doctrine preached in the morning, and another in the evening. Things could not be expected to go on so, and a separation was sought. Then it was that Travers sent his objections to Hooker's doctrine to the Lord Treasurer, in which he accused Hooker of preaching the doctrines of Corranus and Baro, that is, the doctrines of the Anti-Calvinists. Now Baro was an intimate of the Lord Burghley, admitted to his very table as a learned foreigner, and placed by him at Cambridge in the Divinity Chair as the Lady Margaret's professor, where, by preaching such doctrines as Hooker preached, he was brought into trouble, and almost driven out of Cambridge by the rigid Calvinists or Predestinarians, had not Lord Burghley taken his part, and very warmly remonstrated with his opponents, the strict Predestinarians ; whose tenets, indeed, his Lordship so far from approving, condemned, as charging God with cruelty. — See Biographia Britannica, art. Baro, note [B]. Another case, something similar, seems as strongly to mark Lord Burghley's impartiality, though it might, perhaps, carry him sometimes too far in countenancing sectaries ; we mean the case of Glover, [Annals, iii. 634.] who fell into difficulties for maintaining doctrines more con formable to those of Baro and Corranus, than to Calvin, Travers, or even Luther. This did not proceed from indifference on the part of Lord Burghley, but when he saw any worth in the persons, he tried all means to render them con formable, as was the case with his relative the head of the Brownists, or to prevent their errors, if harmless to the state, from being too severely visited. We ought, in justice to Collier, who is never very indulgent to the Puritans, to observe, that he gives Travers credit for possessing many good qualities as a Preacher and Divine. For the rest, we must refer to Walton's Life, prefixed to the eight books of the Ecclesiastical Polity, in the Oxford edition of that great work, and to Strype's Life of Whitgift. We find in Strype's Annals, under this year, ch. xxvi., references made to Lord Burghley, by Archbishop Sandys, the Bishops of Norwich, Lichfield and Coventry, and Ely; for the particulars of which, as cases not likely to be at all 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 257 interesting to the reader, we must refer to the historian, only observing, that he seldom misses an occasion of speaking of his Lordship, as one " to whose wis dom and impartiality the Bishops used always to make their applications," and " the common friend of the oppressed."* But he could not escape slander, how much soever he might endeavour to conciliate the good-will of his contemporaries. It was not, indeed, to be expected ; his situation compelled him oftentimes, no doubt, to attend more to his public duties, than his private feelings ; and in defending his Queen and country, to expose himself to the enmity, ill-will, and detraction of those, who had far other objects in view. That in this particular year (1585), he was so slandered, is to be collected from the letters published by Strype, in the Appendix to the 3d vol. of his Annals, Nos. lviii. lix. &c. extracts from which are introduced into his history ; but as we think those extracts not the best that might have >been selected for the vindication of Lord Burghley, and the letters themselves are too long wholly to transcribe, we shall venture to copy some other passages, indica tive, not merely of his Lordship's just resentme'nt of such foul aspersions, but of his indignant and scornful defiance and challenge of all proof against him. The letters, we should observe, are addressed to some friend who had communicated to him the slanderous reports of his enemies. " I am determined," says his Lordship, " to adhere to God, my only patron, and shall be ready to answer all spirits, wheresoever I may find them blazing ; and doubt not, but if they would to myself but breathe any of these speeches, in presence of any honest company, I would, with most apparent truth, confound their blasphemies. And, there fore, as you shew yourself friendly in reporting these villanies to me, so you might shew your friendship in effect to my good, if you would advise them to charge me therewith. And if they do think me guilty thereof, they need not fear to accuse me ; for I am not worthy to continue in this place ; but I will yield myself worthy, not only to be removed, but to be punished for an example to others, that should not abuse her Majesty, and the office I hold. If they • There can be no doubt but that he was continually referred to by the Bishops, and was con tinually receiving their thanks for his attentions and services ; and yet, it is equally certain, that he often sought to mitigate the severities practised against the Puritans. The conclusion to be drawn from this, seems to be, that he had hopes of conciliating the latter by lenity ; of the impossibility of which, however, he had often pretty strong proofs, particularly at Cambridge, where he would restore persons dispossessed of their fellowships, in hopes of bringing them to conform, but in vain. VOL. III. 2 L 258 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. cannot prove all the lies they remember, let them make use of any one proof wherewith to prove me guilty of falsehood, injustice, bribery, of dissimulation, of double dealing in advice, in Council, either with her Majesty, or with the Counsellors. Let them charge me in any point, that I have not dealt as- ear nestly for the Queen's Majesty to aid the afflicted in the Low Countries, to with stand the increasing power of the King of Spain, the assurance of the King of Scots to be tied with her Majesty with reward, yea, with the greatest pension that any other hath ; if in any of these, I may be proved to have been behind, or slower than any, in a discreet manner, as becometh a servant and a Counsellor, I will yield myself worthy of perpetual reproach, as though I were guilty of all that they use to bluster against me. They that say, in a rash and malicious mockery, that England is become Regnum Cecilianum, may please their own cankered humour with such a device ; but if my actions be considered, if there be any cause given by me of such a nickname, there may be found out in many other juster causes to attribute other names than mine. , " If my buildings mislike them, I confess my folly in the expenses, because some of my houses are to come, if God so please, to them that shall not have land to make them. I mean by my house at Theobalds : which was begun by me with a mean measure, but increased by occasion of her Majesty's often coming : whom to please I never would omit to strain myself to more charges than building is. And yet not without some special direction of her Majessty upon fault found with the small measure of her chamber, which was in good measure for me, I was forced to enlarge a room for a larger chamber. " For my house in Westminster, I think it so old that it should not stir any ; many having of later times built larger by far, both in city and country ; and yet the building thereof cost me the sale of lands worth an 100/. by year, in Staffordshire, that I had of good King Edward. My house of Burghley is of my mother's inheritance ; who .liveth, and is the owner thereof, and I but a farmer : and for the building there, I have set my walls upon the old founda tion. I trust my son shall be able to maintain it, considering there are in that Shire a dozen larger, of men under my degree." But there are many more pas sages in this letter not to be passed over, or at least in the postscript to it, which we must now transcribe. "After that I had ended, though my letter doth and will serve me, yet I could not omit to answer a notable, absurd, manifest lie, which is, that Coun sellors are forced to seek at my hands means for their suits. If it were consi- 1585.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 259 dered how and upon whom, for these late years all manner of offices, good and bad, spiritual and temporal, have been bestowed, to whom the persons beneficed do belong, and whom they do follow, it will easily be judged how rare I do or have dealt therein. If great numbers be bestowed, and not one upon any kins man, servant, or follower of mine, then how probable is it that I had ability to do that wherewith I am thus slandered? In very truth, I know my credit in such cases so mean, and others I find so earnest and able to obtain any thing, that I do utterly forbear to move for any ; and therefore indeed I have few special friends, and so I find the want thereof. " True it is her Majesty throweth upon me a burthen to deal in all ungrateful actions ; to give answers unpleasant to suitors that miss ; where others are used to signify pleasant answers affirmatively. For myself, I have not made nor obtained any suit from her Majesty these ten years. In my whole time I have not for these xxvi years been beneficed from her Majesty so much as I was within four years of King Edward. I have sold as much land in value as ever I had gift of her Majesty. I am at charges by attendance in Court ; and by keeping of my household, especially iii term times ; by resort of suitors at more than any Counsellor in England. My fee for the treasurership is no more than it hath been these xxx years. And this I do affirm, that my fees of my trea surership do not answer to my charge of my stable (I mean not my table) ; and in my household I do seldom feed less than an hundred persons. — For my servants, I keep none to whom I pay not wages and give liveries, which I know many do not." Such are the contents of one letter only, transcribed by Strype. The 2d, No. lix., enters rather further into the particulars of his administration, as re garded the affairs of Europe ; and equally deserves to be read and considered, as a proof of the Treasurer's honest and honourable intentions. But, obscure maligners were not the only persons he had to deal with ; Lord Leicester was continually jealous of him, and was rather suspected to be at the bottom of all the slanders of which we have spoken. Lord Burghley therefore did not omit to write to his Lordship also, ingenuously thanking him, in the names of his sons as well as himself, for many great attentions, but strongly intimating, that from the reports made to him,* he was no sincere friend. The letters that passed upon this occasion also, may be seen in Strype ;f the letter of Lord Burghley to * Lady Russell had reported some things spoken by Leicester of Lord Burghley. f Nichols also has printed them in his Progresses, vol. ii. under the 1585. 260 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1585. Leicester is dated from Nonsuth, August 11, 1585; and ends, "your Lordship's as you shall please to have me, W. B." Leicester's reply is very long, and perhaps very deceitful, as some parts of it seem to shew ;* but the reader may judge for himself. Leicester's letter is dated from Cornbury Park, Aug. 15, 1585. Leicester always knew how to act and write like a gentleman; and what is more, like a virtuous, pious, and agreeable gentleman ; but a greater dissembler could not be. The Dutch were taken in by his appearance, as we shall have occasion to shew ; — "Inerat vultu sermonique amozna quadam Mqjestas," even Grotius says of him, who had no disposition to praise either Lord Leicester himself, or his Sovereign, or his country. * Annals ofthe Reformation, &c. Appendix, b. 1. No. Ix. CHAP. XIII. 1586. Twenty-eighth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1585. Sir Francis Drake's Expedition — Introduction of Tobacco— Discovery of Davis's Straits — Lord Leicester takes the Command of the Army in Holland — Honours paid him — Of the Queen's Letter to him — Returns to England — Death of Sir Philip Sidney — Account of his Father and Mother— On the five crises, Spanish Armada, fyc. — State of Affairs in general — Treaty of Alliance between Elizabeth and James — The French Ambassador D'Esneval— Philip and Mary— Mary's Letter to Babington— Of Elizabeth and Lord Burghley — Remark of Schiller — Babington's Conspiracy — Of Leicester's wish to Poison Mary — Strype on the Designs ofthe Papists — Camden's Account ofthe Babington Con spiracy — Of Philip's Designs — Pasquier — Speeches of Sir F. Walsingham and Mary — - Of Mary's Trial — Lord Burghley's Letter to Sir Edward Stafford — The Ambassador Francois de Noailles — Of Mary and Lord Burghley — Rapin' s Remarks on the Trial of Mary — The Speaker's Reasons for Mary's Condemnation — Extracts from Elizabeth's Answers to the Parliament — Message from Elizabeth to Mary in a Letter to Sir Amyas Paulet. Before we enter upon the subject which may be expected more particularly to engage the attention of our readers, during the course of this year, two cir cumstances may require to be noticed. The Queen having calculated upon an immediate war with Spain, in consequence of the measures she was pursuing with the States of Holland, had sent out, in order to be beforehand with Philip in the commencement of hostilities, a Fleet of twenty-one ships, under the com mand of Sir Francis Drake,* to attack the Spanish possessions in America and the West Indies, where they were little likely to be expected, but whence it was not improbable they might be able to bring home great riches. How far this was consistent with the strict rules of war, we shall not stop to enquire, as the success was not great; (see however D'Ewes' Journal, 409.) some captures • In the history of the Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth, which seems almost entirely taken from Rapin, it is stated that this Fleet was " commanded by the Earl of Carlisle, who had under him the famous Sir Francis Drake ;" but Camden may help us to discover the mistake, who tells us, that " Sir Francis Drake was admiral ofthe Fleet, and Christopher Carlile general of the land forces." — p. 322. Mad"e Keralio, however, falls into the same mistake as Rapin ; speaking of Le Comte de Carlisle as Commander of the Troops. 262 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. were made, and some booty acquired ; valued at about 60,000/. ; with many pieces of ordnance, brass and iron. But a sad sickness prevailed during most of the time, amongst the men, to the loss of many hundreds ; and the Fleet was finally dispersed by so violent a tempest, that the ships never came together again until they met in the English harbours, at the very beginning of this year.* In the meantime an English adventurer, John Davis, made his first voyage in search of a passage to the East Indies by the North Seas, and which was twice afterwards repeated, but without the success he had been led to an ticipate. The discovery of the straits leading into Baffin's Bay, between Green land and America, which have since gone by his name, being in fact the prin cipal if not the only important results of his several expeditions. It was in the month of January or February of this year, that the Earl of Leicester entered upon his command in Holland. He had quitted -England on the 8th of December, 1585, with a large Fleet and many distinguished persons in his train; and arrived at Flushing on the 10th, where he was received in great form by a son of the late Prince of Orange, f and his own nephew, Sir * On his return home Sir Francis, having touched upon the coast of Virginia, so named in compliment to Elizabeth by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had begun to plant a colony there, was asked to bring home certain Englishmen, who have the credit of first introducing info this King dom the use of tobacco. Camden calls it tabacca, nicotia, or tobacco ; wondering greatly at the taste of his countrymen, who could with such " insatiable desire and greediness suck in the stinking smoke through an earthen pipe, presently to blow it out again at their nostrils," strongly intimating that it was making barbarians of themselves ; yet the rage for it was so geeat, tnathe adds, " tobacco-shops are now as ordinary in most towns as tap-houses and taverns." The fashion of sucking into the mouth and blowing out at the nostrils the fumes of this Virginian weed, has, in the course of more than two centuries,had its fluxes and refluxes. Within our own time, we have known the smoking through earthern pipes exploded from all good companies, as an unbearable and offensive vulgarity ; and the habit resumed again, in the shape of Cigars, by per sons who would resent nothing more than the slightest imputation of vulgarity. t Maurice, the Prince's second son. His elder brother had been seized by the Duke of Alva and forcibly sent, at the early age of thirteen, from the University of Louvain to Spain, where he was bred up in Popery, and kept as a prisoner there almost thirty years. Maurice had been elected on the death of his father, and, in consequence of the absence of his brother, Stadtholder and Captain General by sea and land, when only eighteen years of agej at which time he began to display great marks of genius and ability ; he has generally been regarded as the proper founder of the Republic of Holland. Among the instructions given to Leicester by Elizabeth, one was, to pay especial attention to the sons of the late Prince of Orange. We cannot help noticing another instruction, as it probably might be traced to Lord Burghley's great care in such matters. He was directed to make himself acquainted with the method of raising and falling 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 263 Philip Sidney, governor of the town ; salutes of ordnance, bonfires, ringing of bells, and otlaer rejoicings annojinxtiuyg his arrival. As the States had upon a similar expectation, of effectual and powerful assist ance from France, conspired to shew all possible honours to the Duke of Anjou,* so were they forward to confer as high distinctions on the English general ; not only at every place where he stopped, were all manner of devices exhibited, to express the sense they had of the importance of his mission, but on his arrival at the Hague, he was desired by the States to accept the chief government and absolute authority over the confederated Provinces, with the title of Governor and Capta n General of Holland, Zealand, &c. He had " a noble^ guard," appointed to attend him ; was " saluted of all men by the title of Excellency, and being," as Camden relates, "soothed up with flatteries, as seated in the highest and most illustrious degree of honour, he began to take upon him as if he had been a perfect king." But, as the same author writes, " the Queen taking it- very ill that the States had conferred so large an honour on him, and that he had accepted it, nipped the man at unawares in his swelling pride, by one short letter." The letter is indeed severe enough, but need not be transcribed.')" Some however have questioned its sincerity ;^ as particularly, Bentivoglio and Struda; the value of money in the States, that the" soldiers might not receive their pay at one rate, and give it out at another. * See a very long account of the honours paid to the Due d'Anjou at Flushing, Middle- borough, Errnwiden, Vere, Lillo, and Antwerp, 1581-2, in Nichols' Progresses of Queen Eliza beth. For a similar account of the distinctions conferred on Lord Leicester, see the Life of that nobleman, London, 1727. ¦f See Camden 327. Mr. Lodge, in his Illustrations of British History, in a note to a letter from Lord Leicester to Lord Shrewsbury, vol. ii. No. cci. fancies that Elizabeth, in pique and jealousy, merely designed to crush his popularity, but her motives were quite of a different de scription- She did not like to commit herself too far, as will be seen below. In the letter referred to, Leicester speaks of the Government put into his hands by the States, as forced upon him ; as being a burthen too great for him to support, and little agreeable to his own desire, "if the service of her Majesty or benefit of his country were not to he preferred to every thing else." - J Mr. Turner, in his late account of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, is not only disposed to regard the letter as genuine and sincere, but to. draw from it conclusions favourable to the Queen's char racter ; thinking it impossible that she should have written in such a tone of high and elevated authority, to a man who had the power of charging her with any undue intimacy. We confess we haye been more struck with a passage Mr. Turner himself cites just afterwards, from Sir Philip Sidney's famous letter to her in 1580, where he asks her, in reply to a remark of her own, 264 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. who concur in the suspicion, that the Queen was inwardly pleased with the compliment, wishing to obtain the sovereignty < of Holland, through Leicester. Nothing surely could be less probable. She had actually twice declined the sovereignty, though offered to her by solemn embassies,* and rather against the advice of her Parliament, who were willing to support her in such incidental charges as it might bring upon her, had she chosen to accept it ; we are much more disposed to agree with Rapin, who supposes the trick, if there were any, to have been all on the other side ; that the States designed to force the sove reignty upon her whether she would or no, that they might engage her farther . in their defence than she intended ; but that Elizabeth was too wise to be en snared, being resolved to assume no power over them, that might oblige her to assist them, beyond what her own affairs would admit. | As Elizabeth had remonstrated almost as strongly, with the States themselves, as with Leicester, explanations became necessary, and in a short time things were settled more to her satisfaction. expressive of a fear of falling into contempt with her subjects if she should not marry: " what is there within you that can possibly fall into the danger of contempt ? Our minds rejoice with the experience of your inward virtues; our eyes are delighted with the sight of you." Such ques tions and remarks, from a man of Sir Philip's high spirit and character, and the nephew of Leicester, and upon the very subject of her marriage with the Due d' Alencon, could scarcely be less than insult and mockery, if half the things attributed to Elizabeth by her enemies be true. At least we should think so ; and we are the more inclined to notice it, because Lord Burghley himself was often led to express himself in terms equally exculpatory of the maiden Queen. Of her partialities, coquetry, and love of admiration, there could be no doubt; sufficient certainly to encourage the surmises of after-times ; our own doubts refer rather to the serious opinions of her Contemporaries. Among the reasons penned by Lord Burghley to move the Queen to accept the Archduke Charles, and against her marrying Leicester, one reason with regard to the latter, is, " it will be thought that the slanderous speeches ofthe Queen with the Earl be true." We can scarcely suppose that his Lordship really judged them to be true. But we had rather leave such points to be decided by others. Mr. Ellis has a short note upon the subject, 2d Series of Original Letters, vol. iii. 136. upon a particular occasion which certainly called for some remarks. * See an account of the splendid entertainment of the Deputies of the States on their arrival in London 1585, in Nichols's Progresses, vol. ii. 437. t There was very soon a suspicion that the charges of Leicester's expedition could not be maintained. " [Erl Lester]" says Lord Burghley in a letter to Sir Edward Stafford {Murdin, 570.) " is like to be revoked with a pretence to give counsel how the Queen shall further proceed in that action, which, for lack of money to maintain the charges, is not in small peril ; a matter of the greatest consequence that can be here imagined.'' Leicester himself affirmed to Lord Burghley that he had lost 25,000/. by the expedition. 1586.] MEMOIRS -OF LORD BURGHLEY. 265 It would take us too much out of the line of our inquiries to enter into the history of Lord Leicester's government and campaigns in Holland this year ; other historians will be found to have amply recorded all that passed there : he was far from giving satisfaction to those whom he went to assist, having soon offended them, both by his presumption and incapacity ; so that towards the end of the year, he returned to England, * in order to devise some better measures to accomplish his purposes ; having sustained, however, a very severe loss during the campaign, in the death of his nephew, Sir Philip Sidney. This celebrated man being wounded in a skirmish f before Zutphen, lived just long enough to close the short career of his very memorable life, by a display of for titude, resignation, and calm submission to the will of Providence, which very justly entitled him to the many distinguished honours paid to his memory ; J as described at length by various authors. § " He died," says one of his particular * Sir Robert Naunton has observed concerning Leicester's exploits in Holland, that his device might have been " veni, vidi, redii." t Though it might be called a skirmish, as being no more than an attack of a convoy, Strada, de Bello Belgico, calls it " atrox atque perquam vehemens pugna," and indeed it was, as we read, usual afterwards to denote a severe conflict by comparing it " cum Zutphaniensi occursu." The death of Sir Philip Sidney is thus noticed by Thuanus: " Ea victoria unius Philippi Sidneii virtute, ingenii solertid, ac eruditione prmstantis adolescentis clade obscurata est." Zutphen had been disgraced by some of the most oppressive acts of the Duke of Alva. Five hundred of the citizens who had surrendered having been cruelly massacred, and others driven into the river Issel, where their struggles were contemplated with the most unfeeling joy. — Watson's History of Philip II. Meteren speaks of Sir Philip's wound and death in much the same terms as Thuanus. | Leicester is said greatly to have lamented his fall ; '' James, King of Scots," says Camden, " honoured him with an epitaph; both the Universities consecrated their tears, and New College in Oxford set forth a most elegant description of his noble acts." % Sir Philip had just before lost his father, Sir Henry Sidney, who died at the Bishop's Palace at Worcester, May 5, 1586, and was buried, with great pomp, at the family seat of Penshurst in Kent; three months after the decease, of Sir Henry, his lady also died, the lady Mary Sidney, a most excellent and virtuous woman, as she is spoken of in Mplineux's Continuation of Hollinshed. Sir Henry had been the companion and bosom friend of that accomplished Prince, King Edward VI., who, indeed, died in Sir Henry's arms, breathing out his soul in a fervent prayer to the Almighty, to have mercy on him. Sir Henry was in great favour after this with Mary, and his son Philip was even so named after her husband the King of Spain, We must refer the reader to other authors for the further history of this great and good man, who is allowed to have been " one ofthe most upright and ablest ministers of Elizabeth." His friendship with Lord Burghley began in Edward's reign ; and it is remarkable, that when, in the year 1569, an overture was made, on the recommendation of Lord Leicester, for a marriage between the young Philip VOL. III. 2 M 266 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. friends, " not languishing in idleness, riot, and excess, not as overcome with nice pleasures, and fond vanities, but of many wounds received in the service of his prince, in defence of persons oppressed, in maintenance ofthe only true Catholic and Christian religion, among the noble, valiant, and wise, in the open field, in martial manner, the honorablest death that could be desired, and best becoming a Christian knight, whereby he hath worthily won to himself immortal fame among the godly, and left example worthy of imitation to others of his calling," For the particulars of his funeral, funeral honours, and ofthe many compli mentary verses written on the occasion, we must refer the reader, after Collins, Lord Brooke, &c. to the Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Philip Sidney, by Dr. Zouch, York, 1808; he died at the early age of thirty-two, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, November 16, 1586, with great pomp and celebrity, and entirely at the Queen's cost. Of his various talents and accomplishments, the following short compliment in Thomson's Seasons, may serve to convey a very just and very pleasing idea : " Nor can the muse the gallant Sidney pass, The plume of war ! with early laurels crowned, The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay." Summer, p. 1510. As a patriot, we shall find him distinguished and commemorated byother modern poets, of no small fame. — See Mason's Isis, andWarton's Triumphs of Isis.* Sidney, and Anne, eldest daughter of Sir William Cecil (afterwards Countess of Oxford), Sir Henry gave it his entire approbation ; in a letter to Sir William, dated Feb. 24, 1569, he expresses his sorrow on observing a coolness in the proceeding, " where such good liking appeared in the beginning." " For my part," he adds, " I never was more ready to perfect that matter, than presently I am ; assuring you for my part, if I might have the greatest prince's daughter in Christendom for him, the match spoken of between us, on my part, should not be' broken." The match is supposed to have gone'offin consequence of the tender age of the parties. When Sir Philip's foreign preceptor, the celebrated Languet, was giving him advice on his return to England, he counselled him to cultivate the acquaintance of Cecil : ¦* Ubi in Angliam veneris, vide ut colas Cecilium, qui est tui amans, et tibi reddit omnia familiaria ;" and the more thoroughly to ingratiate himself with this great Statesman, he recommends it to him to love, or pretend to love his children. " Nulla autem re ejus benevolentiam magis demereri poteris, quam si ejus liberos ames, aut saltern simules te amare." A plain proof of Cecil's love for his children, though the preceptor has justly incurred blame for the hint he gives of an accommodating dissimulation, in failure ofthe reality.— See Zouch 's Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 74. * Since writing the above, we have seen the account given of him in Mr. Turner's History of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which many extracts are introduced from the poetical effusions of 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 267 We must now turn to consider the general state of Europe as introductory to the sad story of this year, the trial and condemnation of Mary Queen of Scots. Bishop Burnet, in the history of his own times, speaks of five great crises into which the Protestant religion was brought in the course of the Reformation.* The first, the capture of the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse by Charles V. and breaking up of the Smalcaldic League. [See our first volume ch. xxxviii.J The second, towards the close of Mary's reign, when the Cardinals Lorrain and Granvelle combined to unite France and Spain for the extirpation of heresy ; defeated by Mary's death and Elizabeth's accession. " The third crisis lasted," he goes onto say, " from 1585 to 1589; then began the league in France ; the Prince of Parma was victorious in the Netherlands ; the Prince of Orange was murdered ; the States fell under great distractions ; and Spain entered into a design of dethroning the Queen of England, and putting the Queen of Scots in her stead ; in order to which they were for some years preparing the greatest fleet that the world had ever seen, which came to be called the Invincible Armada. All Europe was amazed at these great preparations, and many conjectures were made concerning the design of such a vast fleet ; some thought of Constantinople, others talked of Egypt in con junction with the Emperor of the Abyssynes ; but that which was most probable was, that King Philip intended to make a great effort, and put an end to the war in the Netherlands in one campaign ; at last the true intent of it was found out. Walsingham's chief spies were priests, and he used always to say, an active but Sir Philip's contemporaries, and particularly from Mr. Todd's valuable edition of Spenser, to whom Sir Philip appears to have been the earliest patron, from the following lines, " Who first my muse did lift out of the floor, " To sing her sweet delights in lowly lays." And in the dedication of his " Ruins of Time," to the Countess of Pembroke, Sir Philip's Sister, he styles him " the hope of all learned men, and the patron of my young muses." Of all his contemporaries, King James has the credit given him, by Lord Hardwicke, of having written the most elegant lines upon him, " worthy of a scholar of Buchanan." • In Dr. Hales's New Analysis of Chronology, &c, we have the following dates under the Era of the Reformation : England (Wickliffe) 1360 Bohemia (Huss) 1405 Germany (Luther) 1517 Switzerland (Zuinglius) 1519 Denmark 152) France (Calvin) 1529 Sweden (Petri) 1530 Ireland (Brown) 1535 England completed (Cranmer, Bucer, Fagius, &c.) 1547 Scotland (Knox) 1560 Netherlands 1566 268 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [158«. vicious priest was the best spy in the world ; by one of these he had advice that the King of Spain had fixed on a resolution with regard to his fleet, but that it was not yet communicated to any of his ministers in foreign Courts. The King himself had indeed writia letter, about it to the Pope, but it was not entered sin any office, so this was all that the intelligence from Madrid, could discovers; upon this one was seint to Venice, from whence the correspondence with Rome was held, and at Rome it was found out that one. of the Pope's chief confidants had a mistress, to whom 20,000, crowns were given, for a sight and copy of that letter; the copy of it was sent over in 1586 ; in it the King of; Spain had acquainted the Pope that the design of his fleet was to land in England, to destroy Queen Elizabeth and heresy, and to set the Queen of Scots on the throne : in this he had the concurrence of the house off Guise, and- he also depended on the King of Scotland. This proved fatal to the Queen of Scots." We shall not proceed farther with this extract at present, though there is much more to our purpose, and which will be brought forward in its proper place. The copy of the letter, indeed, is said not to have been received in England until after Christmas, in the winter of 1586, which was subsequentAo Mary's trial ; the designs of Spain were perhaps therefore only matters of sus picion until then, but of suspicion so strong, being fortified by other occurrences, as to justify the utmost vigilance on the part of the English Council. We may well suppose that the combination above had become sufficiently apparent, when the association was formed, and the celebrated act passed, which Mary herself regarded as her death-warrant. Leicester is supposed to have had a principal hand in this, and very possibly he had ; but as to the severity of it, with regard to Mary, had her pretended friends looked only to her safety, they might, for a time at least, have desisted from their purposes ; but it is impossible to deny, that every symptom of a great enterprise against England, seemed to increase, rather than abate, after the formation of the association and passing of the act* * " This is the severest act," says Rapin, " against the Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth ; but they could blame only themselves, or rather the indiscreet zeal of some amongst tliera, who never ceased plotting against the Queen, and endeavouring to set the Queen of Scots on the throne of England. Even this statute was not capable of stopping them ; till at last they carried their zeal to such a height, that the destruction of one of the Queens became necessary for the preservation of the other."— Life and' Reign of Elizabeth, [from Rapin,] vol. ii. 78, " Mary," it is added, " had not the prudence to renounce corresponding with those implicated in ttese plots, here or in foreign countries, nor quick-sighied enough to perceive that she only served for a blind to her pretended friends, to execute other projects." 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 269 referred to. That act, as plainly as possible, pointed out the danger into which Mary might be brought, by the continuance of the intrigues of, the Jesuits and seminary Priests, and still more by. the threats of Spain and France ; but those intrigues and those threats appeared only to become daily more alarming, until, in the nionths of June and July, Babington's conspiracy was discovered, and many other devices of the same nature so thoroughly detected, as to leave no doubt on the minds of Elizabeth's Counsellors, that her life was in jeopardy; in hourly jeopardy indeed ; nor should it be forgotten that their own lives were, in the very nature of things, in equal jeopardy. It was not the mere person of Elizabeth- that was threatened, but her Crown and her Church. " Elizabeth and heresy," were to be overthrown, as the letter referred to states; and no, doubt the whole body of Elizabeth's Counsellors, as the favourers and abettors of the proscribed heresy, must have been included in the proscription. It was not an age in which such proscriptions were to be disregarded, especially if they were known to derive their authority from either Spain, or France, or Rome. Neither Elizabeth nor her ministers could be expected to despise such denunciations to so great a degree, as to wait tamely to have their own throats cut, for defending what they could not without ignominy abandon. The Prince of Orange had too recently incurred the forfeitures of such a proscription, and fallen by the hand of a fanatic,* and the King of Navarre, and his brother the Prince of Conde, had been put upon the list of excommunicated Princes, as well as Elizabeth, by the new Pope, that very extraordinary man, Sixtus Quintus, who hated Philip IL, admired the character of Elizabeth, and yet excommunicated the latter afresh, in order, for form-sake, to appear to sanction Philip's attack upon the dominions of a heretic ! — See Walch's History of the Popes. The letter above, upon the authenticity of which we rely no farther than as it stands confirmed by abundance of other historical documents, mentions many * It is scarcely credible now, though it is exceedingly true, and has already been mentioned, but may bear to be repeated in such a work as the present, that in reward of the bloody deed com mitted upon this proscribed prince, Philip II. ennobled the family of the assassin. " Quelle etrange maniere d'acquerir la noblesse," is the remark of a less rigid Catholic. Mr. Turner has cited a passage from an intercepted letter of the Cardinal G'anvelle, to the Provost Moriller, which plainly proves what participation his Eminence had in that foul crime; in blaming an agent who had been indiscreet in talking of the premeditated murder, he writes, " He can no more keep a secret than a woman. It is not a band imperial, but the king's : 25 or 30,000 crowns will be given to him, qui le donnera vif ou mort ; c'est contre lui seul que Ton s'addresse ; a recu argent pour faire depescher YOrangier et est encores apres."— Turner's Elizabeth* b.ii. ch. xxxi. 270 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. parties as in confederacy, or likely to be so soon, against England, Elizabeth, and her heretical church ; the Pope, the King of Spain, the Duke of Guise, and probably the King of Scotland. The last, therefore, remained, as it seems, to be brought over ; and of this England was so much aware, that she lost no time in negotiating a treaty with him. James was open to one great temptation; namely, the offer of a subsidy or pension, a temptation applicable also to many of his needy courtiers. It is not to be won dered that, comparatively, and in the distracted state of that kingdom, they should be poor ; and it was well worth Elizabeth's while to administer to such wants. If James could be retained on the side of England and Protestantism, it would have been the worst of all policy to leave him to become dependent on any of the Catholic powers, especially when they were known to be using every art to render him so. This, then, was one ofthe great transactions of this year. Though the French Ambassador in Scotland was doing all that he could do to hinder any league with England, Randolph, Elizabeth's very" trusty envoy, prevailed, and a treaty of alliance and stricter amity between the two crowns was negotiated and signed, upon the principle that it was become necessary for all Protestant states to unite, for defence of the religion, against those who were notoriously known to be bound in a league to extirpate it, under the name of heresy.* This was the fair and very reasonable ground of negotiation on the part of England ; but the French envoy, d'Esneval, would fain have persuaded James that Elizabeth's aim was only to secure herself from the attacks of those who were combined for the deliverance of Queen Mary ; that it was a strange thing that he should think of uniting with a Queen who kept his mother in prison, against those who were labouring to free her from captivity ; and he added, that the King his master could not but consider such a league [with England] as an express breach of the ancient alliance between France and Scotland. It was a wise and, we think, a very true answer that James gave : namely, " that the Queen his mother's misfortunes proceeded wholly from her own friends, who under colour of serving her, only aimed at executing their own projects." We can conceive nothing to have been more true; for to refer again to Philip's letter to the Pope, we happen to know, that the House of Guise wished for Mary's deliverance, merely to thwart the views that the Bourbon's had upon the throne of France, in case of a vacancy; while Henry III., so far from being * See the beginning of the treaty in Camden, p. 333. See also Rapin. 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 271 really anxious for the deliverance of Mary, heartily wished to prevent the House of Guise obtaining any such addition of power and influence ;* and we happen to know besides, with a considerable degree of certainty, that Philip wished Mary out of the way, quite as much as Elizabeth could do. Never, surely, was there a greater conflict and opposition of interests, though Mary seemed to afford a plausible excuse to all who were against Elizabeth. Mary, very indis creetly, by ciphers and other secret communications, rendered herself a party to all the attempts and confederacies against England. All this she acknow ledged, pretending she only sought her freedom, but her false friends made her freedom the pretence for very different objects ; objects tending rather to her death than her deliverance, as bringing the conflict and rivalry between her and Elizabeth for the crown of England, to a very formidable crisis ; a crisis hastened, as it would seem, at this very time, by the Queen's determination to send forces out of the kingdom to the defence of Holland. This was certainly the state of things, when Mary, on the 11th of October, 1586, was brought to her trial. But, before we proceed to consider the circum stances of her trial and sentence, we must observe, that our account of this too memorable year would probably have no end, if we were to aspire to the credit of being able to clear up all the difficulties of the case, to the general satisfaction of our readers. It is a case, we must grant, which it would be impossible now to explain to the satisfaction of any readers. Mary will always be an object of pity, and Elizabeth, in an almost equal degree, of censure andreproach; if not, indeed, of resentment and abhorrence. The former, besides, is allowed to have possessed many brilliant and ingratiating accomplishments; while the latter, though deservedly p jpular as a Princess of high and undaunted spirit, and the avenger of England against many proud foes, was undoubtedly deficient in some of the prime " charities of life," and softnesses of her sex ; sadly spoiled besides, by the extravagant flattery and the general homage of a Court, in which the Queen's favour was the only point of union.-}" * In a letter from Mary to Babington, July 12, 1586, produced at the trial, the following passage occurs : " Discover as little as you can, your names and intentions to the French Ambassador, now leiger at London, for although, as I understand, he is a very honest Gentleman,- yet I fear his Master entertaineth a course far different from our designment, which may move him to dis cover us, if he had any particular knowledge thereof." — Cobbett's State Trials, i. 1180-1. In the Memoirs of Louis du Maurier, it is asserted that Henry III. prevailed upon Elizabeth to make away with Mary, fieir commm enemy. — Koch's Revolution de I'Europe, ii. 118. f To understand this, we must revert to what has been said elsewhere, as to the want of a proper responsibility on the part of Ministers in those days. There was no national appeal against 272 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. As it has been the fate of Lord Burghley; however, especially- among that class of Writers who have been distinguished as the avowed advocates of Mary, to participate with his Sovereign in all the abuse and reproach that has been cast upon her memory on this sad account, it must become us, as his biogra phers, to inquire as diligently, but as honestly as we can, how much of necessity, or rather self-defence, there was in the case; for this we regard as the only proper plea of justification, nor are we aware that any other was ever seriously urged, though it has been usual to represent both Elizabeth and Lord Burghley, as actually in combination together for a series of years, to harass, torment, and betray the Scottish Queen, upon motives so vile, so pitifully mean, so selfish and cruel, that if such charges deserved to be credited, we should not give ourselves the trouble of referring to the public records of the day to wipe away the reprbach of such heavy imputations. If the competition between the two Queens, fomented; encouraged, and abetted in every instance by Mary's foreign relatives and friends, was such as to render it almost impossible for Elizabeth not to harbour in her breast, at times, some strong feelings of private and strictly personal resentment, we cannot bring ourselves to believe that Cecil ever acted otherwise, or had occasion to act otherwise, than upon public motives ; that he was constantly governed by the course of events, as they seemed to bear upon England, in a most remarkable struggle and competion between all the greater powers of Europe, from the moment of his birth, to the day of his death.* At the begin- the power and influence of the crown ; if a Minister incurred the displeasure of his Sovereign, his fall was not only certain, but quite irrecoverable, except by concessions ; which, in these days, would be accounted not only base and disgraceful, but contrary to the principles of the; Consti tution ; according to which, a disgraced Minister often finds friends in his former adversaries and opponents, but it was not so in the sixteenth century ; the crown could not only dismiss, but crush, and so divided in general were the Courtiers, that there were always some ready to avail themselves of, and to triumph in the disgrace of others. This led to the perpetual and general flattery of the Sovereign, so friendly to despotism. In these respects, Elizabeth was to be pitied, as a spoiled child, whose very whims and caprices were to be humoured, though, per haps, in cases of great urgency, no one knew better how to bring her to a right mind than Lord Burghley ; and partly through the discretion with which he took care to remonstrate and inter fere, only where he judged it to be strictly necessary. * It is the remark of Schiller, in his History of the Thiry Years' War, " that from the beginning of the religious war in Germany, to the peacer of Munster, nothing great or remarkable happened in the world of Europe, in which the Reformation had not. the principal share. All the important events which took place during this period were connected with the Reformation, if they did not originate from it; and every country, whether great or small, has felt its influence." 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 273 ning of our work we endeavoured to impress upon the minds of our readers, that we had found Lord Burghley's life to be so constantly mixed up (if we may so express ourselves) with the general affairs of Europe, that there were no means of separating them. It is to the transactions of Europe generally, that we have, throughout our history, been accustomed to look for an explana tion of his conduct ; and thither we would now particularly turn, to carry us through the mournful incidents of this remarkable period of his life ; a period certainly the most fatal to his credit, in the estimation, we fear, not only of his decided enemies, but of others ; who being generally friendly to his measures, as redounding to the honour, glory, wealth, and prosperity of England, have never, perhaps, found leisure sufficient to look so narrowly into the actual pos ture of affairs at this momentous time, as to be able to discern how much there was, as we hinted before, of real necessity in the events that in the course of this year, and the following, came to pass. We need not, we conceive, go into the particulars of what has been denomi nated the Babington conspiracy, detected in the summer of this year; and which may be regarded as the determining cause of Mary's trial ; as that, in short, which brought Elizabeth's Ministers to a clear decision, that it could not, with any safety to the kingdom, be longer deferred.* The probability of an almost immediate invasion was great ; assassins appeared to be in requisition for the destruction of Elizabeth at the least, but by implication of the Ministers themselves, which might render the case one of private self-defence, if the public grounds of proceeding had been less clear. But as to the object of the detected conspiracies, to which Mary was undoubtedly privy, though she constantly asserted, that she looked only to that part of the project in hand, whatever it might be, which affected her own release, the following is the account given by Strype. " The Papists," says he, " were very busy this year, in compassing three things ; viz. raising a rebellion in England, killing the Queen, and delivering the Scottish Queen, and setting her up Queen of the realms." A few pages after, he adds a fourth object, namely, " to overthrow the established religion, and restore the abandoned religion of Popery." * Leicester is said to have meditated the taking her off by poison, and to have sent a divine, privately, to Walsingham, to satisfy him that it was lawful. — Camden, 346. The author of the Life of Robert, Earl of Leicester, asserts, that he absolutely sent assassins to destroy her; having it in view, to bring the Earl of Huntingdon, who had married his sister, and was descended from the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV;, into the line of succession. VOL. III. 2 N 274 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. Those who can venture to doubt the truth of these imputations cast upon the Papists, at this particular crisis, must have read history with very different im pressions from those which have affected our own minds. It may be almost necessary, perhaps, for us to affirm, that we believe them to be all true, without entering into the detail of confessions, intercepted letters, foreign intelligence, private and public communications, &c. ; whereby the Queen's Counsellors were brought to the conclusion, that the removal of Mary, as a party to these conspi racies, and not merely as the most plausible object of them all, was the only step remaining to check the Papists in the course they were pursuing, of raising a rebellion, " killing or deposing Elizabeth,"* to make room for Mary, and thereby overthrowing the established religion (or rather the Protestant reli gion generally, for the Non-conformists among the Puritans were among the most obnoxious enemies of Rome), and restoring " the abandoned religion of Popery." The history of the detected conspiracies may be read elsewhere, t but it should be thoroughly read, to qualify a person to judge properly of the threatened * Rapin speaks of the time of Mary's death approaching, " The two Queens being no longer able to subsist together." " The Queen of Scots," he says, " was ever the stumbling-block. It was she that gave birth to all the contrivances." " Her life was the foundation of all the plots against Elizabeth, both at home and abroad." f Camden introduces the subject of the Babington conspiracy in the following terms: " The same month that this league (with Scotland) was ratified, a dangerous conspiracy was discoveredj against Queen Elizabeth. The original and progress whereof, I will lay down as briefly as I can out of the voluntary confessions of the conspirators themselves. In the English Seminary at Rheims, some there were, who, with a certain astonishment, admiring and reverencing the omnipo- tency of the Bishop of Rome, did believe that the bull of Pius Quintus, against Elizabeth, was dic tated by the Holy Ghost. These men persuaded themselves, and others that eagerly desired and itched after the glory of martyrdom, that it was a meritorious act to kill such princes as were excommunicated ; yea, that they were martyrs who lost their lives upon that account." We cannot help adding, that Gerard, who murdered the Prince of Orange, "chef des heretiques rebelles," as he called him, declared that he had determined to do so, for the space of six years. " Et pourquoi? — Pour expier ses peches, et pour meriter la gloire eternelle" — " ce fanatique mourut," says the same writer, " comme un martyr." — He had ingratiated himself with the prince, by pretending to be. a zealous Protestant, always having a Psalter or the New Testament in his hands — " Qui auroit pu imaginer," (to continue the account given of him, in the work we are citing ;) " qu'un exterieur si pieux cachat le cceur d'un monstre ? Tout le monde fut la dupe de son hypocrisie." It seems to have been a fanatic of the same stamp (Savage) that was at first pitched upon at this time to destroy Elizabeth ; but Babington, not willing to rely on a single person, proposed to have six engaged by a vow to that effect. — Compare Hume. 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 275 dangers against which Elizabeth and her ministers had to protect themselves : * nor was any time to be lost ; for it seems to have been decided by those who meditated an invasion of the kingdom merely to set Mary on the throne, that Elizabeth must be first dispatched, to give them any hopes of a speedy success. Philip could have afforded to wait a little longer; until he was better prepared, in short, to crush the rebellion in Holland, overpower Elizabeth, and if Mary should fall in the struggle, ascend the throne of England himself; as a compe titor for which, Mary was regarded by him as the only legitimate obstacle — a' secret which that unfortunate Princess herself disclosed upon her trial. Being charged with a plot to convey the kingdom of England to Philip : "The Spaniard himself," she said, " laid claim to the kingdom of England, and would not give place to any title but hers." — [Camden, 356.J She little suspected the real danger she incurred from this very circumstance, for many Catholics, despairing of the restoration of Popery, either through Mary or her son, were urging Philip to assert his claims, at any risk to Mary, whom, if the truth were known, they rather wished out of the way. This is not said at random ; Camden supplies us with an authority for it. Speaking of the bad advice Mary received from some of her pretended friends : " For the Jesuits," says he, " when they saw no hope remaining of restoring the Romish religion, either by her or her son, betook themselves to new stratagems, and began to forge a new and pretended title to the succession ofthe kingdom of England for the Spaniard (whose gran deur alone they laboured to increase). To this end, they sent into England (as Pasquier saith) one Samier (if the name be not counterfeit), a man of their society, to draw noblemen and gentlemen to the Spaniard's party, and thrust her forward to her own danger, \ by telling her, that if she were troublesome, neither * Babington was a young man of birth and education, who had become acquainted in France with Morgan, a late servant and pensioner of Mary, and the Bishop of Glasgow, her minister. By their means he appears to have been recommended to the Queen of Scots, who is held to have written to him several letters ; and through him to have communicated with Morgan, till put under the more strict keeping of Sir Amias Poulet, " a mere Leicester ian," as Babington called him, and " a *bitter enemy of the Catholic religion." Of Babington's Confederates, Camden has given a full account. See also Mr. Turner's recent history of the reign of Elizabeth. f It was, in fact, a very sure way of thrusting her forward to her own danger, and accelerating her end ; for many of Elizabeth's Catholic subjects, who might wish well to Mary, were by no means so likely to be forward in helping Philip to the throne ; and indeed we shall soon see, that after Mary's death, some Catholics were among the very foremost to defend England and Eliza beth against the Spaniard. This very circumstance, therefore, connected Elizabeth's security in a different way, with Mary's fall; and may well account for Burnet's remark, that " Mary lost her 276 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. she nor her son should reign ; and by exciting the Guises, her kinsmen, to new attempts against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde\ that being engaged therein they might not be at leisure to help her* If then we are to conclude that Elizabeth's ministers were in possession of this information, of which there appears to be little or no doubt, for they seem by some means or other to have known every thing, it must have been very plain to them, that if Mary waited for Philip's invasion, both Queens might be sacrificed ; and if they did not as speedily as possible check, or defeat, the other enterprise, which seemed only to await the transportation of the army under Leicester into Holland, and in which the assassination of Elizabeth was regarded as a preli minary, -Elizabeth might become the victim of the struggle, and that with her might fall every thing that had been established on her accession (and continued during a peaceable and popular reign of twenty-eight years), in Church and State, with an overwhelming and irrecoverable destruction. If it were possible to suppose that there had really ever subsisted that sisterly, confidential, and cordial affection between the two Queens, of which so much is said in their royal communications, and of which we are sorry to say there occurs a good deal in the course: of Mary's defence at her trial, we might lament the last struggle to which they , were exposed, and which seemed to require the positive sacrifice of one, however revolting to the feelings of the other, but we cannot pretend to be the dupes of any pretended cordiality on ¦ .' i . life in consequence of Philip's preparations;" designed more to serve himself than her, and yet, in either case, to the dethronement of Elizabeth. * Pasquier, the author whom Camden cites, was not only a contemporary of Lord Burghley, but very nearly of the same age, being born in 1528 ; he had a great horror of the Jesuits, even in those early days, observing, that they were in no case to be trusted ; in pleading against them in favour ofthe University of Paris, he concluded his speech with declaring, that, in his opinion, this new Society, "cette nouvelle Societe de Religieux, qui se disoient de la compagnie de Jesus, non seule- ment ne devoit point etre aggregee au corps de l'Universit6, mais qu'elle devoit encore etre bannie entierement, chassee et exterminee de France." If this were the character of the Society in the 16th century, in a Catholic kingdom, surely the Ministers of Elizabeth, a Protestant and pro scribed Queen, had good reason to look after them, when they meddled with the affairs of Eng land. Pasquier had three wives, and in a Latin Epigram, of his own composing, he acknowledged to have married the first, propter opus ; the second, propter ope*; and the third, propter opem. In estimating the character of the Jesuits, at that period, though perhaps equally applicable to them at all times, Lord Bacon's remark is exceedingly good. " Although in regard of their su perstition, I may say, Quo meliores, eo deteriores, yet in regard of their learning, &c, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharnabasus, Talis quum sis, utinam noster esses." 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 277 either side. On the contrary, we are strongly inclined to think that Mary never liked (we need not say loved) ,Elizabeth any better than Elizabeth liked Mary; and though it has been the fashion to fancy that Mary never could have been so relentless a persecutor of Elizabeth, had she fallen into her power, as Elizabeth is judged to have been of Mary ; yet we cannot but declare, that from some traits in Mary's character, we are by no means certain that Elizabeth would have experienced greater clemency. We must confess, that we are at all events quite astonished, that Mary should have lived so long, had Elizabeth, or even her Ministers, been really actuated by the foul spirit so often attributed to them ; to all, she must have been a perpetual cause of disquietude, and to Elizabeth a great expense, as well as a trouble ; and we all know, that expense was to the latter a very serious concern. It is usual to talk of the heavy restraint put upon Mary ; any restraint must have been painful, and to an independent Queen almost intolerable ; yet we are disposed to think this has been greatly exaggerated ;* — at all events, she found means to evade the utmost vigilance of Lord Shrewsbury, and to have been able, by her own account, and by the means of cyphers, to communicate continually, but secretly, with France, Spain, and her adherents in Scotland. She had always candidly declared to Elizabeth, she would use what means she could of inte resting her foreign friends in her deliverance, and she seems, to that end, to have never failed to correspond with Elizabeth's bitterest foes ; we have, in short, no • Even under her last and most strict keeper, Sir Amias Poulet, she seems to have taken the amusement of hunting. In the intervals between the departure of Lord Shrewsbury and the coming of Sir Amias, she was in the custody of Sir Ralph Sadler, who had his hawks and falconers at Tut bury, and whom Mary occasionally accompanied, to the distance of two or more miles from the castle. There is an angry letter of hers extant, giving a very horrible account pf her abode at Tutbury ; but it should be remarked when this letter is cited, that Elizabeth expressed great dis pleasure, that it was not made more ready for her, nor was she prevented making numerous de mands, through Sir Ralph, for such things as she needed ; and Sir Ralph, in his letter, on their first arrival at Tutbury, had expressly written, " she liketh her own lodging here well ;" we be lieve at best it was bad enough, but certainly a great disposition was manifested to render it better. One of her requests from this very place, was to have her stud of horses continued to the number of sixteen, a large number for a secluded prisoner ; we are persuaded that she had more atten tions shewn her, than her particular advocates would have the world believe ; we can excuse her angry representations,.but things need not be made worse than they really were. Very early after her residence in England, Elizabeth had to complain of very gross misrepresentations upon this head, as may be seen in her instructions to Sir Henry Norris, her ambassador at Paris, to be seen in Digges. Some passages in this important paper are very curious. 278 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. doubt ourselves, but that she was privy to all that was in -preparation this year for the overthrow of Elizabeth, with all its consequences; had she herself escaped, we could not have been sorry for it, but we do thoroughly think, that Elizabeth, as Queen of this Protestant country, deserved in every way to be protected and defended against the horrible combination that was formed against her. God forbid that we should be expected to justify the course of proceedings against Mary, when it came to be determined that she should be exposed to trial ; we are not prepared, for instance, to justify any violation of so reason able a law, as that the witnesses as well as the accusers should be confronted with the accused ; we are not prepared to justify the admission of accusers to the judicial bench; but as to the latter, we cannot help observing that it was a common error in the judicial proceedings of those times, now happily cor rected. In the reign of Edward VI., who, we might ask, was the principal accuser of the Lord Seymour, but his own brother the Protector, urged on by that wicked man Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland? yet Warwick and Somerset both sat as judges ; who was the accuser of Somerset himself afterwards, but the same Duke of Northumberland, yet he sat as a judge upon the trial. We might go farther, and ask who was selected to preside in the trial of Northumberland, for his attempt to set aside Mary, but the Duke of Norfolk, whom Northumberland had held prisoner, and who had actually been put under further restraint, during the short reign of Queen Jane, to further his purposes, according to the testimony of Noailles, the French Ambassador ? Rapin, as is probably well known, calls Lord Burghley, and Sir Francis Wal singham, "known enemies to the Queen of Scots," and thinks, they should have been " excluded from the list of judges, as Counsellors whom the Queen must have been swayed by, in bringing Mary to trial." As to Lord Burghley's ' known enmity," the best accoupt that can be given of it, is from his own words, at the trial : when Mary challenged him, as well as Sir Francis Walsingham, as being her enemy, " Say rather," said Lord Burghley, as some report it, "I am an enemy to all Queen Elizabeth's adversaries." Sir Francis Walsingham's de fence is still more striking : " I call God," said he, " to witness, that as a private person, I have done nothing unbeseeming an honest man ; nor as I bear the place of a public person, have I done any thing unworthy of my place. I con fess, that being very careful for the safety of the Queen and. realm, I have curi- 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 279 ously searched out the practices against, the same ; if Ballard had offered me his help, I should not have refused it ; yea, I would have recompensed the pains he had taken ; if I have practised any thing with him, why did he not utter it to save his life?" surely this must be regarded as the speech of an upright, faithful, and honourable servant of the Crown. We must, however, at the same time, give Mary the credit of a most dignified reply. "With this answer," says Cam den, " she said she was satisfied : she prayed he would not be angry, that she had spoken freely what she had heard reported ; and that he would give no more credit to those that slandered her, than she did to such as accused him ; that spies were men of doubtful credit,* which dissemble one thing and speak another; and that he would in no sort believe that she had consented to the Queen's destruction;" and now again, adds the historian, she burst forth into tears : "I would never, said she, make shipwreck of my soul, by conspiring the destruction of my dearest sister." It was answered by the lawyers, that this should soon be disproved by testimony. We have been rather inadvertently induced to notice some passages of the trial ; of which we have no need to give any very circumstantial account, as it is to be read at length in Camden and in the Collection of State Trials. Camden, indeed, is regarded as the principal writer upon the subject, and the only regular reporter of the Trial. Rapin would insinuate that his account is to be received with caution."}" As soon as the trial was determined upon, Lord Burghley, who had more to do with it officially than he appears to have at all liked,J determined to take the opinion of lawyers and civilians, whose decisions upon the case may be seen * There can be very little doubt but that Mary was right in this, and that spies must be always men of doubtful credit, but still they may be necessary to detect secret conspiracies. " Those who take upon them such an office," says Rapin, " of what religion soever they be, are not usually the most honest men ; but the behaviour of the Catholics (he is speaking of the year 1 584) had made these precautions neojessary ; the knowledge of what passed among them being of the utmost consequence to the Queen." f See Life and Reign of Elizabeth, vol. ii. 150. % It plainly appears, from the correspondence of Popham, the Attorney-General; with Lord Burghley before the trial, that the latter wished to have been absent, if he could have settled it sd. In a letter addressed to Sir Edward Stafford in France, a few days only before the trial com menced, he writes : " I was never more toiled than I have been of late, and yet am, with services that here do daily multiply ; and whosoever scapeth, I am never spared* God;give me his grace." —Murdin, 570. 280 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. in Strype; but which we do not think it necessary to transcribe ; so particular however was he, in having these opinions preserved and recorded, for the con sideration and examination of after-ages, that the greatest care, it seems, was taken, to have them written out as fair as possible. [Strype, iii. 527.] The for mality of the proceedings was certainly intended to impress the public at the time, as well as posterity, with the idea that every thing was conducted accord ing to the rules of justice, though it is exceedingly certain, that many things took place very contrary to our own purer and more correct measures of juris prudence. The unhappy Queen defended herself well, and conducted herself with great dignity, but as the whole of her defence consisted in denying what others had alleged against her, and in demanding evidence, which she knew could not be produced, from the caution with which things had been carried on, it seems impossible to admit, that she stood so clear as she pretended to be of the offences laid to her charge ; particularly of having carried on a correspond ence with Babington, though indeed, as she affirmed, she had never seen the man, nor sent letters in her own hand-writing, the production of which she said was necessary to her conviction. Those who have written the history of her martyrdom, as it has been called, have not been able to deny the fact of such a correspondence, and which the conspirators seemed generally to confess; hereby this unfortunate woman did certainly afford a handle to those who had the protection of Elizabeth and the Protestant government at heart, to regard the life ofthe one Queen as incompatible with the life of the other; while in respect to the Protestant Government, as it was very soon afterwards observed in the house of Commons, " Popery was certainly the chief and prin cipal root of all these conspiracies, and the Queen of Scots a principal branch issuing from that root, and the most perilous and full of poison of all the other branches thereof, for that the Papists in very deed, for the most part not knowing the person of the said Queen of Scots, did wish the establishing of her in the crown of this realm rather in respect of Popery which she would set up, than for any affection they bore to her person, and so likewise for the most part all of them did either wish or could easily bear the death of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, though perhaps they would not shew themselves to be actors or dealers therein."* It is altogether a most melancholy story ; but as Lord Burghley had notori- * See the Speech of Mr. George Moore, in D'Ewes, p. 394. 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 281 ously so great a concern in it, .we cannot possibly turn away from it, to the hazard of leaving him without such vindication as the case may seem to admit, or allowing impressions to remain on the minds of our readers, that in truth we think him guilty of all that has been laid to his charge by the avowed advocates of Mary. What cannot be altogether defended, may yet, by dint of inquiry, be so accounted for as to shift much of the blame that has been heaped upon the individuals concerned, on the very extraordinary circumstances in which those individuals were placed. Some of Rapin's reflections upon the trial and condemnation of Mary answer so exactly to our own view of the case, that we cannot possibly refrain from transcribing them. The trial took up several days of the month of October ; and on the 25th, the Commissioners, who had, on the last day of the trial, adjourned the meeting from Fotheringay Castle to the Star Chamber, delivered their sentence, by which Mary was pro nounced guilty of having been privy to the conspiracies on foot, tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of the royal person of her Majesty the Queen of England; and of compassing and imagining divers matters tending to the same issue, " contrary to the form of the statute in the commission aforesaid specified." The wording of this sentence, as well as the very recent statute referred to, may help to explain the following very able remarks of Rapin.* " It is hardly to be questioned, that Mary's death was determined when Eliza beth and her Council resolved to have her tried by Commissioners. But it must not be imagined their intention was to punish her for attempting the life of Eliza beth. If that had been all, they never would have proceeded to extremities, but would doubtless have been satisfied with putting it out of her power to con trive any such plots for the future, which would have been easy, by confining her more closely ; but it was not so easy to hinder the Pope, the King of Spain, the House of Guise, the English Catholics, the Irish, the Scottish male-contents from considering her as a Princess to whom of right belonged the two crowns of England and Scotland, and from using their continual endeavours to restore her to the throne of Scotland, and place her on that of England, even in Eliza beth's lifetime ; though she had been so closely confined that she could not her self have been concerned in these plots, it could not have prevented her friends * We copy from a work intitled The History of the Life and Reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1740. Upon comparing it with Rapin, we have generally found them so entirely to agree, as to induce us to think that they are, in most parts, the same. VOL. III. 2 O 282 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. from acting in her favour. Nothing, therefore, but her death could break their measures, and put an end to the plots which were daily framing on her account* So it might with truth be said, that as Elizabeth's death was Mary's life* so Mary's death alone could preserve Elizabeth, and with her, liberty and the Protestant religion iii England; but as it was not likely Mary, who was the younger, should depart first out of the world by a natural death, recourse was to be had to violence, that the Queen and th.e realm might be freed from their imminent danger. The share Mary had in Babington's conspiracy, and whiqh probably was greater than what Camden intimates, was not thereforia the cause of Marys condemnation, but the pretence used to be rid of a Queen on whose life Elizabeth's adversaries built all their hopes. It is therefore Mary's own friends that occasioned her misfortune, by serving her too zealously, ar rather by making her their instrument to execute their grand projects against the Protestant religion. The Pope flattered himself with restoring, by her means* the Catholic religion in England; and the English Catholics looked upon her as the only person that could free them from the intolerable yoke of a Protestant government. Philip II. saw no other way to subdue the Netherlands. In short, the House of Guise, whose ambitious projects are well known, thought to find in her an infallible means to crush the Hugonots of France, who supported the title of the lawful heir to the crown of that kingdom."* We cannot avoid making a pause here, not so much to correct the politics of Rapin, as to add a little to their complexity, as bearing upon the politics of England, and Mary's sad fate. The Pope would probably have liked well enough to have had the Catholic religion restored in England through Mary, but not so well through Philip, especially if there were any likelihood of his obtaining the Crown of England, by anything happening to Mary, for it is well known that Sixtus Quintus hated Philip, and for the mere sake of humbling him, wished rather even to keep upon good terms with Elizabeth, so that after the death of Mary had really taken place, it has been observed, that he looked on her beheading with eyes very different from those of a zealous Pope ; and the English Catholics, through the very same hatred and dread of Philip, chose rather (Mary being gone) to bear the Protestant yoke, than change it for the Catholic yoke of the proud Spaniard. Again, Philip's object was not so much to subdue the Netherlands * Henry of Navarre. 158«.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 283 as, after recovering them, to subdue England, and for himself, through certain friends that he had in England, and who had cast off all hope of gaining their ends through Mary ; but this was not the case with the English Catholics generally. Finally, as to the House of Guise, their hopes of crushing the Hugonots through Mary,, and eventually putting aside the claims of Henry of Navarre to the throne, so much offended and disquieted their Sovereign Henry III., that, as we have before shewn, upon the testimony of a foreign writer, he rather took part with Elizabeth against Mary as a common enemy. Having added these few remarks to those of Rapin upon the affairs of Europe, we shall proceed with his very excellent reflections. " Mary herself gave too much countenance to all these plots ; she was so imprudent, as, being a prisoner, incessantly to confound two things, which could well have been distinguished and separated — I mean her liberty, and her title to the Crown of England ; she thereby gave Elizabeth occasion to con found them too, and to ruin her, in order to preserve her own life and crown. " These were the real motives of Mary's condemnation ; if we consider them politically, they may be said to be good and necessary ; but it happens very frequently, that policy is repugnant to justice and equity. Upon this condemnation it is that Elizabeth's enemies (and it might be added, Lord Burghley's) have triumphed, and, indeed, it is a fit subject for rhetoric ; but if it be considered who they were that exclaimed the loudest against Elizabeth, they will be found to be the very persons who would have murdered her to set Mary on the throne of England. Had they suceeeded in their design, would their deed have been more just, or more agreeable to the precepts of the Christian religion ? doubtless, it would, were the thing to be tried by the principles of the adver saries to Elizabeth and her religion. But if it were allowed by the laws of religion, justice, and equity, to take away the life of Elizabeth, in order to set Mary on the throne, and restore the Catholic religion in England, was it less allowable for the English to put Mary to death, in order to preserve their Queen and religion from the destruction they were continually threatened with ? let us say rather, these maxims are equally blameable, and repugnant to the rules of the Gospel, to whatever party they are applied. " Having seen the real motives of Queen Mary's condemnation, there is no great cause to wonder at the irregularities to be observed in her trial. The point was not so much to punish her for her part in the plot, as to satisfy the public that she was concerned in it ; that her condemnation might be thought 281 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1686. the less strange, or rather absolutely necessary for the safety of England. The Queen and Council believed that they had sufficient evidence, that Mary was acquainted with the conspiracy, had consented to it, and promoted the execu tion to the utmost of her power; this sufficed for their design, they knew the people would easily excuse some irregularities in ?n affair which concerned their own preservation." We cannot refrain from continuing this extract somewhat farther : — " Since, therefore, Mary's condemnation can be considered only as the effect of Elizabeth's policy, it is in vain that the following queries are put concerning her trial. I. What authority had Elizabeth over her? II. Whether Mary could be considered as subject to the laws of England, under colour that she had lived there eighteen years, being a prisoner ? III. Whether it could be said she had enjoyed during the time the protection of the laws, and be thence inferred, she ought to be liable to them ? IV. Whether, even upon such a supposition, she had enjoyed, in her trial, the benefit of the laws of England? V. Whether she was tried by her Peers, according to the constant and immu table privilege of the English ? VI. Who could be her Peers ? VII. Whether Elizabeth's commission was according to law ? VIII. Whether the formalities requisite in a trial of this nature were observed ? IX. Whether she can be said to have been legally convicted, by the testimony of persons that were dead, and whom it lay in Elizabeth's breast to keep alive and bring face to face ? X. Whether the evidence of her Secretaries, who were still alive, could be deemed valid, without being confronted, contrary to express acts of Parliament ? XI. Whether a captive Queen's consent to the invasion of a kingdom where she is unjustly detained, is a crime worthy of death? XII. Whether the letters in cipher writ by her Secretaries, were a sufficient proof that the whole contents were known to her? XIII. Supposing she had given a full and entire consent to the plot, whether the manner of her being detained in England, her long confinement, the loss of her kingdom,, procured partly by Elizabeth's secret practices, did not merit that her crime should be reckoned of a different nature from that of a subject, who conspires against his Sovereign ? I do not think it possible to vindicate Elizabeth upon each of these queries ; we must, therefore, keep to the necessity she was under of destroying Mary to save herself, and justify her by the natural law of self-preservation, the only one that can be pleaded in her favour." This is, indeed, the best excuse that can be alleged in vindication of Queen 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 285 Elizabeth. Accordingly, Dr. Welwood observes, " that every day produced some new conspiracy against the life of Queen Elizabeth, and that, in most of them, the Queen of Scots was concerned, either as a party, or the occasion. Queen Elizabeth was put under a fatal necessity of either taking off the Queen of Scots, or of exposing her own person to the frequent attempts of her enemies." Du Maurier also expressly says, " that Queen Mary was the cause of her own ruin, by her restless temper, and her repeated designs against Queen Elizabeth's life : for Queen Mary's friends would never suffer her to be quiet, but were eternally plotting and contriving, bribing and conspiring, how to murder Queen Elizabeth, and to set up the Queen of Scots in her stead, to restore their beloved Popery here in England." The whole of this account agrees so much with our own view of the subject, that we have nothing more to say. We have been desirous of repeating the queries* (which the author thinks are needless), because they will, we know, be judged by many to relate quite as much to Lord Burghley as to Elizabeth, and perhaps more, since he seems to have arranged every thing with the Attorney and Solicitor General previous to the trial ; and, after the trial, to have been the person chosen to open the business to the House of Lords, upon the summoning ofthe Parliament for the express purpose : it being found expedient to call it together previously to the day to which it had been originally prorogued. It was on the 29th of October that it met, instead of the 14th of November, the day originally fixed ; and, to take the account of Sir Simon D'Ewes, as it is * We must again refer to Mr. Turner's account, which we had not seen when the above was written. Those who are at all aware how impossible it is for any two writers of history, unknown to each other, and in distant places, to examine exactly the same books, or draw their conclu sions from exactly the same premises, will be disposed to allow for the satisfaction we have .derived from finding that, in the view we have taken of this disastrous affair, as the biographers of Lord Burghley, we have, as to the main facts, the full concurrence of so diligent and able an historian as Mr. Turner ; and, as a subsequent corroboration (as to us it really is), of the impartial decision of our own judgment on the case, we very anxiously refer to it. More especially as Mr. Turner has gone farther than we could presume to do~into the question of the legality of the proceedings adopted. There is, in the British Museum, a curious MS. written by George Puttenham, " To the service of her Majesty, and for large satisfaction of all such persons, both princely and private,who, by ignorance of the case, or partiality of mind, shall happen to be ighorant, or not well satisfied in the said cause," viz. of Mary Queen of Scots. It is written learnedly, and intended to prove not only the legality of her detention, but of her condemnation and execution : her treason against Elizabeth being in the highest degree of loesa Majestas ; but we do not apprehend that his arguments would be generally accounted valid. 286 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. to be found in his Journal, it was assembled on purpose to review the pro ceedings against the Queen of Scots, whose trial and attainder he twice calls most just and honourable. That it appeared so to him, therefore, cannot be doubted, yet, we must confess, we had much rather waive all unnecessary inquiries into that part of the subject, and resolve it all, with Rapin and Welwood, into a case of self-preservation and state necessity. The opinions of those, however, who were in the way of passing their judgment upon it at the time, ought certainly to outweigh any modern opinions, formed more than two centuries after the transactions, and greatly liable to be disturbed by the extraordinary interest the subject is known to have excited in all sensible and feeling minds ; but especially since the appearance of certain books, written expressly on the side of Mary, to exonerate her, not only from all charges of a criminal nature, but, as it would seem, from all charges of a moral nature, and to represent her to have been altogether as pure,* as faultless, as amiable, and as beneficent, as, in the estimation of these writers, her judges and accusers, and her great rival, Elizabeth, were otherwise. The trial over, and the sentence passed, the approval and execution of that sentence rested, as it would appear, with the Parliament and the Queen. The Lords and Commons were expected to decide upon the proofs adduced on the trial, the justice of the sentence, and finally upon the necessity of carrying that sentence into execution ; and, certainly, to read the many reasons adduced by the Speaker of the House of Commons, whereby he sought to persuade the Queen to execute the sentence, might incline the most sceptical to believe * There are, in the possession of Lord Bagot, some very curious letters, written principally by Sir Amias Poulet to his Lordship's ancestor, Mr. Richard Bagot, as a Magistrate for the county of Stafford, commissioned, with others, by the court, to provide for the supply and defence ofthe castles of Tutbury, Fotheringay, &c. during the last years of Mary's confinement. On the back of one of those letters, in a hand- writing to all appearance of the same age and date, are four Latin verses, which, to say the least, give no very favourable views of the moral character of Mary ; and strongly incline us to believe that those who have attempted to depreciate the character of Elizabeth, by too highly extolling that of her rival, have gone contrary to the opinions entertained of both, by the generality of their contemporaries. The verses certainly need not be transcribed ; we mention them only as a sort of collateral proof that Mary's reputation did not suffer so much as some would pretend, from merely fabricated and malicious charges. In the above verses, the name of Messalina is applied to the Scottish Queen, intending, we apprehend, a comparison, not with the wife of Claudius of that name, but with her who married Nero, her former husband's murderer, Statilia Messalina. The verses, however, we are sorry to say, would apply to either. 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 287 that the dangers represented as likely to ensue, from allowing Mary to live, were so indisputable, as to gain easy credit with the public at large, at least as far as is set forth in the first three short articles, viz. 1 . " Your Majesties person cannot any while be safe." 2. " The religion cannot long endure among us." 3. " The most flourishing present state of this realm must shortly receive a woeful fall," i. e. in case execution ofthe sentence be not done. Had the speaker stopped here, he would have said sufficient to make out the case of self-preservation, on which alone we should wish to rest our cause as the biographers of Lord Burghley, who seems to have been anxious to give as much publicity to the proceedings as possible, not like a man who sought to evade, but rather to submit the case to the judgment of posterity; not foreseeing, perhaps, that a more enlightened posterity might look more to the irregularities of the legal processes, than to the urgency of the case. As to those processes, however, it is exceedingly certain, that, as far as Lord Burghley was concerned, the trial, sentence, and execution of Mary were severally submitted to the judges and great law officers of the Queen, to the ablest civilians, and finally, to the Parliament, as we have shewn ; * so that if it were such a deliberate murder as the partisans of Mary pretend, the whole nation ought to share the blame with Elizabeth and her great Minister, who, after all, we believe to have been at variance upon the subject, as we shall endeavour to shew under the year when the sad and heavy sentence was actually executed. The speaker's reasons for pressing upon the Queen the necessity of putting the sentence in execution are many, and are printed by D'Ewes, from a memo rial in his (the speaker's) own hand-writing ; nor does D'Ewes himself scruple to call them " excellent and solid reasons ; " and we trust that they were really thought so at the time, considering that they, in fact, decided the fate of the unhappy Queen of Scots, and that as a case of national and political self-pre servation, and not of idolatry, as some of the reasons would imply, and which must have been plainly suggested by certain who had drunk deep ofthe springs of Geneva; wishing to persuade the Queen to be careful of shewing mercy, least she should incur the displeasure of the Almighty, as Saul had done by sparing Agag, and Ahab by sparing Benhadad. These Helvetian principles, if we may call them so, were surely unnecessary as stimulants.. They mark indeed * In this Parliament, the Queen did not choose to make her appearance.; but was represented by three Commissioners, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Treasurer, and the Lord Steward, the Earl of Derby. 288 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586 the horror and dread with which some viewed the possibility of a return to Popery, and of the reign of a second Mary; but the real question, we trust, was a very different one ; if not, Elizabeth might be judged to have spared Mary too long, and to have already incurred the displeasure of Heaven for not having before followed the advice of her Commons, when, upon similar grounds, they would have hastened the measures now at last resorted to, If from the argu ments and reasons thus alluded to, we separate those that may be said to repre sent the matter as a case of state necessity, there certainly are many very striking and cogent, and, as it seems to us, from what we know of the history of the times, exceedingly true. We will, with as much brevity as possible, transcribe a few of the heads. " Both she (the Q. of Scots) and her favourers think that she hath right, not to succeed, but to enjoy your crown in possession. " She affirmeth it lawful to move invasion : therefore, as of invasion victory may ensue, and of victory the death of the vanquished, so doth she not obscurely profess it lawful to destroy you. " She is greedy of your death, and preferreth it before her own life ; for in her late direction to some of her complices, she willed, whatsoever became of her, the tragical execution should be performed on you.* " There is by so much the more danger to your Majesty's person since the sentence than before, by how much it behoveth them that would preserve her or advance her, to hasten your death now or never, before execution done upon her ; as knowing that you and none else can give direction for her death ; and that by your death the sentence hath lost the force of execution, and otherwise they should come too late, if they take not the present oppor tunity to help her. [There was certainly so much truth in this, as to induce us very strongly to * Alluding, probably, to her letter to Sir Francis Englefield, an English exile and pensioner of Spain, wherein, at the very time that she was negotiating with Elizabeth, Mary was imprudent enough to write, " Of the treaty between the Queen of England and me, I may neither hope nor look for good issue ; whatsoever shall become of me, by whatsoever change of my state and con dition, let the execution of the Great Plot go forward, without any respect of peril or danger to me." We shall see that this great plot did go forward after her death, and may "therefore judge how deeply implicated Elizabeth really was, as the victim in view, though her death altered the whole case with regard to Philip, who flattered himself too much with the hopes of wearing the English Crown in his own right. 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY, 289 believe that Elizabeth's reluctance to sign the warrant was sincere : but of this we shall have more to say hereafter.] " Her friends hold invasion unprofitable while you live, and therefore, in their opinion, your death is first and principally to be sought, as the most compendious way to ruin the realm by invasion." [We have explained this elsewhere.] " While she shall live, the enemies of the state will hope and gape after your death." " Since the sparing of her in the fourteenth year of your reign, Popish traitors and Recusants have multiplied exceedingly ; and if you spare her now again, they will grow both innumerable and invincible also." " Mercy in this case would, in the end, prove cruelty against us all ; nam est quadam crudelis misericordia : and therefore to save her, is to spoil us." Then follow many passages of scripture arguments, which, for reasons above given, we omit ; but shall add the conclusion, to shew how many important interests were judged to be at stake by the members of the legislature. " Therefore, we pray you, for the cause of God, his Church, this realm, our selves and yourself, that you will not longer be careless of your life, our sovereign safety, nor longer suffer religion to be threatened, the realm to stand in danger, nor us to dwell in fear ; but as justice hath given rightful sentence, &c. so you will grant execution ; that as her life threateneth your death, so her death may, by God's favour, prolong your life." We are sorry to say, from this time the Queen is judged to have acted with extreme dissimulation, even by Rapin, who otherwise, as we have shewn, appears to us to have accounted for what came to pass in fhe best manner possible. We are under no necessity of vindicating the Queen's conduct, but we are certainly under no obligation to suppress our own opinion of the case. Rapin and other authors seem to think that the whole process ofthe trial, and even the proceedings of Parliament, were designed to give a colour to Elizabeth's resentments, and that, in fact, so far from feeling any real reluctance to execute the sentence, she wished for nothing so much. But we are very much inclined to believe, that she felt great reluctance to make it an act of her own. That though quite aware of the crisis to which things were brought, and fully satisfied that Mary's life was more than ever likely to be her death, she had a repugnance to the shedding of her blood on a scaffold ; and that after all feeling for the woman was past she felt for the Queen, and had rather she would have fallen by any hand but her own. This, indeed, is not saying much for her, perhaps quite the vol. in. 2 P 290 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586. contrary, but it has a bearing upon our history which we shall endeavour to explain. It has always struck us, as an extraordinary circumstance, that in aggravation of the many heavy imputations cast upon Elizabeth for her extreme cruelty towards Mary, her eighteen years' imprisonment should seem, with some, to be the most condemning proof of all ; an instance irrefragable of most inveterate malice and unrelenting persecution ; whereas we do in our conscience believe that, except for Elizabeth, she would never have lived so long. When she first came to England, she must have been an object of the greatest embarrassment possible to Elizabeth and her Ministers. We have shewn before what a variety of cases presented themselves to the consideration ofthe Government, as the probable results either of her release or her detention ; but with regard to Elizabeth herself, and the religious struggles on foot, which could not fail to divide her subjects, and weaken the allegiance of many amongst them, it was like having two Queens of England presented to their notice and observation, Within the very confines of her own settled dominions. Nor was it long before this was manifested, in the rebellion of 1569, and had Elizabeth been prevailed upon to admit Mary farther into the kingdom, by granting the personal interviews she so often solicited, there is no saying to what extremities even that early movement in her behalf might have proceeded; while it is scarcely to be doubted, that if at that time she had been given up to Murray, or rather to the zealots, not to say fanatics, of that party, Elizabeth would have heard little more of her. We are sorry to say, her fate had been denounced in Scotland from the very pulpits. We have seen that in no long time after this, and in consequence of the dan gers that seemed to threaten all Protestant countries, on the breaking out of the horrible plot at Paris, the Queen's Council, apprehending the presence of Mary in England to be no longer compatible with the safety of the State, or of the Queen, actually wished to, have the application for her delivery renewed, which had been previously made to Elizabeth by the Regent's and King's party in Scot land. A case so exceedingly revolting to our own improved feelings, that we should not think of reviving the recollection of it, but to prove these two points, first, that though the danger to England was judged to be so great, of keeping her here, even under restraint, yet there was then no idea entertained of bring ing her to trial, much less of putting her to death, to gratify the jealousies or resentments of Elizabeth, though she certainly was intriguing against her at that very time. When indeed her intrigues, through Ridolphi, were discovered, 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 291 the Parliament took the case up, and earnestly besought Elizabeth to take prompt measures to rid herself of her great rival ; yet these addresses had not the effect of bringing things to the crisis contemplated, though it very clearly appears from many letters extant, that Elizabeth was judged by some of her wisest Statesmen to have overlooked her own great danger, and neglected the advice of those who were seriously anxious for her preservation. And even in this last case, after the forms of a trial had been gone through, and a sentence pronounced, and even a parliamentary address delivered to her to put that sen tence in execution, we still find her hesitating, though indeed what she had been told by the Speaker of the House of Commons could scarcely fail to be true, namely, that her danger was greatly increased by that sentence as long as it was suffered to remain unexecuted. These things induce us to think, that Elizabeth had a repugnance to the taking away the life of Mary, if it could have been avoided, and that there was not altogether so much dissimulation in the answers she made to the Parliament (preserved by Camden), as some have been led to think. Some parts of these answers are very fine, and seem certainly to us not to be merely declamatory. " I am not more deeply bound to give God thanks for any one thing than for this ; namely, that as I came to the crown with the hearty good-will of all my subjects, so now, after twenty-eight years' reign, I perceive in them the same, if not greater affection towards me — and now, though my life has been dangerously shot at, yet I protest there is nothing hath grieved me more, than that one who differs not from me in sex, one of like quality and degree, of the same race and stock, and so nearly related to me in blood, should fall into so great a misdemeanor." — " For your sakes it is, and for my people, that I desire to live ; as for me, I see no such great reason (accord ing as I have led my life) why I should either be fond to live or fear to die. , I have had good experience of i is world; I have known what it is to be a sub ject, and I now know what it is to be a sovereign. Good neighbours I have had, and I have met with bad ; and in trust I have found treason. I have be stowed benefits upon ill-deservers ; and where I have done well, I have been ill requited and spoken of. While I call to mind these things past, behold things present, and look forward towards things to come, I count them happiest that go hence soonest." — " We princes are set as it were upon an height in the sight and view of all the world; the least spot is soon spied in our garments ; the smallest blemish presently observed in us at a great distance. It is not long since these eyes of mine saw and read an oath wherein some bound themselves to kill me 292 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1586, within a month." [On the 8th of October, after the Commissioners were gone to Fotheringay, Davison wrote to Lord Burghley, to beg him to advise her Majesty to be more circumspect of her person, for he had just seen a Dutchman newly come from Paris, who told him that the jeweller of the Queen Mother there, whom he knew, advised her Majesty to beware of one that would present a petition to her on her way to chapel or in her walks.] In her second answer we find also the following passages : " Very unpleasing is that way, where the setting out, progress, and journey 's-end yield nothing but trouble and vexation." — " I have not been so careful how to prolong mine own life, as how to preserve both hers and mine ; which that it is now impossi ble to do, I am heartily troubled. I am not so void of sense and judgment as not to see mine own danger before mine eyes ; nor so indiscreet as to sharpen a sword to cut mine own throat ; nor so egregiously careless, as not to provide for the safety of mine own life." — " If I should say I will not do what you request, I might say perhaps more than I intend : and if I should say I will dp it, I might plunge myself into as bad inconveniences as you endeavour to pre serve me from ; which I am confident your wisdoms and discretions would not that I should, if ye consider the circumstances of place, time, and the manners and conditions of men." We cannot see why Elizabeth is never to be believed in a case of such un doubted perplexity, trouble, and personal danger. That she was at length persuaded that one of the two, must fall, is not to be doubted ; nor that she would have been glad to have had the execution of the public sentence anticipated by private hands ; for it is notorious, that she has incurred the blame of tempting Mary's keepers to end the business by assassina tion, a most horrible sounding charge to modern ears. But even in this in stance, we may well wonder, that in that depraved and dreadfully cruel age, and when Elizabeth is but too credibly supposed to have had an assassin at her right hand, in the person „ of Leicester, she should have allowed so many as eighteen years to pass, without resort to a remedy so capable of concealment, and, in those strange and contentious times, so common. That Elizabeth must have known that she had neglected opportunities, almost put in her way, of hastening the catastrophe which at last overtook her royal competitor, seems plain from one, of the last messages she ever sent to Mary. In a letter to Sir Amyas Poulet, after her removal to Fotheringay, we find this passage : "And bid her from me ask God forgiveness for her treacherous 1586.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 29.3 dealing towards the saver of her life many years, to the intolerable peril of her own." We have some occasion to touch upon these things before we proceed to the sad conclusion of this dismal tragedy, as among the earliest transactions of the ensuing year.* * It appears to have been at this time that the celebrated antiquary and historian, Camden, published the first edition of his Britannia, which he dedicated to Lord Burghley, with great ac knowledgments not only of his kindnesses, but of the assistance he had afforded him, and for the use of his library. Other dates have been assigned to the first-edition ofthe Britannia, but his dedication is dated May 2, 1586. — See Biographia Britannica, art. Camden, Note D. We cannot help expressing our surprise that, at the beginning of the article, Camden should be spoken of as one of the most impartial historians this country ever produced. If he were so in intention, he certainly suffered himself to be misled, or overruled, as to some points, as seems indeed now to be pretty generally admitted. CHAP. XIV. 1587. Twenty-ninth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1586. Sentence passed upon Mary— Answers to the French Ambassadors— L' Aubespine— Master of Gray— Of Elizabeth's conduct— Of Henry HI.— Account of Elixabefh's signing Mary's death-warrant— Davison— Execution of Mary— Of Elizabeth, Lord Burghley, andJJavi- son, with regard to Mary— Davison sent to the Tower— Further account of Davison— Pas sage from a letter of James to Elizabeth— Davison's memorials— Lord Burghley's letter to Elizabeth after his disgrace— Lord Burghley returns to Court— Absents himself again for some time— Maxims noted down by Lord Burghley on hisfirst disgrace— Of James— Mary's will and letter to Sixtus V.— Of James and Philip— On the Spanish Armada and London merchant — Sir Francis Drake's letter to Lord Burghley on the Spanish Armada — Pre cautions taken throughout England— Letters from Bishops Howland and Herbert to Lord Burghley— Travers, Hooker, Whitgift, fyc. — Mr. Lane's Discourses— Letters from Ox ford and Cambridge to Lord Burghley — Lambard the Lawyer — Popish libel on Lord Bu'i-ghley, and vindication of him in answer— Of Lord Burghley and Leicester — Death of the Duchess of Somerset — Lord Oxford — Lord Burghley's letter to him — Inscription on a tomb at Stamford. The sentence upon Mary was agreed to in the Star Chamber, in a meeting of all the Commissioners except the Earls of Shrewsbury and Warwick (absent through sickness), and Sir Amyas Poulet, on the 25th of October, 1586, " after Nawe and Curie," as Camden relates, " had upon oath, vivd voce, voluntarily, without hope or reward, avowed, affirmed, and justified, all and every the letters and copies of letters before produced to be true and real.'1 It was confirmed also by the seals and subscriptions of the several Commissioners ;* but in con- * Camden is wrong in saying all the Commissioners except the Earls of Shrewsbury and War wick, and Poulet, were present ; Leicester was absent, and Secretary Davison. — See Nicolas's Life of Davison, 50. Both these latter, indeed, were absent from the Trial; and perhaps Camden meant no more than that all the Commissioners who attended the trial were present at the draw ing up of the sentence ; about thirty-six out of forty-two appear to have attended the trial. Lord Shrewsbury, who was bond fide prevented attending, on the passing the sentence, by illness, wrote to Lord Burghley to express his concern at being absent, begging him to subscribe his name ; and 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 295 sequence of the interposition of I'Aubeopine, the French Ambassador (of whom we shall have more to say soon), the sentence was not published before the 21st of December. In the proclamation to this purpose, the Queen seriously pro tested that this publication was extorted from her, to the exceeding grief of her mind, hy a kind of necessity, and at the earnest prayers and intreaties of the estates of the realm : " though," adds Camden, " there were some that thought this to proceed from the art and guise of women, who, though they desire a thing never so much, yet will always seem rather to be constrained and forced to it." That Elizabeth, to use as plain terms as possible, did by this time heartily wish Mary removed, we would not be supposed to doubt ; we believe she was thoroughly sensible of the crisis to which things were arrived, and should there fore have spared her servants and herself the disgrace of a transaction unac countably strange, but which must be brought forward, in all its circumstances, as greatly implicating the subject of this memoir. If the catastrophe could have been avoided, with perfect safety to herself, we still think there was a reluctance on her part to have Mary executed. Had she died any other death, it would have been a relief to her to have been spared the signing with her own hand the fatal death-warrant. This led her undoubtedly to postpone it, till some of her most faithful servants became uneasy for her safety, at a moment when in truth every hour may be said to have increased her danger, and threatened a fresh convulsion,* to save her competitor, standing on the very verge of the grave ; even sending his seal up, to have it used on the occasion. This is quite remarkable, considering how much he must have seen and known of Mary, and is a great proof that we really know nothing ofthe constitution of men's minds in those remarkable times. — See Lodge's Illustrations, &c. vol. ii. No. ccvii. p. 333. See also the same Lord's Letter to his son, Lord Talbot, No. ccviii. * The following occurs among the answers given to the Memorial of the French Ambassadors suing for Mary's Ufe to be spared — " Whether the Queen's safety would be exposed to greater dangers, she being executed (as the Ambassadors had pleaded), depended upon future accidents and contingencies. The estates of England, upon serious deliberation of the matter, thought otherwise. There would never be occasions wanting for bad attempts, especially when the affair was come to that pass, that the one had no hope of safety unless the other were ruined ; and this must often come into their minds aut ego illam, aut ilia me, i. e. either I must take away her life, or she will take away mine." It has often been supposed, that had Elizabeth been at all dis posed to release Mary, she had had sufficient securities repeatedly offered in the way of oaths, promises, hostages, &c. &c. : — but it was not ill-observed by her Parliament, that Elizabeth's death alone would cancel all such 'obligations ; and against that, in the then circumstances of- 296 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. and in truth, that no such disturbance took place, is a sort of proof that the sub jects of Elizabeth were generally disposed to take her part, though, as she had herself observed in one of her answers to the Parliament, " Many a man would hazard his own life to save the life of a Princess,"— an expression diversely un^ derstood and interpreted, but which must have implied, that Mary was in a situation to find defenders, as well as herself. Such a turn has been given to this speech by writers whom we could name, that we must run the chance of being accounted dupes, to fancy that there could be a grain of sincerity in it. But if it be thought that Elizabeth really meant to express, that at this time she wished to save her rival's life, we think she is misrepresented ; she appears cer tainly to have wished not to be in that very situation that should render her order for the execution quite indispensable. Great and very public rejoicings indeed had taken place amongst the lower orders of people, as well as the-middle classes, not only on the first detection of Babington's conspiracy, as giving se curity to the Queen's person, which they felt to be in danger, but at the very time of the proclamation of the sentence against Mary. These were certainly marks of a popular anxiety about her far from equivocal ; but her difficulty about signing the warrant, and her very extraordinary conduct after she had signed it, have something in them surpassing our skill to explain. The fact was, to speak politically, either necessary or unnecessary ; if unnecessary, she should not have hesitated to withhold the warrant; if necessary, the nation, through its representatives, had taken the burthen on themselves, and might have been looked to as having fairly exonerated the Queen from all blame in signing the warrant ; and upon such a sanction she should nave done it, without leaving others to incur any blame in executing her orders ; but the course she pursued was far otherwise. Europe, no sufficient security could be devised. To the same tenor is the following answer to the Ambassadors :— " That the French King could neither discover nor hinder secret plots against himself at home — much less was he likely to hinder those against Elizabeth ; for treason is plotted in secret, and therefore hard to be prevented. [This might well serve for the French King, (re-' presented by M. Pompon de Bellieme,) and who is judged to have secretly wished for Mary's death ; to M. VAubespine, the other minister of the Guisian party, the following was more suited.] " That the obligations and oaths of the Guises were of small value, who judged it meritorious to kill the Bishop of Rome's adversaries, and could very easily procure dispensations for their oaths. And what Englishmen, if Elizabeth were slain, and the Queen of Scots, of the House of Guise, advanced to the Crown, durst accuse them of the murder ? And if any should accuse them, could they thereby make her live again." 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 297 In the meanwhile, we ought perhaps to observe, that between the sentence and the execution, the Kings of France and Scotland sent Ambassadors to solicit Elizabeth to spare Mary's life ; but of these embassies, to continue our extract from Burnet, we may now venture to give the following account. " It is true King James sent one Stuart, the ancestor of the Lord Blantyre, who was then of his bed-chamber, with an earnest and threatening message to Queen Elizabeth for saving his Mother, but in one of the intercepted letters of the French Ambassador, then in Scotland, found amongst Walsing- ham's papers, it appears, that the King, young as he was then, was either very double, or very inconstant in his resolutions. The French Ambassador assured him, that Stuart had advised the Queen to put a speedy end to that business which way she pleased, and that as for his master's anger, he would soon be pacified, if she would but send him dogs and deer. The King was so offended at this, that he said he would hang him up in his boots as soon as he came back ; yet when he came back, it was so far from that, that he lay all that night in the bed-chamber." * We have told this story as Burnet tells it, not so much for the sake of the anecdote, true or not, but to shew, what was indisputably the case, not only that Elizabeth was far from being the only dissembler, but that whatever formal embassies might be sent to her at this critical moment, either from Scotland or France, she was in the way of receiving secret and private encouragement, directly opposite to the purport of those embassies. Robertson tells the same story ofthe Master of Gray, that Burnet tells of Stuart; Gray was commissioned by James, together with Sir Robert Melvil, to make proposals to Elizabeth, and if that would not do, to remonstrate warmly with her upon the step she was about to take ; " but Gray," says the historian, " with his usual perfidy, de ceived his master, who trusted him with a negotiation of so much importance, and betrayed the Queen whom he was employed to save : he encouraged and urged Elizabeth to execute the sentence against her rival ; he often repeated the * It is scarcely to be expected that James could feel for a Mother whom he can scarcely be said ever to have seen, as others would feel for such a near relation; but it appears from some letters printed by Mr. Ellis, how much his mind did run upon horses, dogs, and deer, only three months after the execution of Mary, and how ready he was in that very year to take Elizabeth's money. See Original Letters, 2d Series, iii. Letter ccxxvi. Two things however we must give him credit for as matters of feeling, viz. the demolishing of Fotheringay Castle, and the erecting to the memory of his unfortunate mother, the sumptuous monument still to be seen in Westminster Abbey, VOL. III. 2 Q 298 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. L1587- old proverbial sentence, " The dead cannot bite," and whatever should happen, he undertook to pacify the King's, rage, or at least to prevent any violent effects of his resentment."* Rapin, who gives James much more credit for the state of his feelings, than is the case with Burnet, says, " The King of Scots, with singular piety, endeavoured to the utmost of his power to save his mother, but all to no purpose, for that the Scots were at variance among themselves, and more favoured Queen Elizabeth than the captive Queen, insomuch as some of them secretly solicited Queen Elizabeth by letters to hasten her execution, and the Scottish Ministers being commanded by the King to commend his mother's safety to God in the Kirks, they refused to do so, such was their hatred to the religion she professed." But let us hear what was the case with regard to France, according to Burnet: f " As for the pompous embassy that was sent from France to protest against it, Maurier has told a very probable story of Henry III. writing a letter to the Queen, advising her to proceed with all haste to do that which the Embassy was sent to prevent. He saw the House of Guise built a great part of their hopes on the prospect of their Cousin's coming to the throne of England, which would cut off the hopes the House of Bourbon had of assistance from England. I have seen an original letter of the Earl of Leicester's to the Earl of Bedford, who had married his sister, and was then Governor of Berwick, telling him that how high soever the French Ambassadors had talked in their harangues upon that occasion, calling any proceedings against the Queen of Scots an open indignity, as well as an act of hostility against France, since she was Queen Dowager of France, yet all this was only matter of form and decency, that was extorted from the King of France, and how high soever they might talk, they were well assured he would do nothing upon it." * In Lodge's Illustrations of British History, vol. ii. p. 330. No. ccv., there is a letter to be seen, from the Master of Gray, lo Archibald Douglas, in which the former expressly says, "But if matters might stand well between the Queen's Majesty there, and our Sovereign [James], I care not although she [Mary] were out of the way." This Master of Gray was certainly Very trea cherous, and yet he appears to have been a great favourite with Sir Philip Sidney, that " Prince of Gentlemen," as Sir Fulke Greville, his great friend, calls him, Lodge, ii. 337. t We are obliged, in justice to Lord Burghley, to refer to the historians of former times, and to tell the story as it was told before the modern advocates of Mary appeared upon the stage ; who, in their eager zeal, have sought violently to overthrow every evidence that has been found to stand in their way, and which, therefore, in a work like the present, heed to be revived. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 299 There was indeed one French Minister, who took Mary's part very strenu ously; we mean L'Aubespine, Ambassador Extraordinary (as Rapin calls him), a man wholly devoted to the Guisian party ; he, supposing it to be best to provide for the captive Queen's safety, not by arguments, but by artificial and bad practices, by endeavouring to destroy Queen Elizabeth, was detected in tampering with many persons to that end, and thereby rather hastened than retarded the fatal catastrophe.* When all these things are duly considered, and made to take their proper place in the winding up of this sad tragedy, really we cannot feel great surprise that Elizabeth (of whose spirit and temper there is no dispute) should think it hard that her hand must be made to strike the blow, which so many others, some on public grounds, but many for merely private and selfish ends, wished stricken as much as herself. In her, it might be as easily construed into personal apprehension, asx womanly resentment, and affect her character in both ways ; whereas she was notoriously fearless upon such occasions, to such a degree, indeed, as almost to provoke her Ministers, who had always a difficulty to persuade her of her danger. As to her resentments, she by no means concealed them at last ; but might well be provoked by the deceitful embassies of Mary's pretended friends, tending only to aggravate the horror of her putting her accomplished relative to death, though wishing her to do it all the while. Leicester is said absolutely to have proposed poison on this great emergency, and to have sent a divine to Walsingham to persuade him it was lawful ;f and Elizabeth, as the deed seemed to be quite decided, might, in such days as those were, very possibly feel that some of Leicester's associators, at least, might save her from what she so repeatedly seems to have wished to avoid, namely, that of * See a full account of this in Camden and Rapin. It was at Cecil House that the Ambas sador was charged with these practices, which he would have retorted on his accusers, but failed. He then would have pleaded his privilege, but was told by Burghley that no privilege would cover treason against the Prince's person. He next contended, that, though he might know of such a plot, he was, as an Ambassador, only bound to reveal it to his own Master ; but was answered by Burghley, that whatever he might be bound to do as an Ambassador, it was clearly the duty of a Christian to repel and hinder all such injuries. — See also Bishop Carleton's Thankful Remembrancer. f Mackenzie's Lives of Scotch Writers, cited by Mr. Nicolas, in his Life of Davison. In Scott's History of Scotland, it is affirmed that the Master of Gray confessed before the Council at Edinburgh, 1587, that he, finding Elizabeth resolved to take away the Queen's life, had con sented to her opinion of taking her off in some private manner, rather than do it by form of justice ; and that he had spoken the words attributed to him, Mortui non mordent. 300 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. having the whole " weight thrown on herself." When so many, for various ends and purposes, not in her own court only, but in foreign countries, seemed absolutely to desire the death of her particular rival and competitor, she might reasonably enough wish not to be made the very instrument of their concealed and dissembled purposes, when the very circumstances of the known competition between the two Queens were likely to make the case appear entirely personal on her part, coupled with all the ignominy, besides, of having, as a Queen herself, sent another Queen to the scaffold. Elizabeth is, in many books, so unsparingly, and so inconsiderately, blamed, on this truly sad occasion, as though she were almost the only enemy and persecutor of Mary — the only unfeeling person — the only dissembler — the only being upon earth directly interested in her death — that we could not refrain from looking a little farther into the story than is commonly the case, not, as we have often before said, with the hope, much less the desire, of weakening any existing impressions in favour of Mary; but of accounting, more par ticularly and circumstantially, for what really passed on the- occasion, and to shew what inextricable perplexities stood in the way of those who are still accused of doing wrong. Wrong, indeed, we must confess they did, but it was to prevent wrong ; and though this be at best but a political principle, yet it deserves to be inquired, before we heap blame indiscriminately upon any individual of those days, who was there that went right, or could go quite right,. without the hazard of such sacrifices, as, in temporal concerns, it would be almost an infatuation to look for or expect ? It is well that we live in better times; but Lord Burghley lived, we think, in the very worst of times, when the most spiteful struggle was on foot that ever disturbed the world ; when Papists were conscientiously savage in upholding their religion, and the reformed, in their opposition to Popery, had not yet had time to become essentially reformed ; when a settled system of dissimulation in most of the courts of Europe had absolutely destroyed all confidence, and when there was found to be more security in craft, than in swords and shields.* * The perfidiousness of this age is quite extraordinary ; originating, probably, with those self- acknowledged dissemblers, Louis XI. of France and Ferdinand of Spain. An ingenious writer, willing to apologise for this foible in Catherine de Medicis and our Queen Elizabeth, remarks, " It ought at least to be observed, that in mistaking the excess of falsehood for the perfection of address, and the triumphs of cunning for the master-pieces of public wisdom, they did but partake the error of the ablest male politicians of that age of statesmen." — Aikin's Court of Queen Elizabeth, i. 452. 1587.J MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 30J We have shewn that there were some weighty reasons for Elizabeth wishing to avoid, if possible, the making the death of Mary so immediately her own act and deed as the signing her death-warrant could not fail to be. History seems decidedly to shew, that she had, in her great repugnance to this last measure, and probably through the immediate suggestions of Leicester, suffered her feel ings to be so worked upon, as to look to the dreadful alternative of private assas sination, as a more desirable termination of the whole business.* At all events, there was, at the least, a more dignified course to pursue, in allowing the sentence, at the unanimous request of the two Houses of Parlia ment, to be carried into execution. Elizabeth certainly should have seen this, and acted accordingly ; and having done so, rested satisfied ; but she signed the warrant, without having fully reconciled her mind to a measure she so much wished to avoid, and those who were only guilty of taking her at her wordt Were made to suffer for it, Lord Burghley being one; but her conduct to Mr. Davison must appear to have been highly unbecoming, and should be placed, perhaps, to the account of that capriciousness of disposition which often led her into great errors, and which in an arbitrary Sovereign is constantly to be dreaded. No man suffered more, perhaps, in this way than Davison ; he had * Whoever will be at the pains to look into Daniel's History of France, may see with what extraordinary confidence and cool deliberation Henry III., two years after the death of Mary, projected the assassination of the Duke of Guise, and his brother, the Cardinal ; how he called upon those around him to prove their loyalty by engaging themselves to perpetrate the act, or procure it to be done, and how soon he succeeded in finding an assassin to answer his purposes. We do not bring this forward in excuse of Elizabeth, but to mark the extraordinary character of the times. It is something to say in praise of our countrymen, that no assassin could be found ; and yet Sir Amias Poulet, who disdained the proposal made to him to become such, sat upon the trial of Mary, and judged her to be worthy of death. It was not, therefore, the sacrifice of her life upon which he hesitated, but the mode of dispatching her; and, indeed, it is extra ordinary that her execution passed off so quietly. Henry III. lost his throne and his life in con sequence of the murder of the Guises, but Mary's death, which her advocates to this day call a murder (and we forgive them for thinking it such), made Elizabeth more secure than ever ; surely this must have been from a feeling, a public and pretty general feeling, that it was entirely in self-defence ; Henry's was so also perhaps, but he preferred assassination, because he did not dare to subject the Duke of Guise to arfy.form of trial. Henry was execrated for what he had done, and denounced from the pulpits ; Elizabeth was thanked for her care of the nation, and applauded in the Scots pulpits at least, but, indeed, in some English pulpits also. t From a letter to be seen in Mr. Ellis's publication, second series, vol. iii. p. 126. it would seem that some had understood that Elizabeth had charged Davison, not to put the warrant in execution before the realm should be actually invaded by some foreign power. 302 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. the misfortune, as Secretary of State,* to receive from Elizabeth's hands the fatal warrant, which, after long delays, she had at last been induced to sign ; by Davison's own account, he was bidden to carry it immediately to the Lord Chancellor to be sealed, and sent down to the Commissioners, and to say no more to her about it ; but she made complaints of Sir Amias Poulet and Sir Drue Drury, who might, she said, if they had chosen it, have rendered her signing the warrant unnecessary, at the same time expressing a wish that he and Walsingham would write to them to that effect, and which in fact was done, though Davison would have dissuaded her, upon an assurance that they were both too honourable persons to lend themselves to so unlawful an act, which, indeed, to their credit, turned out to be the case. Davison, suspecting that he might be called to account for what he should do, however well he might understand the Queen's orders, determined not to act singly, as he told Lord Burghley, who, approving his caution, proposed to summon the Privy Council, and which accordingly met, in a very short time after, at the Treasurer's Cham ber ; and upon a communication made to them of the warrants being signed, of * Camden's idea that he was made Secretary of State solely to be made the instrument of the death of the Queen of Scots, is ably refuted by Mr. Nicholas, in his Life of the Secretary, p. 34. We cannot, however, quite agree in his endeavours to clear Davison of all offence against the Queen ; Elizabeth signed the warrant and told him to carry it to the Chancellor to be sealed, but to have it done secretly, that it might not be known prematurely, and she sent Killegrew soon after to suggest some delay as to the sealing, but the thing was done ; she had sug gested his calling on Walsingham in his way to the Chancellor's, but beyond this, she did not particularly authorise him to make the matter known. It appears, however, from his own account, that before he saw either Walsingham or the Chancellor, he actually shewed the warrant signed to both Leicester and Burghley; surely this was rash, and exceeding any directions given by the Queen.— Compare pp. 237, 261. Life of William Davison. The last passage is too curious to be omitted : "And as I was ready to depart from her, she gave me some caution to use it (the warrant) secretly at the seal, in respect of the jealousy she seemed brought to of some about the Chancellor, and doubts lest the divulging thereof might be the occasion to increase her own danger ; from her Majesty J went directly down to the Lord Treasurer's chamber, where I found my Lord of Leicester and him together, to whom I shewed her Majesty's warrant. He then went home to dinner, and after dinner to the Chancellor's, calling on Walsingham in his way, which he calls acting according to the Queen's directions ; the next morning, at ten o'clock, Killegrew came to tell him from the Queen, that if he had not been with the Chancellor, he should forbear it for a time ; certainly, his going voluntarily from her Majesty straight to the Treasurer's chamber, was a great imprudence, and no trifling disobedience of orders ; this certainly gave the Queen a handle against him, though he sought to excuse it."— See p. 281. See also the Lord Chief Justice's remark on the Queen's expression, " what haste," p. 311. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 303 Elizabeth's wish to remove from herself as far as possible the imputation of Mary's death, " Each of the Members of the Council," as we read, " imme diately offered to bear his part in whatever censure might arise from an act so important to the public safety both in Church and State ;* and it was finally agreed, that the warrant should be dispatched without again applying to the Queen, because it was thought that she had already done every thing that was necessary, or could be expected of her, by signing the warrant, and by commanding Davison not to let her hear any more of the affair till it was con cluded." The warrant was, therefore, delivered to Beale, the Clerk of the Council, with letters from the Lord Treasurer to the Earls of Shrewsbury, Kent, and Cumberland, and others to whom the warrant was addr°*sed; and on Wednesday, the eighth of February, the scene was closed, and all Mary's earthly tribulations and sufferings terminated for ever !| It is needless to say, in how dignified and composed a manner the royal sufferer underwent the last sad solemnities of this dismal ceremony ; the story is in every body's mouth, and, we should apprehend, almost universally known,J * The commission for the execution is to be seen in Howard's Collection of Letters, as penned by Lord Burghley. We have already observed how much he complained in his letters to his friends, of the load of unpleasant business that was cast upon him : whatever was penned by others it was usual to bring to him to correct. f The Parliament that had been adjourned came together again on the 15th of February, eight days only after the execution, when " Mr. Cromwell," as we read, " moved the House, for that at their petition her Majesty had done justice upon the Scottish Queen, to the greater safe guard of her Majesty's person and the whole realm, he thought it fit that her Majesty might receive from them their humble thanks, which motion was well liked, but at this time it pro ceeded no further." — D'Ewes, 407. t Among the letters in the possession of Lord Bagot is one written from Fotheringay Castle but a few days after the execution, with this passage in it : "I doubt not but you have heard how resolutely, and in show quietly, she went to her death, who in her lifetime had been the author of so many troubles ; wherein her magnanimity and other good gifts meet for so great a calling, no doubt did make us all that were beholding, to pity her want of grace to use them. In other points she shewed herself very obstinate, and far from that which true religion doth require at our hands at such a time." In the next letter, dated Fotheringay Castle, Feb. 28, 1586-7, and addressed to Mr. Bagot, mention is made of some tokens of gratitude and regard sent to his family by some of Mary's household, particularly Mrs. Curie, Melville, and Bastian. The directions for the burial of Mary did not arrive at Fotheringay till the 9th of July, 1587, when the same writer informed Mr. Bagot of it in the following terms : — " Sir, Since the writing of my former letter, dated also this present day, I have received a full direction from the Council to provide for the burial of the Scottish Queen, wherewith I am willing to acquaint you, as with 304 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. especially since the publication of the second series of Original Letters by Mr. Ellis, who has there given us a copy of the actual report sent to the Court, and indorsed by Lord Burghley; a narrative, we should think, more likely to have been suppressed than preserved by that noble Lord, had he been capable of feeling as some would represent him to have felt ; for in no manner could the unhappy sufferer have been rendered so interesting to posterity, as by this correct account of the very last scene of the tragedy;* a spiteful enemy, or an all and the best news this place can yield; the day is appointed to be the first of August; the place, Peterborough, in the Cathedral Church there ; the manner with great state and solemnity; the company tha^are to attend it very great, and many of them honourable ; as two Earls, three Countesses, five Barons, five Barons' wives, ten Knights, ten Knights' wives, twelve Esquires, two Bishops, one Dean, thirty Gentlewomen to attend the said Ladies, sixty Gentlemen to attend the said Noblemen, and two hundred Yeomen, besides all the Scottish train here her servants; so that I am directed to provide for the diet of three hundred persons or thereabouts, to have there, at Peterborough, two meals at her Majestie's charge : thus have you briefly that which came, to me not above an hour since. And so being now withdrawn from this to more serious causes, I commend you once again and good Mrs. Bagot to the keeping of the merciful God, who hath miraculously preserved her Majesty, our Sovereign, by bringing these things to this good pass. From Fotheringaye Castle, this Sunday night, the 9th of July, 1587. Yours to do you any service, Mar. Darell. J X [Left in trust these by Sir Amias Poulet.] Mr. Melville commendeth himself most heartily to yourself and Mrs. Bagot, and resteth still thankful for your courtesies." N. B. This Mr. Melville was that faithful and attached servant of Mary, who appears in so interesting a light in the account of her execution ; Mrs. Curie also was one of the two attendants selected to attend her on the scaffold, and the wife, we conclude, of Curie the Secretary. And yet here we find them returning their thanks, and sending tokens of remembrance to the family of a Magistrate, in a great measure charged with the safe custody of their unhappy mistress ; and this through one of Sir Amias Poulet's household ; though Sir Amias himself has been sometimes represented as a most stern and cruel jailer. Surely these are very strong proofs that Mary's imprisonment was never so harsh and unfeeling a restraint, as many still pretend, and of which a great many other proofs might assuredly be adduced. I feel much indebted to Lord Bagot and Mr. Hamper for the information derived from these letters. * The following is the view taken of Mary's trial and execution, by an author not otherwise very friendly to the proceedings against her. "As to the letters produced against her, she insisted that they were counterfeit, and the evidence of her secretaries extorted by fear of death. However, I perceive she did not make any difficulty to acknowledge that she had applied herself to the King of Spain and the Guises, to procure her deliverance by force of arms, if other means did not take effect ; and she said she thought it but natural for every one to endeavour and desire 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 305 unjust judge, or any person conscious of having wantonly and unnecessarily sacrificed such a life, would surely have destroyed it. We may conclude, therefore, that to him, as well as to numberless others, it appeared at the time, a case of necessity ;* that is, of self-defence, as to the Sovereign they had to protect. It must be acknowledged that, at the last, Lord Burghley and Davison took the right way to save Elizabeth from the imputation of conniving at, or even procuring, a deliberate act of assassination. No man, apparently, was more convinced of the necessity for Mary's death than Davison himself, as he told the Queen, when she asked him if he were not sorry to see the warrant their own liberty, but as to any design directly against the life of Queen Elizabeth, this she utterly denied. And 'tis very possible she might not be concerned in that part of the conspiracy, but she was -most certainly engaged in such measures, as, if they had succeeded, must have ended in the destruction of Queen Elizabeth; and why, when the Q. of Scots had armed foreign princes against the Q. of England, and invited her own subjects to depose her, she might not as well be deemed an enemy, as if she had invaded the kingdom, I am at a loss to discover. This may pass for an answer to all those who rest the case entirely on, the evidence of Mary's having directly conspired to take away the life of Elizabeth. To take off an enemy in her own just defence, reflects no dishonour upon the Queen or her ministry. However Queen Elizabeth shewed all the reluctance imaginable to put the sentence in execution, and would gladly have found out a means to prevent it; but while she was deliberating- how to dispose of her, the French Ambassador hired assassins to murder Q. Elizabeth. This, with the reflection on the murder of the Prince of Orange, who had but just been dispatched by a Popish cut-throat, and the repeated addresses of her people in Parliament, to consent to the execution, and prevent hers and her subjects' ruin, prevailed on the Queen to sign her death-warrants. Possibly few private men would make a scruple of taking away a man's life, who lay in wait for theirs, especially if there were no other way of preserving their own ; how much more when the fate of a whole nation was concerned, and they saw all the Popish Princes arming against them, and daily exciting assassins to destroy that life on whom their secu rity depended ? Had their designs succeeded, another bloody persecution would probably have been the effect, and superstition and ignorance once again overspread the fa*ce of Europe, for the preservation whereof we are not a little indebted to the wisdom and steadiness of those who were then in the administration. — See Salmon's Review, of the History of England, third edit. 1725. * State Necessity has been called the "Tyrant's Plea," but why should it be always so? Had there been a possibility of saving the many lives that were sacrificed at Paris alone, on St. Bar tholomew's day, 1572, by some summary process against Charles IX. or his more unfeeling mother ; would such a case of necessity have deserved to be branded as a mere tyrant's plea ? The tyranny was all on the other side, and it is scarcely to be doubted that the vengeance con templated against the Protestants by the Holy League, was as much to be dreaded; thereby producing a State-necessity of disturbing and interrupting the designs on foot, if possible. It seems to be continually forgotten, that in regard to the projects in hand for Mary's deliverance, the removal of Elizabeth was to be a preliminary step. VOL.- III. 2 B 306 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. " signed ? He replied, " that he was far from feeling pleasure in the misfortunes of any one ; and that, instead of wishing the death ofthe Scottish Queen, he could not be otherwise than sincerely grieved that a person of her rank and station, and so nearly related to her Majesty, should render so fatal a resolution necessary ; but that, as his Sovereign's life was in danger so long as Mary lived,* he thought every man must be of opinion, that she could not defer the execution without manifest ' injustice to herself and the whole realm; and, consequently,' he could not feel sorry to see her adopt an honourable $no\ just course for securing 'both ; and that he preferred the death of the- guilty rather than of the innocent." On another occasion, when she was hinting at assassination, upon the advice and opinion of others, whose judgment she commended, he told her, " that he thought the honourable and just way was the safest and the best, if she meant that the sentence should be executed at all ;" nor did he scruple to represent to her the cruelty and danger of urging Poulet and Drury to do, what might be the ruin and utter disgrace of two gentlemen who had served her with zeal and fidelity. Davison appears certainly to have acted a very honest part, in thus parrying the Queen's propensities towards an assassination, nor is it improbable that the best of her Council hastened the execution, on purpose to prevent her resorting to such expedients. f It was better even to keep up an appearance of proceeding according to law. Elizabeth, however, manifested great dissatisfaction at what had been done; it may be that she was really vexed; but, at all events, she seems to have been determined to cast the blame from herself as much as possible, and Lord Burghley and Davison became the most marked objects of her displeasure. An ingenious author has supposed, that the great object of her hatred being removed, she might naturally be led to feel some remorse and contrition ; but it was not well, in trying to save herself, to throw the blame * As Davison was at last persuaded ofthe necessity of, putting Mary to death, so he appears to have been as much assured of the propriety of the restraint put upon her previously; as, among the.papers written by him, and preserved in the collection of Harleian MSS., there is one, entitled " Reasons against the Liberty of the Queen of Scots." In this very year, 1587, he wrote a very able letter to the Queen, to dissuade her from a peace with Spain. •f The expression is very strong which they used, as an excuse for not referring any further to the Queen, ;" lest she might fall into any new conceit of interrupting and stayin the course of ¦justice. [Life of Davison, p. 158.] Considering the malice of her enemies, and disposition of the time and state of things then, both abroad and at home, •which they in no duty could. neglect." 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 307 upon others : such, however, was undoubtedly the course she took. Burghley underwent a temporary banishment from her presence ; but Davison was made to feel severely the effect of her displeasure, by a very hea y fine and cruel imprisonment. On the 14th of February, six days only after Mary's execution, he was conveyed to the Tower. Lord Burghley interposed in his favour ; but it has been doubted whether he was not swayed, by considerations of private interest, to modify his first expressions of praise and commendation, and whether he did not, ultimately, rather seek to take advantage of his disgrace. In one letter that he wrote to the Queen, but never sent, there can be no question but that he spoke highly of Davison, and greatly deprecated his commitment ; but, before a fair copy of this letter could be written, he is represented to have greatly abated of his eulogies, and to have suffered his zeal to cool. We cannot, however, think this to be so certain ; perhaps he became more moderate in his expressions, from feeling himself to be also under a cloud : but, after all, he concludes his letter in the following terms : " What your Majesty has minded to him in your displeasure, I hear to my grief; but for a servant in that place, I think it hard to find a more qualified person, whom to ruin, in your heavy displeasure, shall be more to your Majesty's loss than his." Surely this was no great abatement of praise. Davison, however, lost his post of Secretary of State, and was subjected to a most remarkable trial, under a Royal Commission, during which, though almost every Commissioner spoke well of him, and attributed what he had done to a mere mistake at the utmost, yet he was fined 10,000 marks, and subjected to an imprisonment during the Queen's pleasure.* If this proceeded from mere subserviency to the crown, it reflects disgrace on some of the first personages in the kingdom, and it is scarcely credible even to ourselves, who have had but too much occasion to observe the dreadful servility of Elizabeth's Court, that persons of such elevated stations as archbishops, chief * He survived his dismissal from his office twenty-one years, dying in 1608, much reduced in circumstances by his heavy fine, but not destitute of friends. Even James I., the very year before he died, enabled him to make provision for the payment of his debts, and maintenance of his children, by allowing him to transfer, to trustees, the profits of two offices, the reversion of which had been granted to him by Elizabeth, in 1578. It should be observed, that this act of James's took place when Sir Robert Cecil, his reputed adversary, was as high in the King's favour as his father had been in Elizabeth's; and what is more, though Davison was known to be a favourite with Essex and the two Bacons, the great revilers of the Cecils; for so upon occasions they cer tainly were, as we shall have to notice. 308 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. C1587' judges, and peers of the realm, should agree, in so severe a sentence, upon such slight causes, and without sufficient evidence, as it appears, to invalidate the statements of the accused ; but perhaps we know not all. There is an expression in one of Davison's letters to Sir Amias Poulet, to be seen in Robert of Glou cester's Chronicles, which may certainly induce such a suspicion.—" I pray you," says he (alluding to a request he had made that his letters should be burnt), let me intreat you to make heretics of one and the other, as I mean to use yours after her Majesty has seen it." We do not mean by the above remark to cast any imputation on Davison's integrity or honour ; but we merely wish to suggest, that in the judgment we would form, of the proceedings at so trying and critical a moment, it is but fair to suppose, that we cannot know all. Rapin strongly suspects, that Camden, in his zeal for Mary, has not fully related the circumstances of her trial. It is impossible, however, to read. Mr. Nicolas's Life of Davison, without being impressed with the idea, that he was most hardly used,* and very unjustly condemned to suffer fine and imprisonment : nor was he ever again admitted to the Queen's presence. Lord Burghley has not escaped * In his zealous concern for Mr. Davison, Mr. Nicolas is led, throughout hisbook, to speak in the harshest terms possible of Elizabeth, and we fear but too justly (for she was certainly a wo man of a most strange temper) ; but, if she were really so hatefully bad, as some writers repre sent her to have been, she must, one would think, have suffered the mortification to which, as we have read, some tribes of American Indians were accustomed to subject the culprits among them. They were made to appear in public, and receive marked commendations for the very virtues of which they were most notoriously destitute. Drunkards were made to appear, to be praised for their great temperance ; thieves, for their honesty ; cowards, for their bravery ; and so forth : and this seems to have been the case with Elizabeth. Thus Mr. Nicolas speaks of her bad heart and implacable anger towards Davison, in the page immediately following a letter from that very gen tleman to the Queen, in which he twice speaks of the " goodness of her most frank and liberal, her most gracious and honourable nature." These contradictions have struck us continually, in many works that we have read, and which have induced us to conclude, that if Elizabeth often acted (as she certainly did), like a froward and spoiled child, those who gave too much way to her humours, or outrageously flattered her, should bear part of the blame. It is quite extraordinary, that in James's own letter to Elizabeth, to stay the execution of his mother, and though she had been then eighteen years in captivity, the following passage is to be founds " That in his singular love and friendship, he could not believe but she, having by her virtues, and especially by her cle mency, purchased in all places a most renowned name free from all blot of cruelty, &c. &e. — would preserve and not blemish it by any means with the blood of his mother," &c. Elizabeth, surely, was not the only dissembler on tlie occasion, if she were really so entirely destitute of all cle mency, and prone to all cruelty, in the eyes of her contemporaries, as she has been judged to be by many, two centuries since. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURHGLEY. 309 the censure of posterity for being instrumental in procuring or continuing this seclusion from the Court, being anxious, as it has been alleged, to secure the Secretaryship for his son, Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury. In the Life of William Davison, Mr. Nicolas says, " It is positive that there is no cir cumstance which can be adduced in contradiction of these charges." We must confess we think otherwise, though our proofs belong to a subsequent year ; but in general we may say, that in the course of Essex's endeavours to serve him, and whose letters to Davison are printed by Mr. Nicolas, it does not appear that Eli zabeth had been set against him by others ; and even Mr. Nicolas himself, p. 196. seems clearly to attribute Davison's failure of recovering her favour, to Elizabeth's own feelings and prejudices, and which indeed appear, in this instance, to have been disgracefully inveterate ; founded upon a mistaken idea of the resent ment of the King of Scots, to whom (and which may pass for another proof of the true state of Elizabeth's feelings) Essex thought proper to write in behalf of his friend; and it is Mr. Nicolas 's own remark, that this application to James " may be deemed a full proof that Essex considered Davison's loss of favour as a sacrifice to James's resentment." We hope, therefore, that the imputations cast on Lord Burghley, as Davison's enemy, may be regarded as unfounded, while it is but doing him justice to observe, that in his zeal to serve his son, he was fully justified, not only as a father, but as a statesman, Sir Robert Cecil being re markably well qualified to succeed Walsingham as Secretary of State, on the decease of the latter, in 1590, without any disparagement to Davison ; could Essex have procured the liberation of the latter.* * Davison was, by marriage, related both to Lord Burghley and Lord Leicester, though very distantly. It may be questioned whether Elizabeth's resentment might not be fomented by the latter rather than by Lord Burghley: in procuring and delivering the warrant for execution, pursuant to the sentence, he appears to have acted in conformity with Burghley's plan ; but in denouncing the assassination plot, he ran counter to Leicester's advice, as well as Elizabeth's desire of evading the " chief weight" of Mary's death, and " casting the burthen from herself." Besides, we think nobody can read Davison's Memorial sent to Walsingham, purporting to be a summary report of that which passed between her Majesty and him in the cause of the Scottish Queen, from the signing of the warrant to the time of his restraint, and dated Feb. 20, 1586-7, only 12 days after Mary's execution, without perceiving it to be a severe charge upon her Majesty,. and a direct exposure of her disposition to have had Mary privately made away with ; in fact, it is chiefly from Davison's memorials, that we know the very worst of Elizabeth's conduct, and though they might be written in defence of himself, they are grievously at the expense of Elizabeth, and might well have exasperated a less irritable person, especially as they are reports of a private 310 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. Lord Burghley, as we have observed, fell into disgrace with Elizabeth, for his share in the business of the warrant as well as Davison, but the Queen knew better than to keep him long out of employment. It was too much the fashion of the courtiers in those days, to acknowledge that they had done amiss, if the sovereign chose to say so, always reserving to themselves the plea of better inten tions. Lord Burghley did not scruple in this manner to confess his1 error, and implore forgiveness, though he must have felt at the time, that he was not really responsible for any misconstruction the Queen might put upon his actions ; he knew, that against the Queen there was no appeal, and the acknowledgment of an unintentional fault, it might be thought, could never be unbecoming. His first letter to the Queen, however, after his disgrace, betrays none of that abjectness so common to other suitors. The following passage undoubtedly does him credit. " I hear with grief of mind and body also, that your Majesty doth utter more heavy, hard, bitter, and minatory speeches against me, than almost against any other ; and so much the more do they wound me, in the very strings of my heart, as they are commonly and vulgarly reported ; although by some, with compassion of me, knowing my long, painful, faithful, and dangerous unspotted service, but by divers others, I think, with applause, as maliceing me for my true service against your sworn enemies. And if any reproach, yea, and if any punishment of me may pleasure your Majesty, and not hinder your reputation (which is hardly to be imagined), I do yield thereto; and with a most willing mind do offer unto your Majesty, as a sacrifice, either to pacify your displeasure, or for your Majesty to pleasure any other (friend or unfriend), to acquit myself freely from all places of public Government, whereof none can be used by me to your benefit, being in your displeasure ; and I shall nevertheless continue in a private estate, as earnest in continual prayer for your Majesty's safety, and my country, as; I was wont to be in public actions. conversation with a Minister and Privy Counsellor. We do not dispute the truth of them, nor the provocation Davison had received, but he could not, one would think, expect much favour after such an exposure of the Queen's private sentiments, unfeeling, and undignified behaviour. We question, whether the mode in which he sought to save her honour, by referring to her Ma jesty's remembrance certain points which he did not choose to divulge openly, did not convey insi nuations exceedingly hurtful to her credit — though Camden seems to have been mistaken, in fancying that he was purposely brought forward to bear the blame of Mary's death ; yet we think he did him both credit and justice, in saying, that, " he was a man of good ingenuity, but not well skilled in court arts." 1587.] MEMOIRS QF LORD BURGHLEY. 311 " And whatsoever worldly adversity your Majesty shall lay upon me, I con stantly and resolutely shall, by assistance of God's grace, affirm, prove, and protest to the world, during the few days of my life, that I never did, or thought to do any thing with mind to offend your Majesty, or to commit any unhonest act; but in the presence of God, who shall judge both quick and dead, I do avow, that I was never in my underrage more fearful to displeasure' my masters and tutors, than I have beeri always inwardly, both out of and in your, presence, to miscontent your sacred Majesty, ' which proceeded, I thank God, of due reverence, and not of doubtfulness how to do my duty. " Thus, most gracious Queen, being by my mishap deprived of your presence, I have confusedly uttered my deep, griefs, &c, being glad that the night of my age is so near by, service and sickness, as I shall not long wake to see the miseries that I fear others shall see that are like to overwatch me ; and having ended that concerneth myself, I cannot in duty forbear to put your Majesty in mind, that if Mr. Davison be committed to the Tower, who best knoweth bis own cause, the example will be sorrowful to all your faithful servants, and joyful to your enemies." — This letter was written on the 13th of February, five days only after Mary's death. Other letters he addressed to the Queen, in which he repeated, that her Majesty, he understood, was more deeply offended with, him than with the rest, though he was no more to be charged than others, which he supposed increased, because her Majesty had not heard him, -as she had others,* whom she had admitted to her presence ; while he, by his lameness and infirmity, &c. could not come. He still, however, sought to be admitted toiler presence to, clear, himself, but she caused it to be signified to. him that he might do it by writing, which he declined, " knowing," as he said, '* what ill willers. he had about the court (alluding probably to Leicester and his party), who would he apt to put sinister interpretations upon what he should write ; and that a writing was but a com position of words, that might otherwise be taken for want of his being present to explain and reply." He, therefore, craved to have leave. " to. deliver the sense of his heart by his own tongue." At length, however, ha.attained his end, the Queen needing his advice concerniag her affairs in the. Low Couiaitries ; but, on * All the Privy Counsellors present at the dispatch of the warrant for Mary's execution, had agreed to share the blame of any wrong step. 312 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. his .first admission at .Court, being rather rudely handled by Elizabeth, on the business ofthe Queen of Scots, he absented himself again from the Court, and was not brought back again without some intercession ; writing, in the mean time, to the Vice Chamberlain, in terms of serious complaint, at the angry words that had passed, and attributing them rather " to some secret enemies," than to " any influence of her Majesty's princely nature," concluding his letter with the following passage in Greek : MaKcijOioc oariQ fiaicapioiQ virriptTti' Beatus qui beatis servit. A maxim repeatedly, among others, noted down with his pen on his first disgrace, and some of which may deserve to be transcribed, as marking the state of his feelings. ; " Peccatum ignorantia commissum." " Anima si peccaverit per ignorantiam, offeret arietem, et dimittetur ei, quia per ignorantiam." " Si benefacientes patienter sustinetis, haec est gratia apud Deum." " Exeat aula qui vult esse pius." [Lucan.J " Sit piger ad pcenas princeps, ad prasmia velox." " Deus meus, tu opem mihi tulisti a juventute mea ; et usque ad senectam et canos, non derelinquas me." With many other passages from Scripture, bespeaking a troubled but confident mind ; a few sentences also of allusion to the cause of his disgrace, viz. the hasty sending away of the warrant. Mr. Davison. The bill signed. Mr. Davison, [his] affirmation. Earl of Leicester. Knowledge from the Queen. Always not to be acquainted with the circumstances. The Queen meant it not. Esto — This not known. The matter always present. The matter for surety. Tepac EOTIV £1 TIQ ivrvyoQ Bia j3iov. Decet timeri Regem, at plus diligi. [Seneca.] Then follow many both Scriptural and classical, commendatory of the virtue of clemency as the ornament of Princes, and patience as the duty of Christians. The last two should not be omitted. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 313 Latet ultimus dies, ut observetur omnis dies. Mors calamitatis Terminus. The last is curious, as the paper happens to be endorsed, " 1586. After the Scots Queen death. Wednesday, Febr." It may easily be supposed, that, out of common decency, the King of Scotland would make some movements to revenge his mother's death ; but it must have been very obvious, at the same time, that, without assistance, and in the unsettled state of his own kingdom, he could not seriously intend to attack England. Fortunately for the latter, it was difficult for the King of Scotland to call in any foreign friends to his assistance, without a risk of their making a prey of Scotland as well as England. The English ministers, therefore, and especially Lord Burghley, who had constantly his eye upon every part of Europe, had a good opportunity of keeping James quiet, by a fair and true representation of the danger he might incur by entering into any confederacies to avenge the death of Mary. Care had been taken to assure him, that in any proceedings against his mother, his own claims upon England should remain on the same footing as before, and therefore all that remained to be done was to point out to him, not only the good policy, but the almost absolute necessity of his continuing quiet ; and this seems to have fallen, as might be expected, to the care of Lord Burghley, who is supposed, by some, to have written the able letter, to be seen in Strype,* purporting to be addressed to some Scotch nobleman near the King's person, in order to dissuade the latter from war ; and which had not only the effect intended, but led in the end to a continuance of the friendship and alliance previously subsisting between James and Elizabeth. But it was not the King of Scotland only, who was to be kept quiet, after Mary's execution. We have already shewn, that her removal was likely to act as a fresh stimulus to the ambition of Philip ;f and it was quite as plausible a • Strype seems clearly to attribute this letter to Lord Burghley, and some parts of it are certainly much in his style. Others, however, attribute it to Walsingham. f Dr. Lingard seems to have, in a great measure, cleared up the difficulties respecting Mary's will, in which she was said to have left England to the King of Spain, in case her son should not become a Roman Catholic. One of the partizans of Mary tells us, as an undoubted matter of fact, that " this story was first broached in England," and " Cecil, Hatton, and Walsingham,'' are named as the bungling authors of a pretended letter to Mendoza, the Spanish minister, then in France, from Mary, announcing her intention of leaving England to his master. A copy of this pretended letter, it seems, being extant, having the signatures of those three statesmen, but in VOL. III. 2 S 314 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. plea for him to set up, that he was coming to revenge her death, as it was before, that he was coming to prevent it.* His armada was known to be in great for wardness; his confidence of success every hour increasing; England, at so critical a moment, not sufficiently prepared to resist him ; and a possibility, if not, indeed, a great probability, that after what bad just passed, many of Eliza beth's Catholic subjects might not be firm in their allegiance. In this conjunc ture, a very extraordinary step seems to have been taken, to throw impediments in the way of Philip's designs, and to oblige him to postpone his attack for one year at the least. We have the story principally from; Burnet, and in his words, therefore, we shall give it to the reader, as a continuation of our former extracts. different coloured ink, which shews, says the author, that they were not all together when they signed it; but as Cecil's signature, however, agrees in colour with the letter itself, the forgery is supposed to be brought home to him. In conformity with this letter, which is dated May 26, 1586, Mary has been stated to have made a will before her execution, and to have written it herself, as attested by the Cardinal Laurea, and Owen, Bishop of Cassano, a fact much corroborated by the Abbe Pignerol, in his Life of the Cardinal Laurea, to the abuse of those over-credulous writers, De Thou and Dr. Gilbert Burnet.— See Campbell's Case of Mary Queen of Scots. Dr. Campbell proposes, in the places referred to, that the real will should be produced, as a document " more probative than Cecil's letter, or the Abb6 Pignerol's tale ;" but whether the will be produceable or not, we do not find it in Dr. Campbell's book. We have, however, Dr. Lingard's authority for saying, that Mary did really write a letter, as soon as she was ordered to prepare for death, viz. November 23, 1586, to Sixtus V., recommending to him and Philip the conversion of her son, in which, if they should not succeed, through James's obstinacy, she then leaves all her right to the crown of England to the disposal of the Pope and of that Monarch. The original is in the Vatican, with an attestation by Owen, Bishop of Cassano, that the hand writing is that of Mary herself. We cannot blame any of the partizans of Mary for their feelings towards her ; but it is manifestly our business to question their feelings towards others. We really think Queen Mary's undoubted letter to Sixtus, is sufficient to save the credit, as far as her intentions are concerned, of Cecil, Hatton, Walsingham, the Abbe Pignerol, De Thou, and Dr. Gilbert Burnet.— See Lingard, vol. v. note a*. After all that has been said, Scott, in his History of Scotland, we remember, pronounces it to be utterly improbable that ever she intended such a thing, for, before the Commissioners, and at all times, and especially at her death, she solemnly declared the contrary. So difficult is it to arrive at the truth, in discussing this sad case; especially when so much is made to depend on the veracity of individuals, Mary not excepted'. * " With this view" (of helping the Queen of Scots), « Philip," says Voltaire, » equips that prodigious fleet, which was to be supported by another armament in Flanders, and by a risino- of the Catholics in England. This was what ruined the Queen of Scots, and instead of procuring her liberty, brought her to the scaffold. Nothing remained but for Philip to avenge that Princess's death, by conquering the crown of England for himself, and then Holland would soon be subdued and punished."— General History, iii. chap. xii. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 315 " But the Court of England saw, that if King Philip's fleet was in a condition to conquer England, he would not abandon the design, for Mary's being put out of the way ; and that he certainly designed to conquer it for himself, and not for another. So orders were given to make all possible haste with a fleet : yet, they were so little provided for such an invasion, that though they had then twenty good ships upon the stocks, it was not possible to get them in a condition to serve that summer; and the design of Spain was to sail over in 1587. So, unless by corruption, or any other method, the attempt could be put off for that year, there was no strength ready to resist so powerful a fleet ; but when it seemed not possible to divert the present execution of so great a design, a merchant of London, to their surprise, undertook it. He was well acquainted with the revenue of Spain, with all their charges, and all that they could raise : he knew all their funds were so swallowed up, that it was impossible for them to victual and set out their fleet, but by their credit in the bank of Genoa. So he undertook to write to all the places of trade, and to get such drafts made on that bank, that he should, by that means, have it so entirely in his hands, that there should be no money current there equal to the great occasion of victualling the fleet of Spain. He reckoned the keeping such a treasure dead in his hands, till the season of victualling was over, would be a loss of 40,000/. ; and, at that rate, he could save England. He managed the matter with such secresy and success, that the fleet could not be set out that year. At so small a price, and. with so skilful a management, was the nation saved at that time. This, it seems, was thought too great a mystery of state to be communicated to Camden, or to be published by him, when the instructions were put in his hand for writing the History of that glorious reign ; but the famous Boyle, Earl of Cork, who had then a great share in the affairs of Ireland, came to know it, and told it to two of his children, from whom I had it." If this story were true, the London merchant was indeed a great friend to his country, for in April of this year, an expedition took place, under Sir Francis Drake, against the Spaniards, which having succeeded, to the capture or destruction of many ships of different sizes in the road of Cales, Sir Francis wrote home to Lord Burghley, to give him the following information: "As suredly there was never heard of or known so great preparations as the King of Spain hath, and daily maketh ready for the invasion of England, as well out of the Straits, from whence he hath great aid from sundry mighty Princes, as also from divers other places in his own country, and his provisions of bread 316 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. and wine are sufficient for 40,000 men a whole year.* The uniting of all which forces will be very dangerous unless their meeting be prevented : which by all possible means we will seek to perform, as far as our lives will extend. No doubt but this which God hath permitted us to do, will cause them to make" alteration of their intent ; nevertheless, it is very necessary that all possible preparation for defence be speedily made." In consequence of this information, great attention was paid to the Sea-ports, and orders and directions sent for their better security, chiefly drawn up and prepared by Lord Burghley ; attention was given also to the condition of the Magistracy, that in case of an emergency, the Justices might be found actuated by a proper zeal for the Queen's affairs, and true to the Government established. The Bishops being written to by his Lordship, " who had," as Strype remarks, " the great care of all lying upon him under the Queen," to procure information of the condition of the Justices in their several dioceses, and make their reports to Government, some being justly suspected of disaffection or other grievous disqualifications for an office of such high trust ; as partiality, want of abilities, and, in some instances, common honesty. And how necessary an attention to these things appeared to be, now that the nation was in such danger, may be judged, from some answers made to the Lord Treasurer by the Bishops. How land, Bishop of Peterborough, after expressing his hope, that his Lordship's inter ference in this, as in all other reformations he had brought about, might tend to lay a firm and honourable foundation for better things, writes, " Wherein also I beseech your Lordship to go forward ; assuring your Lordship that although you have done many things of very great import to the benefit of the realm, which all men do acknowledge, yet for the sound setting of the whole realm in firm obedience to their Sovereign, and for the preservation of love between every member, you could never take (I speak as a fool, but yet as I think) a more honourable cause in hand, and more acceptable to the people; who think it their greatest good or hurt to be under good or evil Justices." Herbert,f Bishop of Hereford, wrote, " I certainly persuade myself, that this your Lordship's care and course (if it shall be answerable accordingly) will in a short space work a very sensible and great effect, beneficial both to the state * This would seem to be some contradiction to the above story — and Camden states it to have been in consequence of the losses of provisions and munition of war, by Drake, that Philip was prevented sending out his fleet this year. Burnet, however, has given his authorities. + The surname of this Bishop was Westphaling. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 317 and true religion ; — and may best further that good which your Lordship sheweth yourself only to respect." Many more letters to the same effect, may be seen in Strype ; we have merely cited the above passages to shew, what multifarious cares, and what a variety of objects, continually engaged the attention, and occupied the time of Lord Burghley ; all tending either to the better government of the nation internally, or to its surer defence externally against foreign foes : for while he was thus seeking to reform and improve the Magistracy, by purifying the Commissions ; and, in a great variety of instances, listening to appeals from both the Uni versities, and interposing his good offices in many ecclesiastical cases of difficulty, not only in England, but in Ireland;* while he had the care of the Treasury and management of the revenue, and guardianship of the Wards, continually upon his hands, by virtue of the offices he held, there was no ques tion of trade or commerce, of peace or war, or, which is more remarkable, of military defence and discipline, that was not in the first instance submitted to his judgment. Thus it appears, that upon the rumour of the mighty designs * We have so repeatedly had occasion to notice the references made to Lord Burghley, in all cases affecting the Church or the Universities, that we are desirous rather of shortening our account of such matters, where other things of equal or greater importance press upon our notice, than run the risk of tiring the patience of our readers by dwelling upon particular cases, treated of at large in other books; above all, in Strype's voluminous writings, especially his Annals of the Reformation during this reign, with the lives of those eminent Prelates, Parker, Grindal, Whit gift, and Aylmer, all of which should be consulted by such as would wish to acquire a just knowledge of the several occurrences in which Lord Burghley was called upon, as a judge, an arbitrator, a referee of all parties, and, not unseldom, as a Divine ; as was the case at this very time, when one might suppose that the affairs of the State alone had been sufficient to overwhelm the mind of any man in his eminent situation. — We find him involved in that celebrated dispute, already alluded to, between Travers and Hooker, at the Temple ; in the course of which, not only Travers referred to him all the objections to Hooker's doctrine, but the latter as carefully submitted to him his replies ; while the Archbishop himself, o^ whose interference Travers greatly complained, condescended, in a letter to Lord Burghley, to answer all his arguments, with great learning, and copious references to the Fathers ; Travers professing to refer to him, for his great wisdom and deep judgment in such causes, which seems to have been quite as much the case with Travers's opponents, Hooker and Whitgift : the points in question relating both to doctrine and discipline. From Ireland he was called upon to interpose his good offices, to settle a dispute between the Archbishop and the Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrott, " a troubler of Bishops," as Strype calls him; and, as Chancellor of Cambridge, to correct many abuses in regard to the expenses, and even dress of the young men, their "satin doublets, silk and velvet overstocks, great fine ruffs, and costly facings of their gowns." — See Annals, iii. p. 710, the Lord Treasurer's letter to the Vice Chancellor. 318 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. and preparations of the Spaniards this year, those whose talents lay that way, prepared discourses, in which the best methods were suggested of speedily augmenting the forces of the kingdom, providing for their encampment, and laying a foundation for such an able and well disciplined army, as might bid defiance, with the aid of the navy, to the proud pretensions of Philip and his invincible Armada. Such discourses, by Mr. Lane, whom Leicester had acknow ledged as his "very friend," in a letter to Secretary Wylson some years before, and whom Strype calls " a brave Gentleman, and skilful in arms, and a man of thought and invention in warlike affairs," made their appearance at this critical time, being presented in the very first instance, not to Leicester, though he bore the distinction of Lieutenant General ofthe Queen's forces, but to Lord Burgh ley ; " to whose wisdom and experimented judgment," as he wrote, " the counsels of all her Majesty's martial actions seemed very specially to be referred," a circumstance of which many decisive proofs remain to this day, in the British Museum, greatly too numerous to be insisted upon, as is the case, indeed, in all the other instances to which we have alluded; in his corre spondence with the Heads of both the Universities,* with particular Colleges, with the Bishops, with all the Queen's Ministers abroad, with her Captains and Commanders1 in the Netherlands (whom Leicester, then in England, seemed to have abandoned), with persons of all parties at home,t Papists and Puritans, * Though Chancellor of Cambridge, his attentions to Oxford were unremitted, as that Univer sity had occasion to acknowledge, in a special letter of thanks this very year, in which they pro fess to have received more obligations than they were previously aware of, and to be beholden to him, not only for a general care of their concerns, but for the particular pains and solicitude with which he had prosecuted their affairs : "Non cura solum, sed plane anxietas et solicitudo," is the expression they use. The letter is signed in the name of the whole University, "Academia Oxoniensis," and addressed " Amplissimo honoratissimoque viro dfio Cecilio baroni de Burgh- leigh, summo totius Anglise thesaurario, regiee Majestati ab intimis consiliis, dno nostro colen- dissimo." — Strype's Annals, iii. Appendix, No. xli. book ii. The letter immediately preceding [No. xl.] happens also to be a letter of thanks to his Lordship, from the Master and Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge, for his care in terminating an unpleasant controversy between the members thereof and the Vice Chancellor, whereby they acknowledge themselves debtors for, (to use their own words,) " Maximum sgternumque bene- ficium." The beginning of this letter will shew the sense they entertained of his finding time to attend to such disputes : — " Cum Curam tuam qua reip. summam complecti soles, honoratiss- domine, ad privatas Colegii nostri res demittere dignatus fueris, &c." f See the case of Lambard, the learned lawyer, author of the Perambulation of Kent, elsewhere spoken of; and his very grateful letter to the Lord Treasurer, for restoring him to his residence 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 319 Recusants and Conformists, with literary persons, and all who seemed to be labouring under any difficulties public or private. This is the person whom the advocates of Mary, in their zeal for that unfor tunate Princess, scarcely ever speak of in their writings, but to represent him to be a monster of wickedness; malignant, treacherous, selfish, and unfeeling; made up of cunning and deceit; blood-thirsty and cruel. That he was driven to act sometimes as if he were so, it is impossible for us to deny ; but when we have such abundant testimony to produce, on the part of his contemporaries, of a totally contrary disposition; when it is still in our power to ascertain many of the causes and circumstances whereby he was com pelled to be severe in his counsels, suspicious in his negotiations, cautious, distrustful, secret, and dissembling (to counteract dissimulation in others) ; when we consider that he lived in an age when many things abhorrent to our very nature were comparatively common — as the decapitation of Queens, Prin cesses, Chancellors, Protectors, and many of. the highest orders of the Nobility ; when the imprisonment or burning of Archbishops, Bishops, and the Clergy of all denominations, were no unusual occurrences ; when persecution in religion was in many parts regarded as an obligation on. the conscience; when torture was every where in practice, as an instrument of punishment, both in civil and ecclesiastical tribunals ; when craft and deceit were acknowledged to be among the chiefest qualifications of a statesman, whether on the throne, or in the councils of all sovereigns, the wonder to us is, that there was to be found, in any minister of the sixteenth century, so much true wisdom, so much justice, so much im partiality, so much sober discretion, so much right judgment, so much candour, so much propriety of moral conduct, and so much moderation, as was to be found in Lord Burghley. Yet was it not to be expected, that in so high and conspicuous a station as he constantly occupied, and in so contentious an age, he should escape envy or totally avoid giving offence. It is well known of Hailing in the above county, and which he called his halcyon days ; — [Annals, iii. 723-4]. See also the case of Cawdry, [Life of Bishop Aylmer, ch. viii.] " Not only myself," says Lambard, in his thankful letter, " will daily call unto God for you, but will also teach my poor sucklings to send up and sound your praises in his ears." By the same Lord, he was afterwards raised to some eminent place in his profession, probably to be a judge, when he again returned his thanks to his patron, in a letter to be seen in the Appendix to Strype's 3d vol. No. xiii. book ii. In Caw- dry's case, Lord Burghley seems to have considered chiefly his poverty, " his desolate state and great charge," as he calls it, p. 92, the man "having a wife and eight children," p. 87. Other wise he appears to have been bold and obstinate. 320 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. how utterly impossible it is for agreat minister to screen himself against the shafts of malevolence, the vengeance of enemies, the abuses of party, or the re- vilings of the discontented. It was about this time that an attack of this nature was made upon him in a Popish libel, in which, as is usually the case, much was asserted that was positively untrue ; thereby fortunately affording his friends . an opportunity of vindicating him from such notorious slanders. A paper of this description may be seen in the Appendix to Strype's third volume of his Annals, p. 503, so often referred to, and from which we shall only venture to insert a few extracts, as his character never stood more in need of vindication and support than at this particular period of his long and arduous services.* " It is a strange fancy in the libeller, that he maketh his Lordship to be primum mobile in every action, without distinction. That to him her Majesty is accountant of her resolutions ; and the Earl of Leicester and the Secretary Wal singham, both men of great power and wisdom, but as instruments." This seems to be a mistake common amongst certain historians to this day. With the Queen, he certainly ventured to remonstrate occasionally ; and no doubt had influence to turn her aside at times from some of her most resolute purposes; but she was never to be blindly led, nor would she ever compromise her own judgment and authority. He, like others, as the paper intimates, " was bound to rest upon such conclusions as her Majesty in her own wisdom determined— and them to execute to the best of his abilities." And as to Leicester and Wal singham, it is probable that they were frequently two of his greatest hinderers, if not positive opponents ; giving him occasion rather, as the paper further states, to interpose, " to qualify generally all hard and extreme courses, as far as the service of her Majesty and the safety ofthe State" would permit; " and to make himself compatible with those with whom he served in like parity ;" so far hath his Lord ship been from inciting others, or running a full course with them in that kind. * Strype says, vol. iii. 725, Oxford edition, that this libel on Lord Burghley occasioned a vin dication of him by some particular order from himself, wiping off those scandalous reports that were given out of him. " Whether then printed or no," he adds, " I cannot tell." " I transcribe it from the original paper, as I found it in the Cotton Library." It is odd that he does not seem to have known that it was from the pen of Lord Bacon, who, as he had his father to defend as well as Lord Burghley, was not ill employed in such a work. The author of Biographia Britannica supposes it to be the first political production of Bacon's pen, adding, that these sort of ministerial pamphlets were much in fashion in those days, and proved the great support of the Queen's ad ministration ; " For her ministers, being wise and able men, and acting upon just and honest principles, were not afraid of explaining and justifying their conduct," &c. 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 321 The following passage deserves to be transcribed at length ; as it helps to explain the malicious manner in which some of the very best parts of this great man's conduct and character, were wilfully misrepresented and traduced by the Popish party abroad, and tends to confirm what we have just said, of his being far better in many most essential points, than others of the strange age in which he lived. " But yet it is more strange, that this man should be so assuredly malicious, as he should charge his Lordship not only with all actions of State, but also with all the faults and vices of the times ; as if curiosity and emulation have bred some controversies in the Church ; (though thanks be to God they extend but to outward things ;) if wealth and the cunning of wits have brought forth multitudes of suits of law ; if excess in pleasure or in magnificence, joined with the unfaithfulness of servants, and the greatness of many men, have decayed the patrimony of many Noblemen and others ; that all these and such like con ditions of the time, should be put upon his Lordship's account, who hath been, as far as to his place appertaineth, a most religious and wise moderator in Church matters, to have unity kept; who with great justice hath dispatched infinite causes in law, that have been orderly brought before him ; and for his own example may say, (what few can say) that what was said by Cephalus the Athenian, so much renowned in Plato's works, who having lived near unto the age of an hundred years, and in continual affairs and business, was wont to say of himself thus, ' He never sued any, neither had been sued by any ;' who by occasion of his office * hath preserved many great houses from overthrow, by relieving sundry extremities towards such as in their minorities have been circumvented, and towards all such as his Lordship might advise, did ever per suade sober and limited expense. " Nay, to make farther proof of his contented manner of life, free from suits and covetousness, as he never sued any man, so did he never raise any rent, or put out any tenant of his own, or ever give consent to have the like done to any of the Queen's tenants : matters singular to be noted in his age. Let his proceedings, which be indeed his own, be indifferently weighed and considered, and let men call to mind, that his Lordship was never any violent and transported man in matters of State, but respective and moderate; no vindicative man; no heavy enemy, but ever placable and mild ; — no glorious, wilful, proud man, but ever civil, familiar, and good to deal withal. That in the course of his service he hath rather sustained the burthen, than sought the function of honour and profit; • Master of the Wards. VOL. III. 2 T 322 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY- [1587. scarcely sparing any time from his cares and travail to the sustentation of his health. That he never had, nor sought to have, for himself or his children any penny-worth of lands or goods that appertained to any person that was attainted of any treason, felony, or otherwise. That he never had, or sought, any kind of benefit by any forfeiture to her Majesty. — That he ever bore himself reve rently, and without scandal, in matters of religion, and without blemish in his private course of life. " Let men, without passionate malice, call to mind these things, , and they will think it reason, that though he be not canonized for a Saint at Rome, yet he is worthily celebrated as pater patria in England. And though he be libelled against by fugitives, yet he is prayed for by a multitude of good subjects ; and, lastly, though he be somewhat envied without just cause while he liveth, yet he shall be deeply wanted when he is gone. And assuredly, many Princes have had many servants of trust and sufficiency ; but where there hath been great parts, there hath often wanted temper of affection ; where there hath been ability and moderation, there hath wanted diligence and love of travail ; where all these have been, there have wanted sometimes faith and sincerity ; where some have had all these four, yet they have wanted time and experience ; but where there is a concurrence of all these, there is no marvail that a Prince of judgment be constant in the employment and trust of such a person, of whose faithfulness, as she hath had proof so many years in her own time, as it were very hard ; but if he had gone about to abuse her, at some time she should have espied it; so, to begin withal, he brought with him such a notable evidence of his constant loyalty, as a greater could not have been. " For, to confirm her Majesty's opinion in choosing him to be her first Counsellor, he, of all other Counsellors in King Edward's time, refused to consent to the determination pf a pretended will of King Edward's, to deprive the Lady Mary, afterwards Queen, and then the Lady Elizabeth, now Queen ; for whom, two times, he only of all the then Counsellors did, for conscience sake, adhere, to the peril of his head, if Queen Mary had not enjoyed the crown : for the which, it is well known, that Queen Mary did not only reward him, but offered him to have been of her Council, which he, for good respects, did forbear to accept." This is certainly a very curious defence of Lord Burghley, as amounting to a direct and positive appeal to his own contemporaries, and in the face of his enemies and slanderers, as to the truth of all the points insisted upon : for, if he 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 323 had not been such a person as this paper represents, it was only giving a fresh opportunity to his enemies to triumph over him. No weaker defence against false accusations can be thought of, than false praise. Many particulars ate insisted on in the above paper, which, if not true, must have tended only to cover Lord Burghley with confusion, instead of amounting to any defence of his character. It helps, also, to clear up a curious piece of history, which occasioned us no small trouble in the writing of our first volume. Can it be supposed, that if the story of his loyalty to Mary and Elizabeth, at that great time of trial, at the close of the life of Edward, had been untrue, he could have allowed it to be brought back to the recollection of Elizabeth, or to the still sorer and more irritable recollection of Leicester, who was yet alive, and whose father was so directly struck at, in the mere mention of Edward's pretended will?* Nor were Leicester and he upon such good terms at this time, as to have led him to expect any mercy from him, for they were not in agreement about the affairs of the Netherlands, a very sore point with Leicester, as may be seen by the very next paper in Strype's Appendix, purporting to be a letter from the Earl of Leicester to the Lord Treasurer, justifying himself for some angry speeches used to that Lord,t who had thwarted him in somewhat discoursed before the Queen in Council, a pretty good proof that he was not one of Lord Burghley's instruments, as the libel set forth. J But Lord Burghley suffered in another quarter this year, upon the reputation * In the letters that passed between these two great men, in 1585, Leicester charged Lord Burghley with being under greater obligations to his father (Northumberland), than to the Duke of Somerset. Lord Burghley, though willing to acknowledge such favours as he had received from Northumberland, does not seem to have at all admitted that he was obliged to such an extent. We have before shewn that his talents were useful both to Somerset and Northum berland. -f- We have not Lord Burghley's letter before us, to which this of Lord Leicester's was a reply. Not to deny justice to the latter, we must allow, that if he wrote truth, he had some reason to cdmplain. X Having availed ourselves of this paper to clear up the difficult point of history in our first volume, we are led to remark, that this year terminated the life of the Duchess of Somerset, relict of the Protector, who, notwithstanding all her previous sufferings and mortifications, appears to have died very rich ; and though some writers have not hesitated to accuse Lord Burghley of being a betrayer of his first patron, the Duke, her husband, yet, to shew how little the Duchess herself credited such slanders, he is particularly remembered in her will, by a friendly bequest of '' a jug of chrystal, with a cover dressed with silver and gilt, and a ring with an emerald." Her Grace was ninety years old when she died. 324 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. of having more power at Court than was really the case ; his unworthy son-in- law, Lord Oxford, chose to impute to him, in a letter to that effect, the little countenance he received there, and even to charge him with having disparaged him before the Council. This charge Lord Burghley flatly denied, but as to his not obtaining any post through his interest, he answered, " That he perceived by it an opinion of his Lordship, that he thought it had been and might be in his power, considering, as he writ, that the managing of all causes passed through his hands, to strengthen his estate ; for that he could never hear of a way proposed for his preferment." To which the Lord Treasurer replied, " My Lord, for a direct answer, I affirm for a truth, and that to be well proved, that your Lordship mistakes my power ; howsoever you say that I manage the affairs ; the trouble whereof is laid upon me, but no power todo myself, or any kin or friend, any good ; but rather impeached and crossed, which I am taught these many years patiently to endure ; yea, to conceal. That there have been no ways prepared for your preferment I do utterly deny; and can particularly make it manifest, by testimony of counsellors, how often I have propounded ways to prefer you to services, but why these could not take place, I must not particularly set down in writing, lest either I discover the hinderer, or offend yourself in shewing the allegations to impeach your Lordship from such prefer ment." This letter bears date December 15, 1587, and is signed, " Your Lord ship's ready to deserve well, W. B." It is known that Lord Oxford was " a great spender," and as it was written of him, " set his patrimony flying," but his ill behaviour to Lady Oxford was worse than all. In the course 'of this year Lord Burghley lost his Mother, a most venerable lady of eighty-seven years of age, of which she had lived a widow thirty-five. She was an heiress of the House of Eckington of Bourne or Burn [in comitat. Lincoln], as has been mentioned in our first volume ; according to the inscription on her tomb, in St. Martin's Church at Stamford, she appears to have been "a very grave, religious,,virtuous, and worthy matron, delighting exceedingly in works of piety and charity." The same inscription represents her also to have been " crowned with much honour and comfort, having lived, by God's great blessing, to see her children and her children's children to the fourth and fifth generations, and that in a plentiful and honourable succession, being a happy mother of that most honourable Sir William Cecil, Knight of the Noble Order ofthe Garter, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of Eno-land who lieth here by her." The Queen took great care to express her condolence 1587.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 325 on the loss he had sustained, as may be seen in Strype's Annals, iii. b. ii. ch. xxii. under the year 1587. In Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i. b. iii. No. lvi., may be seen an extract from the will of this pious and good lady, from which it appears that she had, before she died, a most humane and charitable consideration for the poor of Stamford and Bourne [or Burn], her native place ; she had been accustomed, it seems, to appropriate 50/. a year (a large [sum in those days), to be advanced in the way of loan to poor persons, to set them to work, or aid them in other ways ; a benefaction she wished to be continued after her death, under the superintendence of her descendants, " the lords and owners of Burghley House for the time being." In the obituary of this year, the name of that very eminent statesrpan, Sir Ralph Sadler, ought assuredly not to be omitted; a diligent servant of the same Kings and Queens whom Lord Burghley himself had lived to see, to know, and to serve. He died at the advanced age of eighty.* No man per haps could have given a better account, in few words, of his talents and services, than that otherwise fanciful writer, the author of the British Worthies. [Lloyd.] Almost the last public service he had to perform, was the charge of the unfortu nate Queen of Scots, on the final dismissal or removal of the Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1584. It appears to have been very irksome to him, and considering all that had past, relative to the royal captive, it is scarcely possible to conceive what the state of his feelings must have been ; he had seen her in her very infancy ; was intimately acquainted with, or rather perfectly well known, to her father and mother ; he had been one of the Commissioners at York, and had most delibe rately given sentence against her, as guilty of the sad crimes and moral delin quencies of which she was accused, as we have shewn in a former part of our work ; and yet we find him, at the advanced age of 77, amusing himself at Tutbury with his hawks and falconers, and so indulgent to his charge, as to allow her to partake of the sport, to such a distance from the castle, as to alarm the Court ; and Mary herself thanking Elizabeth, her " good sister," for making choice of such an ancient Counsellor of her acquaintance to attend about her." The more we read of the history of the sixteenth century, the more perplexed we find ourselves * To shew how authors may be misled, who are not very circumspect in their proceedings, we must beg leave to correct a strange blunder (a misprint only of course) in the Biographical Me moir of Sir Ralph Sadler, by Sir Walter Scott, prefixed to the publication of his State Papers, Letters, &c. ; Sir Ralph is there represented to have died in 1607, when he would have been at the least 100 years old; he certainly died in 1587. 326 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1587. to account for the state of moral and social feelings bf ifidividuals. No man had more openly detiouhced Mary to be a murderess and an adulteress, than Sir Ralph Sadler, and yet he seems to have treated her with all the indulgence and respect he co,vild, in compliance with her own wishes and designs ; and to have shrunk, as far as he could do it, from the appointment imposed on him, and rto wonder. When we reflect on the known opinions of such men as Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Lord Burghley, as to the safe keeping of the Queen of Scots in custody, and look to their moral characters, and the opinion generally entertained of their worth, integrity, and good dispositions ; we can not bring ourselves to believe, that Mary could be persecuted by such States men for the mere sake Of persecution, or to gratify the very worst passions of human nature. We are persuaded they all looked to the safety of Elizabeth, her crown and kingdom, with no farther ill-will to. Mary, than as she was found to be at all times confederate with Elizabeth's bitterest and mdst deadly foes ; a fact which, though she denied it to the last, was proved by the most palpable detections ; this was decidedly the cause of her ruin. But to finish our account of this aged Statesman, in the Words of that curious and entertaining writer, Lloyd, we may say, that " he saw the interest of this state changed six times, and died an honest man ; the crown put upon four heads, yet he continued a faithful subject; religion changed, as to the public constitution of it, five times, yet he kept the faith." CHAP. XV. 1588. Thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov, 17, 1587. Annus Mirabilis — The Spanish Armada — Of Mary's case — Ronsard — Marguerite Lam- brun^-Lord Burghley's State papers — Of Philip and Elizabeth — Book written upon the mo$t happy Armada— Paper on the proceedings between England and Spain — The Pope ^—The Queen's letters to the Lord Lieutenant— The Armada sails from Lisbon — Bull of Sixtus Quint us — Duke of Parma— rCommand ofthe English fleet given to Lord Howard of Effingham — Officers under him — Poem by Aske on the Armada — Defeat ofthe Armada — Pasquinade — Proceedings ofthe English army — Mendoza — Elizabeth — Lord Burghley — Fenelon's embassy to Scotland — The Queen's heroic conduct — Her Speech to the army on the banks of the Thames — Letter from Leicester to Lord Shrewsbury — Rejoicings in England, on the defeat ofthe Armada — Philip — Willingness of all classes in England to carry on the war^-Disputes at the Universities inferred to Lord Burghley — Sir Edward Kelly — Case of Digby — ^Papists and Puritans — Whitgift — Martin Marprelate — Reply to Dr. Bridges' book — Mr. Neal's History of the Puritans — Of the Queen, and Ecclesiastical affairs — Burnet and Calvin on Episcopacy — The Puritans' Platform — Of the Established Religion, and Puritanism — Bishop Cooper — The Puritans' abuse of the Queen, Bishops, fyc. — Sir Francis Walsingham' s letter to Mr. Critoy — Of Leicester and the Puritans — Lord Burghley — Death of Archbishop Sandys — Extract from his will— -Character of Leicester — Lord Burghley and the Queen — Death of Leicester — Epitaph on him — .Hi's Will — Sir Robert Dudley — Duchess Dudley. We are now arrived at the Annus Mirabilis, the wonderful, or admirable year, so called by very grave writers, and said to be foretold as such by an astronomer of Koningsberg, above a hundred years before, and noted by the German chro- nologers as the grand climacterical year of the world.* " The rumours of wars, which before were but slight and small," says Camden, " began now to grow daily greater, and greater : and now the reports * See Camden and Bishop Carleton's Thankful Remembrancer. That some notorious prophecy was in circulation relative to this year, appears from a letter written from the Secretary of State's office, to Mr. Anthony Bacon, in France, June 13, 1586. in which notice is taken of the many strange accidents, "which," says the writer, "give no small credit to the old prophecy of the approaching year, 1588." — Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. 51. 328 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. were no longer uncertain, but the universal and unanimous belief of all men carried it for certain truth,* that a most invincible Armada was rigged and prepared in Spain, against England, and that the famousest Captains and ex- pertest leaders, and old soldiers, were sent for out of Italy, Sicily, yea, and out of America, into Spain." God forbid that we should say any thing that should subject us to the sus picion of triumphing in the death of Mary, or of feeling less for her, than the generality of the world have done ; on the contrary, perhaps no persons had ever greater occasion to lament that catastrophe, as a blot in the biography we have undertaken, calculated to render our whole work unpopular, though we must declare, that, upon a full and fair investigation of the subject, we still think both Elizabeth and her great Minister Lord Burghley ought to have the credit of being impelled to go to extremities by the force of circumstances ; in short, by an imperious necessity ; meaning thereby a case of personal self-defence. Be this, however, as'it may, most certain it is, that by the death of Mary, the gloomy and lowering dawn of this Annus mirabilis admitted a gleam of sun shine, not otherwise to have been expected. As long as Philip could pretend to be the friend and deliverer of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, his cause might be popular, perhaps, ought to have been popular ; for though we fully believe, that she never could have been released by Elizabeth, without great danger to her own person, her crown, and her kingdom, yet we think she might and almost should have been rescued. We have been ourselves, often, almost tempted to cry out with Ronsard, (l'Apollon des Francois, as Mary herself used to call him,) — " Peuples, vous forlignez, aux armes nonchalants De vos ayeux Renaulds, Lancelots, et Rolands, Qui prenoient d' un grand cceur pour les Dames querelle, Les gardoient, les sauvoient, ou vouz n' avez, Francois, Encore ose toucher ny vester le harnois Pour oster de servage une Royne si belle !" But rescued she never was, though in captivity eighteen years, and never ex- * See the letter from an English spy, in Mr. Ellis's Collection, 2d Series, iii. p. 134, dated Madrid, May 28, 1588. « I was," he writes, "in the number of the incredulous, yet now being in place where I may hear and see, I confess to be in the wrong, for now I am out of doubt they will in very deed that way; so that the lightning and thunder-clap will be both in a moment." Mr. Turner has very properly corrected Mr. Ellis's statement-the writer of this letter was no English spy, but one who actually wished for the success of the Armada. 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 329 ceedingly well guarded, though she was a Queen of France as well as of Scotland, and a firm, if not a bigoted Catholic* If we ask why she was not rescued, the answer must be, because all her foreign pretended friendsf had interests of their own to consult, which fettered their hands ; all would have consented to pull down Elizabeth, and massacre her counsellors, but they could not agree as to the division of the spoil. This was, indeed, the safety of England, and the destruction of Mary, for among Elizabeth's own subjects, it was soon found that those who would have fought for Mary, would not fight for Philip. On the contrary, the Invincible Armada began speedily to arouse the spirit of Elizabeth's Catholic subjects, and stir them up, to defend their native country from subjection to the haughty Spaniard. * Though there seems to have been a want of heroes to accomplish Mary's rescue, in times much nearer than our own to the age of Chivalry, yet was there not wanting a perfect heroine to avenge her death, could she but have accomplished her purposes. , We wish we could give the story at length, in the original French, but it would be too long, and perhaps in some respects an English abridgment may do better. Marguerite Lambrun was, as well as her husband, in the service of Mary, at the time of her execution ; the horrid catastrophe had such an effect on the mind of M. Lambrun, that he sunk under it, and soon followed Mary to the grave. His wife vowed to revenge the deaths of both ; insinuated herself into the English palace disguised as a man, and was in the very act of ap proaching the person of Elizabeth, when one of two loaded pistols she had about her, fell to the ground. She was instantly seized by the guards, and would have been hurried to prison, but that Elizabeth, hearing the tumult, desired to speak with, and interrogate the aggressor. Marguerite at once confessed the truth; declared she was a woman in disguise, come to avenge the death of her husband and her Royal mistress, by the murder of Elizabeth ; that she had made efforts to overcome her passions and fatal purposes, but quite in vain. Elizabeth heard her with perfect composure, and calmly asked her to say, what she conceived to be her (Elizabeth's) duty, upon the hearing of such a case. Marguerite civilly asked in reply, whether she put that question to her as a Queen, or as a Judge. Elizabeth answered, As a Queen. — Then, said Marguerite, you should grant me a pardon. But, said Elizabeth, what assurance can you give me, that you will not abuse my mercy, and attempt the like on some future occasion. Madame, said Marguerite, a grace so fettered by precautions, is no grace at all. Elizabeth, turning to her Courtiers, observed, " Thirty years have I now reigned, and never before met with a person, to inculcate to me so noble a lesson ;" and though she was strongly urged by her Council, as the story goes, to make an example of her, she insisted upon immediately granting her a pardon, unfettered with condi tions, and finally, at her own request, caused her to be safely and honourably conveyed to her own country of France. — See Dictionnaire Historique, Art. Lambrun. + In Scotland it may be allowed and concluded, that she had some real friends, but they could do nothing without France, and that dependence rendered them, in fact, obnoxious and dangerous to England; while it greatly lessened their consequence even in their own country. VOL. III. 2 U 330 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. It surely redounds to the credit of Elizabeth that she could always with confidence throw herself upon the loyalty of her subjects, whether, they were Catholic or Protestant ; she always seems to have been considered by them in cases of emergency, as a great Queen of this great kingdom.; but. while Mary lived, we must excuse in the Catholics, (considering the fulminating Bulls that had issued from Rome,) a. leaning towards her claims, pretensions,* and alleged rights; for our own part, we do most heartily forgive theju, •but must still look to the truth of history. England was now grievously threatened; ,so much so, that it must have required the utmost fortitude, and most, collected and mature judgment, to avert the impending storm. There was one intervening expedient to be considered of, the possibility of treating for peace. This alternative (if we may so call it), appears to have been in a peculiar (though not unusual) manner, submitted to Lord Burghley, and to have pro duced one of those able state papers for which he was so eminent, and which may be seen in the third volume of Strype's Annals, part ii. pp, 2, 3, &c. The leading article to be stipulated being, that the " people of the Low Countries, whom her Majesty hath defended, may not be impeached hereafter for anything done, but may enjoy their liberties and freedoms, and have the use of their religion ;" but in truth, all efforts to negotiate a peace at this time were illusory. Philip solicited Elizabeth's mediation with the States as a blind, while his fleet was getting ready ; and the mediation was accepted, to. gain more time for Eng land's defence. — rSee Rapin, Camden, &c. ; " so as they seeified," says the latter author, " on both sides, to sew the fox's skin to the lion's." The Spaniard was much too confident of success; and what is somewhat remarkable, he seems to have been made to believe that Elizabeth was extremely unpopular, and that there was " great hope, that if the Catholic King would arm against her, ' her subjects would attempt somewhat remarkable for her destruction ;" which suspicions, as Strype very justly says, " were as full of falsehood as of malice." And indeed, this proscribed Queen appears to have felt no alarm at the mighty preparations making against her, so long as she might with safety appeal to the love and affections of her subjects ; every evidence of which she received most thankfully and- most seriously, acknowledging herself most bound to Al mighty God that it had pleased him to bless her with such. loving and dutiful subjects. The proud King of Spain, in the meanwhile, was no less confident of 1589.] MEMOIRS OF' LORD BURGHLEY. 331 success, not from the love of his subjects, but from the mighty force he had gathered together to invade the Queen's dominions; of which, indeed, he was so extravagantly vain, as to cause it to be made known throughout Europe, in a book written upon the "most happy Armada," as he called it, in many languages, Spanish, Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch, the title of which ran thus:— " La felicissima Armada que el rey Felipe m estro senior mando juntar en el puerto de la Ciudad de Lisbon en el regno de Portugal ;" which book falling into the hands of Lord Burghley, he added notes thereto, and probably hastened its printing and publication ;* for indeed it soon appeared in English, the only language apparently proscribed by Philip. The translator had but too much room afforded him to compare the vain boasts of the Spaniard with those of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, " as if he cried out," says he (with Rabshakah to the Jews), " Let not England deceive you, for it cannot deliver you out of my hand." In this book there was an account given of the number of galleons, ships, pinnaces, sabres, galliasses, gallies, and other vessels which were assembled in the river of Lisbon. "f The Duke of Medina Sidonia was appointed general and chief of the expedition ; and, by the Spanish accounts, the fleet appears to have consisted of 130 ships of 57;868 tons ; 19,295 soldiers, 8450 mariners, and 2088 slaves, besides many other lesser vessels of attendance. * A paper was at the same time put forth, and which Strype has printed from the Burghley MSS., purporting to be an account of the proceedings between Spain and England, beginning at the access bf Queen Elizabeth to the crown, in answer to a libel. This is an admirable paper ; and, in our own estimation, so conformable to the actual truth of things, as to deserve implicit credit. — See Annals, vol. iii. part ii. Appendix, No; [lvii.], p. 554. We are the more inclined to say so, because Dr. Lingard, in his very partial History, is disposed to throw all the blame of ag gression on Elizabeth ; with him Philip is constantly the injured person ; and the aid of his rebels in the Low Countries is, in his eyes, never to be forgiven. And yet, if ever there were a cause in which freedom and established right had to contend against the most odious tyranny, it was the case of the Belgians." We have not time nor space to tell the whole story in reply to Dr. Lingard, but let Voltaire tell it for us in his General History of Europe, if any reader would wish not to be beguiled. f Were it not a kijown fact, the reader would perhaps think it incredible, that any court could have been so impolitic as to publish these things before hand, especially accompanied by such vain boasts. But it did the English great service, as some Catholics wrote to Mendoza ; blaming also the severity of the Pope's Bull, Cardinal Allen's treason against his country, and the " way of Reformation by Force." 332 MEMOIR'S OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. The whole account, however, ought to be read, as printed by Strype, in the Appendix to the third volume of his Annals, No. Ii. book ii. Philip seems most decidedly to have had two objects in view: the one to conquer not England only, but the whole island of Great Britain ; the other to extirpate heresy, and fully restore the Catholic religion. The first was avowed in some of their books, and the latter fully expressed, in the title of the Litany prepared for the occasion, which ran as follows : " Litanise et preces pro felici successu classis Catholici Regis nostri Philippi adversus Anglise h^ereticos, verae fidei impugnatores." Friars of many different orders were in the fleet, and the ships dedicated to a variety of Saints, as St. Martin, St. Philip, St. James, St. Anne, St. Christopher, &c. Very many adventurers (as they were called) were also on board the several ships, decorated with titles, but probably designed to take the places of all the Noblemen in England and Scotland. In short, as Bishop Carleton wrote, the Pope* and the Spaniard appear to have laid up all their hopes upon this year's and this fleet's destiny. In the mean time, the Queen sent letters to the Lords Lieutenants of the several counties, to make large preparations of defence, it being plainly, as she stated, the intention of the enemy, not merely to invade, but make a conquest also of the realm, " wherein every man's particular estate was in the highest degree to be touched, in respect of country, liberty, wife, children, lands, life, and (that which was especially to be regarded) the profession of the true and sincere religion." The Nobility, also, in general, were called upon to make themselves ready to repair to the. Queen, in defence of her person, when. summoned, armed, themselves, their servants, and dependents. In all these measures of defence, the hand of Lord Burghley is constantly to be seen ;f nor » The Pope seems to have been the chief instigator of this mighty armament, and the principal encourager of Philip's rash designs, for it appears that the latter was much dissuaded from the undertaking, by his minister, Idiaquez, in which also the Duke of Parma is thought to have joined ; but nothing could convince him that his power might fail, or that the conquest of England was a matter of any uncertainty. See Watson's Philip II. t Of the Lord Treasurer's composure at this alarming period, a curious trait is recorded: " When the utte'r destruction of the English Government was confidently expected abroad, and greatly: dreaded at home, Burghley appeared uniformly collected and resolute ; and when the mighty pre parations of the Spaniards were spoken of, in his presence, with apprehension, he only replied, with firmness, ' They shall do no more than God will suffer them.' "—Macdiarmid. ^-589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 333 were his efforts vain ; he soon found that the Catholics and Protestants equally dreaded and abhorred the tyranny of Spain, and were equally bent upon upholding the independency ofthe nation. The Dutch also determined to assist their ally. It was on the 29th of May, 1 588, that the armada quitted Lisbon, under the especial auspices of the Holy Roman See ; and that very remarkable Pontiff, Sixtus Quintus, who had nothing to contribute, says Rapin, but what the Popes were wont to supply on such occasions, namely, vows, prayers, and anathemas. To countenance, therefore, the King's undertaking, Sixtus thundered against Elizabeth a Bull, absolving her subjects from the oath of allegiance, and giving her kingdoms to the first that should seize them ; while the Bulls of Pius V. and Gregory XIII. were renewed by Cardinal Allen, sent for that purpose into the Low Countries,* where the Duke of Parma, whatever his private opinions might be,t had caused an army of 30,000 men to be raised, and given commands to some of the English fugitives, the Earl of Westmoreland par ticularly, who were to join the Spanish fleet,, and be landed in England. Though it was impossible for Elizabeth to pretend to cope with Philip in numbers of ships or forces, yet she was, by the zeal of her faithful subjects, enabled to fit out a considerable fleet, the command of which was entrusted to a Catholic, the Lord Howard of Effingham, High Admiral of England, very * See Camden. Sixtus, he says, published a regular crusade against Turks and infidels; and out ofthe treasury of the Church granted plenary indulgences to all who should contribute any help, which induced many Noblemen from all parts to enlist voluntarily. Ofthe Bull of Sixtus many copies were printed at Antwerp, and sent over to England, whereby the Queen was " accursed, and pronounced to be deprived of her crown ;" but, as things turned out, and as it was shrewdly observed at the time, " whom the Pope cursed, God blessed." — See Carleton's Thankful Remembrancer. t Watson, in his History of Philip II., as we have shewn, supposes the Duke of Parma to have been rather averse from the undertaking. Camden represents things otherwise, at least as to one course of proceeding, which, he says, " the Duke of Parma urged tooth and nail," p. 404. Rapin and Camden differ greatly as to the English fugitives. The former expressly says, Stanley and Westmoreland had commands, under the Duke ; Camden, that their services were positively rejected, as unnatural, and therefore inauspicious. The Duke certainly professed to have a high veneration for Elizabeth, and to be governed in his proceedings, not by the Pope or his emissaries (for he had been charged with countenancing Cardinal Allen), but solely by the orders he received from the King his master. Certain it is, that after the overthrow of the Spanish fleet, the Spaniards threw much blame upon the Duke for negligence. 334 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. expert in sea affairs, having under him tWee ofthe best naval officers in the world, Drake, Hawkins, and Forbisher* These Were ordered to lie in the mouth of the Channel, while forty saU of English and Dutch, under Lord Henry Seymour, second son of the late Duke of Somerset, were left to watch the coast of Flanders, and prevent the Duke of Parma joining the Spaniards. So ardent in the cause were many of the nobility, that some chose, rather than appear inactive on so great an occasion, to accompany the fleet as volunteers, fitting out ships for that purpose at great expense ; and among these, were both the sons of Lord Burghley, Sir Thomas and Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards Earls of Exeter and Salisbury. The history of the defeat and dispersion of this mighty armament, and of the salvation of England thereby, has been so often written,t that we may well be spared the trouble of entering very far into the particulars ;% we shall however observe, that so little had Philip calculated upon the nature, as well as the amount, of the difficulties he might have to encounter; that his ships had no sooner entered the narrow seas, than it was discovered, that the comparative lightness of the English vessels, and the superior alacrity of the English sailors, gave the latter every advantage, and that in fact, had nothing worse hap pened, it is probable that they would have met with their match at the very * Camden gives Elizabeth the credit of having exercised her own clear judgment and discernment in assigning most excellent men, upon this occasion, to every particular place and charge. 405. t For accounts of this extraordinary expedition, the reader may consult Watson's History of Philip II., the author having carefully compared the foreign historians, Grotius, Meteren, Cam- pana, Ferreras, and Thuanus. Bishop Carleton's account in his Thankful Remembrancer is worth reading; Camden is pretty full; in the Appendix to Strype's Annals, many curious papers are to be seen, of both true and false accounts, of the issue of this great enterprise. X Strype speaks of a poem in blank verse, entitled " Elizabetha Triumphans," as containing the fullest account of the expedition, of the Camp at Tilbury, and of the Queen's actions, speeches-, and behaviour there. It was set forth, he tells us, by I. A. — Post Victoriam Gloria. The Title at large, and specimen he gives ®f the verses, do not speak highly in' recommendation of it ; but the work is unknown to us. — The author's name was Aske. Queen Elizabeth has had the credit given her, of being the occasion of people's eating goose for dinner on Michaelmas-day ; for hav ing feasted upon a savoury one at Sir Neville Umfraville's, on her way to Tilbury, and calling for a half-pint bumper of Burgundy, to drink destruction to the Spanish fleet, she had no sooner drank it, than the news bf its dispersion arrived ; to commemorate at once the day, the dinner, and the victory, she ever afterwards, we are told, eat goose on St. Michael's day, in which she was followed by the Court. Dr. Drake, however, has discovered an earlier date for this prevailing custom. — See his Shakspeare, 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 335 mouth of the channel.* It was however judged wisest, not to encounter them there, but to let them pass onward and follow them, that their return might be rendered impossible, and their embarrassment the greater, as ,the sea-room became contracted. This manoeuvre seems entirely to have succeeded, for after taking some of their hinder ships and stragglers, and finding that the Spanish fleet was making for the coast of Flanders, in order to set the Duke of Parma free from the blockade under Seymour ; Lord Howard, after sustaining one attack, in which the Spaniards through the unwieldiness of their ships gained no advantage, followed them to Calais, where they had been obliged to cast anchor; and not willing to let so good an opportunity slip, he sent in among them during the night, no fewer than eight fire-ships, which threw them into such terror and confusion, that instantly cutting their cables, they put to sea, to avoid the im pending danger ; and though the Spanish Admiral had ordered every ship to return to her station as soon as the danger was passed, and made a signal for that purpose, yet none made any attempt to obey ; some were driven to the North, and some upon the shallows of Flanders, where they were in great dan ger, not only from the sands, but from the assaults of the English, who played upon them with their cannon, and disabled many, while two of the galeons fell into the hands of the Zealanders ; at length it was determined that they should abandon the enterprise, and endeavour to find a passage home by the way of Scotland and Ireland, as some ofthe ships, had already taken that course. But here the elements became their enemies ; they sustained great damage by winds and storms, and many ships were absolutely lost on the coasts both of Ireland and Scotland, so that ofthe whole of this invincible, and really formidable armada, fifteen great ships were lost in the engagements in the Channel, and seventeen on the coasts of Ireland, being in all thirty-two ships, and 10,185 men.| The following account was pretended to have been sent by one in England, * According to Camden's account, p. 403, Philip had been counselled to avoid the narrow seas, and proceed directly against England,, which he might do by a "free and open sea," and a shorter journey than would be required for reducing the Netherlands. f We must be excused repeating the well-known story ofthe following pasquinade, since there is no knowing who may read it for the first time, in this particular work ; but it. seems to be very certain, that upon the defeat or dispersion of this extraordinary armament, the following was exhi bited on Pasquil in the city of Rome. " Pontificem mille annorum indulgentias largiturum esse de plenitudine potestatis suae, siquis certo sibi indicaverit, quid sit factum de classe Hispanica. Quo abierit; in ceelumne sublata; an ad Tartara detrusa; ¦vel in tfet-e alicubi pendeat; an in ali- quo mari fluctuat ?" 336 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. to Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador at Paris. "How that famous fleet was driven out of our seas, to the further north parts of Scotland, and driven by tempests beyond the isles of Orkney, a place above sixty degrees from the North Pole ; an unacquainted place for the young gallants of Spain, that never had felt storms on the seas, or cold weather in August. Arid about those north islands, their mariners and soldiers died daily by multitudes, as by their bodies cast on land did appear." See the whole of this letter, in the Appendix to Strype's Annals, iii. No. Hi. This was probably intended as a banter upon Mendoza, the Spanish Minister, who had' been expelled England for his bad practices, and had prematurely endeavoured to persuade the world, that England had been beaten ; absolutely procuring such a report to be drawn up and published in French, Italian, and Spanish. Strype has briefly enumerated the evils that would probably have ensued, had the Spanish enterprise succeeded; viz. a fear ful massacre of Protestants every- where; the deposition of the Queen, accom panied in all likelihood, with "some direful usage ;" new rulers to be set over the nation, and the ancient government and constitution overturned. It appears from one account sent to Lord Burghley, that Philip, in case of his meeting with success, had intended to send Elizabeth to Rome, that the Pope might dispose of her as it should please him. "What the Pope should have done with her, besides the putting her into the Inquisition," says Strype, "we are left to guess." We may not repeat' what Sixtus Vth. used to say, of an acquaintance between himself and Elizabeth, [Bayle, art. Elizabeth, note Q. ;] but in fact he had a high opinion of her undaunted spirit, and distin guished talents ; he considered her as one of three who alone were qualified to reign, himself and Henry IV. being the other two. In the report to which we are referring, there is a curious character drawn of Lord Burghley himself; as of a man so experienced, and grounded with so deep a judgment, as his piercing eye foresees and looks into all accidents and sequences that may preju dice or further his purposes and intentions in any matter he takes in hand, or is to be handled in government ofthe realm, and practised and followed against any other state. A very exact character, and for that age, a very complimentary one, when " dissimulation," as an able writer has observed, " instead of being reprobated, was respected, and even commended as the concomitant of sagacity and wisdou C-Benger's Memoirs of Mary, Queen of Scots. Not that we think Lord Burghley chargeable with greater dissimulation, than was, as near as could be, absolutely necessary, to counteract, as we have elsewhere expressed ourselves 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 337 the dissimulation and hidden purposes of others. Throgmorton, after much conversation with the Queen of Scots in France, 1562, actually observes, in his letters in the Cabala, as a matter of praise, that she " was inferior to none in dissimulation." — Knox, a less favourable judgej bestowed upon her similar com mendations ; in short, the politics of that age resembled a game at whist, in which the utmost pains are expected to be taken, to detect what your adversary is about, and by skilful play win the game, in defeating all his plans and purposes, and not without some finesse occasionally, to hide the player's own purposes, and mislead the adversary. In one of Mr. Faunt's letters to Mr. Anthony Bacon, to be seen in Birch's Memoirs, speaking of the mission of a French Minister to Scotland, in the year 1582, he says, " La Motte Fenelon is n wly arrived here from France ; his errand is to go into Scotland pour brouiller les cartes, and to the Scots Queen; but it will be hardly granted him."— He did go, however, but with one to watch his shufflings, which was all fair. — See an account of these embassies, in Dr. Birch's note, vol. i. p. 33. It would be wrong not to take account of what was passing on land, while these things took place on the seas. We have hitherto followed Strype and Rapin, their statement of proceedings being very short, yet sufficiently clear. We shall now refer to Camden, as perhaps the shortest account of all : " For land-service," he says, " there were dispersed along the southern coasts, 20,000 men, besides which, two armies were raised, of choice, well- disciplined, and experienced men ; the one under the command of the Earl of Leicester, consist ing of 1000 horse, and 22,000 foot, which encamped at Tilbury, not far from the Thames mouth (for the enemy was fully resolved to set first upon London), the other under the leading of the Lord Hunsdon, consisting of 34,000 foot, and 2000 horse, to guard the Queen's person. When we compare these armaments, with the reports made to Philip, of England's hopeless state, that " it had no forts nor defences ; that it was unprovided of commanders, soldiers, cavalry, and munition ; bare of wealth and friends ; that there were many in all parts of the realm, addicted to the Romish religion, who would presently join their forces with his ; briefly, that so great was the strength of the Spaniard both by sea and land, and so unmatchable the valour of the Spaniards, that no man durst oppose him." When, we say, these accounts are duly compared, it is impossible not to be struck with admiration at the surprising energy displayed by the Eng- Hsh, and the spirit and resolution with which all ranks of persons came forward, to defend their country and their Sovereign. " No words," says Rapin, "are vol. in. 2 x 338 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588, able to express the great forwardness of the people, in their zealous love and duty towards their Sovereign at this juncture."* And certainly the juncture was one, exceedingly formidable to Elizabeth ; for her crown and her life lay both at stake. Hitherto, through a line of policy common to all the states of Europe in those days, by keeping her enemies occupied, and watching all their motions, she had prevented attacks at home, but the time was now come, as Rapin says, that her right must be exposed to the chances of war. " If ever she discovered ability," says the same author, ".it was on this important occasion ; far from shewing, the least faint-heartedness, she encouraged her people by her looks, her resolution, her affability — she looked to every thing with a wonderful prudence, and a presence of mind,' rarely to be found in the greatest men, and which gained her the admiration and praises of all the world." It was while the army lay encamped at Tilbury, that the Queen, " with a masculine spirit," says Camden, took a view of it in person, t riding through the ranks, with a truncheon in her hand, sometimes with a martial pace, another while, gently like a woman, encouraging in an incredible manner the hearts of her captains and soldiers, by her presence and kind speeches. J * The City of London being desired to furnish 5000 men and 15 ships, granted 10,000 men, and 30 ships. t " See a Queen," says the great Lord Bacon, " that when her realm was to have been invaded by an army, the preparation whereof was like the travel of an elephant, the provisions were infinite, the setting forth whereof was the terror and wonder of Europe : it was not seen that her cheer, her fashion, her ordinary manner was any thing altered ; not a cloud of that storm did appear in that countenance, wherein peace doth ever shine, but with excellent assurance and advised security, she inspired her council, animated her nobility, redoubled the courage of her people, still having this noble apprehension, not only that she would communicate her fortune with them, but that it was she that would protect them, not they her ; which she testified by no less demonstration than her presence in camp." — Bacon's Discourse in Praise of his Sovereign. X Though one speech delivered by Elizabeth is known almost by heart, to most readers of history, it is too characteristic of that extraordinary woman, to be omitted : it was addressed to the army, on the banks ofthe Thames, where the invasion was expected to take place. " My loving people, " We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery, but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. " Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself, that under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts awA goodwill of my subjects, and therefore I am come 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 339 Upon this very memorable occasion, her Majesty rode on a milk-white horse, which she afterwards gave to Lord Burghley, * and the portrait of which is still to be seen in the Hall of Hatfield House, the seat of his Lordship's lineal descendant, the Marquess of Salisbury. The defeat and discomfiture of this great enterprise, on the issue of which, no doubt, every thing valuable to England in Church and State depended, was, as might be expected, the subject of great rejoicings and public thanks givings. Philip, however, in the meanwhile, it must be acknowledged, took the disappointment better than could have been supposed, f but not in such a amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of battle, to live or die among you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdoms, and for my people, my honour, and my blood even in the dust. " I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any Prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm ; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your General, Judge, and Rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. " I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns, and we do assure you on the word of a Prince they shall be duly paid you. In the meantime my Lieutenant- general shall be in my stead, than whom never Prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject, not doubting but by your obedience to our General, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of God, of my kingdoms, and of my people." Dr. Lingard thinks this speech might have been prepared, but could not have been delivered, because the enemy was fled, but the alarm might not be over ; since their quick determination to steer northward, is known to have excited a pretty general idea that they would land in Scotland, and that James would receive them there, in a friendly manner: no unreasonable expectation, con sidering all things. * In a letter from Leicester to Lord Shrewsbury, from the camp, dated August 15, he writes, " Our gracious mistress has been here with me to see her camp and people, which so inflamed the hearts of her good subjects, as I think the weakest person amongst them is able to match the proudest Spaniard that dares land in England. — My Lord, this gentleman (the bearer) has seen our camp, and a fair show I made my Lord Treasurer, who came from London to see us." — Lodge, ii. No. ccxxii. f This at least is Camden's account; others state tht being at mass when the account came, as soon as it was over, he swore a great oath, protesting that he would waste and consume his crown, even to the value of one of the candlesticks on the altar, utterly to ruin Elizabeth and England ; while his priests laid the blame on his lenity towards the Moors, in not expelling them his country, and expecting to prevail against English heretics, while he harboured in his own kingdom, Mahometan apostates. — See the History of theExpulsion of the Moriscos out of Spain. 340 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. manner, as to lull to rest the suspicions of the English government ; so that the Parliament which was assembled early in the ensuing year came to a resolution to assist her Majesty with their lives, lands, and goods in her quarrel with the King of Spain, and the Lords in particular agreed to a declaration, said to be drawn up by Lord Burghley, offering " with all manner of duty and willingness to be ready with all their power, to serve her Majesty, as well by offensive wars abroad as defensive at home, whensoever she shall find it meet and profitable for her realm to denounce an open war against the said King and his adherents." * Notwithstanding the alarming situation in which the kingdom stood, during this memorable year, from the threatened invasion ; the preparations against which by land and sea, appear to have all emanated from Lord Burghley, f as the most watchful guardian of the realm, he was not free from his usual trouble, of being called upon to settle some very unpleasant disputes in the Universities (Cambridge particularly), as well as in the Church. The details of which, however, must be looked for in the several publications of Strype, as it appeaTS to have been one of his annual cares, and not of such a nature as to bear per petual repetition ; J especially as the several cases could only serve to shew the * This declaration, which is not in D'Ewes, Strype has printed in his Annals, from Lord Burghley's own draft of it, Annals, iii. part ii. p. 55. f Among other preparations for which he seems unwittingly to have made himself responsible, is the invitation to Sir Edward Kelly,.in Germany, who had the credit of having discovered the Philosopher's stone, to repair forthwith to England, to give the Queen, in this great crisis, the benefit of his admirable art : Strype seems very reasonably to conclude, that he was more wanted for purposes of information.— See this case in Strype's Annals, 1588, and the Letters and Papers relating to it, vol. iv., Nos. 1,2, 3, &c. X The case of Digby, senior fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, is rather a remarkable one, and should be read in Strype's Life of Whitgift; the Chancellor and ATchbishop having decided against the Master and Fellows, for too great rigour in enforcing their statutes, and though the latter had the support of the Earls of Warwick, Leicester, and Essex; the grounds of the Chancellor's determination seem to have been some notorious defects in the course of the proceed ings; " such as," (to use the Archbishop's own words to Leicester), " if they might be tolerated, should bring too violent a government into the College, and breed many inconveniences.'' Digby's great offence was, being an abettor of Popery? but Whitaker, the master, took the occasion of a much more trifling offence to expel him the College, thereby appearing to act on motives of mere resentment and private malice. Though the Chancellor, however, decided against Whitaker, it seems in no manner to have abated the respect borne by that learned divine and professor towards his Lordship, since in this very year he dedicated to Lord Burghley his celebrated " Disputatio de sacra Scriptura ;— contra Bellarmmum," Sec. Sfc. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 341 feverish state of men's minds, the unpleasant warmth with which all parties maintained their own opinions, and the impossibility there seemed to be of arriving at that unity, which the Queen judged to be necessary to the peace of the kingdom ; the Established Church having two parties opposed to her, as adverse as possible to each other, but each quarrelling with what had undoubt edly received the fullest sanction of the legislative powers, each questioning the Queen's Ecclesiastical Supremacy, the one generally, the other as to its parti cular extent. The-Papists secretly plotting another revolution, for the restoration of their religion ; the Puritans in their zeal against Popery and Episcopacy, interrupting the harmony that should have prevailed amongst Protestants at so trying a crisis, and too often calling down severities upon their own heads, by endeavouring to force their platform and Genevan discipline upon a Church which stood upon a different footing of reformation, and had in its new but fixed state, received the approbation, and excited the admiration of many learned foreigners. It was greatly to be lamented, therefore, that such disagreements should prevail, to the hurt and hindrance of the great cause of Protestantism, in its struggle with the Church of Rome ; but it was very long indeed, as every body now knows, before these disturbances could be allayed and quieted, by a full display of that essentially mild spirit of genuine Protestantism, which, without abandoning the wholesome system of a Church Establishment, has, by the Act of Toleration, and similar Statutes from time to time, afforded every reasonable security to scsupulous consciences, and totally done away with those hateful instruments of persecution, prevalent, we lament to say, beyond the age in which Lord Burghley lived, racks, and all engines of torture. But allow ances must be made, and men must be judged of, according to the standard of their own time, and the circumstances in which they were placed. There is no other way of judging properly of the course of public events, or the characters of individuals, in the sixteenth century ; during the whole of which, and much longer in this kingdom, as it happened, the minds of men may be said to have been in a perpetual state of revolutionary effervescence. All parties incurred the blame of great severities, but the complaints made against the Government should be carefully weighed and considered, to come at the truth. Those of both parties who would not conform to the settled order of things, were in the way to become disturbers,* if they interfered too far with those who could, and would * The Puritans complained that their liberty was infringed by their ministers not "being per mitted to alter or vary the established ritual as they chose. " What!" says an able writer, " the 342 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. conform ; while it is not to be doubted that their own systems were as domi neering and intolerant in principle as any. Of the system of the Papists, there had been sufficient experimental proof afforded in all countries, since the beginning of the century, to go no higher ; but the system of the Puritans was nearly as exclusive a one, and the conduct of some of that denomination during this year, in their attacks upon Episcopacy, extremely rude and irritating. No Prelate has been more severely censured for his conduct towards the Puritans than Whitgift, and even Lord Burghley seems to have judged him to be occa sionally too sharp; but he had provocations given him at this time, that seem quite indefensible ; of so scurrilous and vulgar a description that a slight specimen only we should conceive would be sufficient to satisfy the reader. For this was the year in which Episcopacy had to bear the assaults of the individuals or confederacy, * that attacked it, under the offensive title of Martin Marprelate, of whose bad taste and ill-breeding, the following is a sad and deplorable example. It is the introduction to a work purporting to be a reply to one written by Dr. Bridges, Dean of Salisbury, in defence of the Establish ment, and it begins thus : O, read over Dr. John Bridges, for it is a worthy work : or, an Epitome of the first book of the right worshipful volume, written against the Puritans, and the Defence of the Noble Clergy, by as worshipful a Priest, J. Bridges, Presbyter, Priest or Elder, Dr. of Divinitie, and Dean of Sarum. Wherein the arguments of the Puritans are wisely prevented ; that when they come to answer Mr. Doctor, they must need* say something that hath been spoken. , " Compiled for the behoof and overthrow of the parsons, fickars, and currats ; which have larnt their Catechisms, and are past grace. By the reverend and worthy Martin Marprelate, Gentleman ; and dedicated to Confocation house, &c. Printed over Sea in Europe, within two furlongs of a bouncing- Priest." S It is dedicated to the right puissant and terrible priests, my clergy-masters of Popish, Lutheran, and Calvinistic clergy to alter the public prayers as any of them thought proper, for each had the same right, and each was entitled to the same liberty." A fine source of dissension ! * Four of the most hot-headed of the party, Perry, Throgmorton, Eudale [Udal], and Fenner formed an association and clubbed their talents, to put out pamphlets against the Bishops • an account of which may be seen in Collier, ii. 606, Strype, &c. Camden, &c. &c. , but for all the fssrr atl" i v PTery'Sf Zu' ^^ Sh°Uld ^ PartiCUlarly C°nSUlted' P-ticularlyhis Anna.s, J 588, &c. and his Life of Whitgift. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 343 the Confocation- house, whether fickers-general, paltripolitans, or any other of the holy league of subscription. The date is not less curious. "Anno Pontifi- catus vesfri quinto ;" [meaning the Archbishop Whitgift, who had now, Ann. 1588, been five years removed to the See of Canterbury] ; adding, " and I hope ultimo of all the English Popes : by your learned and worthy brother, Martin Marprelate." Had there been wit enough in this rare piece, to excuse the vulgarity of it, it might have been more tolerable ;* but it is certainly as destitute of all wit, as of all good manners.^ The Archbishop who had perused and approved the Dean's Book, thus ex pressed in a more dignified and proper style, his commendation of it : " That he knew the sufficiency of it caused these men thus to storm ; as not being able otherwise to answer it. Which made them so bitterly to inveigh against his person : and therefore, Si insectari personam depldrata causa signum est, isto- rum causa est deploratissima ;" a very just remark. But the very system of the Puritans was intolerant, a case that should be better understood than it generally is, since in the celebrated History of the * Not that it could be justifiable even in that case ; "Non est major confusio," says the great Lord Bacon, speaking of those very times, " quam serii et joci." The majesty of religion, and the contempt and deformity of things ridiculous, are things as distant, as things can be. The same great man, has the following fair remark on the bold assertions of the Puritans : " If that which you set down as an assertion, you would deliver by way of advice, there were reverence due to your counsel, whereas faith is not due to your affirmation. St. Paul was content to speak thus, Ego non Dominus, I and not the Lord. Et secundum consilium meum, according to my counsel ; but now men do too lightly say, No?i Ego sed Dominus ; Not I but the Lord, — yea, and bind it with an heavy denunciation of his judgments, to terrify the simple." There are many important remarks to be found in these Essays of Bacon on Church Controversies ; in which, Lord Bacon, while he blames the Puritans, gives good advice to the Bishops. He professes him self to be a favourer of episcopacy, in the following pointed terms : " For the government .of Bishops, I for my part, not prejudging the precedents of other reformed Churches, do hold it warranted by the word of God, and by the practice of the ancient Church in the better times, and much more convenient for kingdoms, than parity of ministers, and governed by synods. But then farther it is to be considered, that the Church is not now to plant and build ; but only to be pruned from corruption, and to be repaired and restored in some decays." He blames those Puritans greatly, in his Essay on Church Controversies, " who call in as it were to their aid, cer tain mercenary bands, which impugn Bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignities, to have the spoil of their endowments and livings. Of these I cannot speak too hardly. It is an intelligence be tween incendiaries and robbers, the one to fire the house, the other to rob it." f See as to the authors of this stamp, and of the town-wits of the day, who infested the re public of letters from 1580 to 1600, Drake's Shakspeare, vol. i. 457. 344 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. Puritans by Mr. Neal, referring to these times, many things exceedingly in jurious to the memory of the great foundress of our Protestant religion, are to be found, as well as very partial representations of those who acted by her authority, her ministers and servants ; as it has been very rightly observed. But indeed Mr. Neal's reflections were ably controverted in a work,* bearing the following title, " A Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, against the injurious Reflections of Mr. Neal in his late History of the Puritans, together with a detection of many false quotations and mistakes in that performance, London, 1740." This comes closer to the point, than Hooker's great Work, and the author having had the advantage of Mr. Neal's revival of the con troversy carried on in Lord Burghley's days, and many practical evidences of the spirit of Puritanism in the century following, to refer to, and drawing his proofs from the very words of some of their own party, ought, in the spirit of its own selected motto, Audi alteram. partem, to be read by all who would obtain, a clear history of the dispute. The points insisted upon by the author are these : 1 . That Queen Elizabeth was really a Protestant, and wisely fixed upon the most proper and Scriptural, as well as the most Catholic and comprehensive establishment of the Protestant religion. 2. That the Puritans were neither desirous of a toleration for themselves, nor willing to grant it to any others : but solely aimed at the establishing their own platform, and persecuting their fellow-subjects and fellow-Protestants. 3. That they were treated with great indulgence and favour, and allowed to enjoy many and considerable preferments in the Church. 4. That their own irregular conduct obliged the Government to secure itself by keeping a stricter hand upon them ; and that after all, great distinction was made between peaceable Non-conformists and those that endeavoured the over throw of Church and State ; that the one were indulged, while the other were restrained. The author, looking back upon the times of which we are writing, very justly observes, that these disputes, by dividing the Protestants, weakened that interest in the very infancy of it, when its whole united strength seemed scarce sufficient against Popery. And nothing could be more true ; yet he speaks impartially. " If all the proceedings," says he, " in a long reign of forty-four years, were not equally praiseworthy, it is not to be wondered at ; human frailties attend * It was written by Madox, Bishop of Worcester. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 345 persons of every rank ; and it will appear that the Puritans were as far from being faultless as their superiors. It is but justice, therefore, to divide the blame, and let each side have its proper share." He notices another very ma terial point that should be taken into account. In their zeal against Popery, the Puritans quite overlooked, or pretended to overlook, the middle line which the Queen, and her chief ministers, and the Prelates sought to keep; and because the latter would not condescend to the extreme demands of Calvinism, branded them at once with the odious name 6f Popery ; though " if," to cite the author's own words, " her Majesty, upon very weighty reasons, was for retaining some few ancient ceremonies, it had been much more decent, as well as just, to so great a Queen, to have said that she inclined more to the Lutheran than Calvinistic Pro testants, in the external polity of the Church, though she never came up to the former."* Instead of this, Mr. Neal gives her credit only for affecting to keep a middle way between Popery aud Puritanism, though more inclinable to the former: whereas there were other Protestants, who, without any affectation, to use their own expressions, steered such a middle course, and to whom Popery and the platform were nearly alike objectionable. Nor was this middle course at all a matter of in difference to the Calvinists; they were as unwilling to have Elizabeth a Lutheran as a Papist, insomuch that," at the very beginning of her reign, the Helvetian Di vines, the Fathers ofthe Puritans, declaimed against nothing more than the possi bility of Elizabeth's conforming to the Augustan Confession, though she had cer tainly more inducement to conciliate the German than the Helvetian Protestants. The simple question of Episcopacy may be said to remain a question to this day, since the northern and southern parts of the kingdom are under different esta blishments. It is quite enough to know, that both parties do really and con scientiously think they have the Scriptures, Apostolical authority, and primitive usage in their favour ; and the Legislature has gone as far as it could to sanc tion, rather than condemn, both Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. But, in Elizabeth's days, such a compromise seemed impossible ; and Government, which had made its decision, might reasonably be expected to resent, in fre quent instances, so vexatious an opposition as is known to have taken place ; still, indulgence was shewn when it could be shewn, and by no one more than by Lord Burghley ; endeavouring, as it would seem, constantly to mediate be- , * The Lutherans, as is well known to many readers, had their Superintendants and General Super- intendants, the same in effect with our Bishops and Archbishops. VOL. III. 2 Y 346 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. tween the offending Puritans and the offended Bishops ; in doing which, per haps, he might sometimes question the prudence of the latter, though he cer tainly wished to bring the former to a conformity, for the sake of peace and unity, and to frustrate the efforts ofthe Papists, who built their hopes much upon these divisions, and therefore strove to foment them all they could. Elizabeth, besides, had no reason toexpect this opposition ofthe Puritans, since Bullinger, one of the most respectable Helvetian Divines, had very early declared, that the Queen's adoption of her brother Edward's reformation satisfied him, and others of his persuasion. Satisfacit piis Edvardi Reformatio. This was the reformation the Queen professedly adopted, and it certainly should have served to protect her as well from the imputation of being a Papist,* as from the charge of not being in considerable agreement with- the wisest and most moderate of the Genevan or Zurichian schools.'}' * Had she been so inclined to Popery as the Puritans pretended, and yet wished to retain her supremacy, why did she not adopt her father's Reformation rather than her brother's? This is a question that might reasonably be asked, especially as she was surrounded with some of her father's Counsellors; instead of which, the first minister she appointed was Cecil, her brother's Secretary. + The fate of Episcopacy, as a stumbling-block to the Puritans, is odd enough. It is probable, that, in their zeal against Popery, they allowed themselves to be beguiled by a Popish fiction. Bur net has, with great ingenuity, shewn, that the elevation of the Priestly, and depression of the Epis copal order, originated, in all likelihood, with the Schoolmen and the Canonists, who came to similar conclusions with very different designs. The former having set up the great mystery of transubstantiation, judged it necessary to exalt the workers of this great miracle (of turning the Host into God), in such a way as to leave none above them ; and therefore, in fact, to make them equal to Bishops; while the Canonists, in their eagerness to exalt the Papacy, did all they could to bring down the power of the Bishops ; both Schoolmen and Canonists thus conspiring, though for different ends, to reduce the two orders nearer and nearer to an equality. But, by almost all ac counts, an equality was contrary to the primitive order of things; and, what is rather extraordi nary, we shall find Calvin, in the fourth chapter of the fourth Book of his Institutions, as forward as any to acknowledge, that before the Papacy, for fear of dissensions arising from an equality, in every city, Bishops were chosen to preside, in every province Archbishops, and in the Council of Nice, Patriarchs were put over Archbishops ; and he concludes with saying (after some objections to the term Hierarchy), that we shall find that the ancient Bishops were willing to frame no other form of governing the Church than that which God had prescribed in his word. The passage is certainly very remarkable, and deserves to be copied. " Quibus doceudi munus injunctum erat, eos omnes nominabant Presbyteros. Uli ex suo numero in singulis civitatibus unum eligebant, cui specialiter dabant titulum Episcopi, ne ex cequa- 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 347 We must not venture farther into these discussions at present; but as, in the midst of much more important concerns this year, Lord Burghley was, as usual, called upon to decide disputes of the above nature, and the renowned champion of Puritanism, Martin Marprelate, took the field, in form, against Episcopacy, we have judged it fit to refer the reader to what we conceive to be a truly rational and correct account of the precise bearings of the case. We must confess that Lord Burghley himself seems to have been occasionally deceived, especially when he judged the Prelates, and especially Whitgift, had gone too far in exacting subscription to particular articles ; whereas the Puritans' platform was quite as strict, if not more so, the following being the terms of admission into their congregation : " For the avoiding of all heresies and sects in our churches, every one, as well men as women, which desire to be received, shall make a declaration, or con fession of their faith, before Ministers and Elders, shewing themselves fully to consent and agree with the doctrine of the Church, and submitting themselves to the discipline of the same, and the same to testify by subscribing thereto, if they can write." " And that every member of the congregation do not refuse to render a declaration of their faith, before the Ministers and Elders,^ whensoever they shall by them be thereunto required." litate, ut fieri solent, dissidia nascerentur; quod autem singulae provinciae unum habebant inter Episcopos Archiepiscopum. Quod item in Nicena Synodo constituti sunt Patriarchm qui essent ordine dignitate Archiepiscopis superiores, id ad disciplinm comervationem pertinebat. Guberna- tionem sic constitutam nonnulli Hierarchiam vocarunt nomine (ut mihi videtur) improprio ; certe Scripturis inusitato. Verum si rem omisso vocabulo intuemur, reperiemus veteres Episcopos non aliam regendse Ecclesia} formam voluisse fingere ab ea quam Deus verbo suo prsescripsit." We must not deceive the reader, or misrepresent Calvin. In the book we cite, the above pas sages thus brought together, are far apart in the original; and we must confess we dislike that mode of citation. Calvin did not mean to give up the identity (if we may so speak), of Bishops and Prebsyters, but he certainly very plainly admits the hazard of equality, and the superiority in degree of Bishops, Archbishops, and Patriarchs ; distinctions rudely scoffed at by many at this time, though Calvin regards them as consistent with the Word of God, and notes their antiquity, the title of the chapter whence the extracts above are taken being, De statu veteris Ecclesia; et ratione gubernandi qua; in usu fuit ante Papatum." * " These lay Elders are to judge, as they say, according to the word of God ; their own sense of it, they always mean." " By this- means, a few tradesmen in cities, or farmers in country parishes, might brand a man for a sinner or a heretic, being judges of opinions as well as actions, according to their own arbitrary and sovereign determination." In fact, in these holy Synods or 348 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. But what can be said to the charity of the Puritans, when it is known that the prayers objected to in the ritual of Edward and Elizabeth, were especially these : " That it may please God to have mercy upon all men ; that it may please God to preserve all that travel by land or by water, all women labouring with child, all sick persons and young children, and to shew pity upon all prisoners and captives?" The objection made was pretty strong, " They pray also," say they, " that all men may be saved without exception ; and that all travelling by sea and land may be preserved, Turks and traitors not excepted — in all their order of service there is no edification — they pray that all men may be saved f These things being taken from their own books, may surely serve to prove the superiority of the established ritual on the score of charity, as addressed to a Deity " who willeth not the death of a sinner, but that all should be converted and live."* In fact, the Established Religion was, in all its forms, charitable and comprehensive, which proved to be faults in the eyes both of Papists and Puritans ; but when denounced as such, in the face of the people, were the Bishops to be silent, and yield to the charge? and not support the Establishment against its traducers ? We are sorry to think any extreme severity should have been practised ; but there was certainly great provocation given, and never more perhaps than in this year, in the scurrilous attacks of Martin Marprelate, the very name betokening the desired overthrow of the Episcopal government and established discipline, to make room for the Genevan platform, in com parison, to say the least of it, a rigid narrow scheme. They sought not toleration, but a change ; the absolute overthrow of their " proud enemies," as they were styled in the famous .admonition to Parliament, and thus parti cularized : " The Lordly Lords, Archbishops, Bishops, Suffragans, Deans, University Doctors, and Bachelors of Divinity, Archdeacons, Chancellors, and the rest of that proud generation, whose kingdom must down." And again, " Overthrow," say they, "without hope of restitution, the Court of Faculties; remove homilies, articles, injunctions, and that prescript order of service made out of the Mass Book." This was a continual objection, that some of our, Consistories, the best chance a man had, was that his case was to be determined by a majority of ruling Elders. • 2 Peter iii. 9. " Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." See also Ezekiel xxxiii. ii. 1 Tim. ii. 4. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 349 prayers were taken out of the Mass Book ; but was not this a proof that, in casting off Popish superstitions, our Reformers were anxious to retain whatever could not give offence, and the people had been used to? " The true and only question for a peaceable Christian," says the author we have referred to, " is not who has used a prayer, but what the prayer is ? Can any man of sense think it sinful to offer up the following beautiful petition in the English tongue, only because a Popish priest used a Latin prayer to the same purpose :" " Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of thy name ; increase in us true religion ; nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord ?" The Puritans, and especially Martin Marprelate, were against the toleration of all such abuses, as they called them. " This learned Discourse [which he had before been speaking of] is a book allowed by all the Puritan preachers of the land, who would have all the remnants and relics of Antichrist banished out of the Church, and not so much as a Lord Bishop (no not his Grace himself), dumb minister (no not dumb John of London himself), Non-Re sident, Archdeacon, Abbey-lubber, or any such loiterer, tolerated in our ministry."* To say nothing of the politeness of these terms, we would only wish to com pare the systems ; the one professedly endeavouring to comprehend as many * Such language was certainly very disgraceful, but the more so as applied to persons in authority, when compared with the language in which they set forth their own praises ; those who conformed to, or held by the Establishment, were " petty Popes, popelings, Papists, Popish priests, Antichrists, petty Antichrists, dumb dogs, idle drones, worse than monks and fryars ;" while among themselves none were to be heard of, but the pious, the learned, worthy, painful, faithful, eminent, and godly ; while their platform was held to be in their own account, " the venerable doctrine of discipline ;" " the most beautiful order of Ecclesiastical regiment ;" " the substantial form of Christ's government ;" " the most holy discipline, pure, perfect, and full of all goodness." These are all terms extracted from their own books ; of which the reader may be left to form his own opinion. See much more of the same sort of language in Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift. Bishop Cooper, who condescended to answer Penry, observed, that indeed neither he nor the other Bishops could expect to escape the venom of their scoffs, since the saints of God in heaven did feel it ; for whenever they spake of Peter, Paul, and the blessed Virgin, &c. whom others justly called saints, their phrase in derision was, Sir Peter, Sir Paul, Sir Mary, §c. and indeed this was very true. The Bishop himself received answers to his book, under the vulgar titles of " Work for a Cooper," " More Work for a Cooper ;" which, on less grave occa sions, or addressed to persons of their own stamp, might have the credit given it of some wit. 350 MEMOIR'S OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. Christians as possible in its communion,* the other to establish the rigid notions of a. single party, " a small flock," as they called themselves; for it should" be understood, that everything in the establishment that savoured of Lutheranism., was quite as obnoxious to the Marprelates, as Popery itself. But it is certainly very remarkable that amidst all this abuse of Bishops and Archbishops, and of the Queen herself,t great indulgences were actually shewn to the Puritans, and though they were continually crying out for more liberty, and complaining of being silenced for Non-conformity, when their famous plat form was brought forward to receive the subscriptions of their party in the year 1586, it was subscribed by above five hundred Puritan clergymen, all beneficed in the Church, and licensed to preach ; and among these, their principal leaders, Cartwright, Travers, Field, Cawdrey, 8cc. 8$c. But, indeed, one of their own friends at Court has given the best explanation possible of the course of proceedings there ; we allude to the very celebrated and admirable letter of Sir Francis Walsingham to M. Critoy, the French * See the Preface to the Common Prayer Book. t " The errors of princes," say they, " are not to be maintained, but sharply to be reproved, rebuked, and told to them, by those which will be esteemed God's ministers and servants. Our Princess, therefore, as she deserveth high commendation for that good work which the Lord our God has wrought by her, so ought she not to be flattered in following of her fantasies, but rather sharply to be reproved, for that she chooseth rather to thrust out of the ministry true and learned preaching than a piece of Popish pomp." In fact, according to the principles of the Platform, the Queen was as open to excommunication from Puritanical Protestants, as from the head of the Church of Rome ; as was acknowledged by the Lord Keeper Puckering, in a paper supposed to be drawn up by him, and printed by Strype, Annals, vol. iv. No. xciv., and which deserves to be noticed, because upon these principles, Mary Queen of Scots, being under the censures of the Kirk of Scotland, could not in the eyes of the Knoxian or Presbyterian ministry there, exercise her magistracy. In fact, she seems to have stood excommunicated by her ecclesiastical subjects, as well as deposed, by her lay subjects ; and the power of magistracy taken from her as an offend ing " Child of the Church." Had Elizabeth yielded to the demands of the Puritans, she would have stood in the same situation, as to her responsibility, to the Consistory and lay elders ; for it was another of their principles asserted by their champion Cartwright, that they had power and authority to form an establishment without the magistrate (Defence of the Admonition, p. 51.); and that, " if every hair of their head was a life, it ought to be offered in defence of such a cause." Much more of this may be seen in the numerous papers printed by Strype, from books and manu scripts which, falling into his hands, were as carefully preserved for posterity, as they were honestly copied for immediate use ; so that, in fact, the originals may still be seen " among the Collections," to use Strype's own words, " of that great and wise Counsellor of the Queen, Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, the Nestor of his age, as he was styled." 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 351 Secretary, to be seen in Burnet, and Collier, ii. 607.* The latter author notices the strange circumstance of their being most active in setting up their discipline, and scattering their pamphlets, when the Spanish Armada was sweeping the seas, and menacing the kingdom with a conquest ; and he thinks their mutinous behaviour at such a crisis (as though they thought the Government had neither leisure nor courage, to call them to an account), lost them the friendship both of Leicester and Walsingham. As this was the last year of Leicester's life, we do not wish to speak worse of him than he deserves, on such an occasion as the present ; but as he has gene rally been reputed to have taken the side of the Puritans, in hopes of sharing more largely the spoliations of Church property then going forward, under pre tence of reducing the revenues and possessions which had been abused by the Popish clergy ; it would seem probable, if indeed the Puritans, as Collier sus pects, lost his friendship about this period, that he had discovered the tendency of their principles to be quite as adverse to Church spoliations, as those of any of the parties opposed to them ; for most certain it is, that the Puritans had it in view, to get into their own hands not only all presentations to Church livings but all impropriations, as was plainly shewn by a member of the House of Commons, in the last Parliament ; " Indeed," says he, " their meaning is, to draw from us, maugre our heads, our impropriations, and if the spoil of the Bishops and Cathedral Churches will not serve their turns, as certainly they cannot, their number being so great,t then do they set it down, that we are bound to surrender out of our hands our abbey lands and such other possessions as have at any time belonged to the Church. They call us Church robbers, devourers of holy things, cormorants, &c. ; affirming that by the laws of God, things once consecrated to" God for the service of his Church, belong unto him for ever ;" referring to a book put forth by them, called " A Complaint of the Commonalty," &c. " What, say they, belongeth to God that is kept from him ? * "I find," says this great man, "her Majesty's proceeding to be grounded on two principles. The one, that consciences are not to be forced, but to be won and induced by force of truth. The other, that causes of conscience when they exceed their bounds, and grow to be matter of faction, lose their nature ; and that sovereign princes ought distinctly to punish their practices and con tempt, though coloured with the pretence of conscience and religion." But the whole ought to be read as it may be seen in the works referred to. f The lay elders who were to form part of their Consistories, were if necessary, to receive pay from their parishes ; so that, at all events, some- increase of funds, for ecclesiastical purposes, under the Genevan system was to be looked for. 352 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. even that which appertained to his Church, to wit, presentations and impro priations." It is well to mention this, because no reign has been subject to greater mis representations, as it appears to us, than the reign of Elizabeth, for want of a due understanding of the principles at work among the different parties* The Puritans found friends at Court ready enough to assist them in pulling down the Bishops, and equalizing the ministry, as long as it tended to enrich them selves, and while the established clergy only seemed to be the sufferers and com plainants ; not foreseeing that while they put it out of the power of the Catholics to reclaim such revenues and possessions, as having belonged to the Church under the Papacy, the friends of the Genevan Platform, even under their system of a parity and equality of ministers, looked to such spoliations as a robbery of God, and therefore as fairly to be reclaimed by themselves as by the Papists, could they but get the Church into their own hands. Even Lord Burghley, we must confess, seems not thoroughly to have weighed the consequences of giving encouragement to the party opposed to the Bishops, though we must at the same time allow him the credit of wishing to do justice to all parties, and to temper severities. We have shewn that some ofthe leading Puritans were greatly indulged, and the unoffending generally so ; and there was no man to whom Cartwright, Sampson, Humphrey, Travers, and others, appear to have been so ready to appeal, as to Lord Burghley ; even Leicester himself is said to have generally applied to the Queen in their behalf, through that Lord. Yet it is not less certain, that the Bishops resorted to him, with full as great a confidence, and that he as often interposed to redress their griev ances, letters being still extant in great numbers acknowledging such good turns and obligations. And though we would not pretend to deny that he par took of some of the Church spoils, yet certainly to no such extent as others of his contemporaries would have done, with similar opportunities ; nor is it at all clear, that he judged the title to such property good, or. the possessions irre claimable, since it is somewhere recorded of him, that he cautioned his son to have as little to do with such property as possible, though by purchase. t It would be difficult indeed to say, what a contrariety of parties were claiming to be indulged with an admission of their own tenets and discipline ; for while the Puritans and Presbyterians were furiously engaged against Popery and the Established Church, the Brownists and Indepen dents were as bitter adversaries to the Presbyterians. See in Strype's Parker, under the year 1573, Lord Burghley's Speech on the course to be pursued by Government amidst such divisions, and contrariety of opinions. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 353 We must? however, have done with this subject for the present, and close our account of this Annus Mirabilis* or year of great and surprising deliverance to Church and Statej with the notice of more private occurrences. On the^lOth of July, 1588, Lord Burghley lost his friend, Archbishop Sandys, with whom he had been long acquainted, and very much in correspondence latterly, on subjects of importance regarding the Northern parts ofthe kingdom, and on the attempts made to deprive him of his revenues, which he regarded as the Church's patrimony, and defended as inviolable, a circumstance men tioned in his epitaph ; " Ecclesia patrimonium, velut rem Deo sacratum decuit, intactum defendit." This epitaph (which may be seen at length in Strype's Life of Whitgift, Appendix, No. xl.) states him to have been genere non humilis; and, indeed, his family has since become ennobled,f and long admitted into the Peerage of the Realm. The present Baroness Sandys [Dowager Marchioness of Dovvnshire] being the lineal descendant of Sir Samuel Sandys of Ombersley in Worcestershire, third son of the Archbishop. J One passage in this Archbishop's Will ought not to be omitted : " Because I have lived an old man in the ministry of Christ, a faithful disposer of the mysteries of God, aud to my power, an earnest labourer in the vineyard of the Lord, I testify before God and his angels, and men of this world, I rest reso lute to yield up my spirit, in that doctrine which I have privately studied and publickly preached, and which is this day maintained in the Church of Eng land ; both taking the same to be the whole council of God's word, and bread of eternal life, the fountain of living water, the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe. "§ * It seems to have been at the time of the Spanish Armament, that to obviate misconceptions and the ill effects of false reports, Lord Burghley first adopted the expedient of printing regular gazettes, under the name of the English Meiicctry; several of which are to be seen in the British Museum, being justly regarded as the origin of our newspapers. They were printed by authority at London, and by Barker, the Queen's printer — 1588. + One branch of the family (originally from St. Bees, in Cumberland) had been ennobled before ; namely, Sir William Sandes, first Lord Sandes of the Vine, in the reign of Henry VIII, Anno 1523. X For a further account of his Grace, see Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift, b. iii. ch. xxi. and his Annals ofthe Reformation, vol. iii. b. ii. ch. xxvii. Fuller says of him, "It is hard to say, whether he was more eminent in his own virtues, or more happy in his flourishing posterity." % In referring to this Will, and to shew how cautiously we should receive the testimony of par tisans, Mr. Neal, in his History of the Puritans, seems to claim Archbishop Sandys as a friend, VOL. HI, 2 z 354 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. We have already hinted that this was also the last year of the life of that extraordinary man, Dudley, Earl of Leicester ; whose name, probably, will never be suffered to perish, but whose character we must, in a great measure, leave to others, there being amongst historians no deficiency either of praise or blame; but particularly the latter. We need not dwell on the horrible crimes imputed to him ; they are, we should suppose, almost universally known, and perhaps as generally credited ; but as Camden, who probably was well acquainted with his person, thinks there was some exaggeration in such charges, we shall abide by his short and cautious manner of speaking of him : — " He was esteemed," says he, " a most accomplished Courtier, free and bountiful to soldiers and students, a cunning time-server and respecter of his own advantages ; of a dis position ready and apt to please, crafty and subtle towards his adversaries, much given formerly to women, and in his latter days doating extremely upon marriage. But whilst he preferred power and greatness (which are subject to be envied) before solid virtue, his detracting emulators found large matter to speak reproachfully of him, and even when he was in his most flourishing con dition spared not disgracefully to defame him by libels, not without mixture of some untruths. In a word, people talked openly in his commendation, but privately he was ill spoken of by the greater part." Of the Queen's attachment to him, we had rather also speak, for want of any certain knowledge of particu lars, in the language of the times, and fancy it possible that they might be " haply" drawn into " a conjunction and affinity of minds, through a hidden conspiracy and consent of their stars, which the Greek Astrologers term Synastria."* Thus Camden wrote in the days of Elizabeth's successor, and if it could pass then for creditable history, we may surely be contented to adopt it as such two centuries afterwards, rather than ransack too curiously the scandalous chronicles of those or subsequent days. They had each of them something in their characters quite unfathomable, and we are glad to be excused the trouble though, in other respects, as a persecutor ofthe Non-Conformists of bis own party, because in this Will, he did candidly acknowledge, that he thought our ecclesiastical polity might, in, some points, be bettered ; but he should scarcely, we think, have extracted this from his last Will, without just hinting to his readers, that in that Will there is also the following passage : " So do I utterly dis like even in my conscience, all such rude and indigested Platforms, as have been more lately and boldly, than either learnedly or wisely preferred, tending not to the reformation, but to the destruction of this Church of, England." • They were born in the same year, and (quaere) on the same day of the year. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 355 of greater inquisitiveness, than belongs by any necessity to the task before us ;* at all events, delicacy would prevent our seeking to crush a reputed enemy of Lord Burghley. Of their rivalry in the Queen's Council and confidence, there can be no doubt. — They were persons, in all likelihood, of totally different cha racters, constantly moving in the same sphere, and subject to such hazardous collisions, as without the greatest prudence and discretion on the part of one at least of the two, might at any time have disturbed the whole constitution of things, and brought on the absolute ruin of their country. We cannot hesitate to say what we think ; namely, that this prudence was found in Lord Burghley, in a very extraordinary degree. He suffered Lord Leicester to stand as high as he chose, on the ground of favouritism, while he kept his hold on the Queen as the best Counsellor and ablest Politician, well knowing that that sagacious Sovereign was always capable of making the same distinction between the two. In this way, and upon such a footing, as it were, of stifled compromise, for a long time, almost generally indeed, the Queen's Ministers abroad, her com manders, her agents everywhere, and even the contending parties in Church and State, were allowed to address themselves to both Lords, joint Prime Ministers (if such an expression may be used), equally entitled to receive such important reports, and make their answers as they severally chose. This will be seen in many of the printed and manuscript correspondences of those days ; and so far from there being any appearance of a jarring in their counsels, it would often appear that they were closely united in the pursuit of the same objects, and the recommendation of the same measures, taking upon themselves exactly the same degree of responsibility ; and yet we doubt not but that they often differed, without openly thwarting each other, because the Queen knew how to discriminate. She might always, perhaps, find Leicester the most agreeable, but Burghley the wisest Counsellor. Had Elizabeth been the silly, vain, pas sionate, and headstrong woman, she is often represented to be, Leicester would have soon got the better of Burghley, nor would she have been worthy to have had the latter for her Minister; but sh was not capable of so great a mistake. She constantly knew the value of such a Minister and Counsellor as Lord Burghley, • " He" (Lord Leicester) "had often," says Strype, " the misfortune to lie under the Queen's displeasure, though he were so great a favourite-. But he soon recovered her favour again. And thus he once told the Lord Burghley, in a letter, what he found by his own experience ; ¦ God be thanked, her blasts be not the storms of other Princes, though they be very sharp sometimes to those she loveth best.'" — This he wrote in 1572. 356 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588; to his great cost, for she would never release him ; if ever any man (to use a vulgar expression) died in harness, it was Lord Burghley. But to return to the rivalry between him and Leicester, they had their jarrings occasionally, but we have not been able in any instance to discover any undue submission on the part of Burghley, while Leicester, who always wrote, as we have said before, like a gentleman and a man of feeling and principle, seemed greatly to deplore any breach between them,* and since it is now fallen in our way to record his death, we think we may almost venture to say, that the last letter Leicester ever wrote, was an apologetic letter to Lord Burghley. It was dated from Maidenhead, on his road from his house in Wanstead (Essex) towards Kenil worth, which he never lived to reach, dying on his way at Cornbury Park, in Oxfordshire^ (now the seat of Lord Churchill), Sept. 4, 1588. This letter was to prefer some suit to the Queen, through Lord Burghley, for Sir Robert Jermyn ; in which letter he took the opportunity of apologising to his Lordship for quitting the Court without taking leave of him, hoping soon, as he added, to see him again; but they never met afterwards. He appears to have died of cold and fever, but some odd discoveries are related to have happened, of what^ in those days, was called a conjuration to shorten his life, and examinations took place before the Council to prove the fact ; but the question remains, as to the real efficacy or power of such alleged conjurations ?J We shall only add, that of whatever moral offences this great Nobleman might have been guilty (and there are none imputed to him which we can totally disprove, or even, we are sorry to say, discredit), his epitaph in the Church of Warwick, whither his remains were removed from Cornbury Park, and which appears on a monument erected to his memory by his widow, has in it the fol lowing strong expressions: — "Optimo et chahissimo marito, m^estis- * It is curious to consider how oddly people were thrown together in those days.— Cecil and Leicester were constantly regarded as rivals, if not enemies, yet one of Cecil's principal friends was Sir Henry Sidney, who married Leicester's sister, and even Leicester himself seems to have encouraged his favourite nephew, the brave and accomplished Sir Philip Sidney, to solicit a mar riage with Cecil's daughter. Leicester, the noted favourite of Elizabeth, was the son of that Duke of Northumberland, who lost his life for seeking to deprive Elizabeth of her rio-ht to the throne ; and to go farther back, Northumberland, who overthrew and brought to the scaffold the Protector Somerset, after the first fall and disgrace of the latter, married his son to Somerset's daughter, and then destroyed her father. t Strype says he died at an Inn, but he is contradicted by the Author of his Life. London, 1727. X See Annals, iii. Appendix, No. lxxii. Lingard, v. ch. ix. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 357. % SIMA UXOR LETICIA FRANCISCI KNOLLES ORDINIS S. GEORGII EQUITIS AURATI, ET REGIME THESAURARII FILIA, AMORIS ET CONJUGALIS FIDEI ergo posuit." — Unfortunately for the credit of all parties, this mastissima uxor appears to have had a paramour ready to take the Earl's place, her own gentleman of the horse, Sir Christopher Blunt, whom she shortly afterwards married. She has even been suspected of hastening the Earl's death by poison. — See Lingard and Birch's Memoirs. Loaded as he was with courtly and honourable appointments when he died, it is said, that after the Spanish expedition, letters-patent were actually drawn for creating him Lord Lieutenant, under the Queen, in the government of England and Ireland, but that Lord Burghley and Sir Christopher Hatton* prevented his obtaining them, by representing to the Queen the danger of in trusting too great a power in any one man's hands. He had made a will at Middleburgh, in 1587, by which he bequeathed his estates, after the death of his brother, the Earl of Warwick, to his base son (as he called him), Robert Dudley ! There is reason to think he was not illegiti mate, being the son of Lady Douglas Sheffield, duly married to Leicester, but repudiated to make room for the Countess of Essex. He seems to have been hardly and unjustly used by the latter, which disgusted him so much, that he left the kingdom ; and not complying with an order under the Privy Seal to return, his lands were seized, and fell into the hands of Prince, afterwards King, Charles. Sir Robert Dudley (for he had obtained the honour of Knighthood), is reported to have taken with him, on his leaving England, though already married, a daughter of Sir Robert Southwell's, in the habit of a page, and to have after wards married her in Italy. He seated himself in the dominions of the Duke of Tuscany — contrived an expedient for draining the fens and marshes in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, and raised that poor town, which was then no other than a village for fishermen, to be one of the most famous sea-ports in all Italy ; the reputation of his accomplishments spreading into Germany, the title of Duke was conferred on him and his heirs, by letters-patent, from the Emperor Fer dinand II. ; whereupon he took the title of Duke of Northumberland, which had been borne by his grandfather, though forfeited by attainder, in the first year of * On the death of Leicester, Sir Christopher Hatton succeeded him as Chancellor of the Uni versity of Oxford. Lords Shrewsbury and Derby made their condolences to the Queen, through Sir Christopher and Lord Burghley, to whom they wrote to that effect from Shefiield Lodge, two days only after Leicester died. 358 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1588. Queen Mary. He erected a beautiful palace in the city of Florence ; and his daughters by the wife he took along with him, were all of them married to Princes of the Empire. The Lady also whom he left behind, upon application to King Charles I., obtained a grant, under the Great Seal of England, of the title of Duchess, for her natural life ; and that her daughters should have place and precedence as children to a person of that quality.* This grant is grounded upon the injury Sir Robert and his family were held to have sustained by the disavowal of his legitimacy on the part of his father ; the consequent transfer, sale, and forfeiture of his estates ; and sufficient proofs of his legitimacy adduced by witnesses in the Star Chamber, including the testimony of " the Lady Douglas herself." This case, then, seems to be clear of any touch of slander and calumny; and, as a sort of after-piece to the history of this famous Earl, we have ventured to lay it before the reader. The Lord Treasurer suffered a great affliction in the course of this memorable year, by the death of his truly beloved daughter Anne, Countess of Oxford, who died at the court at Greenwich, leaving three daughters, the only survivors of a numerous issue. She was, as has been before shewn, the wife of Edward Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, of that name, Lord High Chamberlain of England ; a husband in many respects unworthy of so amiable, correct, and attached a consort : but of this we have said enough in other parts of our history. If her venerable father could have derived consolation from the public notice taken of this great domestic trouble, he might have found it in the many tributary copies of Verses sent to him on the occasion, in English, Latin, Greek, * Life of Robert, Earl of Leicester, 276,277. The patent itself is to be seen in the Appendix, No. xiii. She appears to have been called not Duchess of Northumberland, but Duchess Dudley; she died in 1669 at the advanced age of 90, and was buried at Stonely, in Warwickshire, the place of her family, she being the third daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh. A stately monument was erected there to her memory, and another in St. Giles's Church, London, the parish in which her house stood. An engraving of the latter, with the inscription, may be seen in Pennant's London. There is a curious story told of her husband in the Biographia Britannica, art. Cotton (Sir Ro bert), by which it appears that he was the actual author of a pamphlet written to ingratiate himself with King James the First, entitled, " A Proposition for his Majesty's service, to bridle the im pertinence of Parliaments;" which book, having got into the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, he caused a copy to be taken, whereby he fell under the suspicion of being concerned in the writing or distribution ofthe work, had his famous library seized, and himself excluded from it; and though his innocence was afterwards established, the troubles he underwent brought him to his grave. The particulars of this extraordinary story were not thoroughly known till the year 1767. 1588.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 359 Hebrew, and Syriac, principally, of course, from the members of the two Universities. They are still to be seen among the MSS. of the British Museum,* many of them beautifully written. Her Ladyship was buried in Westminster Abbey, of which we shall have more to say hereafter. Her death is thus noticed in Lord Burghley's Journal or Diary, in Murdin : " July, 1588, Anna, Comitissa Oxoni^e, filia mea charissima obiit in Do : Grenwici, et 25 Sepult : Westminster." * MSS. Lansdowne, civ. 80. CHAR XVI. 1589, 1590. Thirty-first year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1588. Thirty-second - - ... Nov. 17, 1589. Meeting and dissolution ofthe Parliament — Unusual subsidies — Death of Lady Burghley — Lord Burghley's meditation on the event — Character of Lady Burghley — The Queen's visit to Barn Elms — Expedition of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake against Spain — Earl of Essex — General state of politics — Death of Henry III. of France — Deaths of the Countess of Sussex, Sir Walter Mildmay, and Dr. Laurence Humphrey — The King of Scotland marries the King of Denmark's daughter — The Queen's health — Various applications from different Bishops and others to Lord Burghley — Extract from Topcliffe's letter to Lord Burghley — Sir Francis Knollys — Lord Burghley's letter to Count Fio-- gleazzi — State of affairs in France, Spain, fyc. — Death of Pope Sixtus Quintus, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Francis Walsingham, Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Sir James Croft — Character of Walsingham — Inscription on his tomb. The Parliament, which had originally been summoned to meet for business on Tuesday, the 12th of November, 1588, being, for special reasons, afterwards adjourned to the 4th of February, 1588-9, was opened on the latter day accord ingly, her Majesty being present ; and Sir Christopher Hatton, late Vice Cham berlain, appearing as Lord Chancellor, in the room of Bromley, deceased, declared the purpose of the meeting to be, to " make preparation, as far forth as by the counsel of man was possible, to have an army prepared and furnished against all events. The King of Spain, by all accounts, notwithstanding his great losses, and the total discomfiture of his fleet in the summer preceding, con tinuing as much bent as ever against the peace of England ;" and, indeed, he seems only to have changed the point of attack, according to Camden, whose account of his designs upon Scotland this year, and of James's escape from his snares, is extremely curious. Having had occasion to speak of this Parliament before, it being,- as usual 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY, 301 With Strype, referred by him to the year 1588 ; and having given an account of the declaration of the Lords, drawn up by Lord Burghley, we have little more to say of it here, than that the Houses came to a resolution of granting to her Majesty " the unusual and extraordinary gift of four fifteenths and tenths, and two entire subsidies, the Clergy also adding two subsidies of their own," as it is represented in the Journal of Sir Simon' D'Ewes. " They also desired her Majesty," before they separated, " to denounce open war against the King of Spain, who had so lately invaded her, whom they concluded to have been the root and fountain of all the conspiracies practised, and of all the rebellions raised against her Majesty." As this extraordinary aid was granted for four years, it did not pass without many observations, of which an account may be seen in Strype, who has also printed an ingenious speech delivered on the occasion, objecting more to the mode than the amount of the assessment, and the hazard of the. precedent. Great professions of loyalty are intermixed with very apt quotations from the classical and even the sacred historians. It may be found in the Appendix to the third volume of the Annals, No. lviii. For a further account of pro ceedings, both in the Parliament and Convocation, the Life of Archbishop Whitgift may be consulted. They were both dissolved in the month of March. It was but a short tirne after this that Lord Burghley sustained a loss which he is judged never to have recovered, and it seems to be true ; his desire being great, soon after, to lay down his offices, and retire from public life : and it was remarked, that it made a great alteration in his temper, and rendered' him thoughtful and melancholy ; though, otherwise, many things seemed to concur to render his life more comfortable, as the death of some whom he regarded as his adversaries, and the advancement of his son at Court, whose talents appeared to attract the notice of the Queen more and more daily. The loss we allude to, was that of his very highly accomplished lady, Mildred, Baroness Burghley, who died on the 4th of April, 1589, to her Lord's great sorrow, with whom she had lived in the sincerest harmony and affection three and forty years. It is well known that she was one of the five* learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, Giddy Hall, whose attainments were as well known to, and as much admired by foreigners as by their own countrymen ; but before we record the praises bestowed on Lady Burghley in particular, for her great learning, we * Vol. i. 73. and Biograph. Brit. VOL. Ill, 3 A 362 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. must turn to consider her private virtues, as depictured by the faithful pen of her disconsolate Lord. The original is still preserved among the Burghley papers in the Lansdowne collection of MSS. No. ciii. 51, purporting to be " a Meditation on the Death of his Lady;" and, though of considerable length, too much appertaining to the present history, to be properly omitted, or even curtailed. " There is no cogitation to be used with an Intent to recover that which never can be had again ; that is, to have my dear wife live again in her mortal body, which is separated from the soiil, and resteth in the earth, dead; and the soul taken up to heaven, and there to remain in the fruition of blessedness unspeak able, until the general surrection of all flesh : when, by the almighty power of God (who made all things of nothing), her body shall be raised up and joined with her soul, in an everlasting unspeakable joy, such as no tongue can express, nor heart can conceive. " Therefore my cogitations ought to be occupied in these things following : I. To thank Almighty God for his favour in permitting her to have lived so many years together with me ; and to have given her grace to have had the true knowledge of her salvation, by the death of his Son Jesus, opened to her by the knowledge of the Gospel ; whereof she was a professor from her youth. I ought to comfort myself with the remembrance of her many virtuous and godly actions,, wherein she continued all her life : and specially, in that she did of late years sundry charitable deeds, whereof she determined to have no outward knowledge while she lived; insomuch, as when I had some little understanding thereof, and asked wherein she had disposed any charitable gifts (according to her often wishing that she were able to do some special act for maintenance of learning and relief of the poor), she would always only shew herself rather desirous so to do, than ever confess any such act, as since her death is manifestly known now to me ; and confessed by sundry good men (whose names and ministry she secretly used), that she did charge them most strictly, that while she lived they should never declare the same to me nor to any other. " And so now have I seen her earnest writings to that purpose of her own hand. The particulars of many of these hereafter do follow, which I do with mine own hand-writing recite for my comfort in the memory thereof; with assurance that God hath accepted the same in such favourable sort, as she findeth now the fruits thereof in heaven. About years since she caused 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 363 exhibitions to be seqretly given, by the hands of the Master of St. John's in Cambridge, for the maintenance of two scholars ; for a perpetuity whereof to continue, she did cause some lands to be purchased in the name of the Dean of Westminster, who also in his own name did assure the same to the College, for a perpetual maintenance of the two said scholars, all which was done without any signification of her act or charge to any manner of person, but only of the Dean, and of William Walter of Wymbleton, whose advice was used for the writing of the purchase and insurance. " II. She also did, with the privity of Masters Deans of Paul's* and West minster, and of Mr. Aldersey, being free of the Haberdashers in London, give to the Company of the said Haberdashers a good sum of money ; whereby is provided, that every two years there is lent to six poor men of certain special occupations, as smiths, carpenters, weavers, and such like, in Rumford, in Essex, 20/. a piece, in all 120/.; and in Cheshunt and Waltham, to other six like persons, twenty marks a piece, in the whole 80/. which relief, by way of loan, is to continue. " III. By the same means is provided for twenty poor people in Cheshunt, the first Sunday of every month, a mess of meat, in flesh, bread, and money for drink. " IV. And likewise is provided four marks yearly, for four sermons, to be preached quarterly by one of the preachers of St. John's College. And these distributions have been made a long time (while she lived) by some of my servants, without giving me knowledge thereof. Though indeed, I had cause to think that she did sometimes bestow such kind of alms ; but not that I know of any such order taken for continuance thereof, for she would commonly rather use speeches with me, how she was disposed to give all she could to some such uses, if she could devise to have the same faithfully performed after her life, whereof she always pretended many doubts. " And for that she used the advice of M. M. Deans of Paul's and Westminster, and would have her actions kept secret ; she forced upon them some fine pieces of plate to be used in their chambers as remembrances of her good will for their pains. " She also did, four times in the year, secretly send to all the prisons in London money to buy bread, cheese, and drink, commonly for four hundred persons, and many times more, without knowledge from whom the same came. * Dean Nowell preached her funeral sermon. 3fi4 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [ISM. " She did likewise, sundry times in the year, send shirts and smocks to the poor people both in London and at Cheshunt. " She gave also a sum of money to the Master of St. John's College, to pro* cure and to have fires in the Hall of that College, upon all Sundays and Holi^ days, between the feasts of All Saints and Candlemas, when there were no ordinary fires at the charge of the College. , " She gave also a sum of money secretly towards" a building, for a new way at Cambridge to the common schools. " She also provided a great number of books, whereof she gave some to the University of Cambridge ; namely, the great Bible in Hebrew, and four other tongues ; and to the College of St. John's, very many books in Greek, of Di vinity and physic, and of other sciences. The like she did to Christ Church and St. John's College in Oxford. The like she did to the College of West-J minster. " She did also yearly provide wool and flax, and did distribute it to poor women in Cheshunt parish, willing them to work the same into yarn ; and to bring it to her to see their manner of working. And for the most part, she gave to them the stuff freely, by way of alms ; for she caused the same to be wrought into cloth, and gave it to the poor, paying first for the spinning more than it was' worth; " Not long before her death, she caused secretly to be bought a quantity of wheat and rye, to be disposed among the poor in time of dearth, which re mained unspent at her death ; but the same confessed by such as provided it secretly ; and therefore, in conscience, so to be distributed according to her mind. "April 9, 1588.— Written at Colling's Lodge, by me in sorrow, W. B." This is certainly a very curious and interesting document; it is impossible not to admire the anti-pharisaical modesty of this worthy woman in distributing her charity so secretly ; .and particularly her attention to St. John's College, where her Lord had his education. In the date above, there is certainly a mistake, though it appears in the Lansdown Catalogue unnoticed. It seems to to have misled Strype, who places Lady Burghley's death under the year 1588 ; but it undoubtedly took place in 1589.* Strype indeed himself has published * See Biographia Britannica. The following is Lord Burghley's own entry of the event in his Diary; — 1589, April 4. Die Veneris inter hor. 3 et 4, mane obdormit in Domino Mildreda Do mina Burgley. 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 365 a document, in which the mistake appears to be corrected by Lord Burghley himself. It is to be found in the fourth volume of his Annals, consisting en tirely of original papers, No. cclii., being a large Latin inscription,* composed by Lord Burghley soon after the death of the Countess of Oxford, his daughter, and his own Lady ; in which, after rehearsing the benefactions already men tioned, the following passage occurs : — " Post ista autem multaque alia ejus generis prsestita officia, et Deo et patriae, mihique conjugi, ac liberis suis, doctisque et pauperibus, sponte in anno suo climacterico, viz. lxiii. spiritum reddidit Deo, quarto Aprilis, anno 1589. Cujus corpus ego maritus et pater adjungendum duxi corpori filise nostrae Annse, f paulo ante sub isto lapide repositae, ut conjunctae reservarentur ad spem resur- rectionis." We must add something further of this extraordinary lady. " Her learning, as well as piety," says Strype, " appeared hence ; that with the great Bible in Hebrew and other languages, which she presented to the University Library, she sent an epistle written in Greek, with her own hand, which I have seen. She used for her prayers and meditations, a small pocket-book in Latin, richly bound, in titled, P salmi seu precationes Johannis Episcopi Roff ensis ; to which book of devotions she set her own name thus, — Mtldreda Cecilia, 1565. "J Strype speaks also of a Dedication to the translation of the History of France, in which, after her death, she was highly extolled for her learning and piety : " That famous religious and learned lady, flower of her family, provident mother, blessed in her posterity, Mildred, Baroness of Burghley." — [Annals, iii. part ii., 130, where more to the same effect, but in no good style of writing, may be seen.] Lastly, Chr. Ockland, as we have before observed, an eminent grammarian, made choice of her, in the year 1582, to be the patroness of a Latin poem, called Elizabetha; and addressed, Ad prsenobilem et in primis eruditam * The whole is well worth reading. f Lady Oxford died June 1588, and was buried on the 25th, according to the following entry by Lord Burghley, already noticed: — "Anna Comitissa Oxoniee filia mea charissima obiit in Do. Grenwici, et 25 sepult. Westminster." Lady Burghley was buried on the 25th of April, 1589. — " Funeralia Mild. Dominsa Burghley beata mortua, quae in Domino mortua est." — Murdin. A sumptuous monument was erected in Westminster Abbey to the memory of both, of which we shall have a further account to give. X A beautiful copy of the 0 Mirificam Greek Testament of R. Stephens is said also to be still extant, with the name Mildreda Cecilia, in her own hand-writing, in Greek characters. 366 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. fceminam, utriusque litteraturae et Graecae et Latinse, peritissimam dnam Mil- dredam, dynastee Burghl^i, magni Anglias Thesaurarii, conjugem lauda- tissimam, beginning, Grsecia virginibus doctis inclaruit olim, Quarum scripta manent hodie, &c. O nympha?, vos O illustres dico sorores Quatuor,* ante alias tibi sed MildredA colenda Attribuo primas, &c.t How much Lord Burghley was affected with his loss at the time,J besides what appears from the above meditations, may be seen in his letters to his friends, particularly one to Lord Shrewsbury preserved by Lodge, written about six weeks afterwards, in which, though in rather obscure terms, he intimates, that it was impossible for him to shake off the remembrance of his great loss, which still disturbed him night and day ; he seems to have abandoned his mansion for a time, as this letter is dated, " From a poore lodge neare my howss at Theobald's, 27 Maij 1589," and in the P. S. he says, " the Queen is at Barn Elms (the * See preceding page. It is upon the authority of Camden, Fuller, Lloyd, Bohun, and Strype, that we have assigned five daughters to Sir Anthony Cooke. Dugdale even speaks of six daughters ; but see the additional remarks on the article Cooke in the Biog. Brit, enlarged. + It may be concluded that this noble lady makes a conspicuous figure in Lombard's Memoirs of the Learned Ladies of Great Britain, as well as her sisters, Lady Bacon, &c. The number of these ladies amount in all only to sixty-four, beginning (to take them alphabetically) with Mary Countess of Arundel, and. ending with Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. Lambard gives Lady Burghley the credit of being a good politician, and cites a letter from her to Sir William Fitz williams, Deputy of Ireland, containing excellent advice. It is certain that Maitland of Lethington corresponded with luer in the early part of Elizabeth's reign. X " Lady Burghley," says Macdiarmid, " was adorned with every quality which could excite love and esteem, and many instances are recorded of her learning, piety, and beneficence. She had accompanied her husband through all the vicissitudes of his fortunes, and the tender attach ment, which naturally became matured during a continued intercourse of three and forty years, rendered the loss of her the severest calamity of his life. The despondency which this irreparable calamity threw over his mind, produced a desire to renounce public business, so irksome in that state of his feelings, and to devote the remainder of his life to retirement and meditation. But Elizabeth was too sensible of the vast importance of his counsels to permit the execution of this purpose, peremptorily rejecting the resignation which he repeatedly tendered, yet softening her refusal with those arts which she knew so well to employ, she prevailed on him to retain a station for which she despaired of procuring a suitable successor." 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 367 seat of Sir Francis Walsingham), but this, night I will attend on hir at West minster, for I am no man mete for feastings."* It was while this great affliction pressed hard upon the Treasurer, that a very extraordinary expedition took place against Spain. It seems to have originated in an offer from Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake, to fit out a fleet chiefly at their own charges, to assail Philip on his own coasts ; the Queen to lend ships, upon an understanding that the spoils and vessels that might be taken from the enemy should be divided amongst them.f The dethroned King of Portugal, Don Antonio, Prior of Crato, joined, them with some Portuguese, upon a false hope, that with such help, a revolt from Philip in Portugal on his appearance there, and some help from the King of Morocco, he might recover his crown. It was upon this occasion that the young Earl of Essex J began to display the uncontrollable nature of his disposition, and to render himself conspicuous as a soldier and a courtier; being unable to procure the Queen's leave to join the expedition in the way he wished, being ardently bent upon humbling the Spaniard, and commiserating besides the forlorn condition of the unfortunate Don Antonio, he embarked on board a vessel of the Queen's, on his own respon sibility, taking with him many other young persons of family, in order to fall in with the fleet wherever he should find it, and in defiance of all prohibitions from the Court, to bear his part in the adventure ; he met with the fleet, on its way from the Groyne in Gallicia, where the English forces had been landed, and after doing considerable mischief, and bravely resisting an attack of the Spanish army,§ sent to intercept their return to their ships, re-embarked to pursue their course to Portugal. It was at this time that Essex joined them, and had the opportunity been equal to his courage, he might perhaps have done * This visit to Barn-Elms seems to have been entirely for purposes of relaxation from business, and festivity, as Lord Talbot, who accompanied her Majesty, as one of her suite, wrote to his father, Lord Shrewsbury, " This day her Majesty goeth to Barn-Elms, where she is purposed to tarry all day to-morrow, being Tuesday, and , on Wednesday to return to Whitehall again. lam appointed among the rest to attend her Majesty. I pray God my diligent attendance then may procure me a gracious answer, in my suit at my return ; for, whilst she is there, nothing may be moved but matter of delight or to content her, which is the only cause of her going thither." f Camden. t He was then only in his twenty-second year. • § See for an account of this part of the expedition, the Letter from Sir John Norris, and Sir Francis Drake, to the Lords ofthe Council — Lodge, vol. ii. No. ccxxx. ; and for his attack upon Lisbon, ibid. No. ccxxxvi. 368 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589, great things for his friend Don Antonio ; but never were the efforts of bravery more thrown away. On the approach to Lisbon, Albert of Austria, who com manded on the part of Philip, caused the Portuguese to be disarmed, so that had they been ever so disposed to revolt in favour of the deposed King, they were deprived of all power to help him, while the. succour he expected from Muley Hamet, the King of Morocco, totally failed, nor was the army supported, as was expected, by Drake, who was to have entered the Tagus, and battered the walls of the city ; but was prevented, as he alleged, by the extreme dangers he had to encounter, from the shelves and shallows, or the fire of the fort of St. Julian's, either of which might have been the ruin of his fleet. Sickness also attacked the soldiers and sailors, not fewer than six thousand* having, as it was said, fallen a sacrifice. The whole expedition, in short, may be regarded in its consequences as a mere bravado, calculated to give the Spaniards a proof and trial of the spirit of Englishmen, but of little use to the nation, and con siderable loss to the projectors of it.-}' As to the general state of politics this year, Lord Burghley, in his letters to Lord Shrewsbury, printed by Lodge, very well describes the extraordinary pos ture of affairs, that made England the sworn friend of a King of Scotland and a King of France, so contrary to former proceedings; but at the same time he admirably accounts for the change that might appear to have taken place. " The world," writes his Lordship, June 16, 1589, " is become very strange ! we Englishmen now daily desire the prosperity of a King of France, and of a King of Scots ; we were wont to aid the subjects oppressed, against both these Kings, now we are moved to aid both these Kings against their rebelling sub jects; and though these are contrary effects, yet on our part they proceed for one cause, for that we do is to weaken our enemies." And in another letter, adverting to the very same odd revolution, he writes, "Seeing both are enemies to our enemies, we have cause to join with them in their actions against our enemies;" in fact, as was the case from the very earliest period of Lord Burghley's political life, the ambition of the House of Guise was the cause * Captain Fenner, a naval officer, wrote word to Mr. Anthony Bacon, that of 21,000 that went out, only 10,000 returned, and of 1100 gentlemen of note, 750 perished. — Birch's Memoirs. t See a very short but plain account of this expedition in a letter from Sir Francis Drake to Lord Burghley, dated from the road of Cascaiz, June 2, 1589, Strype's Annals, iv. No. vii. See also Camden and Rapin ; and Lodge's Illustrations of B. Hist. vol. ii., where are many curious letters upon the subject, beginning with No. ccxxvii. 1589.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 369 even of this great change, and unlooked-for posture of affairs. Since the death of the Duke of Anjou, the Guises, who stood at the head of the Holy League, had been contemplating the want of issue on the part of the l£ing, Henry III, and the Protestantism of the King of Navarre, as opening a good prospect to them, of bringing the Crown into their own family; but they seem to have over looked the chance, of the' King's uniting with the more regular heir to his crown, out of enmity to a family, of whose encroachments his predecessors on the throne had always been jealous. This junction indeed took place, but not until after the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal, his brother, had both fallen by assassi nation, and the kingdom been almost reduced to a state of anarchy. Then it was that Henry III. sought refuge among the Protestants ; " It is a thing very remarkable," says Rapin, " that this Prince, who had sworn to extirpate the Hugonots, and solemnly declared he would never keep promise with them, scarce found any other subjects but the Hugonots, in whom he could confide."* But this step could not be forgiven by the Leaguers ; exasperated no doubt, in a high degree, by the recent disgraceful assassination of the Duke and Cardinal; nor were fanatics wanting to execute the decrees of Rome. In resentment of the murder, not of the Duke but of the Cardinal, Sixtus V. had issued a Bull against Henry, couched in the most violent terms; and though these instruments might seem to some to have lost their force, Henry judged otherwise: "II y en a, disoit-il, qui se jouent des foudres de Vatican; mais pour moi je les ai toujours craint, et je les redoute encore plus que tous les canons de la Ligue." Nor were his apprehensions vain. With the assistance of his new friends, the King of Navarre, and his Protestant .army, Henry was upon the eve of compelling the Parisians to return to their duty, when he was stabbed in the belly by Clement, a Jacobin Monk, and died of the wound in two days after, having previously nominated Henry of Navarre (as head of the House of Bourbon) to be his successor."}" The League, indeed, did not regard the latter as head of the * It is related, as a remarkable instance ofthe good-natured confidence of Henry IV., that he no sooner heard of Henry III.'s determination to join him, than, without waiting for his army to come up, he went to him, attended only by a single page. f He died on the second of August, 1589, aged thirty-nine, after having reigned fifteen years. In him terminated the race of Valois, which had had possession of the throne 261 years, and given thirteen monarchs to France. Henry latterly disgraced himself sadly by the strange life he led, and the favourites he countenanced. He was the Founder of the Order of the St. Esprit, commemorative of his becoming both King of.Poland and King of France on the day of Pentecost. He is said to have complained to a friend, that his rest was often disturbed at nights, by reflecting VOL, III, 3 B 370 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1589. house of Bourbon, while his uncle, the Cardinal of Bourbon, was living ; and therefore, though the latter was in prison, and there were some who would have given the crown to the Guises, the Cardinal was proclaimed King by that party, as Charles the Xth. — but in vain. Elizabeth stood forth at this trying moment, to support the claims of Henry, and, by a quick supply of men and money, enabled him to bear up against the Duke of Mayenne, and to continue the contest ; for the issue of which, however, we must be content to wait some time longer, since it was not till the year 1593, that this great man may be said to have fairly seated himself on the throne of France ; and then, not without a sacrifice, that in no small degree tarnished his glory. We shall conclude our account of this year with a short obituary ; as the friends and fellow- servants of Lord Burghley began now rapidly to decline. Among the friends he lost this year, we may notice Frances, Countess of Sussex,* the relict of the great man who had the honour of being reputed the head of a party opposed to Leicester ; the discordancy of their principles cannot but redound to the credit of Sussex ; he was an honest man in a corrupt Court, and too brave to put up with indignities. Lord Burghley appears to have enjoyed his confidence and friendship to the last. Lady Sussex was. moreover the sister of Lord Burghley's great friend Sir Henry Sidney ; but we need not dwell longer on the celebrity of her family or friendly connexions, since her name, it is to be hoped, will live for ever, as the munificent foundress of Sidney- Sussex College, Cambridge ; her will to which effect may be seen in Strype, Annals iii. part ii. 115. Among the fellow-servants of Lord Burghley (so to speak), Sir Walter Mild may, Chancellor of the Exchequer, deserves particularly to be mentioned. He also died this year, being, according to Camden, who probably knew him well, " a man of remarkable piety and singular wisdom, and who discharged all the offices of a good citizen and a good man." Lloyd calls him "that upright and advised man." He seems to have began life with Lord Burghley, being made Surveyor of the Court of Augmentation by Henry VIII., knighted by Edward VI., and made Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer by Elizabeth. During Mary's reign, "he," as Lloyd says, "practised the politick on the massacre of St. Bartholomew; if so, it may be hoped that he lived long enough to repent of his share in that horrible transaction. * As she died on the 8th of March, 1588-9, Strype mentions her death under the former year, as he does also the death of Lady Burghley and others. 1590.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 371 precept, ' bene vixit, qui bene latuit ;' by taking himself out of the way." He also became a great benefactor to the University of Cambridge, being the founder of Emanuel College there, in the year 1584. The death of Dr. Laurence Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, ought perhaps also to be noticed, as of a person who, on the score of Non-conformity, gave Lord Burghley no small trouble, in the early part of the Queen's reign, but who stopped short of any violent extremities, and distin guished himself greatly by his learned works, and the lectures he read in the University, as Professor of Divinity.* In the course of this year the King of Scotland married a daughter of the King of Denmark ; and, with a considerable degree of gallantry, when the Fleet in which she had embarked to repair to Scotland, was driven back by a tempest, crossed the seas to Norway, to consummate his marriage, where he stayed from October to the May following. On his return, Elizabeth sent the Earl of Wor cester to offer him her congratulations.^ We have a curious account of the Queen's good health this year, in the following postscript of a letter from Mr. Stanhope to Lord Talbot, from Rich mond. J " My Lord, the Queen is so well as I assure you vi or vii gallyards § in a morning, besides music and singing, is her ordinary exercise." Her Majesty was at this time fifty-six years old. We must not, out of any delicacy to Lord Burghley, begin this year, 1590, without giving to Elizabeth the credit other historians have given her for the wise and frugal management of her revenue, her honourable attention to the loans advanced for public services, and her great anxiety not to burthen her subjects with^more taxes than were absolutely necessary. But there is coupled with this a story relative to the customs, which the enemies of Lord Burghley are always careful to dwell upon, though it seems to us to convey a reproach to * Lord Compton also died this year, which we mention only to correct a strange mistake in Collins's Peerage, where it is stated, that, in the forty-fourth of Elizabeth, he was one of those who besieged the Earl of Essex in his house. The forty-fourth of Elizabeth was 1602. Lord Burghley, who died in 1598, was an overseer of his will, which bore date the year he died. t The Order ofthe Garter was also conferred upon him. J Lodge, ii. No. ccxxxviii. § A lively French dance ; commonly joined with the Spanish Pavan. Sir John Davis describes it, as a " swift and wandering dance ;" " with passages uncertain to and fro ;" " a gallant dance that lively doth bewray a spirit and a virtue masculine." — See Nares's Glossary, Articles Galliard and Pavan. 372 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1590, which he was of all persons the least likely to render himself liable ; nor do we find it so correctly told as to remove all doubts from our own minds as to the exact circumstances of the case. We had rather however notice it, than be judged anxious to suppress it, to the deception of the reader. At the commencement of this year, the fear of the Spaniards, and the ne cessity of supporting her foreign allies, led the Queen into great expenses. She increased her fleets, fortified many places on the sea coasts, and was very liberal of supplies to the King of France ; insomuch that though in 1587, whilst he was yet only King of Navarre, she had advanced ,him 101,560 French crowns to raise an army in Germany, and in 1589, 71,165 more, and expended 20,000 in sending over auxiliary forces under the Lord Willoughby, yet this year she advanced, upon the security of the Viscount Turenne, a further sum of 33,333 crowns, for another German army ; not neglecting, in the mean while, her own army in Flanders, nor the towns there under her protection; and in the midst of all these extraordinary charges, and contrary to all expectations, repaying large sums, borrowed in times past of her subjects. " But the truth is," says Camden, " she was providently frugal, and scarcely spent anything but for the maintenance of her royal state, the defence of her kingdom, or the relieving of her neighbours. And Burghley, Lord Treasurer," ' looked narrowly unto those who had the charge of customs and imports, by whose avarice many things were underhand embezzled, and through whose negligence the just dues were not exacted." And then follows the story to which we have alluded, reflecting on Lord Burghley, Leicester, and Walsingham ; for having, upon a time, done all they could to stifle the informations of a man who had discovered great peculations in the customs, and endeavouring to turn the Queen aside from any inquiries into that branch of the revenue ; the fact chiefly insisted upon being, that Sir Thomas Smith had been allowed to farm the customs for 14,000/. per annum, when the Queen, in consequence of the discoveries made, in defiance of the remonstrances of her courtiers, had been since able to raise them first to 42,000/. per ann., and afterwards to 50,000/. That the Queen had many greedy and covetous courtiers around her, we cannot for a moment doubt ; nor can we pretend to dispute the above fact, as to the principal circumstances of it ; but in the case above, there is an odd asso ciation of persons, and possibly therefore they may have been actuated by dif ferent motives. Sir Thomas seems, even by Camden's account, to have bought 1590.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 373 or hired the customs for a term of years, perhaps for his life ; things at that time were only in the way to be improved as opportunities occurred ; grants from the crown, and monopolies, were among some of the most crying abuses of those days ; but when changes and improvements of such a nature are con templated even in our own times, and in cases of the most glaring abuse, regard is generally had to vested interests, and unexpired grants.* We cannot pre tend to answer for any private interest Leicester might have had in stifling such information, but we must claim for Lord Burghley the credit of rather listening to such information, when well timed and respectably brought forward, and of correcting all abuses affecting the revenue, than of wilfully conniving at them ; and as for Walsingham, so far from plundering the public to any such degree, as other courtiers were known to do, it is pretty generally allowed that he im poverished himself to serve his country and his Queen. We conceive, therefore, that there are some circumstances in this case not sufficiently known, and that, at all events, as far as Lord Burghley was concerned, he had other motives for interfering than such as were selfish, mercenary, or dishonest, as his enemies would insinuate. The Queen, however, has the credit given her, of having checked their proceedings by the following noble reply : — " That it was the duty of a Prince to hold an equal hand over the highest and the lowest ; that such as accuse Magistrates and Counsellors rashly, without being able to prove it, are to be punished ; those which accuse them justly, are to be heard ; that she was Queen of the meanest subjects, as well as the greatest ; neither would she stop her ears against them, nor endure that the Farmers of the Customs should, like horse -leeches, suck themselves fast upon the goods ofthe Common wealth, whilst the poor Treasury waxed lean and was exhausted ; nor that the Treasury should be crammed with the spoils and pollings ofthe poorer sort."f * The story is told under the year 1590, but the information proffered the Queen, was evidently *ln the way of charge against Sir Thomas Smith while living, and he died in the year 1577. If the customs were fairly worth no more than 14,000/. per ann. when Sir Thomas Smith bought or hired them, the improvement must have been connected with the rapid advancement of the trade and commerce of the nation, the advantages of which must have enriched other persons, even if the Treasury did notimmediately feel the effects. f Elizabeth was very fond of making such speeches, when she seemed driven to it. Thus, when the Parliament interposed upon the subject of Monopolies, which she had granted in profu sion to her courtiers, she sent for the Speaker, and sought to clear herself of all blame by a speech, in which she asserted that she " had never put her pen to any grant, but that upon pretext and semblance made to her, that it was both good and beneficial to the subjects in general, though 374 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1590. Whether the speech were made to suit the story, or the story the speech, we shall not presume to say, imperfectly acquainted as we are with the real merits of the case. We find nothing of it in the Life of Sir Thomas Smith, and must therefore leave it to take its chance, as an imputation upon the great man whose history we are writing, not sufficient to discredit what had just before been said of him by the historian, namely, that " Burghley, Lord Treasurer," in concur rence with the Queen's frugality, detestation of extortions, and care of the public, ''looked narrowly unto those who had the charge of customs and imports," to prevent embezzlement, and negligence in exacting all just dues ; to which we may reasonably add the following passage from his Life, by a Domestic. After speaking of the envy, slander, spite, and detraction (the companions of prosperity, as he calls them) to which his Lordship was exposed, he assigns the following as some of the causes thereof: — "For when courtiers, great men, and many of the Queen's servants and others, had suits to her Majesty (which she ever referred to his consideration), he often finding them neither reasonable nor lawful, would ever wish them to make ' honest and lawful suits,' and then he would do his best to further them, as he did many ; but otherwise he would plainly tell them, ' the Queen might do what she pleased, but he would never recommend their suit ;' as some would sue for monopolies ; some for conceal ments ; some for innovations against law ; all which he protested against, terming them, ' Cankers of the Commonwealth.' Others to take leases, and turn out the Queen's ancient tenants; which when he misliked or rejected, and that they had not even what they listed, then they railed on him, though he had done them never so many pleasures before. Here was what bred him some enemies, for other cause gave he none ; neither had he hardly any. other ene mies ; his Lordship shunning enmity with all men, and hating to be accounted any man's adversary."— See also Macdiarmid' s Lives of British Statesmen, on Lord Burghley's management ofthe Revenue, p. 174. 176. Of the applications, or, rather appeals, made this year to Lord Burghley, from persons and places of all descriptions, the reader may be satisfied by consulting the Papers in Strype's fourth volume of his Annals ; and of which a private profit to some of her ancient servants who had deserved well." This was very long after Sir Thomas Smith's case, and after Lord Burghley's death ; even in the year 1601 ; and yet the people were suffering more than ever under monopolies, or improvident grants ; and if not from Farmers of the Revenue, from Patentees of the Crown. , See D'Ewes's account of the proceedings in the House of Commons, and particularly Sir Robert Cecil's excellent, and rather humourous, speech upon the occasion, p. 652. 1590.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 375 the titles only may be sufficient to shew the variety of cases constantly pressing upon him. Thus we find the Bishop of Winchester writing to him, about a dispute in Corpus-Christus College, Oxford ; the Bishop of Man against an exorbitant rate ; the Bishop of Durham about Sherborn Hospital ; the Bishop of Hereford about an utterer of seditious words; the Senate and town of Geneva, " labouring under war and famine," through their agent Le Lect ; the famous Thomas Cartwright upon the bad estate of his Hospital at Warwick; Sir John Smyth about the suppression of his book on Military discipline ; and Topcliffe* upon Popish Seminaries. But he had no small trouble given him at Court this year, by the over for ward zeal of Sir Francis < Knollys, the Queen's relative, and a busy striver in behalf of the Puritans. He had imbibed the notion that the English Epis copacy was not only unscriptural in its foundation, but in its principles and operation; not only injurious to the Queen's supremacy, but almost treasonably so. It ill became a person of Sir Francis's belief to advance such an argument, because, nothing could well be more adverse to the Queen's supremacy, than the Platform discipline ; wherein, as (one wrote at the time) " The Majesty of • the Prince was utterly excluded from all sway in the Presbytery ;" [Life of Whitgift, ii. p. 41.J and the Queen herself [ib. i. p. 73.] seems to have told him as much. Sir Francis seems to have taken up the argument in hopes of bring ing the Queen over to his sentiments, but she soon silenced him. It was to Lord Burghley, however, that he sought principally to refer the question, for * We have had occasion to speak of this gentleman before ; his name perhaps will never be forgotten. But there are some pieces of information conveyed to the Lord Treasurer, in the letter referred to, that are very curious, and probably true, though not expressed perhaps with that de corum to the sex, that we might wish to see preserved. He plainly tells the Lord Treasurer, that the greatest mischiefs were to be apprehended from the Priests' influence with ladies of rank, wealth, &c. — " There be also ladies, gentlewomen," he says, " as well married, as widows, need ful to be shut up in effect, as much as men. And though they cannot go to the field and lie in camps (for the sex and shame), yet they want no desire nor malice, every one being furnished with a lusty priest, harboured in her closet, who shall serve as her lieutenant when that holy day of Jesus cometh ; or else, she is prepared of a lusty Catholic champion, servant, tenant, or neigh bour, or son for her purpose ; command her purse, horse, armour, and tenant. And whether she be wife, widow, maid, or whatsoever, harbours, receives, and relieves priests and traitors, fugitives, or else ready to assist foreign invasion. And seeing far greater is the fury of a woman once re solved to evil, than the rage of a man, I humbly beseech your Lordship that that sex of woman be not overlooked ; for of these patronesses of Priests, it is incredible how great a number there lurketh in and about London." 376 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1590. the Queen's satisfaction, as well as in his communications upon the subject with the Archbishop, Annals, iv. No. iv. v. Sir Francis was answerd by Mr. An thony Marten, " a man of good learning," says Strype, " and of peaceable prin ciples." See Life of Whitgift, book iv. ch. iii. ; and as to Lord Burghley's own opinion of the incompatibility of the Queen's Supremacy, and the deposing powers of the Presbyteries or Consistories of the Puritans, see ib. ch. iv. pp. 58—60. Amongst these letters is one from Lord Burghley, to Count Figgleazzi at Florence, upon the offer of the Duke of Florence to be -the mediator of a peace between England and Spain, in which the aggressions and perpetual enmity of Philip are well set forth, in contradiction of the lying slanders, whereby her Majesty's actions had been depraved and condemned. The spirit with which the Queen received proposals of mediation as regarded Philip, may be judged of from the following passage in Lord Burghley's letter : " And as for the matter of mine, to reduce her Majesty and the King of Spain to accord and to live in peace, her Majesty knowing how inculpable she is, either for any be ginning or for continuing these troubles, she cannot devise how to reform her course ; but as the King of Spain hath or shall shew himself, either contented to live in peace, or to make proof of his great power by using that hostility against her Majesty, her people and countries, so she must and will be answer able to the one course or the other ; that is, most willingly to live in peace with the King, if he so will yield thereto; and if not, then she findeth the favour of God to be ready for maintenance of her rights, with such powers as God hath given her; as she will never yield to his threatenings, nor, by God's grace, will be unready to defend herself and her dominions against the King of Spain' how mighty or strong soever he shall be by sea or land" In France this year things seemed to proceed badly for Henry of Navarre, now undoubted King of France, could the leaguers and the King of Spain have been at all quieted ; the Duke of Parma entered France, threw succours into Paris, and then retired ; while the Spaniards made many attacks on the coast of Brittany, which engaged the attention of Elizabeth, who wished to have no such near neighbours; justly looking upon the conquest of France by Spain, as a sure step to the conquest of England. ' Many have concluded that the Queen's situation was now comparatively tranquil and secure. The Queen of Scots, her great rival, was no longer in the world ; and the King, her son, looking to the inheritance of England after Eli. 1590.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 377 zabeth, stifled all resentments The King of Spain was greatly disabled, by the loss of his invincible fleet ; Maurice, Prince of Orange, was putting things upon a firm footing in Flanders ; and the Duke of Guise, the great enemy of England, was dead. All these things tended to keep the English Catholics quiet. The late expedition to Spain and Portugal had the effect, at least, of proving to the Queen's enemies, that she was not without brave and competent defenders ; but defenders were certainly still wanting, both in the field and in the cabinet (if we may so speak). Many eminent persons died this year: that extraordinary Pontiff, Sixtus Quintus ; the Earl of Warwick, the elder brother of Leicester ; * Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State; Thomas Randolph, so renowned for his nego tiations in Scotland; Sir James Croft; and George Earl of Shrewsbury, in whose custody the unhappy Queen of Scots passed so many years of her life. Wal singham died poor, and was buried very privately at St. Paul's. As a faithful, diligent, and attentive Minister to the Queen, he deserves great credit ; he has been censured for his too great employment of spies, but they seem to have been quite necessary in that age of general dissimulation and intrigue; the same excuses we make for Walsingham, might perhaps apply to Randolph, who passed for a disturber in Scotland, but was undoubtedly a most able servant to the Queen. The author of the Court of Elizabeth, asks the following question with a degree of feeling, for which she certainly deserves every credit : " Looking even to the immediate results of his [Walsingham's] measures, it may triumphantly be de manded by the Philanthropist and the Sage, whether a system less artificial, less treacherous, and less cruel, would not equally well have succeeded in protecting the person of the Queen from the machinations of traitors, with the further and inestimable advantage of preserving her Government from reproach, and the national character from degradation?" It is very obvious that this is a question that can never be answered; we have repeatedly called the reader's attention to the consideration, that dangers averted come, in time, to be called no dangers, and counterplots to; be confounded with plots original, if we may so express ourselves. God forbid that we should be suspected of harbouring any wish to screen from the resentment of modern times, the crooked policy ofthe sixteenth century; but we cannot help feeling a jealousy of more blame being thrown on England, for her share in the * Camden calls him "an excellent good man." VOL. III. 3 c 378 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1590. intrigues of that age of deceit and dissimulation, speaking of Europe generally, than she deserves. Heartily wishing that Elizabeth's) wise counsellors could have "protected her person from, the machinations of traito«sy" in a less artificial, treacherous, and cruel manner than was oftentimes the case,, we must still confess, that the acquaintance we have formed in the course of our. re searches, with the base intrigues and rriurderous purposes of other Courts at the time, has often brought to our recollection a story, almost below the dignity of history to be introduced here, but yet too significant to be altogether omitted : — A centinel on duty being attacked by a ferocious dog, presented his piece and. shot him dead ; the owner of the dog remonstrated against the suddenness amd cruelty of the action, demanding of the endangered soldier, why he had not rather defended himself by milder measures, and struck at the dog with onAy the but end of his gun: " And so I would have done," replied the soldier, "you may depend upon it, had he but run at me with his tail." To return to the author of the Court of Elizabeth, speaking of Walsingham's measures, she says, " Unlike that pure and noble patriot, who ' would have lost his life with pleasure to serve his country, but would not have done a base thing to save it,' this Statesman seems to have held that few base things ought to be scrupled, by which his Queen and country might be served." And yet another author observes of this very Statesman, " He has been thought worthy, in several respects, to be compared to that Aristides, whose blameless manners, innocent life, and uncorrupted integrity, secured to him from his fellow- citizens the appel lation, of just." — Zouch's Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 210. The following passage in the inscription on Walsingham's tomb, may deserve to be transcribed ; after speaking of his several embassies, &c, it proceeds, " Quibus in muneribus tanta cum prudentia, abstinentia, munificentia, modera- tione, pietate, industria, et solicitudine versatus est, ut a multis periculis, patriam liberarit, servarit rempublicam, confirmarit Pacem, juvare cunctos studuerit, imprimis quos Doctrina aut bellica virtus commendarit, seipsum denique neg- lexerit, quo prodesset aliis, eosque Valetudinis et Facultatum. suasum dispendio sublevaret." Sir Francis left one daughter, married first to Sir Philip Sidney, afterwards to the Earl of Essex. The Lord Treasurer has not escaped censure, for allowing so eminent a pub lic servant to die poor ; but to read his epitaph, we may conclude that his own great liberality, charity, and zeal for his country, would for ever have prevented 1590.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 379 his becoming rich. Mr. Pennant, in his History of London, speaks of his having bought by accident a book of legends, containing an ancient MS. list of Statesmen in the reign of Elizabeth, consigned by the writer to the pains of hell, for their zeal against Catholics. Among these, Walsingham is represented as all in fire and flames; "And no wonder," says Mr. Pennant, "since he could contrive to get the Pope's pocket picked, when his Holiness was asleep, of the keys of a cabinet, by which he made himself master of an original letter of the first importance, which proved the saving of our island from the machinations of its bitterest enemies." Sir Francis has had the honour of being celebrated by Spenser as the Mecsenas of the age. We have felt called upon to say rather more of Sir Francis Wal singham, because it has been usual to call him a " creature of Lord Burghley's ;" which expression we shall therefore wish to explaip, in the following words of the author of the British Statesmen : " It was Burghley who discovered, and brought into office, Sir Francis Walsingham, so much distinguished among the ministers of Elizabeth, for fidelity to the interests of his Sovereign, for uncor- rupted integrity, for acuteness of penetration, soundness of judgment, extensive knowledge of public affairs, and profound acquaintance with human nature." While all these persons were dropping around him, and though he suffered greatly from occasional returns of gout ; in a letter from Kery, Clerk of the Privy Seal, to Lord Talbot, [Lodge, iii. 12.] October 22, 1590, the following account is to be found, of Lord Burghley's own apparent hearth : " I never knew my Lord Treasurer more lusty or fresh in hue, than at this hour." He had then entered into the 71st year of his age. CHAP. XVII. 1591, 1592. Thirty-third year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1590. Thirty-fourth - - - - - - - Nov. 17, 1591. Lord Essex — Sir Robert Cecil — Davison — Satirical paper addressed by the Queen to Lord Burghley— Standen's letter to Lord Burghley— Lord Burghley and Spenser^ Affairs of France— Lord Burghley's instructions to Standen — Lord Bacon and his Brother— Proclamation against the Catholics — Persons — Creswell — Puritans — Death of Sir Christopher Hatton— Lord Buckhurst succeeds him as Chancellor of Oxford — University of Dublin founded on the suggestion of Lord Burghley — Affairs of Scotland — Confession of a Jesuit — Views of Philip, King of Spain — The Lord Admiral's fear ofthe Spaniards — His letters to Lord Burghley — The Queen's second visit to Oxford — Persons' libel on Lord Burghley — Lord Bacon's answer to it — Remarks on Persons' slanders against Lord Burghley — Deaths of Sir John Perrott, and the Duke of Parma. We have already observed, that the death of Lady Burghley is judged to have had a great effect on the Lord Treasurer ; that public business became more burthensome to him, and his private life not so happy ; though, indeed, the great talents and turn for business displayed by his second son, Sir Robert Cecil, were otherwise calculated to cheer his latter days. But, it must be con fessed, a new trouble awaited him ; for now began the opposition of the Essex party, which continued to the end of his life, exposing the aged Statesman to a competition exceedingly mortifying, from the great popularity of his young and principal competitor, and the near relationship of some who adhered to him. Lord Burghley was now 71 years of age, and Lord Essex about 24; the latter full of vivacity, liberal, accomplished, brave, and enterprising ; a favourite with the Queen,* who being lately released from many embarrassments by the aid of *He had served under his father-in-law, Leicester, in Flanders, 1585, and been made General of the horse, in the memorable year 1588, receiving particular marks of favour from the Queen, in sight of her soldiers and people at Tilbury, and being made Knight of the Garter. — See Birch, i. 74. 1591/1 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 381 her old Ministers, might seem to the ardent mind of Essex to stand less in need of that wary and cautious mode of proceeding, which had hitherto distinguished her reign, and brought the nation, through many otherwise insurmountable dif ficulties, to a state of comparative security ; a security, however, not likely to last, except through continuance of the same vigilance, and the same prudent line of conduct. Essex was not made for quiet times, nor inclined to make such allowances for age, superior wisdom, riper judgment, and longer experi ence, as should have been the case. With every disposition to admire many brilliant traits in the character of this young Nobleman, we cannot forgive some of his sneers at the more prudent conduct of the Cecils* for we must now speak of the Cecils in the plural number. On the death of Walsingham, Essex, with great generosity, sought to get his friend Davison restored to favour, and to the post of Secretary ; Lord Burghley very naturally wished the Secretaryship to be bestowed on his son, Sir Robert, f who, without any disparagement to Davison, had proved himself to be exceed ingly fit for the situation, and we may add, surely, almost necessary to his father in his declining years, the Queen refusing to release the latter from his public and burthensome charges, however earnestly he solicited it. J These things * Lord Essex had, by,his dying father, been particularly recommended to the care of Lord Burghley, and, as Mr. Ellis observes, in his valuable publication of Original Letters, the latter " became a kind and honest guardian." Mr. Ellis has printed some curious papers relating to this young Lord's expenses, &c. at College, which may be seen in the third volume of the second series, Nos. ccviii. ccix., with several letters from the Earl to his guardian, Lord Burghley, in English and Latin, doing credit to both. t He was knighted this year at Theobalds, and made a Privy Counsellor ; he appears at this time to have been Sheriff for the county, as his father was Lord Lieutenant. — See Birch's Memoirs, 57. and Lodge, ii. 419. He sat in Parliament also for Hertfordshire, in the 34th and 39th of Elizabeth. — Biog. Brit. art. Robert Cecil. Having referred to this amusing work, we cannot help noticing a great mistake there, in regard to Sir Robert, who is represented to have been joint Secretary with Walsingham. X There can be very little doubt that Lord Burghley did, at this time, eagerly wish to be deli vered from the weight of his public offices, since it drew from the Queen a piece of rallying and satirical merriment, in hopes bf diverting him from his purposes, to which she would scarcely have condescended, had she not been literally afraid that he was in earnest, and that she might lose his services, if he were not in some degree indulged. We cannot bring ourselves to copy the paper, for it has a good deal of absurdity, and very little true wit in it, and may be seen in the fourth volume of Strype's Annals, No. liv. as well as in the account of Lord Burghley in the Biographia Britannica, and other places, particularly Nichols's Progresses, vol. iii., where is a full account of his visit. It is addressed to " the disconsolate and retired spryte, the heremite of 382 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1590- considered, there seems to be no great reason for imputing Davison's disap pointments to bad motives on the part of Lord Burghley ; he aeted as most meo would have done in his situation; he sought to have the assistance of his own son, and, to use an expression of an able writer, to " lean on a staff from his own wood," in a department where all foreign business was to be transacted, and without some control over which, as in times past, he could no longer expect to continue the same line of politics, to the preservation of the Queen and kingdom, and the advancement of the latter in wealth and glory.* Davison's Tyboll ;" and was probably composed at TJveobalds> in order to bring him back again into public life. It had all the forms of a royal mandate: " Teste meipsa apud Tybolh, 10ra° die Maij, regni nostri 33°. Per CanceJIar. Angliee, " Chr. Hatton." [As to the term Spryte, applied by the Queen to Lord Burghley, see before, p. 213, and ElUs's Original Letters, vol. iii. p. 189. second series.] N. B- I« this extraordinary paper it may deserve to be noticed, that the name is written Sk William Sitsilt, Knt. — See our first vol. ch. i. It would have saved the Queen and her Court much discredit, if many of the compliments paid to her, at these visiting times, had been allowed to perish. Upon occasion of this visit to Theobalds, it has been observed, that Sir Robert Cecil, then a young man, was a much greater flatterer than his father, the great Lord Burghley; but it was th^ vice of the times — Bacon was a great flatterer. If Sir Robert really prepared or super intended the devices., especially on her visit in 1593, there was in them certainly some grass flattery ; we dp not find that Lprd Rurghley ever amused himself with such things ; he must, indeed, in the Progres,ses,-have been a patient hearer of many grossly adulatory addresses, but he composed none himself, as far as we know. * Excusing himself to Mr. Grimestone, at the beginning of this year,, fqr not having ,pujBctua.% answered his letters, Lord Burghley says of himself, " but the cause is partly that I have, no leisure, being,, as it were,, rpundly besieged with affairs to be answered from north, so^th., east, and west, whereof I hope to be shortly delivered by supply of some to take charge, as her Majesty's principal Secretaries." Sir R&bert was not regularJy appointed Secretary till 1596 ; he must have been only so much the more necessary to his father as an assistant ; and to shew how much the Queen considered him in that light, and Lord Burghley himself as the resd Secretary, till the year L596, we find him admitted to statja secrets of importance in that character only, as appears from the following casual expression in a letter from Lprd. Burghlej, while* on a progress with the Queen, addressed to the. Lord Keeper, Lor4, Buckhurst, &c. an, t,he 3fiih of August, 1592,. " Her Majesty would not any befie of her CouucU know that part of his (Ypnge's) confession, but, only myself and Robert Cecil, because, seeing th-e. length, [of, the confession,, trans mitted by them to the Queen], to ease me, she caused him to read it." To the, very Ipst, however, though ^educed very low, and scarce able to write, he pjses,er^d, so much spirit as to oppose whatever cowasiels. bethought either weak or twrse.— Sfcq, Memoirs of Sir William Cecily Lord Burleigh, fyc. p. 7{L 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 383 return to that particular post, however deserving, would have thrown things much into the power of his rival, or his son's rival, Lord Essex, whose ardent spirit looked to no glory but in military and hazardous enterprises, and who, in the eyes of Lord Burghley, no doubt, seemed likely to hurry the nation into rash and imprudent measures. To the credit of Elizabeth, she still knew how to value the services of her great Minister, and probably had discernment enough to discover, that the younger Cecil was, in fact, much more competent to fill the situation vacated by the death of Walsingham, than Davison,* but especially while he might have the benefit of his father's counsel and co-operation. And truly, we think any other determination would have amounted to an act of folly on the part of Elizabeth ; the wisdom and care of the Cecils became every hour more important to her, after the loss of such a minister as Walsingham y\ and though we would give Essex every credit for the sincerity of his friendship towards Davison, and for the feeling he had for his hard fate, yet, as a question of national import ance, we think the Queen's wisdom was never more manifested than in the support she gave at this time to the Cecils, though it involved Lord Burghley, probably, in scenes very mortifying and distressing to his old age, worn with * " And probably some distrust of the capacity of Davison, for so difficult and important a post." — Aikin's Court of Elizabeth. f It was in the course of this year, that Standen, a confident of Sir Francis Walsingham, wrote as follows to the Lord/Treasurer from Bourdeaux. " Before I end this, for the discharge of my duty to God, and the acquittal thereof to my Queen and country, I must crave pardon of your Honour, if I say, that in this my long peregrination and change of soils, I have had access to many, and to most of the Potentates that rtile Europe, whose curiosity hath been such, as I have by them been sifted about the state of England, and her Majesty's royal person and admirable parts,; also concerning her Council and Governors of that realm, namely, touching your Honour in particular, whose actions above all the other are most eyed ; your Honour is the personage who, among these Princes and great ones abroad, is firmly believed only to hold the helm in such sort, that wheresoever it liketh you to address the vessel, it taketh the course you shall direct; so much to your commendation for the happy success hitherto, that your Honour has cause to be afraid of so general a, conceit of your wisdom, sufficiency, and fidelity." This was the testimony of a Catholic, and, consequently, of a quondam adversary;, but it was in this year also that he obtained the like commendation from an actual adversary and rebel, the Lord Paget, who, according to evidence delivered in the form of a confession, is stated, to have wished his Lordship's head on London Bridge, since no prince in Christendom had such a statesman- — See Birch's Memoirs, and the Confession of Edward Boord, Strype's Annals, iv. No. xlvi. 384 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1891. domestic afflictions, as well as public business ; for Captain Allen, writing to Mr. Anthony Bacon, then abroad, in -the very year in which Lord Burghley suffered the loss of his wife, observes in his letter, " there was never in Court such emulation, such envy, such back -biting, as is now at this time :"* he had just before told him, that " the Earl of Essex had chased Mr. Raleigh from the Court, and confined him into Ireland;" " conjecture you," he adds, "the rest of that matter." But we need not enter further into these particulars at present, but turn to consider the course of public affairs this year. The assistance given by the Queen to the King of France, could not fail to excite an anxiety on the part of the English Government, that his affairs on the other side of the water should be conducted with the utmost prudence, and that he should have his eye on the places of greatest importance to the common enemy ; of which the towns in Brittany seemed to be the chiefest, as most accessible to the Spaniards in sending succours to the Leaguers. This, therefore, seems to have occupied much of Lord Burghley's attention at this time, and to have led him to write many letters of remonstrance, as though Henry were content to have the use of English soldiers and English money, without sufficient deference to the Queen's advice, or such care to inform her of his movements as she had a right to expect; whereby, as he expresses himself in some of his letters, she might possibly become less inclined to assist him. Henry appears to have thought more of the recovery of Paris, than of securing the sea coasts, or even the Flemish frontier, against the Duke of Parma; whereas, the English Government thought his first attention should be directed to the exposed provinces of Normandy, Brittany, and Picardy. The English Confederates saw this,j as well, as the * The Lord Treasurer seems to have been much annoyed in the year 1590 with the severity of the proceedings against Sir John Perrott, late Deputy of Ireland (a reputed son of Henry VIII.). Camden imputes these proceedings to the malice of Hatton. — Consult and compare Lodge's Illustrations, vol. iii. pp. 11, and 20. Sir John appears to have been hasty and impetuous, but a good governor of Ireland, having a perfect knowledge of the insincerity and secret practises of the Irish Chieftains, to whom Elizabeth was inclined to give too ready an ear, and by whom she was often deceived. t Among those who were sent to reinforce and assist the King, Essex himself was qne ; who, ar riving in Normandy, was surprised not to find the King there, as he had reason to expect, and regarded his absence as little less than a breach of promise. He went to the King to lay before him the extraordinary situation in which it placed his army, but it had not the effect he wished. Essex afterwards lost a brother before Rouen.— Birch, i. 74. 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 385 Lord Treasurer, but Henry had a different plan in hand, which excited some unpleasant feelings towards him in the Queen's Court. Some of Lord Burgh ley's letters upon this subject are to be seen in Dr. Birch's Memoirs. It is no wonder that Henry IV. should rather look to the enemies that were in the heart of his kingdom, and in occupation of his metropolis, considering them as subjects in rebellion, whose allegiance was to be secured ; but in Philip he had a competitor for the crown, and, in truth, the Spaniards had given him sufficient proof of this, if he would have attended to it ; for, in a letter to Lord Talbot, preserved by Lodge, iii. 13, 14, it is written, Nov. 20, 1590, " He" (the Viscount Turenne, Henry's Minister in England) "goeth away about the 23d of this month, to Germany, where God send him aid, for his Majesty has great need of it, for the Leaguers and enemies entereth his country, very dangerously for his State, and not a little for us, for they already are entered into Bretagne with 4000 mere Spaniards." And again, " the Duke of Parma lyeth in the heart of France, doing daily great harm to the country." Voltaire, speaking of Philip's designs in 1590 and 1591, says, " He insensibly accustomed the French to depend on the crown of Spain ; for, on one hand, he sent sufficient succours to the League to hinder it from being crushed, but not enough to render it inde pendent." — " His aim was not to conquer France, like Portugal, but to oblige the French to offer him the government." — " And so firmly persuaded was he, that France must fall into his hands, that he constantly used to say, My city of Paris, my city of Orleans, my city of Rouen." It is under this year that we ought, perhaps, to consider ourselves called upon to notice a very ill-told story affecting the character of Lord Burghley ; we mean his supposed hard treatment of the poet Spenser. In the short Life, prefixed to his Works, by Hughes, in six vols., published in the year 1715, it is represented, that be was not only neglected by the Lord Treasurer, but incurred his hatred, in consequence of some reflections which that Lord took to himself, in the Poem of Mother Hubbard's Tale. The verses are too well known to be repeated, and, after all, only one line is suspected of bringing the charge home to Lord Burghley. — See p. ix. Some offence appears certainly to have been given at Court, but to whom is not certain. The Author's account of Detraction, in the sixth book, is judged to be a proof of this. — See p. ib. The story most known, however, and most dwelt upon, is this : that the Queen, being disposed to confer some gratuity on Spenser, which Lord Burghley judged to be too much, she told the latter to give him what was reason; but, as nothing came, the VOL. III. 3 D 386 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1591. disappointed poet ^s reported to have reminded her Majesty of her good inten tions, by the following lines : " I was promised on a time To have reason for my Rhime ; From that time unto this season, I received nor Rhyme nor reason." Which verses, however, so far from being indicative of any spite against so eminent a man as Spenser, are now known to have proceeded from Queen Elizabeth's great flatterer, Churchyard. The original story, therefore, may well pass for a discredited reflection on the great man whose life we are recording.* We have had occasion to mention Standen as an accredited agent of Walsingham's, and his correspondence with Lord Burghley from Bourdeaux; As he was now about to return to Spain to render service to the Queen's Majesty, we may be able, in some degree, to judge of the politics of Europe^ from the following instructions given to him by Lord Burghley himself; and which may very well serve to shew, though the instructions themselves are oddly worded, that age had not yet abated the vigour of his intellects, or lessened his vigilant anxiety for the defence of England and her friends^ The following are the instructions to Mr. Standen, to guide him in the intel ligence for which he made himself responsible, and of which the English Government may be said to have stood in need: "That it would please you of all preparations by sea or land to give me timely notice, especially of such as concern us, or our nearest neighbours, France, Bretagne, Flanders, and of all the private practices upon the Queen's sacred person ; ofthe state and time of the King of Spain's fleet returning daily ; of any intelligence that from hence that King or his Ministers receive by any unnatural subject, and of that, all the circumstances possible whereby we may find the snake in our bosoms •¦ what practices are between Spain and Scotland, and who be the instruments thereof; what with Ireland, and by what means ; what jealousies between the King of Spain, his son and daughter; who be the favourites of each party; of her marriage with the Emperor or Duke of Guise or any other ; what suspicion or confidence the King hath of the Duke of Parma, and whether he mind to displease him ; how he standeth with the Pope that now is, and how with * See Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary; Birch, i. 131; British Plutarch, vol. ii. 159 ; and, above all, Mr. Todd's Life of Spencer. 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 387 other Princes of Italy ; how with his own subjects at home and abroad ; and how with Turkey, Persia, Barbary, East India, West India ; what Englishmen he hath at his pension in Spain or elsewhere : whether Cardinal Allen comes to Flanders ; and what Englishmen are about him, and how entertained by the Pope or other Princes." There seems to have been at this time a great resort of persons of all nations to Spain, but with hostile views upon England, as Mr. Standen expressed in a letter to Mr. Bacon. Speaking of the numbers of French which came thither, and which he said made the Spaniards to stand upon their tiptoes, " These French," he adds, "the Scots, Irish, and Spaniards, have divided the English man's coat, but it will prove the history of M. d'Argenton's Bear; the First, and the Scots demanding only money, and the Irish 10,000 men, which they shall have." < These instructions alone, had they been addressed to a regular minister, would have displayed a good model of diplomacy, and are, at all events, quite sufficient to shew, that Lord Burghley was very much too capable of carrying on the affairs to deserve to be set aside for so young a man as Essex ; though among those who thought otherwise were the two Bacons, Lord Burghley's near relatives — Anthony Bacon being the elder, and the younger the very cele brated Francis Bacon. ' It belongs to us to have to contemplate the great Lord Bacon, as he has since been called, as a young man, anxious to secure to himself a maintenance and professional reputation ; his mother, Lady Bacon, was the sister of Lady Burghley ; and he therefore clearly stood in the degree of relationship to Lord Burghley, of a nephew; but his talents, so far from being fully understood in those times (see d'Israeli, iii. 83, 84), are scarcely yet, perhaps, appreciated at their full value. It is utterly impossible to say how much we are beholden to Lord Bacon, for his mere suggestion of pursuing strictly experimental inquiries, instead of putting up with the fancies and conceits of empirics in all the several branches of science; but Lord Burghley could not be expected to see, in his nephew, all these seeds of greatness, and immortality of Fame. He very reasonably looked upon him as a young lawyer, and as far as business, profit, and employment were concerned, an idle man to waste his time upon any other studies or pursuits. * • * He seems to have been, as well as his brother Anthony, very careless of expenses, and in such respects a cause of trouble both to his brother (a very kind and affectionate one), and his mother. — See Birch i. 95, 96. 388 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1591. It is absurd to talk, as some do, of Lord Burghley's neglect of the great Bacon ; he tried to serve him as a lawyer, without any very rapid success, it is true,* but it would be doing Lord Burghley a great injustice to fancy that it was at all in his power to foresee what a great man his nephew would become in the eyes of pos terity, as a writer and philosopher, or that if he could have foreseen it, he would have done any thing to check his career as such. It was much more consistent with his habitual prudence, to keep his nephew close, if he could, to his pro fessional studies, to whieh he seems to have thought, too great an attention to general knowledge could not fail to be a great interruption. The father of the great Sir Thomas More seems to have had the same apprehensions, when he absolutely lessened his son's College allowance, to prevent his attending a variety of Professors to the neglect of his law studies. We may add, that Lord Burghley had some reason given him to be suspicious of the higher branches of education, by his graceless son-in-law, Lord Oxford. Essex had a hold upon the Bacons very soon, and Francis (afterwards Lord Bacon) candidly acknowledged that his attachment to Essex proceeded from a belief and persuasion that he was " tbe fittest instrument to do good to the state,"f * In answer to a letter addressed to him by Lady Bacon, about her sons, Lord Burghley wrote to her from Theobalds, August 29, 1593, that he thought " her care for them was no less than they both deserved, being so qualified in learning and virtue, as if they had a supply of more health, they wanted nothing ; but none are, or very few, abomni parte beati. For such are not alert, but subject to temptations from the highway to heaven. For my good will to them, though I am of less power to do my friends good than the world thinketh, yet they shall not want the intention to do them good." Francis Bacon, in fact, had offended the Queen by a speech he made in Parliament upon the subsidies ; and even Essex could not appease her displeasure. t Francis Bacon boasted of having knit his brother Anthony's service to be at Essex's dis posing, but Mr. Anthony Bacon himself wrote thus of his own attachment to Essex*s party, or rather alienation from the Cecils : " On the one side," said he, ." conning over, I found nothing but fair words, which make fools fain, and yet even in those no offer or hopeful assistance of real kindness, which I thought I might justly expect at the Lord Treasurer's hands, who bad jnned my ten years' harvest into his own barn, without any half-penny charge." As these words seem to carry in them some reflection upon the Lord Treasurer, and possibly in his character of Guardian or Master of the Wards, we are inclined to copy the following passage from a letter of Mr. Francis Bacon's to the same Lord, written in the year 1594 ; speaking of his suit for the office of Solicitor General, he writes, " Lastly, however this matter go, let me enjoy your Lordship's good favour and help, as I have done in regard. of my private estate, which, as I have not altogether neglected, so I have but negligently attended, and which hath been bettered only by yourself _ (the Queen except), and not by any other in matter of importance."— Annals, iv. p. 296. It is necessary to 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 339 what good does not appear ; and probably it is the wisest way to resolve all this into a youthful persuasion that the Lord Treasurer was becoming superannuated, and that his measures partook of the coldness of old age. Certain it is, that Essex and the Bacons were apparently at this time combined, as far as they could be (considering the near relationship of the latter), against the Cecils ; but much should be imputed to their want of experience, and mistaken judgment of persons and things. It was not likely that Lord Burghley should expect " so much good to the state," from surrendering the helm into the hands of such a young and adventurous pilot as Essex, especially at such a period ; but his nephew Francis (from the respect we now bear to his memory) shall at least be, allowed to speak for himself ; " and therefore," says he, (that is because he judged Essex to be so fit an instrument to do good,) " I applied myself wholly to him, in a manner which I think happeneth rarely amongst men ; for I did not only labour carefully and industriously in that he set me about, whether it were matter of advice or otherwise ; but, neglecting the Queen's service, mine own fortune, and, in a sort, my vocation, I did nothing but devise and ruminate with myself, to the best of my understanding, propositions and memorials of anything that might concern his Lordship's honour, fortune, or service. And on the other side, I must and will ever acknowledge my Lord's love, trust, and favour towards me, and last of all his liberality." We are much mistaken if this does not bespeak more of youthful fascination, than of any sound judgment as to the ability of Lord Essex to serve the nation better than it had been served by his aged relative. Bacon himself, indeed, wrote it apologetically ;* but as it applies to the Cecils, it plainly ahews how little reason the latter had to look upon Essex's party, or his friends, with any very favourable eye ; and, indeed, many instances soon occurred of their misap- compare different accounts of this particular period, since it is impossible to form a proper idea of Lord Burghley's character from Birch's Memoirs, which, though of great importance as historical records, are notoriously compiled from the papers of a party adverse to the Cecils. * It must not be denied that Bacon saw into many of Lord Essex's foibles, particularly his violence. " My Lord," he writes in his apology, addressed to the Earl of Devonshire, " had a settled opinion, that the Queen could be brought to nothing but by a kind of necessity and autho rity ; and I well remember, when, by violent courses, he had got his will, he would ask me, ' Now, Sir, whose principles be true V" for Bacon had much admonished him to the contrary ; but there were others who rather encouraged him to pursue violent measures, leading him on thereby to his ruin, of which much may be seen in the article appropriated to the Earl's Secretary, Cuff, in the enlarged edition of the Biographia Britannica. 390 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1591. prehension of the real state of the kingdom, among which we should reckon their great anxiety about the Catholics, whom they blamed the Lord Treasurer for persecuting now more than ever, as though they were free from all suspicion, and totally harmless ; and yet, in a proclamation put forth this year, we find. the following account given of their arts and intrigues : " And, furthermore, because it is certainly known and proved by common, experience, upon the apprehension of sundry of the said traitorous persons sent into the realm, that they do come into the same by secret creeks and landing places, disguised both in names and persons ; some in apparel as soldiers, mariners, or merchants ; pretending that they have heretofore been taken prisoners, and put into gallies, and delivered. Some come in as gentlemen, with contrary names, in comely apparel, as though they had travelled into foreign countries for knowledge; and generally all, for the most part, as soon as they are crept in, are clothed like gentlemen, in apparel, and many as gallants ; yea, in all colours, and with feathers, and such like, disguising themselves; and many of them in their behaviour as ruffians, far off to be thought or suspected to be Friars, Priests, Jesuits, or Popish scholars ;* and of these many do attempt to resort to the Universities and houses of law."j" And, the next paper sets forth " certain questions to be administered to such as are to be suspected will adhere to the Pope, or the, King of Spain, if he should invade the realm."% Here was the hazard ; this resort of disguised Jesuits was, * On the 1st of July, 1591, Lord Derby wrote to Lord Shrewsbury, ofthe execution of two seminaries that very day, for affirming that if the kingdom were invaded, they would fight for the Pope, or if the Pope commanded it, slay the Queen ; and, in the postscript, his Lordship adds, " One of these seminaries was at the high race at Croydon, all in green and velvet, well mounted upon a good gelding, having also a pistol at his side ; insomuch as it was conceived he meant ill toward her Majesty, if she had been there." f Annals, iv. No. xiii. X This proclamation exposed Lord Burghley to the most acrimonious attacks from the fugitives and Spanish party abroad, but especially from Persons and Creswell, the first of whom wrote a Responsio ad Edictum, the ^other a tract intitled Exemplar Literarum Missarum e Germanid ad D. Gulielmum Cecilium, Consiliarium regium. A more wilful misrepresentation of things could not have been penned. A specimen may be seen in note ee of Dr. Lingard's fifth volume ; but as nobody could speak more properly of them than that author has done, we forbear to copy what may be read there. The author, indeed, speaks with no small indignation of the domiciliary visits to which the proclamation gave occasion, and no doubt they were very unpleasant, and, in some instances, oppressive ; but those who had actually to provide for the safety ot the Queen and nation, must be supposed to have had better information than it is in our power properly to appre ciate, and may thereby have been led to conclude that nothing could avert the dangers that 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 391 in all likelihood, entirely intended to prepare the way for another attack upon England ; and though the precautions were no doubt of a very unpleasant nature; they can scarcely be judged to have been unnecessary, when Standen, who most complained of them, as offensive to all the Catholic States of Europe, was the very man who confessed that the concourse of foreigners in Spain, as well as the Spaniards themselves, "had already divided the Englishman's coat:" a very intelligible intimation of a fresh attempt to invade and spoil the kingdom. The severity of the Proclamation had certainly the effect of deterring some persons from passing into England ; and of course those who had the wisdom to stay away, had nothing to fear ; but, in fact, the severity of the proceedings was not altogether so great as has been pretended.* The following is one of the articles of examination : — threatened, but a timely detectiSn of secret enemies. The necessity was deplorable, but then the times were also deplorable. In the very answers to the proclamation in question, it was main tained that the Pope had a right to employ the arms of Catholic Princes, and to depose apostate Sovereigns, for the benefit of religion. The armada had afforded a practical proof of such assumed rights, by means of external foes ; but' internal foes were, with great reason, judged to be acting upon similar principles, within the very bosom of the kingdom, eager " to divide the Englishman's coat," if they could but get hold of it for such purposes. Who can wonder that, in endeavouring to preserve what was so notoriously condemned, some excesses should take place ? We must repeat, that we do not pretend to excuse, but to account for, the severities exercised. One thing we must protest against, as likely to mislead unprejudiced readers, we mean that of singling-out particular cases-, either against the Catholics or Protestants; both had their faults; but if the Catholics, in their histories, insist only on cases of Protestant persecution, and the Protestants only on cases of Catholic persecution, it is not fair. Let them be mutually passed over, forgiven and forgotten ; or brought into comparison, by a statement of particulars on both sides. This is the only fairway of judging- Domiciliary visits were bad enough, and torture on either side was worse ; but if Elizabeth were severe in her government, in resentment of provocations, Philip was always a cold-blooded, deliberate tyrant and persecutor, and always countenanced by the Popes, on the ground of religion, even by Sixtus V., who hated him, but who did it for decency sake, as Head of the Church. , < • * To shew how difficult it must be for any historian, wishing to write without prejudice, and really to do justice to all parties, we cannot help observing, that, in the very same book {Birch's Memoirs), where so much is to be read of the bitter persecution of Puritans and Papists, at this period of the Queen's reign, we find the following compliment paid to England by a very learned and worthy foreigner, M. Daneau (Danseus), in a letter to Mr. Bacon from L'Lescar, in France, Sept. 17, 1592 ; he expresses therein his frequent desires of having it in his power to live in England, " That most happy country, the seat of peace and piety, through the Divine favour, and the wise government of that Phoenix of the world, the excellent Queen Elizabeth, the most compas sionate mother ofthe poor French, and the Hospitaliere of all .the children of God." 392 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1591. " Item, in your examination of any persons by virtue of this Commission, you shall not press any one to answer to any questions of their conscience for matter of religion, other than to cause them answer whether they do usually come to church ? and why they do not? and if you shall perceive that they are wilful recusants, then you shall examine them upon any matters concerning their allegiance to her Majesty, and of their devotion to the Pope or to the King of Spain : or upon their maintenance of any Jesuits, Seminaries, Priests, or other persons, sent from Rome, or from any parts beyond seas, to dissuade any subjects from their obedience to the Queen's Majesty." It has always been a difficulty, occasioned great confusion, and led to many mis conceptions, to distinguish properly between a conscientious profession ofthe Ca tholic religion, and a disposition or obligation, in consequence of that, to support the authority of the Church of Rome, in its efforts, even by force of arms (as by the Spaniard or otherwise), to extirpate the Protestant heresy, and restore the Romish religion. Through this confusion, every resistance of Catholic intrigue directed against Protestant governments, has obtained the name of religious persecution, whereas it has generally been merely matter of political precaution.* To revert to the order just copied, a wilful recusant, was a conscientious one ; one who could not conform or go to church with a sound conscience ; by which he was proved to be a zealous and sincere Catholic; and being so, and in England (the most proscribed country in Europe, and one continually threat ened with invasion), where could be the harm or injustice of making some inquiries as to the allegiance of such persons to a Protestant excommunicated Queen ? — Let the Popes answer for such severities,-!" for they were certainly the * Mr. Standen, who, at this time, was a great stickler for the relaxation of all severe proceed ings against the Catholics, had himself declared, that " for all such priests as should deal m matters of state, he would have them punished without mercy." In answer to this gentleman's remark, Lord Burghley made this observation : " In very truth, for whereof I know not the contrary, there is no Catholic persecuted to the danger of life here, but such as profess them selves, by obedience to the Pope, to be no subjects to the Queen; and'though their outward pre tence be, to be sent from the seminaries to convert people to their religion, yet without recon ciling of them from their obedience to the Queen they never give them absolution. Such in our realm as refuse to come to our churches, and yet do not discover their obedience to the Queen, be taxed with fines, according to the law, without danger of their lives ; and if Mr. Standen were truly informed of this manner of proceeding, and would judge indifferently thereof, he might change his mind." f As the Catholics have constantly declaimed against England for its severities at this time, it may not be amiss to inquire how mercifully his most Catholic Majesty conducted himself 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 393 occasion of them. Standen himself could only be employed as a thief to catch a thief, for he had been a zealous Catholic ; and, on that account, had quitted England in 1563, to serve the Queen of Scots; afterwards he became a pen sioner to the King of Spain, and was employed to raise disturbances in Scot land. Sir Francis Walsingham has the credit of having, by a pension of 100/. per annum, engaged him in the service of Queen Elizabeth, but chiefly because he knew so much of continental affairs ; on which grounds if he could have been trusted, he might certainly have been very serviceable, but the probability is, that he was still false ; of which we shall have more to say hereafter. The Lord Treasurer had little less trouble with the Puritans this year than with the Papists ; of which a pretty full account may be seen in Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift, book iv. chap. v. and vi. It is an unpleasant subject to dwell upon, but, as the opinions of Lawyers, Canonists, &c, seem to have been formally taken, it is scarcely incumbent on us to go farther into the matter, than to make the reference we have done, especially to the papers in the Appendix connected with those chapters. We shall only observe, that if Lord Burghley were looking in his old age to some rest from his public labours and cares, they could not possibly have been more increased than they were at this time, by the perseverance of the Puritans, and the threats of both Papists and Puritans, if Haskett may be accounted one ofthe latter. — See Annals, iv. Nos. 48, 49. and Rapin. The Queen's refusal to dismiss him, aggravated by the at tacks of the young party arrayed against him, with Essex at its head, may surely account for his temper being a little soured at this time, especially as we happen to know, that while most of these things were transacting, he was laid up by sickness. [Life of Whitgift, vol. ii. 93.] But he appears to have been grossly misrepresented upon this head by some who went into foreign parts', to evade the severity of the laws, [See Birch, i. 84. J and who would haye had the world believe that all mercy had perished, with Leicester and Walsingham. towards his own subjects at the same period. The following appears amongst some advertise ments from Spain this year, transmitted to the Lord Treasurer, by Henry Carminck, a merchant then in Spain, dated the 21st of April, 1591. " There grew in Madrid a mutiny by the Commons of the town against the King, for that he pressed them and all the country with new impositions. Upon which tumult there were to the number of sixty hanged, and about two hundred whipped and carted. — Annals, iv. No. Iv. It is in this way of comparison that the severities of the two parties should be judged, if judged at all, for the purposes of history. VOL. III. 3 E 394 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1591. We must not conclude this year without noticing the death of Sir Christo pher Hatton, Lord Chancellor. He died, according to Camden, on the 20th of September, 1591, which does not quite agree with other accounts; Dr. Birch, in his Memoirs, seems to fix it in November ; both of them conceive his death to have been hastened by the Queen's rigour in demanding of him a considerable sum, which he had received for first-fruits and tenths, but it is very doubtful whether this story be true ; more true, it seems to be, that she often visited him in his illness, and manifested great anxiety for his recovery; and so far from burthening his property with any heavy demands after his decease, she remitted to his nephew and heir,* all the claims she had upon it. He was so adverse to the Puritans, f and so lenient to the Papists, as to have fallen under a suspicion of being a -Papist himself ;£ but he has more generally the credit of having acted upon a nobler principle, and to have professed a wish to exclude both fire and sword from all questions of religion. If all the stories told of him be true, it might be difficult to say, whether he was most indebted to his feet or his head for his advancement in life ; but it is creditable to him, at all events, to have to record, that if his skill in dancing brought him * Sir William Hatton, married to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil, afterwards Lord Exeter. — See Nichols' mistake, ii. 123. In the Biographia Britannica, art. Coke, this, la/ty is erroneously called the sister of Thomas, Lord Burghley. t Upon the death of Hatton, Essex, who was as much the friend of the Puritans, as the former had been the contrary, sought to succeed him in the Chancellorship of Oxford, but Whit gift interposed to prevent it, [Birch, i. 75.] and the Queen's relative, Lord Buckhurst, was chosen instead, or, perhaps, we should rather say appointed, for it certainly appears from some letters in Murdin, 649, 650. that had it been brought to a regular election, Essex would haye had a majority of votes. How severely he felt this disappointment, especially, as proceeding from the Queen, may be judged from his letter from Rouen to Sir Robert Cecil, ib., and yet the Queen, by the very next paper, appears to have been deeply concerned for his personal safety, p. 651. Twenty-four was certainly an early age for a Chancellor of an University, but he had sought to succeed Leicester three years earlier. I As a despoiler of Church property, he had certainly more of the Puritan in him than of the Papist. Hatton Garden still serves to revive our recollections of his robbery of the See of Ely in which he had more assistance from the Queen than redounds to her credit, A letter, indeed which, it is said, he induced her to write to the Bishop (Cox), is so much below her dignity, as to be quite disgraceful. Hatton had, oddly enough, considering the imputation cast upon him, pf being a Papist, been educated under Cardinal Allen (or Alan), at St. Mary Hall, Oxjbrd.Tr- Birch, i. 8. See, however, the high character given of him in Lodge's Illustrations of British. History, vol. ii. 220. 1591.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 395 first into notice at court, he discharged the duties of his high office of Lord Chancellor with considerable reputation, and very much to the satisfaction of the public. On the death of Sir Christopher, the great seal was for some months put into the hands of Commissioners, of whom the Lord Treasurer was one ; who held also, at the same time, by commission from the Queen, the office of Earl Marshal,* vacant since the death of the Earl of Shrewsbury. In the Antiquities of Westminster Abbey, third edit. 1722, is an engraving of the tomb erected there to the memory of Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Cecil, eldest son of Sir Thomas Cecil (first Lord Exeter), who djed this year. She was the only daughter of Edward, Earl of Rutland. The Queen's Progresses this summer were apparently confined to Sussex and Hampshire : Cowdray, the famous seat of Lord Montagu (Montecute), Pet worth, Chichester, Portsmouth, Stanstead, Tichfield, Southampton, Winchester, and Elvetham, the seat of the Earl of Hereford.' — See Nichols, vol. iii. 1591. Lord Burghley appears to have accompanied her all the time. At Lord Montagu's, it is recorded, that she saw after dinner from a turret, " sixteen bucks all having fayre lawe, pulled down with greyhounds in a laund or lawn." We ought not to conclude Our account of the year 1591, without observing, that it was rendered memorable by the foundation of the University of Dublin by Queen Elizabeth, on the suggestion of Lord Burghley, who drew up the plan of education ; the first stone was laid on the 13th of March, 1591, and on the 9th of January, 1593, the first students were admitted into it. It was styled, " The College ofthe Holy and Undivided Trinity, near Dublin, founded by the most serene Queen Elizabeth ;" a new charter was granted many years afterwards, viz. 1637. It was origirMly erected on the site of the dissolved * See a curious case referred to him as Earl Marshal this year, by a lady at Court ; it was a question of precedency, between Lady Frances Cooke and Lady Cheke, both nearly connected with him by their marriages; Lady Cheke being the relict of the brother of his first wife, and Lady Frances, the wife of the brother of his last Lady ; she was the daughter of the Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, and, consequently, nearjy allied to the House of Suffolk. Strype, who mentions the circumstance in his Life of Sir John Cheke, does not profess to know how the dispute was adjusted ; of the high birth of Lady Frances, there could be no doubt, but it would be difficult to say how.she came to be called Lady Frances, as the daughter of Lord John Grey^'or how'she came to fancy her degree to be that ofa younger daughter of a Viscount, which, it seems, was the rank she claimed. The title of Lady Francis, had the Queen allowed her to be so called, would have given her the rank of an Earl's daughter.— See Strype's Life of Cheke, ch. v. sect. viii. 396 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1592. Augustinian Monastery of All Saints, in the suburbs near Dublin, which had been granted by King Henry VIII. to the Mayors and Citizens of that city, and by them transferred to this use. When we first began what has rather unfortunately been too much regarded as a mere life of Lord Burghley, as though his private concerns were of greater importance, and a better subject for history, than his public character, we very early directed the attention of the reader to the affairs of Scotland ; feeling persuaded, in our own minds, that that portion of the British Isle would be found to have presented the greatest difficulties to the statesmen of England, from the death of James the V. to the end, at least, of the life of Lord Burghley. The political life, we mean, of that great man ; for he can scarcely be said to have led any other life from the days of his earliest maturity, to the very last moment of his earthly existence. Following Camden, we shall find, according to the circumstances above, that though Lord Burghley was now gradually sinking into his grave, Scotland re quired as much looking to as ever ; this and the foregoing year being distin guished by some very extraordinary attempts there, to get possession of the King's person, in order to turn him away from his English connexions ; and, if practicable, from the Protestant faith. " King James," says Rapin, " began to be ruled by suspicious persons ; and the Queen received advice, that the Spaniards, assisted by the Catholics, were contriving some dangerous plot, and were countenanced by the Earls of Huntley, Angus, and Errol : this plot was to raise a subscription for a large sum of money in Scotland;* and then an army of 30,000 Spaniards was to land in that kingdom about the end of the year 1593, which was to be headed by Bothwell, with a body of troops, and all these were to march into England, to revenge the Queen of Scots' death:" that is, under that pretence ; for whatever the Scottish Lords, or James himself might feel upon that score, Philip, we may be sure, was acting upon other motives, as we may gather indeedfrom the following passage in the confession of a Je- * This must be wrong. We have it on the authority of Lord Burghley, that in the conspiracy ofthe above Lords, it had been determined that the King of Spain should send the conspirators certain great sums of money to wage forces to join with his forces, which he should send by sea to Scotland, and therewith to enter and make invasion into England, and to overrule the King there, and to make change of religion within that realm." A person well acquainted with the politics of Spain, wrote at this time to Mr. Bacon, " What villany or treachery may be done for money, the Spaniard will not spare to do it."— Birch, i. 95. 1592.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 397 suit, taken in the month of August this year, and subscribed with his own hand, before the Lord Keeper Puckering, Lord Buckhurst, and Mr. Fortescue, Chan cellor of the Exchequer. " The next matter that I heard (in Rome), was of the great hope there was of the King of Scots that he would become Catholic; which was the rather be lieved, for that one Tyry, a Scotch Jesuit, and one William Holt, an English Jesuit, who both came from thence, reported his inclination that way— with whom they had spoken privately divers times ; as likewise, with many other Noblemen in that country ; and Morgan, who wrote divers letters to the Car dinal in Rome, that shortly all the Scotch holy Bishops should be recalled home to their livings, and made suit that help might be made for reclaiming England by aiding the Scottish King. Which matter was much furthered by Dr. Lewis, now Bishop of Casan, and agent for the Scottish nation. " Yet after the death ofthe Queen of Scots, both Dr. Allen and Persons wrote to stir up the Spanish King, who, as I have heard Persons say, could never be persuaded to attempt anything against England in her lifetime, objecting that he would travail for others. That she being dead, the expectation was increased for the last invasion."* We have already intimated our belief, that Philip's threats of coming into England to help and release Mary, were fallacious ; and that if his Armada had been ready for the invasion of England in 1587, his only hope would have been, that both the Queens might fall in the struggle, for the furtherance of his own claims to the inheritance of the vacant crown. It is melancholy to have to insist upon such duplicity ; but where the credit of others is at stake, it must be done. The pretence of helping Mary was so plausible, as to increase the odium to which Elizabeth and her ministers have at all times been exposed, while Philip has the credit given him of more amiable feelings ; whereas, the mere pre tence of being preparing to help her, of which Mary, and all her friends in England, particularly her Catholic friends, must have wished to make the most, hurried them into such practices as (we will not say quickened Elizabeth's re sentments, though that was one effect, but) rendered them daily and hourly more decidedly dangerous to Elizabeth. In short, they were helping the crafty * In the year 1594, Persons published a book under the name of Doleman, purporting to be "A Conference about the next succession of the Crown of England ;" a book so anxiously suppressed, that it was made high treason even to possess a copy. The eighth chapter contained the claims of the King and Prince of Spain to the succession of England. 398 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLFIY. [1592. Spaniard to sharpen the sword which was to cut off Elizabeth's head. Mary was detected in the act of sharpening that sword, as far as she could do it, and suffered as a conspirator, because the purposes of her associates could not be mistaken. Philip would have come, if Mary's release would have helped him to the throne ; but, while she lived, she Was an obstacle to his ultimate views. Unfortunately for her, Tierclaims were better than Philip's, though botih de pended on the fall of Elizabeth; to preserve the latter, therefore, it Wasoettdr to rob him of the false pretence of helpiiig Mary, and let the world See, that if he came at all, it was to help himself; he did come, and his design was seen through; and the sword that Was supposed to be sharpening here to help him in the cause of Maty, was turned against himself, and applied to the protection of Elizabeth.* But as Mary was dead, and all help to her cause put out brother, the first Earl ; of ¦ Salisbury, had been slanderously represented to be the grandson: 'of a sieve-maker, ^and; giving direptions to have the archives of Burghley searched to prove. the contrary. But it is time to turn to other things. •¦ t>- , ,.;; ¦ n .,- -o ,,,•'¦. r>., . i/.o -r We must not conclude our account of the transactions of this year, without noticing the death of Sir John Perrott, who died in prison, after conviction by a jury, and in consequence of a trial before Commissioners appointed by the Queen, and of whom, to our surprise, Sir Robert Cecil appears to have been one ; for it is extremely evident that Lord Burghley (who probably knew his value) would have stayed the proceedings, if he could have done it, and with tears lamented * It deserves to be noticed, that had the grandfather of Lord Burghley been actually an Inn- holder, it betokened nothing mean, for the town residences of the first nobility in those days were called Inns. Thus, a magnificent house of Sir John Poulteney, who had been four times Lord Mayor of London, was called Poulteney Inn, and did not lose its name when it became the house or inn of Langley, Earl of Cambridge. Warwick Inn was the palace ofthe great Earl of Warwick, called the King-maker. — See Pennant's London, iv. 233. We may add, that Henry IV. in a grant of a house to his son, the Prince of Wales, styled it " quoddam hospitium." Lincoln's Inn was the name of a house of Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. 408 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1592. his hard fate ;* observing, as it is reported of him, that " hatred, the more unjust it is, so much the more sharp, and cruel it is." See also Lodge, iii. pp. 1 1 and 20. It was his own hasty temper probably that brought him to his end, though Hat ton is represented to have been the chief cause of his falif He was convicted of having spoken opprobiously of the Queen, and which, indeed, he acknow ledged ; but allowances should be made for him : he was, probably, the son of the same father, and, as her deputy in Ireland, had supported her authority against the insidious chieftains of that constantly disturbed country, doing all he could to make her distrustful of their insidious professions, but in vain. She listened to her enemies, and distrusted her best friends ; and Sir John was made to pay - the forfeit of her credulity. This year also terminated the life of one of her Ma jesty's greatest, but most honourable enemies — the Duke of Parma. Queen Eli zabeth, Camden relates, never named him but with great respect and commenda tions, yet warily, lest her praises might turn to his prejudice. He had governed the Low Countries under Philip, for above thirteen years. His death was sudden — being in the act of mounting his horse after dinner, December 2, 1592, he was seized with an extreme pain, so that he fell from his horse, crying out first; lo sono ingannato, and then, Portatemi I' aqua contra il veneno. It was brought to him and administered, but in vain ; he never spoke afterwards. His death, however, is attributed by the editors of the Dictionnaire Historique, not to poison, but to a wound he received before Rouen — he was only forty-six years of age ; being the son of a natural daughter of the Emperor Charles V. * Camden, 462, 463. t Camden. CHAP. XVIII. 1593, 1594. Thirty-fifth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1592. Thirty-sixth Nov. 17, 1593. Meeting of Parliament — Speeches of the Lord Keeper, Puckering, Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir John Fortescue, and others — Bill against Recusants — Hooker's letter to Lord Burghley — Execution of Penry — Mr. James Morice — His letter to Lord Burghley — The Puritans — Foreign Reformers — Francis Johnson's letter to Lord Burgh ley — Henry IV. of France attends mass for the first time — Queen Elizabeth's indignant letter to him — Her letter to the Emperor of Germany — Mr. Standen — Lord Essex — Antonio Perez — Competition for the post of Attorney-General — Lord Burghley's illness — Mr. Standen's account of going to visit him — Memorial for the defence ofthe kingdom against the Spaniards — Lopez— King of Scotland — Birth of his son Henry — Lord Burghley's great care and attention to all matters in Church and State — Letters from Lqftus, Archbishop of Dublin to Lord Burghley — Letter from the Bishop of Limerick to the same — Dramatic performances at Cambridge — Death of Cardinal Allen — Aylmer, Bishop of London, and Cooper, Bishop of Winchester — Lines on the latter — Conversa tion between Lord Essex and Sir Robert Cecil on the proper person to be Attorney- General — Sir Edward Coke — Lord Bacon — Letter from Lady Bacon to her son, Mr. Anthony Bacon — Marriage of the Earl of Derby to Lady Elizabeth Vere — Decision of the case of the Lordship of the Isle of Man. We shall have little more to do in our account of this year, than to notice the proceedings of the Parliament, which was summoned to meet on the 19th of February, 1592-3, and which, as usual, has, led some to call it the Parliament of 1592, and others of 1593 ; but as to the date of the Queen's reign, there can be no doubt ; it may, therefore, most correctly be called the Parliament of the 35th of Elizabeth ; according to the common date of the statutes then passed, and the laws promulgated, and the eighth parliament holden in her reign. ... It may be concluded, that, like all the Parliaments of those days, it was called together, principally, to grant an aid to her Majesty, and, in order to procure this to be cordially entered upon, an official statement of the real circumstances, vol. in. 3 G 410 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. wants, and dangers of the nation required to be set forth. The first speech to this effect, was the speech of the Lord Keeper Puckering, who had been appointed by her Majesty to succeed Sir Christopher Hatton, in that high office, and the principal points of whose speech may be thus exemplified : — that the great malice of the King of Spain towards the realm of England was in no manner abated; that having discovered the error of sending such high and mighty ships, as his Armada consisted of, into the narrow seas, he was now building ships of a less bulk, for the purposes of invasion, and occupying different towns in Brittany (Bretagne), to facilitate his operations ; and that, in order to make a " stepping stone" of Scotland, he had, by great sums, brought many of the Nobility there to join in the conspiracy against England ; and that the defence of England, therefore, from so many foes, requiring great expenses, her Majesty could not but wish to have the advice and assistance of her faithful Par liament. We have called this the Lord Keeper's speech, for so it is reported in the Journals and Parliamentary Histories; but from a paper drawn up by Lord Burghley, and which Strype has printed, [Annals, iv. No. lxxx.} he appears to have received his instructions immediately from the Lord Treasurer ; and, indeed, how much it depended on that noble Lord to represent to both Houses of Parliament the exact state of the nation, as to foreign dangers, may be judged, not only from the above circumstance of his having furnished the Lord Keeper with instructions in several distinct articles, but from his opening the debate upon the supplies in the Upper House, while his son, Sir Robert Cecil, was employed in the same manner in the Lower House of Parliament. The speech of the latter may be seen in D'Ewes, in Cobbett's Parliamentary History, and other books. Lord Burghley's speech may also be seen in the latter, and in the fourth volume of Strype's Annals, No. Ixvi. ; as appertaining, however, so much to these Memoirs, we cannot omit to cite some passages of it, as proofs of his continual vigilance, and care ofthe kingdom ; besides that it may be said to contain a summary account of the chief difficulties of this reign, and, con sequently, of Lord Burghley's long administration. It begins thus : " To make a declaration of the first cause and original beginning, whereby her Majesty was provoked to arm her realms with forces, were a labour lost in this place, where in former times the same hath been often declared ; and wherein a great number of the Nobility here present have heard many circumstances thereof at the pro ceeding with the late Queen of Scots ; for whom, and by whom, the quarrels 15§3] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 41 [ were first made against the Queen's Majesty's person, and against the religion and quietness ofthe realm. " And, therefore, leaving the repetition of that cause, by which her Majesty Was detained in a kind of war, to withstand both the Kings of France and Spain, who intermeddled in the case of the Queen of Scots against her Majesty ; yet there hath followed continually such a deadly malice from the King of Spain, the Bishop of Rome, and their confederates, as unto this day, wherein no inter mission hath been of attempts against her Majesty and the realm, although at some times more vehement than at others ; as appeared in the year eighty-eight, by his open armies both by sea and land ; being of greater force than ever was made by his father, the Emperor Charles, or by himself, or by any Christian Prince, within memory of man. " But minding to overpass all the attempts before that great enterprize, and considering there hath been no assembly of Parliament since that time, wherein her Majesty might justly declare to the States of her realm not only the continuance of the former attempts, but the increase of more dangers than were seen in any time before ; therefore, as was delivered by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, her Majesty hath summarily imparted the same to this Assembly, referring the consideration thereof to the whole three Estates, whereof two are in this place, how the same danger may be withstood, and by what provision her Majesty and realm may be preserved in domestic peace, as yet it is, as in a centre of happiness, where the circumference is in open calamity. " Wherefore, in the discharge of my duty, with your patience in suffering an old man, besides his years, decayed in his spirits with sickness, to declare some part of his knowledge of the dangers and perils imminent : but for advice and council how to Withstand the same, I shall be constrained, for want of sufficient understanding in so great a cause, to require some further conference with your Lordships. " As to the dangers, that they be great and imminent, that they have both lately grown, and are likely to increase, there be manifest argument. First, the King of Spain, since he hath usurped upon the kingdom of Portugal, he hath thereby grown mighty, by gaining the East Indies. So as how great soever he was before, he is now thereby more manifestly great ; but for increase hereof to be greater, yea greater than any Christian Prince hath been, he hath lately joined with his intended purpose newly to invade this realm with more might 412 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. than before he did the invasion of France by sundry ways. Not, as in former times, when the Emperor Charles, and the French Kings, the great Francis and the warlike Henry, made former wars for towns their greatest wars ; yea, when the present King of Spain had his great army against Henry of France : for, in those wars, none of them intended any more but to be revenged of supposed injuries, by burning or winning some frontier towns ; a,nd, after such revenges, they fell to truces ; and, in the end, with knots sometimes of intermarriages ; and in these kind of wars none of them did increase in greatness to be dan gerous to their enemies ; and in these kinds of wars our Kings of England had their interest for the most part to the expense indeed of men and money, but never to the loss of any small portion of any ground in England and Wales, nor otherwise, but by yielding to the King of Spain, by means of the marriage of Queen Mary, to make war with France, the realm lost that noble town and port of Calais, with great seignories and territories thereto belonging. " But now the case is altered. The King of Spain maketh these his mighty wars by the means only of his Indies, not purposely to burn a town in France or England, but to conquer all France, all England and 'Ireland ; and for proof hereof, first, for France, he hath invaded Britain [Bretagne'}, taken the fort, builded his fortresses, and carried his army; waged (taken into pay) a navy, and a great number of his subjects as rebels to France ; and there he keepeth a navy armed, to impeach all trade of merchandise from England to Gascoigne and Guienne, which he attempted to do this last vintage,; so as now he is become as a frontier enemy to all the west of England, as well as all the south parts, as Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. Yea, by means of his interest in St. Malos, a port full of shipping for the war, he is a dangerous neighbour to the Queen's isles of Jersey and Guernsey, ancient possessions of this crown, and never conquered in the greatest wars with France." His Lordship next descanted largely upon his [the King of Spain's] designs against France ; shewing, not only that he had, by corruption and bribery, pro cured a rebellion against the King, all the Princes ofthe blood, and great officers of the crown, but that he had, at great expense, levied and sent into France, armies of Walloons, Lorrainers, Italians, Spaniards, Almains, and Switzers; had caused his son-in-law, the Duke of Savoy, to invade France, by Provence and Dauphine, and the Duke of Lorrain, by Burgundy and Champaigne ; intending to be King of that realm, or to make his daughter the Queen, and to appoint her a husband to be as his vassal. And he adds, " He hath also the Pope so 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 413 addicted to him, as he that never was wont to send to any parts, only of Italy, but by bulls with lead and parchment, did now levy and send an army into France." . The speech proceeds to set forth the certain proofs of the King of Spain's fresh designs upon England, as his preparation of ships more suited to the narrow seas, as insisted upon in the Lord Keeper's speech ; and his tampering with the Hollanders, England's "faint and covetous neighbours," as his Lord ship called them, for a supply of naval stores, gathering from them, to use his own words, " with silver hooks, mariners, ships, cordage, and provisions." He next observes, " How he and the Pope ply themselves to win a party in England to be ready to second his invasion, I am sorry and loth to relate : and how far they have prevailed herein, to gain so great a multitude of the common people ; yea, of some that are of wealth and countenance, with vain hopes to attain to the places, honours, and livelihoods of such as are now known to be true natural Englishmen, and good subjects." He. next proceeds to notice what has been already said of the conspiracy in Scotland, to admit the Spanish forces and invade England, but concludes with assuring them of his good hopes, that the King of Scotland was aware of the stratagem, and would pursue the conspirators to their defeat and ruin. All that the Lord Treasurer advanced in the Upper House, was corroborated by his son, Sir Robert Cecil, in the Commons, on Monday the 26th day of February. He began his speech with observing, that he had been a Member of the House in five successive Parliaments, and, as his words imply, had never before attempted any thing farther, than to express his consent or dissent, by an aye or a no. He noticed the magnanimity, zeal, and judgment of the Queen, in abolishing, at her succession, the authority of Rome. Magnanimity, in under taking so great an enterprise;, zeal, in professing the same, not for show, but of sincerity ; judgment, in defending it and preventing all the designs of its ene mies. The rest of his speech was but an echo to that of his father, to which, however, we must advert once more, in order to call the reader's attention to a particular passage in it. Lord Burghley, it will have been seen, speaks of the realm, as " a centre of peace and happiness, where the circumference is in open calamity." This is a remarkable expression, and leads us to the reflection, that all the troubles of England seemed to flow in upon it from he circumference : and to be owing, not so much to any want of order or settled government at home, as to the disturbed state of other countries. There can be no possible 414 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. doubt of a design constantly on foot, from the first moment of Elizabeth's deter mination in favour of the Protestant religion, to procure the restoration of the Romish religion, though it should be to the overthrow of Elizabeth herself, and the consequent transfer of her crown to a Popish successor ; but this was all from the circumference — from France, Spain, Rome, Scotland, and the Low Countries, with the foreign Seminaries. So well did Elizabeth and her Catholic subjects agree at first, that she was judged, from her lenity, to be a Papist her self; and though there were intrigues going forward, to the purposes above- mentioned, they were little formidable till Mary came into the kingdom, the known and avowed competitor of Elizabeth. This may be said to have been a formidable pressure of the circumference upon the centre, for it was impossible, considering the situation in which Elizabeth had been placed by the Pope's bull, not to be suspicious of the near approach of such a competitor, backed, as she was known to be, by some of the most powerful votaries and obedient sons of the See of Rome. It must have been evident, that to keep things quiet in the centre, with so agitated a circumference of many nations, would require a degree of vigilance, more strict than before, and only to be justified by circumstances undoubtedly known to the Government. We may even add, that the disturb ances in the Church are to be referred to the circumference. The centre might have been quiet enough, under the established laws, had not the Geneva Plat form got such possession of some men's minds, as to be brought forward, not merely as a standard of Non-conformity, but in very rude contempt of all Epis copal authority, however supported by the laws. See Life of Whitgift, b. iv. ch. x. And though the Star-chamber and the High Commission were, indeed, such Courts, as we should not wish to be thought to defend, because we could cer tainly never wish to see them revived, yet we have not the smallest doubt, but that the principles of those with whom the State and the Church in those days had to contend, were to the full as intolerant, if, indeed, not much more so. But to return for the present to the question of aid. Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the room of Sir Walter Mildmay, dwelt largely, as his office led him to do, on her Majesty's great but necessary expenses, as well as on her care of the public revenue. " Her Majesty," he observed, " has not only been careful for the preservation of her own realm, but of her neighbours' also ; she hath not only defended her own subjects from being invaded, but also hath aided strangers which wanted money, with whom otherwise it would have gone ill by this time, both with 1593.] i MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 415 them and ourselves ; insomuch that the burden of four kingdoms hath rested upon her Majesty, which she hath maintained with her purse* — England, France, Ireland, and Scotland ; for how could the French King, at his first coming to the crown, have held out against those leaguers, had not her Majesty assisted him with her men and money, which had cost her Majesty about a hundred thousand pounds ; for it is well known that the French King had not been able to withstand the Duke of Parma's coming into France, had it not been for our Englishmen and money. As for the Low Countries, they have stood her Ma jesty in yearly, since she undertook the defence of them, one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ; all which her Majesty bestowed for the good of the realm, to free us- from war at home. " Besides, when her Majesty came to the crown, she found it four millions in debted ; her navy, when she came to view it, she found greatly decayed ; yet all this hath she discharged, and (thanks be to God) is nothing indebted ; and now she is able to match any Prince in Europe, which the Spaniards found when they came to invade us. Yea, she hath, with her ships, compassed the whole world, whereby this land is made famous throughout all places. She did find in her navy all iron pieces, but she has furnished it with artillery of brass, so that one of her ships is not a subject's, but a petty king's wealth. As for her own private expenses, they have been little in building ; she hath con sumed little or nothing in her pleasures ; as for her apparel, it is royal and princely, beseeming her callings but not sumptuous or excessive ; the charges of her bouse small, yea, never less in any King's time ; and shortly (by God's grace), she will free her subjects from that trouble which hath come by means of purveyors. The subsidies whieh are granted now-a-days to her Majesty, are less by half than they were in King Henry the Eighth's time ; and though her Majesty hath borrowed some money of her subjects besides her subsidies, yet she hath truly repaid and answered every one fully. "f * In Fuller's Holy State, speaking of, Lord Burghley, the following passage is much to the purpose : " The best demonstration of his (Lord Burghley's) care in stewarding her treasure was this, that the Queen vying gold and silver with the King of Spain, had money or credit, when the other had neither ; her Exchequer, though but a pond in comparison, holding water, when kk river, fed with a spring from the Indies, was drained dry." t This deserves to be noticed,, because her love of money has, led. many to suppose that she was quite careless how she obtained it, provided she could have it when wanted. In Mr. Pennant's History of London, there is a sneer upon her to this effect, which she did not deserve. Speaking 416 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. In a debate afterwards on the subsidy, another Member of the House, Sir William Moore, gave equal credit to her Majesty for her punctuality in dis charging debts. " Her Majesty," he said, " had more cause to have the subsidy than had Henry VIII. , Edward VI., or Queen Mary ; for Henry VIII., his wars continued not, though they were violent for the time. His wars were impulsive, and not defensive; he had the suppression of all the Abbeys, a matter of great riches unto him ; he had a benevolence, and then a subsidy, paid within three months. Edward VI. had chantries, and all the church plate for relief paid him. Queen Mary had a relief paid her, which she never repaid ; but her Majesty that now is, hath been a continual defence of her own realm and her neighbours' kingdoms, England, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries ; yet hath she repaid the loans, and had not such helps." Another member, Sir George Carey, speaking of the dangers impending and intended in the summer, asserted, as of his own knowledge, that the King of Spain had already sent seven thousand pistolets of gold into Scotland to' corrupt the Nobility ; and to the King, 20,000 crowns were lately dispatched out of France into Scotland for the levying of 3000, which the Scottish Lords had promised ;' and the King of Spain was to levy 30,000 more, and give them all pay. Sir Walter Raleigh dwelt largely on the known malice and great power of the King of Spain, and proposed the attacking him in Bretagne, and expelling1 his forces from that province. It will be seen from the above speech, what a desire was manifested by certain persons for an offensive war, which soon led to enterprises which we shall have occasion more particularly to notice. The Parliament, after considerable debating, and some hindrance upon a question of privileges between the Upper and Lower House, agreed to a treble subsidy, with six fifteenths and tenths, payable in four years; while the Clergy in Convocation taxed themselves at two entire subsidies. Another question for a long time occupied the attention of the Commons; namely, the Bill against 'Recusants; not Popish Recusants only, but others. of the Goldsmith's Company, he observes, " Queen Elizabeth presented this Company with a silver cup, out of which annual libations are made to her memory. She was particularly kind to the citizens, and borrowed money of them on all occasions. The goldsmiths must of course enjoy a distinguished place in her esteem." The History of London would not have been the worse had this passage been omitted. We are sorry to say we have met with many such in the work alluded to. 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 417 It would seem, that the Queen and the Archbishop, and the friends to uniformity,* were wearied out with the attempts of the Puritans to force the Genevan platform upon the country, in contempt of the Queen's prerogative, and the government of the Church by Bishops, according to law.t The term Recusants, as applied to this sect, was something beyond non-conformity ; it implied an absolute rejection of the government by Bishops, and consequently an opposition to the laws. In the very preamble of the Bill, therefore, the Recusants were generally designated as disloyal subjects, who were to be reduced to compliance by severe penalties, or sent out of the kingdom as dis turbers. The case was one of extreme difficulty. The Queen and the majority * As many writers, especially among the Presbyterians, have been willing to rank Lord Burghley amongst the decided friends of Puritanism, led thereto, no doubt, by his frequent communications with the party, and friendly interposition to save individuals from severe punishment, we cannot help observing, that he was looked up toby the other party as a strict maintainer of the laws, and a friend to the establishment ; in proof of which we shall copy the following letter of that great and good man Richard Hooker, who, at the beginning of this year, sent to the Lord Treasurer, for his inspection, the written copy of his admirable work on Ecclesiastical Polity ; the first four books of which were soon afterwards published. It should be remembered, that in the contest between Hooker and Travers, the latter had the support of Lord Burghley, on account of his -learning. The following is Hooker's letter : — " My duty in most humble manner remembered — So it is, my good Lord, that many times affection causeth those things to be done, which would rather be forborne, if men were wholly guided by judgment. Albeit, therefore, I must needs in reason condemn myself of over-great boldness, for thus presuming to offer to your Lordship's view my poor and slender labours ; yet, because that which moves me so to do, is a dutiful affection some way to manifest itself: and glad to take this present occasion, for want of other more worthy your Lordship's acceptation : I am in that behalf not out of hope, your Lordship's wisdom will the easier pardon my fault, the rather, because myself am persuaded, that my faultiness had been greater, if these writings con cerning the nobler pari of those laws under which we live, should not have craved with the first your Lordship's approbation, whose painful care to uphold all laws, and especially the ecclesiastical, hath by the space of so mg,ny years so apparently shewed itself, that if we, who enjoy the benefit thereof, did dissemble it, they whose malice doth most envy our good herein, would convince our unthankfulness. Wherefore, submitting both myself, and these my simple doings unto your Lordship's most wise judgment, I here humbly take my leave. — London, the xiii. March, 1592-3. "Your Lordship's most willingly at commandment, "Richard Hooker." f If there can be any doubt of this, the reader may consult the Xth chapter of the IVth book of Strype's Life of Whitgift, where may be seen that Primate's letter to Beza upon the subject, and a good account of Bancroft's Survey of the pretended Discipline, which came forth this year, See also his Annals of the Reformation; vol. iv. No. xciii. VOL. III. 3 H 418 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. of her Council were reformers; but the Puritans were ultra-reformists, so little satisfied with what had been done, in discarding popery, that they were for discarding much, that in the separation from the Church of Rome had not been discarded here by any authority. Which, we may ask, mjght be expected to yield? those who had the law on their side, or those who had the law against them? We should decidedly say the latter: not to any compromise against conscience on any point of religion strictly so called, but certainly on points of Church Government, Rites, and Ceremonies.* But there was no yielding on either side, and as the laws gave power, those who openly oppugned the laws, which the Puritans, in many glaring instances, certainly did, naturally laid themselves open to very sharp restraints, and we wish we could avoid saying, pains and penalties.. Many, no doubt, suffered' severely,")" and those who * See a most able paper, attributed to the Lord Keeper Puckering, on the tenets of the Puri tans, Strype's Annals, iv. No. xciv. See also Bacon's observations on the libel noticed under the preceding year; "It is true,'' says he, "that certain men, moved with an inconsiderate detesta tion of all ceremonies or orders which were in use in the time of the Roman religion, as if they were without difference, superstitious, or polluted, and led with an affectionate imitation of the government of some Protestant Churches in foreign states, have sought, by books and preaching, indiscreetly, and sometimes undutifully, to bring in an alteration in the external rites and policy of the Church." + In this year, Penry, the reputed Author of the work or works that passed under the name of Martin Marprelate, was taken and hung, for speaking and writing slanderous things of her Majesty ; and it was certainly melancholy to think, that he could not discover that he was slan dering her, or that he would be understood to do so, when he called her an enemy and opposer of the Gospel; adding, that those were but sycophants and flatterers that told her otherwise. But his case was a melancholy one, as the case of an infatuated young man, perfectly led away by the zealots of the day. — See his indictment, with expressions taken out of his printed books, Strype's Annals, iv. No. cxvi., from Lord Keeper Puckering's papers. The following paper also, No. cxvii., will shew, how much mistaken he must have been, in fancying that he could pass for a loyal subject, while he was continually railing in the foulest terms against, not only the whole ecclesiastical Government established by her Majesty, but against her own executive Government, in pretending that she had no right to restrain those who vilified the laws, and were for setting up a discipline of their own, in defiance of her authority. He addressed, just before his death, a very long protestation of his innocent intentions to the Lord Treasurer ; having, in a letter from prison, previously thus expressed his sense of that Lord's goodness to him : " Being likely to trouble your Lordship with no more letters, I do with thank fulness acknowledge your Honour's favour towards me, in that' you have been always open to receive the writings which I have presumed to send unto you from time to time." A pestilence having this year afflicted London, the followers attributed it to the cruel death to which he 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 419 did so, found an able advocate in this Parliament, in the person of Mr. James Morrice, attorney of the Court of Wards ;* who, on the 27th of February, " moved the House touching the hard courses of the Bishops and Ordinaries, and other Ecclesiastical Judges in their courts, used towards sundry learned and godly Ministers and Preachers, by way of inquisition, subscription, and binding absolution, contrary (he said) to the honour of God, the regality of her Majesty, the laws of the realm, and the liberty of the subject." We shall not attempt to dispute the purity of Mr. Morrice's motives, nor the displeasure he expresses at the severity of Courts, happily unknown in our days, much less, the epithets he bestows on the persons restrained, of " learned and godly ;" they might be so, and yet give much trouble to the ruling powers. The Queen, besides being a great upholder of her own Ecclesiastical Supremacy, was for referring all such questions, rather to the Ecclesiastical, than to the Lay As sembly of Legislators ; to the Convocation, in short, rather than to the Parlia ment; with which latter, on such and other occasions, she often, indeed, interfered to the fullest extent of her presumed, if not indeed generally acknowledged, pre- rogativcj" She therefore prohibited such discussions in the House of Commons, and Mr. Morrice himself was actually sent to prison forthe boldness of his attempt ; (Penry) was brought ; but Camden, to the Planet Saturn's passing through the uttermost parts of Cancer, and the beginning of Leo ! !— 477. Whether it were the unfortunate executions, or the unfriendly aspect and course of the planets, which so disordered the elements, certain it is, that the times seem to have been very bad, since Dr. King, in his lectures at York, 1593, 1594, introduces the following remark : " We may say, the course of nature is very much inverted. Our years are turned upside down : our summers are no summers : our harvests are no harvests : our seed times are no seed-times. For a great space of time, scant any day hath been seeu that it hath not rained upon us, and the nights are like the days." Nothing could be more applicable to the sea son in which this part of our work was written; the summers of 1828, 1829, corresponded in a remarkable manner with those described by Dr. King, to the great hurt, and almost ruin, of farmers. * Member for Colchester. See an account of him, Lodge's Illustrations of History, iii. 36. — In Aikin's History ofthe Court of Queen Elizabeth, he is called Chancellor ofthe Duchy. f To explain these terms, we must refer to Hume's third Appendix on the Government of England, &c, in which he argues, from the known popularity of Elizabeth, that though she acted upon the highest notions of the kingly authority* and prerogative, the people did not seem to be at all sensible, that she was infringing their established liberties. They were submissive upon principle, thereby encouraging the Sovereign to be more imperious than might otherwise have been the case. Sir Edward Coke used to call the Prerogative the " Great Monster," which few dared attack. 420 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. the House being thereby thrown into considerable confusion. Sir Robert Cecil made no scruple to say, " The man that offered this motion is learned and wise, and one whom I love ; yet a bill to be offered and enforced in this sort, being of such effect, I know not how to allow of it." In the mean while, he assured the House that her Majesty contemplated some redress; and indeed it ought to be observed, that she was not inattentive to the principal subject of Mr. Morrice's complaints, but gave the Bishops public and rather sharp warnings to look to the abuses of their Courts and Offices. A regular commission, indeed, was directed to the Archbishop, to institute formal inquiries to that effect, and Commissioners appointed accordingly ; [see Life of Whitgift, book iv. ch. xii.] so that Mr. Morrice's offence seems to have been, his having made his remon strances in a wrong place, and sought to accomplish by the Parliament, what the Queen judged to belong entirely to herself, and the spiritual rulers bf the Established Church. On the 1st of March, 1592-3, Mr. Morrice, being still under restraint, wrote a long letter to Lord Burghley, which may be seen in Lodge's Illustrations of History, vol. iii. p. 34, in which letter he complains greatly of the tyranny of the Clergy, of which we have before spoken. The beginning of Mr. Morrice's letter plainly shews, that in the midst of such warm proceedings, Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil were accounted the friends rather than the foes of those who were most rigorously dealt with. Mr. Morrice, indeed, was an Officer of his own Court of Wards. His letter runs thus : " Right Honourable, my very good Lord, " That I am no more hardly handled I impute, next unto God, to your honour able good- will and favour ; for although I am assured that the cause I took in hand is good and honest, yet I believe that besides your Lordship, and that honourable person your son, I have never an honest friend; but no marvel."* He does not appear to have been long under restraint, for in October of this year, he was recommended by Lord Essex to the Queen, for the office of Attor ney-general, but rejected, though without any denial of his talents and qualifica tions. The author of the Court of Elizabeth questions whether he ever reco vered his liberty. It would be painful for us to go further into the history of the severities com plained of at this time, as we could scarcely expect to account for them to the * The remainder of the letter may be seen in Strype, and Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, vol. ii. 334. 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 421 satisfaction of readers in general. It will always be though t by some, that both Papists and Puritans were hardly dealt with, and that the penalties enacted against recusants and non-conformists were very much too severe; but it deserves to be considered, that the weight of these punishments fell chiefly, if not entirely, on those who were attached to foreign principles, and abetted by those at a distance, who had really no right to dictate to the rulers of England; the Seminary Priests were certainly such, and their presence here, on that account, obnoxious even to those of their own religion, who saw into their purposes ; nor can there be any doubt but that the most zealous and busy among the Puritans, were stimulated and encouraged by the writings, if not the dis courses, of the anti-episcopalians of Switzerland and Scotland ; and, as Bancroft wrote in the course of this very year (in respect of foreigners interposing them selves in our English Church's affairs), " it was great presumption for any minis ters of any of the reformed Churches, to take upon them to censure or direct the practice of this Church of England, reformed by men of as much or more learning and ability than themselves;" — mentioning particularly Calvin and Beza; " under whose wings," as Strype says, " the new reformers (or rather ultra reformers) here did shroud themselves;" concerning Calvin he took notice, that when Knox and Whittingham sent to him from Frankfort the English Liturgy, put into Latin, to peruse, he gave his judgment of it in these words, that therein he saw many trifles, yet that might be borne with. Whereas it had been compiled and confirmed before by such men and such authority as Calvin ought to have reverenced. And although Beza thought this epistle of Calvin fit to be pub lished, yet he (Bancroft) found not one point of substance in it, to persuade a child. Beza was certainly the most forward of all the Swiss divines, in forcing the plat form upon other Churches and congregations, and in other countries ; and by far the least tolerant of Episcopal government ; but he had decidedly no right to interfere with England, and though an eminent man in his way, and in his own country, neither his aid nor his advice were really wanted in Englandj as Archbishop Whitgift, with as much civility and moderation as could be expected of him, considering all things, had occasion to remind him. We have dwelt rather largely upon this, because Rapin, who, for want of other more impartial historians, is still much relied upon (and indeed, often deservedly so), but who had certainly no tender regard either for monarchy, or episcopacy, does not seem to us to represent the case correctly. He throws the whole blame of intolerance on the Bishops and Clergy, forgetting that they 422 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. were actually contending for toleration in favour of themselves, having the law on their side; but neither the Papists nor the Puritans would acknowledge their authority; nothing but the Romish religion restored, or the platform allowed to take the place of the established liturgy and Church government, could serve to satisfy those who were opposed to the Bishops and Clergy : this, we think, is the truest state of the case. Rapin thinks it to have been an intolerable hard ship that they should be expected to repair to some Church weekly, in proof of conformity : truly we should think the same, if we did not happen to know that for ten years of the Queen's reign, the reformed liturgy was judged to have been rendered so inoffensive to the Romanists, that many attended the Churches without scruple ; and with regard to the Puritans, that that good and moderate Swiss Pastor Bullinger, had acknowledged that the Reformation under Edward VI., if restored, would satisfy him, and others around him, sufficiently ; the objections therefore to Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity were, generally speaking, efforts to overset the establishment. In a letter, indeed, addressed to Lord Burghley from the Clink, by one of the imprisoned pastors, Francis Johnson, he complains of being punished for refusing to have spiritual communion with the antichristian Prelacy and other Clergy abiding in the land ; and sues to have a conference, though ready to shed his Wood in the cause, "to the end that the truth being found out and made manifest; the false offices, callings, and works of the Prelacy and other Clergy of this land, might be quite abolished out of it, and their lordships and possessions converted to her Majesty's civil uses." Surely in these expressions we must discern an opposition to the laws, and a very intolerant spirit towards those who differed in opinion from himself; and yet the writer, in a paper inclosed in the same letter, argued that he " fell not under the danger of the statute of 35th Elizabeth, made to retain the Queen's subjects in their due obedience." We cannot forbear copying one passage from this paper, to shew upon what foreign principles these persons were proceeding, and how reasonable it was, either to send them out ofthe country to have com munion with a ministry of their own choice, or restrain them from reviling and disturbing the established ministry, if they continued here. " 5. If this statute," Mr. Johnson argues, " of 35 Elizabeth, be against such writings and books as reprove the ecclesiastical ministry and government of Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Deans, &c, then the writing and printing of the public confes sions of the reformed Churches of Helvetia, Tigur, Geneva, Shaffhouse, &c, wherein they write, that as touching Arch-prelates, Metropolitans, Arch-priests, 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 423 Deans, Sub-deans, and all that rabble, they pass not a rush ; and the public confessions of the reformed French and Belgic Churches, which write, that the Church ought to be governed by that regiment or discipline which Christ hath appointed ; to wit, so that there be in it, Pastors, Elders, and Deacons." This is certainly not only begging the question, but denying to England all right to judge for herself; placing her in point of learning, judgment, and decision, below all the foreign reformed Churches that chose to follow Calvin and Beza, learned men certainly, and able theologians, but not such as to entitle them to any universal or general submission. — -To speak for ourselves, we should still say, on some points, quite the contrary. It was in this year, July 25, N. S. that Henry IV. of France, to use the apt but sneering expression of Voltaire, " by going to Mass made Philip II. lose the crown of France in a quarter of an hour."* The sneer of the freethinking histo rian shews the mischief done to true religion by the act of Henry. It was im possible after this, to trust principles against policy. It was a fall on the part of this otherwise amiable, interesting, and brave Monarch, and cannot be regarded in any other light. To say that it was against his will, as he did say, only makes the matter worse, and "after long delay," (another of his excuses,) proves his want of heroic fortitude in so good a cause ; and, therefore, we cannot help, in this instance, agreeing with Rapin, and coming to the same conclusion ; namely, that " having put his conscience in balance with his crown, he had given it for the latter." Elizabeth had sent an especial envoy to divert him from his pur poses, but in vain ; and when Morlant, Henry's Embassador in London, had re ported to her the King's excuses as delivered to her envoy (Thomas Wilks), she lost no time in writing to the apostate king the following strong letter : — " It is hardly possible to express the extreme grief and dissatisfaction which has seized me upon Morlant' s representation of things. Good God ! what a miserable world do we live in ! Could I ever have thought, Sir, that any secular consideration could have prevailed with you to discard a just sense of God and " " Yesterday fifteen days the King sung his first Mass at St. Dennis, accompanied with a multitude of nobility : after which was a solemn procession and invocation to the Virgin, Apostles, and Saints, to pray for him and them — whereunto I can say no more but with Dr. Morison, Vosvi- deritis—aad so coupling these and the matters of his country together, I let you to judge of the blazing star's effects." [The comet, which appeared first on the 10th of July 1593, and continued till the 21st of August.] Standen's Letter to Bacon, Birch i. 1 16. , See the account, given of his conversion, ib* p. 119. 424 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. his fear ? Or can you ever reasonably expect that Providence will grant this change of yours a happy issue? Or could you entertain a jealousy that the Di vine Being, who had so long supported and preserved you, would fail and aban don you at last ? It is, believe me, a dangerous experiment, to do evil that good may come; but I hope you may be yet recovered to a better inclination, even the spirit of a sound mind. In the mean time, I shall not cease to recommend your case to God in my daily prayers, and earnestly to beseech him that Esau's hands may not -pollute the blessings and birth-right of Jacob. The promise you make of a sacred and friendly alliance, I conceive myself to have deserved, and even earned at a vast expense ; but I had not mattered that, had you still kept yourself the son of the same father. From henceforth I cannot look upon my self as your sister, in respect to our common Father, for I must and shall always pay a much greater regard to nature than choice, in that relation. As I may appeal to God, whom I beseech to recover you into the path of a safer and sounder judgment. " Your sister after the old-fashioned way, as for the new, I have nothing to do with it. " Elizabeth."* Camden gives a fuller account than Rapin of the causes assigned by Henry for his conversion ; but certainly not more to his credit, except that he com plains greatly of being deserted by many of his own party, and that the leaguers took advantage of his being so forsaken, t Having spoken of this letter of the Queen to the King of France, we must not omit to notice a much longer one which she had occasion to send about the same time to the Emperor of Germany, answering slanderous reports of her ; especially that she should stir up the Turk to have war with Christian princes. It may be seen in the 4th vol. of Strype's Annals, No. c, as drawn up and composed by the Lord Treasurer, and written by his secretary, Mr. Maynard,^; * The original, in French, is in the library of the Duke of Brunswick, among the Mazarin Papers. There is a copy also 1n the British Museum. Titus C. vii. 61. Mr. Turner's reference is, by mistake, printed 161. t Camden thinks Elizabeth was seriously hurt by Henry's defection, and that, to ease her mind, she had recourse to the books of Boetius de Consolatione, which she at this time translated. Before the year was out, reports reached England that Henry was so much in the hands of the Papists, and by them so tyrannized and watched, that he could do nothing but think without them. Birch, i. 131. X The father of the first Lord Maynard. Mr. Maynard was knighted by Queen Elizabeth ; he served in three Parliaments, in the twenty-eighth, thirtieth, and in the thirty-ninth years of the 1593.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 425 with an addition in his own hand at the conclusion. It is much too long to transcribe, nor indeed is it necessary, as it corresponds in most points with his Lordship's speech in the House of Lords, but especially as to the wars and pro jects of" the King of Spain ; — not like other wars, to take towns, but to ravage kingdoms, and for the total subversion of countries. It gives a good turn to the troubles of Western Europe, by pointing out to the Emperor, that the Turk (who had just proclaimed a war against the former) would not have dared to do so, had there been peace among the Western Christian princes, which was hindered by the ambition of Spain. What was written in the Lord Treasurer's own hand, was to this effect : " And to shew our Christian disposition to hinder this intended dangerous war, now proceeding from the Turk, whereof cannot but great and inestimable damage happen to Christendom, * which way soever Almighty God shall give the victory ; we have in the zeal that we bear to peace (which is the chiefest blessing of God here on earth), presumed to write and send to the Grand Seignior our letters and message also, to yield to a surcease of war, and there by some colloquy betwixt your Ambassadors to meet on your frontiers, to restore both your states to your former peace." The whole letter is extremely worth reading by those who would wish to know the exact state of Europe, in the year of which we are treating, and may serve to shew how little Lord Burghley's faculties were impaired at this advanced period of his life : similar explanations were also sent to the Czar or Great Duke of Muscovy. It was in the course of this year that Mr. Standen arrived in England from Spain, of whom we have made mention before ; he appears to have stood high in the estimation of Lord Essex and the two Bacons, but Lady Bacon was suspicious of him, as she wrote to her son Anthony, June 26, 1593, " Be not," she said, " too frank with that Papist, such have seducing spirits to snare the godly, be not too open." Probably these suspicions were communicated to the Cecils, which drove Standen into the party attached to Essex, who took him up with a Queen's reign, for the Borough of St. Alban's, and afterwards, in the forty-third of her reign, and subsequent to the death of Lord Burghley, for the County of Essex. * If what we find related in Birch's Memoirs be true, Lord Burghley might well be appre hensive for the fate of Christendom. It is there stated, as a thing credited, that the Turk, having already conquered an extent of 260 miles in Hungary, Croatia, and Carinthia, was making great preparations of war in Thrace, and deliberating, after the example of Attila, to pass Aquileia, ravage Italy, and lay siege to Rome itself. A Diet was actually held to take these threats into consideration, and the Venetians began to fortify the passages through their country. VOL. III. 3 I 426 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1593. high hand, Birch i. 124, and by appearing more forward and zealous than the Lord Treasurer, drew upon the latter charges of coldness and reserve towards his near relatives, which, considering the party into which they had thrown themselves, does not appear to have been so great as might have been the case ; for Essex, in truth, though a much more amiable man, was, in his opposition to the Cecils, but the follower and representative of his father-in-law Leicester* In the course of this year there was a competition for the Attorney-General's place; Lord Burghley appears to have been for the removal of Coke, the Solicitor-General, to that post, and to have his nephew Bacon made Solicitor ; but Essex was, in his zeal for his young friend, for advancing Bacon before them all, and with a freedom in his communications with the Queen that is very extraordinary, but which strongly marks his character. -\ — See Birch, i. 125, 126. The whole history of this negotiation is so circumstantially related by the author just cited, that we need not dwell upon it, except, perhaps, to say that both Essex and Bacon, in their private correspondence, speak with a degree of contempt of their opponents that does them no credit ; and as to Bacon, while * He seems so much to have taken his place in one respect, as to have put things upon a footing of two distinct Governments. Leicester wrote and received dispatches, and gathered information from all quarters jointly with Lord Burghley, but Essex and the Bacons seem to have put themselves in the way of collecting information from all parts, to curry favour with the Queen, rather than at all to assist the Cecils; indeed quite the contrary. In the case of Bodley, Dr. Birch says, he (Essex) took all occasions to divert his attention from the Lord Treasurer, and fix it on himself, i.206. Essex, besides, seemed to put himself in thewayof receiving complaints from those, who thought themselves discountenanced by the Cecils, whatever good reason the latter might have, for not actually advancing or trusting those of his party, before others ; nor was he very nice in his choice of persons, from whom he thought he could derive information, as was the case with that strange man Antonio Perez, the discarded Minister of Philip, who came into England for the mere purpose of betraying his late master's secrets, and whom, when on that account the Queen and ihe Lord Treasurer would not even admit him to their presence, Essex took into his own house, looking upon him as an oracle in regard to the affairs of Spain, and introducing him upon the same footing to the two Bacons, to the great alarm of their mother, who in a letter to the elder of her sons, calls him " a proud, profane, costly fellow ; a wretch who never loved his brother but for his own credit, living upon him." The French ministers were as much disgusted with him as the Cecils were, and yet Essex would have pretended that the latter only hated him out of malice to himself. t About this time an office in Ireland becoming vacant, which appears to have been a sort of sinecure, Lord Essex tried all he could to get it for his friend Sir Francis Allen, though the Lord Treasurer, as Mr. Standen himself wrote, " according to his laudable custom, having an eye to her Majesty's profit, procureth to extinguish the same.'' 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 427 professing all possible disinterestedness in his letters to the Queen, it is extremely evident, that he was bent upon not giving way to Coke, but resolved, if he could, to pass over his head into the Attorney's place,* let who would oppose it. In November of this year Lord Burghley had a very severe attack of illness, and among those who went to inquire after his health was Mr. Standen, who wrote word of it to his friend Mr. Bacon, telling him that the servant would not admit him, " and even," says he, " as I was going down stairs, was at my back, the Queen, who, unknown to me, had been visiting my Lord ; so I staid among the rest to see her Majesty pass. A little after I met with Mr. W. Cooke, who told me, that true it was that my Lord had somewhat rested the night past, but that this morning his Lordship had a very rigorous fit of pain and dangerous." On the 17th of November, he reports his Lordship's amendment, so as to be able " to sit up on his pallet, and write, and sign letters." In the fifth book of the first volume of Mr. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, there are many letters from Lord Burghley to his son, Sir Robert Cecil, written in the course of this, and the few following years of his Lordship's life, upon various subjects appertaining to the affairs both of the Church and State. These letters it is sufficient to refer to, being so easily to be consulted, if occasions should arise, and which certainly, without manifest occasion, need not be repeated in a work already so voluminous, especially as some extracts from them will appear in their proper places. The first thing we have to notice at the commencement of the year 1594, though perhaps it should rather be referred to an earlier period,'!" is " A memorial of sundry necessary things to be put in execution for the service of the realm now toward the spring of the year, upon the formidable preparation of the Spaniard," drawn up by Lord Burghley. It may be seen, among Strype's Records, Annals * See his letter to Essex, Birch i. 129, where he speaks of Coke under the nickname of the Huddler. We cannot' help remarking the curious circumstance of our being able to peruse this letter at this time, both in MS. and print, when it was not without the following postscript, written at the least, more than two hundred and thirty years ago. " I pray, Sir, let not my jargon privilege my letter from burning, because it is not such but the light sheweth through ;" but what is more extraordinary, it is stated that Lord Essex did burn it. It was nevertheless found among Mr. Anthony Bacon's letters in Lambeth library. — See Bacon's Works, London, 1819, vol. vi. f The date is January 8, 1593. This would, according to the mode of reckoning in those days, be the very beginning of the year 1594. It is, in fact, immaterial to which year it belongs; but is another instance of the confusion arising from the inattention shewn to what Dr. Birch calls the difference of old and new style, and the double commencement of the year. 428 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. iv. No. ciii. It provides " for the reviewing, completing, and training the land forces throughout the kingdom, horse and foot ; for the examination, arming, and equipping all her Majesty's own ships ; providing soldiers and mariners to serve in them, and for the taking up as many merchants' and subjects' ships, as might be wanting to accompany the royal fleets ; for ascertaining the state of the ordnance and armoury ; and for having an eye upon ill-contented persons." At whatever time it was drawn up, it plainly shews to whom the nation looked for all preparations and means of defence, in times of danger. From Camden's account, the King of Scotland's situation was, at this time, a very peculiar one ; while the Presbyterian Ministers there were trying to impress Elizabeth with a notion that James was more favourable to the Papists than to themselves, and thereby exciting apprehensions that he might countenance the intended invasion of the Spaniards, the English Catholics, who had been strenuous assertors of his mother's title to the Crown of England, persuaded of his steadiness in the Protestant cause, began to think of substituting some English Papist in his room, as successor, at least, to the throne, if Elizabeth should die ; or if she could be otherwise disposed of, which we fear was constantly contemplated,* as immediate possessor of the throne ; but as they could not speedily agree upon a proper person of their own persuasion, they cast their eyes upon the Earl of Essex, pretending to trace his title from Thomas of Woodstock, son of Edward III. Others were for the Infanta of Spain, principally those who had fled their country, and were in foreign parts, as Persons, Cardinal Allen, Sir Francis Englefield, Sec. insisting upon it, that none but a Roman Catholic should be King, how near soever he might be by * Ofthe designs on foot this year for the destruction of Elizabeth, an account may be seen in Camden and other authors. The Spaniards were accused of having bribed Lopez, a Portuguese Jew (the Queen's domestic physician), and others of the same nation;to destroy both the Queen and Antonio Perez, of whom more hereafter, and for which they were tried, condemned, and executed ; as were also some others, convicted of being sent upon the same errand, with money to bear their charges, from the fugitives in the Low Countries, upon the full belief, as Camden shews, that Princes excommunicated by the Pope, were to be rooted out. In Strype's Annals (Nos. cxviii— exxxii.) may be seen the accounts given in to the government of dangerous and suspicious persons. It would appear, from Birch's Memoirs, that the Cecils at first thought favourably of Lopez, but that Essex was the person most active in bringing him to justice, which probably influenced Bacon, who has left, among his political tracts, what is called " A true report ofthe detestable treason intended by Don Roderigo Lopez, a physician attending upon the person of the Queen's Majesty." It seems to have been a most intricate affair. 1594] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 429 blood ; and that the ancient laws concerning hereditary succession should be altered. Camden does not appear to think there was any serious design of setting Essex on the throne ; and as to the Infanta, it being exactly in his way to examine her genealogical claims, he seems to have found such flaws and interruptions in the line of her descent, as very much to reduce her pretensions, had they been judged worthy of any serious consideration.* While these projects, however, were in hand, an heir was born to James, Henry, afterwards Prince of Wales, to whom, as some earnest possibly of his family claims, Elizabeth stood godmother ;-j" and, as the King and herself soon came to a better understanding, upon the subject of the dangers to which the Protestant interests were still exposed, and his constancy seemed to be proof against the attempts of the Spaniards, and the encouragement they had received from the Earls of Huntley, Angus, and Errol, the apprehensions from that quarter were greatly lessened. The King, from Camden's account, seems to have conducted himself with great firmness on this occasion, both with regard to England and the rebel Lords. But to judge of the grounds of the Queen's distrust of him at this time, we must refer to those authors who have had occasion to enter more largely into the subject. It is very certain that the following caution occurs in a confidential letter from the Dean of Durham to the Lord Treasurer, April 9, 1594 : " I pray God the King's protestations be not over-well believed ; who is a deeper dis sembler, by all men's judgments that know him best, than is thought possible for his years." We should not mention this,J but that, in most histories, all dissi mulation would seem to have centered in the English court ; whereas, we are entirely persuaded, that against no court in Europe could more dissimulation have been practised, than against the court of England during the reign of Elizabeth ; from the effects of which nothing could have preserved her, but the extreme vigilance and counterplots (if we may so say) of a set of ministers * Persons, however, had particularly discussed her claim in the seventh chapter of his Confer ence on the Succession, 1594, already cited ; a work directed, as the title-page sets forth, to the Earl of Essex. f See a long account of the baptismin Nichols' Progresses; iii. 353, with the following pompous title: " A true accompt of the most triumphant and royal accomplishment of the baptism of the most excellent, most high and mighty Prince Henrs Frederick, by the grace of God, Prince of Scotland, afterwards Prince of Wales, the 30th day of August, 1594." See also Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, 44, 45. % How contrary, however, his works were judged to be to his words, at Court, may be seen in a letter from Mr. Standen to Mr. Bacon, in Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. 139. 430 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. apparently sent into the world to preserve her and her kingdoms ;* to preserve, in short, the Protestant Church, and the freedom and independence, not of England only, but of Great Britain, as (happily) it soon after came to be called ! Though that refers to an event beyond the limits of our own undertaking. Lord Burghley appears, by many existing documents, to have continued as much as ever the referee of all parties ;f but it would be an endless task to attempt to enumerate the many applications made to him, and the great variety of cases submitted to his judgment. The catalogues of our public repositories alone, would be sufficient to prove what we say, if any of our readers should be disposed to take the trouble of examining merely the heads of their contents. To have been reviled and abused by the decided enemies of his Queen and country, can only redound to his praise ; but it is impossible not to perceive, in the innumerable addresses presented to him, an almost invariable disposition to give him credit for a degree of equity and impartiality and friendly feelings towards persons of very opposite characters and parties, and for mitigating, at least, the troubles and distresses of those whom he could not altogether relieve. J * Fuller, in his Holy State, observes, speaking of these very times, " And, therefore, statesmen must sometimes use crooked shoes to fit curled feet. The honest politician would soon be beg gared, if, receiving black money from cheators, he pays them in good silver, and not in their own coins back again." In writing of the sixteenth century, we are obliged to cite such passages. Honest Fuller himself confesses, that he could look no longer on those whirlpools of State, lest his head should turn giddy. t The writer of the MS. among the Sloane volumes, in the British Museum, printed by Mr. Ellis (Orig. Letters, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 190.), observes of Lord Burghley, that, "in matters of religion, he dissented from the Papist and the Puritan, disliking the superstition of the one, and the singularity of the other ; holding the mid-way between both, as a mean between the extremes." As this is the testimony of one who lived in his Lordship's house, and knew him well, it cannot reasonably be contested, especially as every thing we have been able to collect, concern ing his principles, appears to confirm it. X In the Memoirs of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, 1738, the following long passage occurs, upon this head. To omit it would be wrong, in such a work as the present. " The change made in religion in the beginning of the Queen's reign, had so incensed the head and all the members ofthe Romish Church, that 'they left nothing unattempted to embroil the State, either at home or abroad ; supposing that, if by any means, a revolution in Government could be brought about, a revolution in Church affairs would also happen. Sir William Cecil defeated all their endeavours for eleven years together, disappointed their plots, and hindered them from acquiring any force capable of supporting a rebellion. This he did, first by carefully attend ing to the state of the Church ; which, as it owed its embellishment, so was it also indebted for its ornaments, and for its preservation, to the care of this Statesman. He it was who preserved 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 431 In the fourth volume of Strype's Annals, we find, under the present year, several papers and letters abounding in such acknowledgments ; in No. cxxxvii., pur porting to be the humble petition of a most unfortunate Lady, the Lady Margaret Nevyl (daughter of the attainted Earl of Westmoreland), to the Queen's Majesty, when she lay under the sentence of death, destitute of money and all family connexions, we find the following passage : "At the assizes, last summer, being destitute of help, it pleased the good Bishop of Duresme, at the motion of my Lord Treasurer and the Judges, to take me into his house ; where he only hath and doth yet wholly relieve [me], and by his godly and sound earnest instructions he hath, I most humbly praise God, fully reformed me in religion." And how much that worthy Prelate, by his own letters to the Lord Treasurer, Episcopacy ; who maintained the Bishops in the enjoyment of those rights and revenues, which are so highly useful, as well as honourable, to the form of religion subsisting among us. He it was, to whom the Clergy of all degrees addressed themselves, when they were vexed with enemies, either of the Romish or any other persuasion. He it was, who, in the midst of all his various and weighty business, turned a gracious ear to all complaints, of a private, as well as a public nature ; gave his utmost assistance in redressing them, and where that could not be done, afforded them the comfort of kind and friendly letters ; of which their intrinsic excellence hath caused numbers to be preserved, which now confer honour on his memory, which living, he out of modesty declined." There is more to the purpose, but this is sufficient to confirm what we have ourselves been often compelled to speak of generally, rather than particularly, from the immense amount of still-existing memorials. In the course of the year of which we are treating, being anxious to have the see of York, then vacant, properly filled, he wrote as follows to his son, Sir Robert: " Although I know her Majesty has care of all her Church offices, to have them bestowed upon persons worthy the vocations, both as well for learning and godly life, as for virtue ; yet, I pray you shew to her Majesty, what my Lord of Huntingdon writeth for the supply of the Archbishopric of York; whereof, the last incumbent was a person of great sufficiency, and as well approved in that charge as any Prelate in England. It is likely many will gape after it. And I wish the choice were rather in her Majesty's own judgment, than in the ambitious desire of them which seek Qua; sua sunt, non qua; Dei et ecclesia;, .5 Oct. 1594. " Your loving Father, ' " W. Burghley." From two letters, in Strype's Appendix, vol. iv. addressed to Lord Burghley, by Hutton (removed from Durham to York), it would appear that the choice of the new Archbishop was con formable to the will and inclination both of the Queen and his Lordship, Nos. cxxxiii. cxxxiv. His predecessor was Archbishop Peirse, who died at the age of seventy-one. His friend and chaplain, Dr. King, preached the sermon at his funeral, the commendatory passages of which may be seen in Strype, vol. iv. p. 282. No. cxxxix. 432 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. sought to help that miserable Lady, will be seen from other records in the same collection.* It was in the course of this year also, that Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, had occasion to address a letter to the Lord Trea surer, some passages of which it would be an injustice to both parties not to introduce into this memoir. His Grace thus expresses himself in a letter, dated, May 27, 1594. " May it please your good Lordship, — As often as I look back unto the course of my life, which draws towards an end, and call to my remembrance the mani fold crosses and grievous troubles which, in my place and vocation, I have endured, so often must I confess, that next after the goodness of God, and her Majesty's great grace, your honourable patronage and protection of me hath been the only means of my deliverance. Wherefore, I most humbly crave your Lordship's pardon, to license me (being destitute of all other means to make any requital for the least of your favours which you have poured upon me), in all my letters, to acknowledge my most bounden duty and thankfulness ; which is the only thing I can present unto you." The Archbishop's case seemed to be a very delicate one; some malicious persons had so prejudiced the Queen against him, that she would neither receive his answers to their accusations, nor put him upon his trial. f In this dilemma, he seems to have been upon the brink of making things worse, by taking an imprudent step, had not Lord Burghley prevented him, whose advice seems to have been well taken. " For remedy," says his Grace, " I have no other refuge, but still to fly to your honourable protection : humbly beseeching your Lordship, that as it has pleased God, in these our days, to make you even the father of all good counsel, and the most ancient Counsellor that ever served Prince, that you will not suffer a poor servitor of my conscience, after so many hazards of my life in her Majesty's service [he had been thirty- three years a Privy Counsellor in * A sister of this Lady, four years afterwards, fell into a like trouble, as appears from a letter addressed to the Lord Treasurer, by the Bishop of Durham, May, 27, 1598, [Annals, iv. No. cclv.] This Lady, Lady Catherine Gray, a widow, does not seem to have borne so good a character as her sister; however, the Bishop seems, by his letter, to have looked for lenient treatment, though he hints, that the pardon granted to the Lady Margaret, on her conversion, had been abused by her subsequent relapse. t The case, however, had been referred to special commissioners, whose decision he requests his Lordship to quicken, being ready to transmit to them answers to every point objected. 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 433 that turbulent and disturbed kingdom], to be without cause thus unworthily disgraced." The conclusion of his Grace's letter is very striking. " My hope is, that during your Lordship's days (which God long continue), I shall not want a friend to inform her Majesty of my long and painful services, and of my zealous affec tion and desire to do unto her Highness any acceptable service. But woe is me, that I now perceive, to my great discomfort, your Lordship doth begin to com plain of sickness and want of strength in body, to protect such as always hereto fore have depended upon you. My good Lord, I have no other to rely upon, being unknown to all the rest of their Lordships. Hitherto, under God and her Ma jesty, I never had dependency upon any but the Earl of Sussex and your Lord ship ; neither do I mean to seek a new friend so long as you do live, most humbly beseeching your Lordship to be a mean for me to your son, Sir Robert Cecil, that under you I may depend upon his honourable favour in my just and honest causes ; and I promise your Lordship hereby, upon my honesty and credit, I will never seek his favour in any bad or dishonest cause. I commend your Lordship, by my most earnest prayers, to God's best graces. Ad. Dublin Canc." Having spoken of one Irish Prelate, we are tempted to copy a letter of a very different nature, from one of that bench, to Lord Burghley, but of nearly the same date. It was from the Bishop of Limerick, who seems to have been rather put out of his way, by being called upon to reside on his see. It was written from York. " My most honourable good Lord, " I beseech your Honour, that I may have license (seeing I am to live in Ireland), to transport with me fifty ewes, eight rams, six mares, twenty cows, and two bulls, for mine own breed; and ten muskets and other needful furniture, for my own safety. And that my household stuff, which I carry, with my books, chests, trunks, and other my carriages, may be transported with myself or with my servants, without any let or trouble to me or my servants, by searchers or cus tomers, or other officers, to be offered unto us. I most humbly take my leave, evermore praying for your Honour's healthful and happy preservation, " Your Honour's, &c. Jo. Limric^ns." If we had not learned to be suspicious of dates, we should say that, in the summer of 1593, Lord Burghley, as Chancellor of Cambridge, received an ad dress from the Heads of Houses, " touching restraint of plays and shows there." Strype has printed such a paper in the fourth volume of his annals, No. VOL. III. 3 K 434 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. civ. as bearing date July 17, 1593 ; and yet in Mr. Ellis's interesting publica tion of Original Letters, First Series, vol. iii. letter ccxxx., we find so soon afterwards as January 28, 1594, an application to his Lordship, signed by the Head and Fellows of Trinity College, to borrow the robes from the Tower of London, to be worn in a tragedy about to be performed there. It is possible, however, that the interval between these two addresses might be eighteen, rather than six months. Whatever the case might be, Mr. Ellis will be found to have supplied some valuable information upon the subject of dramatic representations in the Universities, during this reign and the following, and to which we should wish to refer the reader. The restraints solicited, we would observe, seem to have regarded wandering players, the companies of particular Noblemen, &c. — See Ellis. This may help to reconcile the papers above. In the obituary of this year, we have to notice the deaths of many conspicuous persons ; and in the first place, of Cardinal Allen,* an inveterate foe to the Pro testant Church of England, and led thereby to countenance measures, so adverse to the freedom and independence of his native country, and to the personal security and regal authority of his proper Sovereign, as to render it impossible to regard him in any other light than that of a justly proscribed traitor. The opprobrious names -heaped upon Elizabeth in his celebrated Admonition, some specimens of which Mr. Turner has been careful to throw into a note, vol. ii. p. 504, are quite sufficient to evince the malignity of his feelings towards her. He appears to have been of a respectable family, learned, and of fascinating manners ; but notoriously at the head of all the foreign associations to restore Popery, and as a preliminary, to remove Elizabeth from the throne of her an cestors. That he directly encouraged assassins to murder her, we do not believe ; but that such persons were to be found in the seminaries over which he pre sided, and that some of their designs were known to him, without his making any honourable disclosure of their wicked purposes, we do believe ; and that he was a willing instrument in the hands of the Pope, and the King of Spain, to reduce England to her pristine obedience to the See of Rome, there can, we think, be no doubt. Camden has given a very fair account of him, and for further information the reader may consult the Biographia Britannica, particu larly note i., wherein may be seen the title, &c. of the book he put forth in 1583, in answer to Lord Burghley's Execution of Justice, &c. * Alan, or Allyn ; Biog. Brit. 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 435 Two very eminent Prelates, both of them well known to the Lord Treasurer, also departed this life, in the year 1594 ; we speak of Aylmer, Bishop of London, and Cooper, Bishop of Winchester. The former died, full of years, on the 3d of June 1594, and having had the good fortune to be one of those whose particular history, that indefatigable ecclesiastical antiquary and biographer, Strype, chose to relate at length, we can do no more than refer to his valuable collections, illus trative of his life, Oxford edit. 1821. We ought, however, at the same time to add, that being one of those Prelates who exerted himself much against the Puritans, his character does not stand so clear with that party ; who will not allow him to have been, what Mr. Strype calls him, an " humble Bishop ;" nor do we think that he was so in the main; but he certainly had great provocations given him by the Puritans, who regarded him as a deserter of their cause. To be able to draw a line between those who have praised, and those who have censured this learned Prelate, too much in both instances, the reader would do well to look to the account given of him in the Biographia Britannica. Cooper, Bishop of Winchester, died on the 29th of April of this year, a very learned man, of whom we have before had to speak, as having dedicated his great work, the Thesaurus, to the Lords Leicester and Burghley, Chancellors of the two Univer sities. The following lines so shortly, and yet so circumstantially, relate his story, that we cannot forbear transcribing them. " Thesaurus, Chronicon, Cooperi csetera scripta Dum remanent, Celebris Cooperi fama manebit, Oxoniensis erat, Glocestrensisque Decanus. Continuus primee Vicecancellarius Urbis. Turn Lincolnensis fit prsesul : et inde movetur Wintoniam, denos ubi sedit Episcopus annos. Summe doctus erat, summeque benignus egenis, Et summo studio divina oracula pandit. Terra tegit corpus, sed spiritus est super astra. Ccelestes animse ccelesti pace fruentur." Camden has recorded the deaths of several other persons, chiefly of Nobility ; as ofthe Earl of Derby, the Lord Dacres, the Lords Euers, Chandos, and Mont- joy. And to the same author, we may refer for annual accounts of the state of Ireland, which do not regularly fall within the scope of this memoir, but are well worthy attention. Before we conclude the history of this year, we cannot avoid noticing the fol lowing instance of Essex's forwardness to accomplish his own purposes at Court, 436 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. in defiance of all opposition ; particularly of the Cecils, whose counter-preten sions we shall find well and reasonably insisted upon by Sir Robert. Mr. Standen, in a letter to Mr. Bacon, speaking of an examination of Lopez before Lord Essex and Sir Robert Cecil, says, " These two returning back in a coach together, Sir, Robert began of himself, saying, ' My Lord, the Queen has resolved, ere five days pass, without any further delay, to make an Attorney- General. I pray your Lordship to let me know whom you will favour.' The Earl answered, ' That he wondered that Sir Robert should ask him that question, seeing it could not be unknown to him, that resolutely against all whomsoever, he stood for Francis Bacon.' ' Good Lord,' replied Sir Robert, ' I wonder ybur Lordship should go about to spend your strength in so unlikely or impossible a matter,' desiring his Lordship to allege to him but one only precedent of so raw a youth to that place of such moment. The Earl very cunningly working upon him said, ' That for the Attorneyship, which was but an ordinary office other than the Prince's favour, he could produce no pattern, because he had not made any search for that purpose ; but that a younger than Francis Bacon, of less learning, and of no greater experience, was sueing and striving with all force for an office of far greater importance, greater charge, and greater weight, than the Attorneyship ;' such an one, the Earl said, he could name to him. Sir Robert's answer was, 'That he well knew his Lordship meant him; and that admitting that both his years and experience were small, yet weighing the school which he studied in, and the great wisdom and learning of his schoolmaster, and the pains and observation he daily passed in that school, he thought his forces and wisdom to be sufficient to sway that machine ; alleging withal, his father's deserts in these his long and painful travels, of so long an administration, to merit a mark of gratitude from her Majesty in the person of his son, and with regard to the affair of Mr. Francis Bacon, he desired his Lordship to consider of it. ' If at least,' said he, ' your Lordship had spoken of the Solicitorship, that might have been of easier digestion tQ her Majesty.' The Earl upon this answered, ' Digest me no digestions ; for the Attorneyship for Francis is that I must have ; and in that will I spend all my power, might, authority, and amity ; and with tooth and nail defend and procure the same for him against whomsoever ; and that whoso ever getteth this office, out of my hands, for any other, before he have it, it shall cost him the coming by. And this be you assured of, Sir Robert, for now I fully declare myself; and for your own part, Sir Robert, I think strange both of my Lord Treasurer and you, that can have the mind to seek the preference of a 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 437 stranger before so near a kinsman, for if you weigh in a balance the parts every Way of his competitor and him, only excepting five poor years of admitting to a house of Court before Francis, you shall find in all other respects whatsoever, no comparison between them.' " All this might be very friendly towards Francis Bacon, but a more dis gustingly rude,* arbitrary, and presumptuous interposition, we never, we think; read of: not to speak of the unmannerly depreciation of Sir Robert's own talents and pretensions, we may surely be allowed to ask who, upon this occasion, was Francis Bacon's competitor? No less than Edward Coke afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England ; and, to adopt the leading article of his life in the Biographia Britannica, " one of the most eminent lawyers this kingdom ever produced !" And, after all, what might have been said of the Cecils, by the friends and favourers of Coke, had they, as peremptorily and arbitrarily as Essex would have done, preferred their own kinsman, to such a known lawyer as his opponent, being all the while willing to have Bacon made Solicitor-Geneval. Coke, besides, was ten years older than Bacon, and actually Speaker of the House of Commons at the time ; and, while this youno- and impetuous Lord was thus deciding upon men's abilities, and taunting Sir Robert Cecil for his presumption in aspiring to be Secretary of State, Bacon was, in pursuit of his own designs, lavishing praises upon the very uncle and cousin whom Essex was depreciating all he could, and representing to be maliciously bent against their relative,! a relative certainly of unbounded fame in after agesj * He scarcely seems to have had the common politeness of a gentleman in his treatment ofthe Cecils, calling Sir Robert, slightingly, Monsieur le Bossu, on account of some defect in his figure, and encouraging Standen to make quite as great a mockery ofthe Lord Treasurer, even in his letters to Mr. Bacon. It is needless to repeat the rude terms in which he often wrote of the Lord Treasurer, who certainly had no reason to like such a man as Standen, independent of other causes, much less to submit to have him forced upon him, by his back friends. See what his Lordship had to say for himself upon this, Birch, i. 189. f We ought not to omit citing Bacon's own words, in his observations upon the libel of Persons against Lord Burghley, page 70, " He [the libeller] saith, he hath brought in his second son, Sir Robert Cecil, to be of the Council, who hath neither wit nor experience ; which speech is as notorious an untruth as is in all his libel : for, it is confessed by all men that know the gentleman, that he hath one of the rarest and most excellent wits of England, with a singular delivery and application ofthe same, whether it be to use a continued speech, or to negociate, or to couch in writing, or to make report, or discreetly to consider ofthe circumstances, and aptly to draw things to a point. And all this joined with a very good nature, and a great respect to all men, as is daily more and more revealed ; and, for his experience, it is easy to think that his training and 438 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. but not so well known then. Though, to do Essex credit, he probably might have perceived the fecundity of his genius, and the depth of his learning, as a young man ; and, indeed, about this time, he first began greatly to distinguish himself in Westminster Hall* of which the Lord Treasurer was not backward to take great notice, as well as others. And as soon as the Solicitor-General's place became really vacant, by Sir Thomas Egerton's removal to the Rolls, and Coke's succeeding him as Attorney- General, Sir Robert Cecil wrote to the former in terms of the greatest kindness concerning his cousin, Francis Bacon, notwithstanding the rude manner in which he had been treated by Essex, and expressing his great desire to have him preferred.! Moreover, in the letter Essex himself wrote to Francis Bacon the very next day, he tells him, that in urging his suit to the Queen, she observed to him, that none thought Bacon fit for the place but himself and the Lord Treasurer.^. It was well for those who had Essex for a friend at court ; but he seems to have been an ungenerous foe. Thus, in this very letter, and upon the competition going forward, he tells Bacon, that, in his conference with the Queen, " because he found that Tanfield had been most propounded to her, he did most disable him."§ Now Tanfield was a man, by all accounts, of great reputation otherwise, and one who rose to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. As the issue of this unpleasant contest between Essex and the Cecils belongs to another reign, and may be said to relate more to Sir Robert Cecil than his venerable father, we notice the beginnings of it, only to shew how hardly it fell out for the peace and quietness of the Lord Treasurer in his latter days, and how helps hath made it already such, as many, that have served long prentishood for it, have not obtained the like. So, as if that be true, Qui beneficium digno dat, omnes obligat, not his father only, but the State is bound unto her Majesty, for the choice and employment of so sufficient and worthy a gentleman." * It is curious that the Queen seems to have distrusted the sufficiency of his knowledge of law, though quite aware of his genSral learning and abilities. " She did acknowledge," says Essex, in one of his letters at this time, to Bacon, " you had a great wit, and an excellent gift of speech, and much other good learning ; but in law she rather thought you could make show to the utmost of your knowledge, than that you were deep." f See Birch, i. 165. t From the first letter in the Cabala, we may see how ready Bacon himself was to acknowledge .Lord Burghley's "favourable endeavours" to procure him the Solicitor-Generalship. See also Strype's Annals, iv. No. cxlvii. | In the disabling of his competitors, Bacon encouraged him all he could. — Birch, i. 168. 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 439 hastily it commenced; how impetuous Essex was, and how determined he seemed to be, to resent for his friends, as well as himself, every obstruction thrown in the way of his own plans and designs ; and how unreasonable it must have been to expect that the Cecils could look with a very favourable eye on a person so bent upon engrossing every thing to himself, of controlling the Queen, and forcing his own complaining and dissatisfied friends and partizans on the court. Even Lady Bacon herself, who occasionally doubted about the good will of the Cecils, when the post of Solicitor-General was given to another, observed of Essex, in a letter to Anthony Bacon, that, though he shewed great affection, he marred all by violent courses. " I am heartily sorry," she added, " to hear how he [the Earl] sweareth and gameth unreasonably." Her Lady ship, it is well known, was of a Puritanical cast, and very anxious, much to her credit, to preserve her sons, as well from the contagion of ill example in a moral point of view, as from Popery, of which she was always very suspicious. With these apprehensions constantly disturbing her, she wrote a very curious letter to her eldest son, Mr. Anthony Bacon, about this time, which deserves to be transcribed, considering the persons to whom it relates. We copy, of course, from Birch : " The same day Lady Bacon sent a letter to her son Anthony, that she had the day before written to Lady Walsingham, and by her to the Countess of Essex, her daughter, who took it well, and thanked her, the Countess being then very near her travelling time. Lady Bacon warns him to beware of the Lord Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton, and Lord Privy Seal, and then an intimate friend of the Earl of Essex. ' He is,' says she, ' a dan gerous intelligencing man ; no doubt a subtle Papist inwardly, and lieth in wait. Peradventure he hath some close working with 2rav8tv and the ^aviapBs, and ToisToec. Be not too open. He will .betray you to divers, and to your Awrt PouffffeX among others. The Duke had been alive but by his practising, and still soliciting him to the Duke's ruin, and the EapXs of Apw&A. Avoid his familiarity, as you love the truth and yourself; a very instrument ofthe Spanish Papists ; for he, pretending courtesy, worketh mischief perilously. I have long known him, and observed him ; his workings have been stark naught. Procul esto.'" In the postscript, written in Greek, she expresses her great concern on account of the Earl of Essex's unchaste manner of life* * She wrote again to her son not long afterwards, to dissuade him from accepting an offer made by Essex, of quitting his own house, and becoming an inmate of Essex's house. Her objections were reasonable and good, but not available. — Birch, i. 278. 44Q MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1594. We may be able, from this letter alone, to judge what a strange party it was, that, through the means of the Earl of Essex, had been excited to oppose and perplex the Cecils ; and, indeed, to overthrow and disgrace them, had it been possible, but which did not prove to be the case. The Queen knew their worth too well, so that, as Fuller writes of the Lord Treasurer particularly, " God measured his outward happiness not by an ordinary standard : how many great undertakers in state, set in a cloud, whereas he shone to the last. Herein much is to be ascribed to the Queen's constancy, who, to confute the observation of feminine fickleness, where her favour did light, it did lodge."" It was not till late in the following year that the office of Solicitor-General was assigned to Mr. Serjeant Fleming, to the great mortification and disap pointment of Essex, who felt so much for his friend, as to insist upon giving him an estate in the way of compensation, which consisted of Twickenham Park and garden, and which Bacon afterwards sold for 1800/., much below its reputed value.* We must not conclude this year without noticing the marriage of the Lady Elizabeth Vere, the eldest of Lord Burghley's grand-daughters, by Anne, Countess of Oxford, with William, Earl of Derby, who succeeded to that title by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand, about the time of his marriage. This marriage may be said to have connected Lord Burghley's family a second time, and more directly, indeed, with the illustrious house of Suffolk, the mother of William, Earl of Derby, being the Lady Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, by the Lady Eleanor, one of the coheirs of Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, married to Mary, the sister of Henry VIII., Dowager Queen of France. It was not long after this marriage that Lord Burghley had a curious case to decide between the Earl, his son-in-law, and the widow and daughters of the deceased Earl, relative to the Lordship of the Isle of Man ; upon which occasion he decided, and rightly enough, as it appeared, in favour ofthe Crown and of the family of Earl, Ferdinand, which so pleased the Queen, that, through Sir Robert Cecil, she sent him a million, of thanks. Upon which Lord Burghley wrote to his son, to desire him to tell the Queen that she was over liberal, " to give a million of thanks where she oweth none;" adding, " and, to write seriously, I have done nothing in this cause but what my conscience did pre scribe me ; and if the Earl should think otherwise of me, as I doubt he may be » Birch i. 272, 273. 1594.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 441 thereto led, yet he shall understand that I gave my child to him, but not my conscience nor my honour, which no blood shall ever gain of me. " W. Burghley." The decision, in fact, was — first, in favour of the Crown, through some flaw in the original grant of the Lordship to the Stanley family ; but Earl William, in consequence of the decision, was obliged to pay a large sum of money to the heiresses of his brother, to quit their claims ; and afterwards obtained, if we rightly understand the case, a fresh grant from the Crown. The three heiresses of Earl Ferdinand, with whom Earl William had to contend, had married the Lord Chandos, the Earl of Bridgewater, and the Earl of Huntingdon. VOL. III. 3t CHAP. XIX. 1595, 1596, 1597. Thirty-seventh year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, commenced November 17, 1594, Thirty-eighth --- - November 17, 1595. Thirty-ninth November 17, 1596. State of Scotland — Henry IV. of France — The Queen's speech on the loss of Cambray — England threatened with another Spanish Armada — Sir Thomas Bodley sent to demand pecuniary assistance from the States — Lord Burghley's memorial for the defence of weak parts of the kingdom — Dr. Bilson's letter to Lord Burghley — Sir Henry Savile's letter to Lady Russel — Theological dispute between Whitaker, Baret, and Baro — The Lambeth Articles — Doctrines of Baro — Letters from Lord Burghley to Sir Robert Cecil — Sur render of Calais — An English fleet and army sent there — Paper written by an English fugitive at Douay — Sir Francis Vere made Governor of Brill — Sir Robert Cecil appointed Secretary — Sir Thomas Bodley — Fresh treaty between England and France — Henry IV. invested with the order of St. George — Memorials and prayer of thanksgiving drawn up by Lord Burghley — Deaths pf Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Keeper Puckering, Fletcher, Bishop of London, Lord Huntingdon, and Sir Francis Knollys — Account of Sir Francis — Epitaphs on Lord Chancellor Audley and Bishop Fletchei — Account, from a Papistical book, of Lord Hunsdon's death — Lord Burghley — Sir Robert Cecil — Lord Essex — The Spanish fleets dispersed by storms — The expedition, under Lord Essex, to the Azores, put an end to by violent tempests — The Queen and the Polish and Danish Ambas sadors — The Lord Admiral Howard created Earl of Nottingham, and Lord Essex made Earl Marshal — The association of the Steel-yard Merchants done away with — Hugh Broughton — Curious controversy between him and Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, referred to Lord Burghley — Letter from Loft us, Archbishop of Dublin, to Lord Burghley — The Queen visits Lord Burghley at Wimbledon. Camden begins his account of this year, with noticing the determination of the King of Scots, to prepare himself against the Spaniards, to restrain the deadly feuds of the Scots amongst themselves, and all hostilities against England. In speaking also of the execution of certain persons for high treason, in com passing and contriving the death of the Queen, he makes the following remarks. 1595.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 443 " The villany, indeed, of the fugitives, in relation to such wicked attempts, was notorious about this time : while some encouraged murderers to commit parri cide upon the Queen, others, greedy to get their money, offered themselves to commit the fact, and being once hired to do it, presently revealed the same ; and others, false and treacherous amongst themselves, put one another forward to their destruction, before they were aware of it, entrapped one another with cunning devices, and many times charged one another with notorious falsities." For the details of all these proceedings, the histories themselves must be con sulted, as well as the State Trials ; but Camden seems to be borne out by facts, in all he says, of the murderous plots and conspiracies on foot, the double-deal ings of the parties implicated, and of the extreme prevarication in almost every instance, of the witnesses examined. However needful it was, at this time, for England and France to unite in resisting the ambitious views of Spain, it was not easy to accomplish any very cordial co-operation on the part of Henry and Elizabeth ; the former having notoriously made use of the Queen's forces and money, without sufficient atten tion to her own immediate danger from the Spaniards, and often, indeed, with out fulfilling the engagements he had entered into, in procuring her help. He was now become, however, greatly in want of succour, to save Cambray from the Spaniards, and did not hesitate to demand fresh aid, with such dispatch and haste, as was quite impossible to be performed. In the meanwhile, Cambray was lost, and a Minister from Henry, arriving soon after, to press more strongly upon the Queen the urgent necessity of more auxiliary troops being speedily sent over, and rather indelicately imputing the loss of Cambray to the Queen's neglect of the King's former applications, Elizabeth was provoked to answer him extempore, in a speech, the substance of which is related by Camden, and which will be found to do her Majesty great credit. Great as Henry IV. was, in many respects, it was almost impossible for England, at this time, to regard him with much respect ; his submission to the See of Rome was alone sufficient to degrade him in the eyes of so high-spirited a Prin cess as Elizabeth. The Pope prescribed the degrading conditions (for so we must call them), on which he was to be admitted into the bosom of the Catholic Church, which were, that he should abjure all heresies, introduce the Catholic faith even into the principality of Beame, and nominate Catholic Magistrates there ; publish and enforce the decrees of the Council of Trent throughout all France ; bestow all the magistracies and dignities of the realm on Catholics 444 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1595. alone, promote the expulsion of heretics, and write letters to all the Princes of Christendom, to give notice of his conversion, abjuration of Protestantism, and profession of the Catholic faith ! In the meanwhile, England was threatened with another Spanish Armada, stronger and better appointed than was the case with the former ; and yet she was required to continue her aids to France and to the States. In such an emergency, it can be no wonder that Lord Burghley, in virtue of his high office, should take into consideration the practicability of recovering some money from the States. A large sum was owing to Sir Horatio Pallavicini, for which the Queen paid great interest, and it was judged expedient to apply to the States, to disburden her, at least, of this heavy charge. Sir Thomas Bodley was com missioned to lay this before the States, who pleaded their inability, with some questions as to the obligation they were under to answer such demands at that time. Camden has given a pretty full account of these negotiations, and more may be seen in Birch's Memoirs. It ended in the States agreeing to relieve her Majesty from many heavy expenses, and the Queen abated somewhat *of her demands. They had contributed, it seems, to the pecuniary wants of the French King, which induced suspicions, that they might place themselves under the protection of France, and desert England. It was while this negotiation was pending, that Essex endeavoured to draw Sir Thomas Bodley away from the Cecils, to his own party, and in the ensuing year we shall find him bringing him forward, as a direct competitor of Sir Robert Cecil, for the post of Secretary. Lord Burghley continued his watchfulness for the security and defence of the nation with the same diligence and minute attention to circumstances as ever. In the autumn of 1 595, upon the apprehension of an invasion from Spain,* he drew up to this effect, a memorial for defence of dangerous places of the land, in * From a letter addressed by Lord Burghley to his son, Sir Robert Cecil, Oct. 3,1595, we learn that, at this time, the King of Spain caused a book to be published in support of his claim to the crown of England, and that of his daughter, the Infanta of Spain, in prejudice of the King of Scots' pretensions ; and that, in support of such claims, and to the disturbance of England, he was sending large quantities of gunpowder to Ireland : of which Lord Burghley was exceedingly anxious to have the King of Scots duly apprised. See Peck's Desiderata Curiosa. Lord Burghley, at this time, seems to have been grievously afflicted with the gout. The letter concludes, From my house in the Strand, subsigned with my seal, for want of a right hand ; and, in a short time after wards, being anxious to attend the Council, notwithstanding his infirmities, he writes to his son, 1595.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 445 several counties, which is very curious, and may be seen in the common reposi tory of such things, Strype's Annals, vol. iv. No. clvi. Among the list of Lieu- tenants, to whom the Queen's letters were to be addressed for this service, his own name appears three times, as the Queen's Lieutenant, for the several counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Lincoln. We have a remarkable instance, among the records of this year, of the Lord Treasurer's influence, notwithstanding the great, and we cannot help adding; spiteful and vexatious opposition of Essex. Bilson, Warden of Winchester, a very learned and zealous friend to the establishment, was anxious to obtain the vacant bishopric of Worcester. The Archbishop had previously, " being besieged," as it is said, "by some about him," recommended Dr. James. Dr. Bilson, therefore, wrote to the Lord Treasurer, in these terms : " But my facility being surprised by others, I am forced to appeal to your honourable and indifferent wisdom, and favour, since her Majesty useth the advice of more than one in these matters ; and am willing, by your Lordship's censure, to stand or fall, as never meaning to molest friends for any thing that your grave and worthy judgment shall think unfit." Dr. Bilson obtained the bishopric, and was not long after advanced to Winchester. We cannot help copying next, a letter from the very celebrated Sir Henry Savile to Lady Russel (sister of the deceased Lady Burghley), to ask for her interest with the Treasurer, for the Provostship of Eton. " Right Honourable and my very good Lady, — As I was bold with your Ladyship at the beginning of my suit, so I must be importunate now at the con clusion. My fortune always hath been hitherto, to receive still my despatch by my Lord Treasurer's only means ; so was it when I obtained Merton College, in Oxford, and so must it be now for Eton. I know his Lordship's favourable opinion of the matter to her Majesty. His honourable promise of favour, made to me at Theobalds, gave me courage to begin, and her Majesty's direct nomi nation at Nonsuch, which I saw in his Lordship's own hand, gave me hope to continue. It remaineth, but that his Lordship would vouchsafe to perfect his own work with a prosperous and happy conclusion. " To which purpose, I pray you, good Madam, &c. &c. Hen. Savile." " And, if by your speech with her Majesty, she will not mislike to have so bold a person to lodge in her house, I will come as I am (in body not half a man, but in mind passable), to the muster of the rest of my good Lords, her Majesties Counsellors, and my good friends." " Upon your answer I will make no unnecessary delay, by God's permission." 446 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1595. But he was not merely sought to, thus to advance the promotion of learned and eminent persons, but to help those out of trouble, who were promoted. Fletcher, newly translated from the See of Worcester to London, and in a great measure, by Lord Burghley's means, happening to incur the Queen's displeasure, by marrying immediately afterwards "a fine lady and widow," having been married before, she forbade him her presence, and actually caused him to be suspended by the Archbishop. Upon this he applied to the Lord Treasurer, and in less than six months was restored. In returning his thanks for which^ after expressing his great satisfaction on the recovery of her Majesty's favour, he observes, " to hear of it also as drawn on and wrought by your L6rdship's honourable intercession, and so kind mediation, has "greatly added to my joy and alacrity. I do, therefore, give your Lordship my entirest thanks, beseeching your Lordship to be persuaded, that among so many to whom your Lordship hath been magnus tvepys-rris, there shall be none found whose duty and devotion shall henceforth exceed mine, who with hand and heart giveth your Lordship this testimony of love and observance. — July, 1595." But, perhaps, in the whole course of the Lord Treasurer's long life, he had never a more difficult task upon his hands touching ecclesiastical matters, than in the course of this year; for this was the period when the celebrated Lambeth Articles were framed, and when the venerable Lord Treasurer, as well as his Royal Mistress, seemed to have been called upon to decide, as Theologians, upon certain most awful points of Christian Doctrine ; particularly upon the great question of partial or universal redemption ; the grounds of the 'predes- tinarian controversy ; an endless controversy, to all appearance, which, happen ing to be stirred afresh at this time in the University of Cambridge, was particu larly referred to the judgment of the Chancellor, amidst all his other cares, heightened by sickness and vexation. It so happened, that the two Professors of Divinity there, Whitaker of St. John's, and Baro, a learned foreigner, the Margaret Professor,* differed upon these very important points, which could not fail to produce great contrarieties of opinion in that celebrated seat of learning. * He was a French Protestant, who, being obliged to quit his country, took refuge in England; where he was kindly and charitably entertained by Lord Burghley, who admitted him to his table, and provided for him afterwards, particularly in procuring for him the Margaret Professorship. A very short account of him is given in Bayle's celebrated Dictionary, art. Baron (Pierre), torn. i. 459. 1595.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 447 There is so excellent and circumstantial an account of the course of proceed ings at Cambridge, to be found in Strype's Life of Whitgift, beginning book iv. chapter xiv., that we must confine ourselves as much as possible to the part Lord Burghley appears to have taken upon the occasion ; for he was not only referred to as Chancellor, but actually against the authority assumed by the Archbishop, to interfere, which brought the matter to a more delicate issue ; the Chancellor, however, proceeded with his usual impartiality, listening to both parties, securing a proper and deferential respect towards the Primate, and not concealing his own opinions, or rather doubts, upon some of the most curious points brought under discussion. It must be observed, that the most angry party was undoubt edly that of the rigid predestinarians, with Whitaker at their head ; the great offenders, in their eyes — Baret, a Fellow of Gonvil and Caius College, and Baro. Of all that passed in Baret's case this year, the Archbishop drew up, probably for his own satisfaction and vindication, a short recapitulation under twelve heads, which Strype has printed in his second volume of his Life of that learned Prelate. The second offender was Baro, who had excited, if possible, a still greater commotion in the University, from the distinguished situation he held there, as Lady Margaret's Professor, and from his opinions being so directly at variance with those of his brother Professor in divinity, Whitaker. During the visits of the latter to Lambeth, in carrying on the process against Baretj he had prevailed on the Archbishop to have a set of articles drawn up, to which the scholars in the University should be enjoined to conform. These articles were nine in number, and appear to have been presented to the Lord Treasurer, among whose MSS. Strype found them, by Whitaker himself. They bear date Nov. 20 1595. It has been a puzzling undertaking to account for the Archbishop's assent to these articles, which seem to have been fabricated at Cambridge ; and to amount to a decisive sentence against both Baret and Professor Baro, for they are entirely Calvinistical, and therefore, not conformable to the ground-work of the English Reformation, which certainly, as far as we are at all capable of comparing and judging, was much more in agreement with the German con fessions of faith.* Heylin has done what he could to account for the Arch bishop's publication and sanction of such a set of articles ; but his strongest plea is, merely bis desire of restoring peace at Cambridge. Satisfaction he could certainly not generally restore by such decisions. Nobody appears to have been sooner offended with them than the Queen, and we cannot think she was a bad judge ; though the Archbishop seems $0 have intimated to the Uni- * See Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lecture Sermons, 1805. 448 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1595. versify, that of the truth of the propositions she had no doubt; that she was only unwilling to have such abstruse doctrines made a subject for disputation ; to prevent which, indeed, she caused Sir Robert Cecil to write to the Archbishop to stay all further proceedings, " being a matter tender and dangerous to all weak minds ;" which she might well say.* Dr. Whitaker, as we have shewn, had no sooner obtained a copy of the Lambeth Articles, than he hastened to present them in person to the Lord Burghley, soon after which, the following conversation is reported to have taken place. " Lord Burghley told the learned Professor, that he had read some part of what he had presented him with ; that as for his sermon, ad clerum (which he had also presented him with), it con tained mysteries too high for his understanding ; and concerning the proposition of predestination, he seemed to mislike of it, and reasoned some while with Whitaker about those heads ; and drew, by a similitude, a reason from an earthly prince, inferring thereby that they charged God with cruelty, and might cause men to be desperate in their wickedness. To which that learned man thought fit to say but little, considering that Lord's present weakness, by reason of want of health ; but only, that nothing was in that behalf set down, but what was in the article set out by public authority ; and so seeing these matters were too deep for him (as he said), he bade him and the other Doctor farewell : and gave them thanks for making him acquainted with these things." We are glad to have to record so much of this venerable Lord's opinion, upon the articles in question ; because Baro having undertaken to argue against the Lambeth Articles, upon the 17th and 21st ofthe Church Articles, it is not amiss to know, that the sagacity of Lord Burghley had in reality detected the weak point of Calvin's doctrine ; and thereby given no small support to the contrary doctrine of Baro ; who has the credit, at all events, of having advanced his opi nions (as a foreigner), f against his angry, and we must say, overbearing oppo nents, with great modesty and moderation. Baro had been sent to Cambridge by Lord Burghley, and now it seems, the Archbishop apprehended, that he was supported in his opposition to the Lambeth Articles by that great Minister ; and indeed it must be admitted, that the latter did greatly object to the proceedings * It was alleged, that they were only drawn up as exhibiting the private judgment of those concerned in them, and not as laws or decrees ; but as it was enjoined that nothing should be publicly taught to the contrary, and that they should be received at Cambridge as a standard of belief, it was difficult to regard them otherwise than in the light of a decree at least. f He had read the Divinity Lecture at Cambridge for above twenty-four years, and never been called in question till now. ]595.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 449 against Baro ; and told the Heads of the University, very plainly, that he could not conceive their accusations against him in the way they took' them. For our own parts, we must confess, that the opinions of Baro objected to, by his oppo nents, compared with the Lambeth Articles, exhibit so much more satisfactory and beautiful a system of Christianity, and of the attributes of the Deity, that if it were proposed to us, to subscribe to which we most approved, we should decidedly determine on the side of Baro. We could almost say, if it could be brought to such an alternative, against the Bible ; for if the Calvinistic inter pretations of the Bible be brought against the a, priori considerations of the attributes of the Deity, we should not hesitate to say, we had rather be Deists, than Calvinistic believers. We shall now therefore exhibit to the reader, the opposite doctrines of the Lambeth Articles, and those of Baro, beginning with the former : — " I. Deus ab aeterno praedestinavit quosdam ad vitam, et quosdam ad mortem reprobavit. " i. e. God from all eternity predestinated some to life, and some to be con demned or abandoned to death.* " II. Causa movens aut efficient prsedestinationis ad Vitam non est praevisio fidei, aut perseverantiae, aut bonorum operum, aut ullius rei, quae insit in per- sonis prsedestinatis, sed sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei. " i.e. The moving or efficient cause of predestination to life, is no foreknow ledge of the faith, perseverance, good works, or any other thing, appertaining to the persons predestinated, but the sole will and pleasure of the Deity. " III. Praedestinatorum praefinitus et certus numerus est, qui nee augeri nee minui potest. " i. e. The number of the predestinated is predetermined and certain, and can neither be increased nor diminished. " IV. Qui non sunt praedestinati ad salutem necessario propter peccata sua damnabuntur. " i.-e. Those who are not predestinated to salvation, will, on account of their sins, be necessarily damned. "V. Vera, viva, justificans fides, et Spiritus Dei sanctificans, non extinguitur, non excidit, non evanescit in electis, aut finaliter aut totaliter. • It is difficult to express these things clearly, ad mortem reprobavit, means, in truth, that those who are not predestinated to "life, are in the condition of reprobates through the sin of Adam, and therefore doomed to hell, and all its perpetuity of torments ! VOL. III. 3 M 450 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1595. "i. e. A true, lively, justifying faith, and the sanctifying Spirit of God, is not quenched, does not fail, or be lost in the elect finally or totally. "VI. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide justificante prseditus, certus est ple- rophoria, fidei, de remissione peccatorum suorum, et salute sempiterna sua per Christum. "i. e. A truly faithful man, that is, one possessed of justifying faith, is certain, through the abundance, of his faith, of the remission of his sins, and of his eternal salvation through Christ. "VII. Gratia salutaris non tribuitur, non communicatur, non conceditur universis hominibus, qua servari possint si voluerint. " i. e. A saving grace is not granted, communicated, or vouchsafed to all men, so as they can be saved, if they desire it. "VIII. Nemo potest venire ad Christum, nisi datum ei fuerit, et nisi Pater eum traxerit. Et omnes homines non trahuntur a, Patre, ut veniant ad Filium. " i. e. No man can come to Christ, unless it be given to him, or unless the Father draw him, and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son. " IX. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate unius cujusque hbminis servari. " i. e. It is not in the will or power of any man to be saved." Such were the famous Lambeth Articles, afterwards attempted to be amal gamated with the Church Articles, as "the nine assertions orthodoxal."* Let us now compare the opinions of Baro, as denounced by the Heads of the University, as perfectly false doctrine. " I. Docuit, Deum omnes et singulos absoluta voluntate ad vitam aeternam creasse. Ratio. Creavit omnes ad suam imaginem. Ergo ad beatam vitam. Ac proinde neminem rejicit a. salute, nisi ob peccatum superveniens. ui. e. He taught, that God by a free and absolute will created all men and singular, to eternal life. , The reason. He created all men after his own image. Therefore to the enjoyment of a happy life. Therefore he excludes no man from salvation, but in consequence of supervenient transgressions. "II. Voluntatem Dei duplicem esse, viz. antecedentem, et consequentem. Antecedente quidem voluntate, Deum neminem rejicisse, alias improbasset opus suum. Ad hoc illustrandum adhibuit similitudinem Regis, Patris, Agricolae. * Laurence's Bampton Lectures, Notes to Sermon I. 1595.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 451 Rex leges fert ad civium commodum. Pater non gignit filium ad patibulum, aut ut exhaeredet. Agricola non serit arborem, ut eradicet. " i. e. That the will of God is two-fold, viz. antecedent and consequent. By his will antecedent, God rejected no man, had it been otherwise, he would have traversed his own work. In illustration of which, he adduced the examples of a King, a Father, and an Husbandman. A King enacts no laws but for the good of his people. A Father begets a son, not to bring him to the gallows or disinherit him. An Husbandman does not plant trees merely to pull them up again by the root. "III. Christum mortuum esse pro omnibus et singulis: ut omnes et singuli servient se in Christo remedium habere; juxta illud, Christus venit ad servan- dum quod perierat. Omnes autem et singuli perierant in Adamo : ergo, &c. Nam remedium aeque late patere atque morbum ; et Deum non esse 7rpo- ffwiroXjjirmv. " i. e. That Christ died for all and singular ; that all and singular might know that in Christ they had a remedy [for sin], according to that which is written, Christ came to save that which was lost ; but all and singular were lost in Adam ; therefore, &c. For the remedy was to extend as far as the dis ease ; and that God was no respecter of persons. " IV. Promissiones Dei ad vitam universales esse ; et aeque spectare ad Cainam atque Abelem, Esauum atque Jacobum, Judam atque Petrum. Et Cainum non magis a Deo fuisse rejectum quam Abelem ; ante quam se exclu- serat. Homines se excludere a. caslo, non Deum : Juxta illud, ' Perditio tua, ex te, Israel.' " i. e. That God's promises of life [eternal] are universal, and had respect as much to Cain as to Abel, to Esau as to Jacob, to Judas as to Peter ; and Cain was no more rejected by God than Abel, until he excluded himself; that men exclude themselves from Heaven, not God ; according to what is said, ' O Israel ! thou hast destroyed thyself. — Hosea, xiii. 9. " These were the doctrines that gave offence at Cambridge at this time, and were the occasion of finally driving the Professor from that University; though he retained many friends there to the last, and had he chosen to solicit a renewal of his appointment in 1596,* it is thought, that the Lambeth Articles had so strengthened his party against the Elect, that he would undoubtedly have been * The Margaret Professor undergoes a re-election every two years. 452 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1595. re-chosen, especially as Lord Burghley had of his own authority as Chancellor, discountenanced the proceedings against him, with no slight intimation, that he judged his propositions to be consistent with the truth.* But for further particulars, we must refer the reader to Strype's Life of Whit gift, with the several papers in the^Appendix; and to the article Baro, in the Biographia Britannica. The case is the more applicable to our purpose, as having apparently led to the discovery of some of Lord Burghley's private opi nions upon these heads, which have been called in question by other writers. Baro particularly submitted not only his case, but his opinions, to the judgment of his noble patron, in a long Latin letter, to be seen in the Appendix to the Life of Whitgift, b. iv. No. xxviii. ; and in avowing the doctrines for which he had been accused to him, he says, " Quae tamen ego ingenue (ut me coram tanto, tamque illustri, docto et religioso viro loquentem decet) profiteor me dixisse; et vera adhuc, immo, nostrae, hoc est Christianae, religionis fundamentum esse, credo ;"f and he only implores his interposition, upon a hope that it would appear to the Chancellor that he had delivered the .truth. " Et si verum dixisse comperiar, quod spero, obstare velis, quo minus hie quicquam gravius contra me statuit Dom. Procancellarius." Towards the close of this year, the Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge Lord Burghley's own College, had occasion to apply to him, as Chancellor, to obtain permission to proceed to the election of a Master withouf interruption from the Court, upon which occasion his Lordship wrote to his son, now become his representative at Court, to the. following effect: — " To my very loving son, Sir Robert Cecil, Knight, of her Majesty's Privy Council, December 7, 1595. " The bearers hereof are two of the Senior Fellows of St. John's College in Cambridge, who brought me the letter included (signed by twenty-three of the company), which you may read, and thereby the cause of their writing to me, as being the Chancellor of the University, may appear very reasonable and just, which is, to suffer and to help the College, . according to their statutes, to have liberty to make a free choice of a Master, without being impeached (as the sta- * See some short sentences of his letter to the Heads of Colleges. — Strype's Life of Whitgift, vol. ii. 303. t He professes chiefly to have written against Piscator, who denied that Christ had died suffi ciently for all, and whose writings he knew to be in the hands of many of the students in the University. 159/>-3 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 453 tutes confirmed by her Majesty do warrant), of any inhibition by any superior power. This their manner of election has been always used, and is most con venient for concord, and to avoid factions. "My request is, that if you shall find any intention in her Majesty, upon any sinister suit, to prefer any other than the voices of the company shall freely choose, to beseech her Majesty, that at My suit, (being' their Chancellor, and having been wholly brought up there from my age of fourteen years, and now the only person living of that age and education ;) the statutes of the College (to which all that are electors are sworn) may not now be broken ; as I hope her Majesty will not in her honour and conscience do. " I myself have no purpose to prefer any ; and yet I have some interest herein, being a poor benefactor of that College, to which I have insured lands to in crease the commons of the scholars there from seven-pence to twelve-pence a-week ; and so hath your mother also given a benefit of perpetuity. " If her Majesty should, by private labour, be otherwise moved, I pray you offer to her the letter to be read from the College. " Your loving father, W. Burghley." " This foul weather holdeth me back from comfort of recovery." A few months afterwards, Lord Burghley appears to have had occasion to apologise through his son, for differing occasionally from the Queen's judg ment ; which he did, in the following terms : — " To my loving son, Sir Robert Cecil, Knight. " I do hold, and will always, this course, in such matters as I differ in opinion from her Majesty. As long as I may be allowed to give advice, I will not change my opinion by affirming the contrary ; for that were to offend God, to whom I am sworn first ; but as a servant, I will obey her Majesty's command ment, and no-wise contrary the same ; presuming that she, being God's chief minister here, it shall be God's will to have her commandments obeyed ; after that, I have performed my duty as a Counsellor, and shall, in my heart, wish her commandments to have such good successes as, I am sure, she intendeth. " You see I am in a mixture of divinity and policy ; preferring, in policy, her Majesty before all others on the earth ; and in divinity, the King of Heaven above all betwixt Alpha and Omega. Your loving Father, "March 13, 1595-6." "WlLLlAM BURGHLEY." 454 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1596. We cannot omit to refer back to the answer said to have been returned by his Lordship to Queen Mary, when she offered to reinstate him as Secretary of State at the commencement of her reign; vol. i. pp. 550, 551. The letter above agrees so exactly in point of sentiment and feeling with that answer, as greatly to corroborate the truth of the latter, which some, without sufficient reason, in our estimation, have been disposed to question. This year was a busy year for Essex, and one entirely suited to his character, and thirst after military glory, though the first call for his services terminated in a disappointment; for the Spaniards in the. Low Countries under the command of Albert, Archduke of Austria (and Cardinal), the new governor, having laid siege to Calais, so awakened the Queen to a sense of her danger (the report of the ordnance being heard to Greenwich;, that an army was raised with extra ordinary expedition, and committed to Essex as General ; before it could be embarked, however, accounts were received of the surrender of both the town and castle. But the excitement did not subside ; such formidable reports were raised of the Spaniards' preparations for invading both England and Ireland,* and perhaps Scotland, that it was resolved to attack him in his own ports ; to which end a large fleet and army was speedily got ready, and placed under the * It was probably uponjthis occasion, that a paper was written by oneof the English fugitives at Douay, which, to do all parties justice as far as we can, deserves we think to be mentioned. It will be found in the Appendix to the third vol. of Strype's Annals, No. lxv. It was found among Lord Burghley's papers, thus indorsed by his Lordship: "Argumenta cujusdam papistse, nomine Wryght." But the paper itself which was written in Latin, was inscribed, " An licitum sitCatho- licis in Anglia arma sumere, et aliis modis Reginam et regnum defendere contra Hispanos V The writer, with much show of impartiality, enumerates the offences severally given to each other, by the two Courts ; and so skilfully weighs all the circumstances that might be thrown into the ba lance on either side, concluding loyally in the decision, that Elizabeth's Catholic subjects' ought rather to defend her and her kingdom against Spanish invaders, as very well to deserve a careful perusal. ' It contains besides, many historical remarks of considerable importance,, and concludes with a very reasonable doubt of Philip's sincerity ; and whether in fact, his purposes were to in vade England for religion, or for rule? a very just doubt. — It might have been added, whether, to revenge the death of Mary of Scotland (his last pretence), or to take advantage of her death, in asserting his own claims to the inheritance of the English crown ? — In Birch's Memoirs, mention is made of a Mr. Wright, a Jesuit, who had procured leave through Essex's means to visit his friends in the north, to the alarm of Archbishop Hutton, who wrote both to the Lord. Treasurer and Lord Essex about him, fearing his practices. This seems to be a different man from the writer of the letter, who was probably the Dr. Wryght, alias Dobson, mentioned among the recusants beyond seas, as resident at Douay in 1587. — Strype, iii. Appendix, book ii. No. lxvi. 1596.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 455 command of the Lord Admiral Howard, and Essex, who spared not their own private fortunes to quicken the expedition. The instructions delivered to the commanders, with the names of those who served under them, may be seen in Camden; in the judgment of some, it appeared hazardous to leave the nation so exposed, especially, in case by any chance, the fleet itself should be encountered by a superior force. In the month of June, however, the whole sailed from Plymouth, directly for Cadiz, where they arrived on the 20th to the great sur prise of the Spaniards ; Essex was all on fire to begin operations, but met with some check from the Lord Admiral and Sir Walter Raleigh ; at length however the action began, and nothing could exceed the impetuous bravery displayed by Essex, both by sea and land. The details of this destructive attack must be read elsewhere; -the loss to the Spaniards was estimated at more than twenty millions of ducats ; Essex was for remaining where he was, and keeping posses sion of Cadiz, which he undertook to defend with only 400 men, and three months' provisions ; but he was over-ruled, as he also was in his further pro posals to undertake other conquests before they returned home, but the genera lity of the officers employed appeared to be anxious to secure what they had got; at all events, Essex's ardour appeared to want moderating. "The Lord Admi ral," says Camden, "was with good advisement joined with Essex, to moderate his youthful heat, his, swelling affectation of glory, and the fortitude of his invin cible courage never sufficiently to be commended, with advised discretion, and a prudent expectation of the right season for action, which are taken for prime parts of military discipline." Essex's own account of the result of the expedi tion, which Camden has also inserted in his history, is extremely good, but not sufficiently connected with this memoir to be inserted here.* The Queen was pleased with what had been achieved against her great enemy on his own ground, and very graciously received the commanders and other officers on their return. Essex however sustained two disappointments, which seemed greatly to offend his ambitious and proud spirit; the Queen conferred the government of the town of Brill in the Low Countries, on Sir Francis Vere, contrary to his wishes, * A short account of the same may be seen in Strype's Annals, iv. No. ccviii. drawn up by Captain Price, and addressed to the Lord Treasurer, concluding, " Thus being bold to trouble your honour, with all humble duty I shall continually pray to God, even from the very depth of ray heart, to send your Lordship good health, that your days may be prolonged, to the great comfort of all your friends." Dated Cales, June 28, 1596. 456 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1596. and made Sir Robert Cecil her Secretary,* much more to his discontentment, as he had laboured hard to procure the place for Sir Thomas Bodley ; and by the same low arts, which accorded little with his soldier's heart, namely, that of first seeking to withdraw Bodley from his connexion with the Cecils ; and secondly, by disparaging his competitor Sir Robert Cecil, in such a manner to the Queen, as to offend her greatly, and do Bodley no good ; for, as Camden writes, he so over-acted his part in such manoeuvres, that she " began now actually to disap prove of those men whom he [Essex] most commended ;" in which, considering his gross disparagement of others, she seemed to judge or at least to decide rightly. Both Bodley and Davison (whom also he tried to serve), suffered pro bably from his arbitrary manner of forcing them upon others, or advancing them at the cost of others."!" As the disaster that had befallen the Spaniard, did not appear to have entirely cheeked his designs against England and Ireland, but rather to have provoked him to a renewal of his preparations, the Queen judged it expedient to enter into a more formal treaty with France, of mutual help and assistance, to which all other States, exposed to the vengeance or ambition of Philip, were to be invited to accede. Such a treaty, therefore, was entered into, and soon concluded, and sworn to by both Sovereigns, on an interchange of special envoys to that end. Elizabeth, on the 29th of August, being sworn, in her own chapel at Greenwich, before the Due de Bouillon, Marshal of France ; and Henry, at Paris, before Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, assisted by Sir Anthony Mildmay, who was sent * Sir Robert was made Secretary, on the 5th of July ; and to shew how obnoxious this was to the Essex party, and how rudely and ungraciously the elder Bacon could express himself on his promotion, he wrote to his friend, " Elephas peperit, so that now the oldman may say with the rich man in the gospel, requiescat anima mea." — And what old man in Lord Burghley's place and situ ation, might not reasonably rejoice to have a son treading so closely in his steps ? — Miss Aikin, in her Court of Elizabeth, has, with good judgment, expressed the same feelings, ch. xxv. f Sir Thomas Bodley has told this whole story so well and so ingenuously, with his own pen, that we cannot help referring to it, as it may be read in the Article appropriated to him, in the Biographia Britannica, Note G ; we need scarcely say, that it vindicates the Cecils from all im putation of malice, and plainly shews that they entertained a just respect for Sir Thomas's talents and character ; though Essex, by his lavish praises of the one party, and abuse of the other, had done all he could to set them at variance ; fortunately, these jealousies at Court, induced Sir Thomas to seek retirement from all public employments, and led to the foundation, or rather re paration, and fresh endowment, of that library at Oxford, which has since immortalized his name ; and for an account of which, we must again refer to the Biographia Britannica. 1596.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 457 to invest the King with the ensigns of the Order of St. George ; the Queen being desirous of having him enrolled among its members, as a " Prince highly renowned for military glory," in regard to which there could, indeed, be no dispute.* Lord Burghley, as usual, seems to have been occupied, at this time, in draw ing up memorials, Nov. 4, 1596, concerning the Spanish preparations, which are to be seen in Strype's Annals, vol. iv. Nos. cxcii. cxciii. ; the latter, though of an earlier date than the other, being drawn up by the Lord Treasurer, and marked with his own hand, as " A publication of the Queen's Majesty's commandment to the generals of her navy, to offend no manner of persons of any other nation, but the subjects ofthe King of Spain, her Majesty's enemy; or such as shall mani festly aid the said King for the intended invasion of the Queen's Majesty's dominions." This was, in fact, a draft of the declaration to be made by those generals, the Earl of Essex, and the Lord Howard, Admiral. In addition, however, to these memorials and declarations, all supposed to be drawn up by the venerable Lord Treasurer himself, we find in Strype's Collec tions, a prayer of thanksgiving, composed by him, for the Queen's success. It is dated July 3, 1596, and might well deserve to be preserved among other occasional devotions of the same character and description. [Annals, iv. No. cxciv.] We cannot say so much for a most extraordinary prayer penned by her Majesty, 1597, and to be seen in the same collection, No. ccxxxiii.! Among the deaths this year, are to be noted those of the Lord Keeper Puck ering; Fletcher, Bishop of London ; the Lord Hunsdon ; Sir Francis Knollys; and the Earl of Huntingdon, President of the Council in the North. Of the above, Sir Francis Knollys seems, as nearly as possible, to have begun his career of life and acquaintance, at Court, with Lord Burghley ; having been * Otherwise Henry did certainly not appear to deserve this high distinction, as he soon deviated from the terms of the treaty, by privately and separately entering into negotiations with Spain. t The Queen appears to have suffered from illness at this time. The following being to be found amongst the letters addressed by Lord Burghley to his son, Sir Robert, November 14, 1596 : " I was advertised this evening, by my Lord Chamberlain's letter, that her Majesty deferred her remove unto Wednesday, which is the very day of her access to the crown ; and now, by your letter, I perceive the like, being right sorry for the cause; and, therefore, I pray you, let her Majesty know, that I do send to hear of her Majesty's amendment, for, by her impediment to order her affairs, all her realm shall suffer detriment. I have not been idle since you went, having (though not profaned this Sabbath day), made it a full working day, such is the impor tunity of suitors. " W. Burghley." VOL. III. 3 N 458 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1596. early introduced to the notice of Henry VIII., at which time he embraced Protestantism, continuing in the royal household all Edward's reign ; and, to avoid the persecutions under Mary, retiring, with many others, to foreign parts, where, meeting with Knox, he became a regular. Puritan. " Being, perhaps," says Mr. Lodge, " the first Englishman of note who espousedthat wayward sect." Mr. Lodge adds, that " Elizabeth, to whom his hatred of Popery sufficiently recommended him, gave him the Order of the Garter, and in 1566, appointed him Vice Chamberlain, &c." All this is probably true, but we cannot help noticing . one circumstance insisted upon ; namely, that Knollys, a thorough Puritan, should have recommended himself to Elizabeth, by his hatred of Popery. Now the Queen could not bear Puritans, and the Puritans looked upon the Queen as being no better than a Papist. It may do more credit to both to con clude, that, as Mr. Lodge adds, it was his honesty recommended him. Elizabeth herself, he tells us, used to say that she promoted Sir Francis Knollys because he was an honest man ; a rare compliment, if it be true, as reported, that in con versation with the celebrated William Lambard, commonly called the Perambu lator, that sagacious Princess observed to him, that in past times, " Force and arms did prevail ; but now the wit of the fox is every where on foot, so as hardly a faithful or virtuous man may be found." In which her Majesty seems to have been sadly in the right. — See Nichols's Progresses, vol. iii. p. 553, where may also be seen, p. 554, a long letter from Mr. Lambard to Lord Burghley, on the affairs of the Netherlands, 1585, beginning in the following remarkable manner : — " My Right Honourable good Lord, " Seguis was with me this morning, to take his leave, discontented, but confessing that you alone had dealt most honourable for his King ; which he would not only publish here, but assure his King that you were the sole per sonage to whom affairs ought to be addressed." Of Bishop Fletcher we have had occasion to speak elsewhere. It is well known that he gave great displeasure to Queen Elizabeth, on his becoming Bishop of London, by marrying; a Romish prejudice she could never overcome. His death was the occasion of a most curious epitaph being written, preserved by Sir John Harrington ; a specimen of the bad taste of the times, only to be matched, if matched at all, by the following on Lord Chancellor Audley, who died in 1544, and which we therefore put first : — 1596.] . MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 459 The stroke of death's inevitable dart, Hath now, alas ! of life bereft the heart Of Sir Thomas Audley, of the Garter Knight, Late Chancellor of England, under our Prince of might, Henry the Eighth, worthy of high renown, And made him Lord Audley of this town. Bishop Fletcher's is, fortunately, not quite so long : — Here lies the first Prelate, made Christendome see, A Bishop, a husband unto a ladee ; The cause of his death was secret and hid, He cried out I die, and e'en so he did ! Of Lord Hunsdon's death we must speak a little more at large, copying from Mr. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, the following story: — " In 1688, Mr. Samuel Johnson published a book, entitled Purgatory proved by Miracles [a good burlesque upon that doctrine], collected out of Roman Catholic winters; wherein, p. 36, he hath this passage : In the year 1596, the Baron of Hunsdon (who had been formerly of Elizabeth, the Queen of England's Council) falling dangerously ill, saw, entering into his chamber, six of the principal officers of this kingdom, who died a little before, and had, as well as he, been cruel persecutors of the Catholic religion. They appeared almost all surrounded in flames, and, in that dismal state, drawing near his bed, they bade him acquaint William Cecil (one of the accomplices of their impieties and violences), that, in a little time, he should descend into hell, there, with them, to suffer the punishment due to so many crimes. After they were vanished, the sick man related the vision he had had, and affirmed, with oaths, that it was no reverie, but a certain truth. Nevertheless, he did not avail himself of it, for, instead of employing the remainder of his life in doing fruits worthy of penitence, he died some few days after in his error and in his sin. Cecil quickly followed him, God having snatched him out ofthe world by a death as fatal as it was sudden and unforeseen." Le Pedagog. Christ, p. 263. " They who can believe these things," says the learned Editor, " may : to me they only shew how heartily the Papists hated the Lord Burghley." He might have added, that nothing could be less sudden, or more foreseen, than Lord Burghley's departure from this world, as we shall soon have to shew. We are now arrived so nigh to the last cares and labours of the venerable 460 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHEY. . [1597. statesman,* whose life we undertook to write, that we cannot help feeling some unwillingness to make him a party to the intrigues and jealousies which began at this time to disturb the Court, through the restlessness and ambition of Essex, whose bravery it is impossible not to admire ; though, had it but been tempered with more prudence and discretion, and displayed with a less degree of self- confidence and contempt of others, it would assuredly have shone brighter than we can justly admit to have been the case. Certain it is, that nothing but his bravery could be expected to breed respect in the minds, either of the elder or the younger Cecil, since it was notorious that, though, he had been under great obligations to the former, he was endeavouring all he could to raise a party against them, not of new or unconnected persons, but of such as had served with them., been obliged by them, or who even stood in a near degree of rela tionship. But Lord Burghley was retiring from this scene of envy and detraction, prepared, indeed, to surrender the reins of government into the hands of a no less eminent statesman, in the person of his own son ; and who shall say that it was not natural, in the aged and tried Counsellor, of such a Princess as Elizabeth, to be anxious to prevent a son so talented, and so schooled in the politics, not of England alone, but of Europe at large, being overpowered or driven from his post, by men of less experience, and more suspicious characters, however eminent or conspicuous in other respects? For we are far from wishing to deny, that Essex had attached to him many persons of knowledge and capacity, particularly the two Bacons, who appear not merely to have acquired, but to have inherited, both paternally and maternally, as well as the Cecils, qualifications for business, and a reach and extent of understanding exceedingly extraordinary.'}" * How much Lord Burghley's bodily infirmities were increasing, we may judge from two pas sages in his letters to his son, in September and October of this year, printed by Peck. In one he writes, " Though my body be this very day at the period of iiixx.xvii years (77), and, therefore, far unable to travel either with my body or with lively spirits, yet I find myself so bound with the superabundant kindness of her Majesty, in dispensing with my disabilities, as, God permitting me, I will be at Westminster to-morrow, in the afternoon, ready to attend my Lords. Sol in Libra, 13th September, 1597." To another letter, October 12, he subjoins the following postscript, in his own hand-writing, the letter itself being written by another: " I am worse since my physic, being now Moiwoiic and MovoxeV, but not Monoculus," i. e. disabled in one foot and one hand' but having, however, the use of both eyes. + Having had occasion to speak of the early competition between Francis Bacon and the cele brated Sir Edward Coke, for the post of Attorney-General, we ought not perhaps to omit all notice 1597.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 461 But we must turn to consider what particular events occurred to mark the year 1597. The nation appeared to be in a great state of activity, and Essex a leading man in all such proceedings ; anxious to baffle, in every way, the enterprises of Spain, and enrich his country with the spoils of her great and angry foe. But, as happened in the memorable year 1588, the elements seemed to take a part in the strife, or, in other and more proper terms, Providence appeared again to interpose, by storms and tempests, to defeat the objects of the hostile armaments on both sides, but particularly in preventing the descent of the Spaniards on England : for, though Philip had undoubtedly suffered much loss at Cadiz, he had other ships and fleets at his command, particularly at Lisbon, and which he soon put into a state which encouraged him in the hope of still successfully invading England or Ireland, and revenging the affronts he had so lately received. Ferrol and Corunna were fixed upon as good stations, from which he might make his attacks ; but his first attempts were entirely defeated by a storm, which dispersed his ships on their passage, and compelled him to relinquish his plans. Essex, in the mean while, contemplated two bold attempts to interrupt his proceedings, and diminish his powers ; he planned, by sailing to the Azores, to intercept his treasures from America, and to make an attack upon his armament at Corunna, in order again to disable him, in the moment of preparation, as had been the case at Cadiz. Essex had vowed to defeat the Spaniard, or perish in the attempt. All the preparations for this first assault upon England's inveterate foe, were splendid and magnificent ; volunteers ofthe highest rank, " with their feathers waving, and richly habited in gaudy cloaths," as Camden describes them, repaired to Plymouth, to take part in the expedition ; but scarcely had they got forty leagues from the harbour, before they were attacked by a mighty tempest, which compelled them to return home, seeking shelter wherever the winds or the waves happened to direct their course.* On their ofa subsequent competition between them, for the hand of a rich widow of the house of Burghley ; the Lady Hatton, daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil, Lord Burghley, first Earl of Exeter. In this instance also Coke succeeded, but not much to the increase either of his credit or his comfort. A most extraordinary dispute between himself and his Lady, about the disposal of their daughter in marriage, betrayed, at once, the imperious character of the great " oracle of the law," and the cold indiffefence with which he would have bartered his daughter's happiness for Court favour. The case is to be found iu M. d'Israeli's Second Series of the Curiosities of Literature, vol. i. * It seems to have been while these things were passing at Plymouth, that that very extraor. dinary scene took place at the Court between the Queen and the Polish minister, well and suffi ciently described by Camden, but more minutely and circumstantially, perhaps, in a letter from 462 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1597. return, contrary winds, for a long time, prevented their renewing their operations ; and when, at length, they were able to sail, and were pursuing their course to the northern or western coasts of Spain, another storm arose, which caused a separation of the fleet, and terminated in a disagreement between two ofthe chivalrous knights ofthe day, Essex and Raleigh ; leading to disappoint ments and errors which Camden calls, or is inclined to call, voluntary and wilful, as " wrought by some men's emulations amongst themselves, whilst they endeavoured to prevent each other of a little glory." The Spaniards, in the mean while, put to sea, and might have fallen in the way of the English returning from the Azores ; but here again another tempest occurred, and scattered the ships of both nations all the sea over, so that neither the English saw the Spaniards, nor the Spaniards the English; and thus, as Camden concludes his account of these expeditions, " Almighty God, the umpire of wars, kept asunder these two nations, Who were hastening to the slaughter of one another ; and their designs were, on both sides, at this time disappointed." It is impossible for us to deviate so far from our course, as to enter farther into the details of these extraordinary expeditions. Camden alone may supply the particulars; or, in rather a shorter compass, Rapin. Mad"e. Keralio dwells much upon the incidents of these adverse proceedings by sea. Sir Robert Cecil to Essex, written by the Queen's own desire, from Greenwich, July 26, 1597, and which maybe seen in Mr. Ellis's valuable collection of Original Letters, vol. iii. No. ccxxxiv. The story is too well known to be insisted upon here, though, after the severe reproof of the Am bassador by the Queen, in a very extraordinary extempore Latin speech, Lord Burghley was placed at the head of the Committee appointed to confer more privately with him. Speed's account ofthe conclusion of the scene is short enough to be transcribed. " The Queen," says the old historian, " lion like, rising, daunted the malapert orator, no less with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartness of her princely checks; and, turning to the train of her attendants, thus said, ' God's death, my Lords (for that was ever her oath in anger), I have been enforced this day to scoure up my old Latin, that hath lain long in rusting.'" The Latin speech may be seen in Nichols, vol. iii. 417. Another Ambassador came also this year from the King of Denmark, who, among other things, communicated to her Majesty the desire his master had to mediate a peace between England and Spain. To which the Queen, in reply, is reported to have observed, that she thought the King, his master, was too young to know the cause of the breach of the league between her and Spain ; and as it was not broken by her consent; nor by any of hers, so it should not be sued nor sought for by her, nor any in her behalf: " For," said she, " know now, and be it known to the King your master, and all Princes, christened or heathen, that the Queen of England hath no need to crave peace ; for, I assure you," said 6he, " that I never endured one hour of fear since my first coming to my kingdom and subjects." 1597.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 4^3 It was not until late in the autumn that Essex, having at length reached England,-with his " leaky, torn, and weather-beaten" ships, returned to Court, where he met with a fresh mortification to his aspiring mind; the Queen having, in his absence, created the Lord Howard, Earl of Nottingham ; and in the Patent inserted that it was for his services to his country in 1588, and afterwards in taking the town of Cadiz, jointly with the Earl of Essex. It does no credit to Essex, that he was jealous and envious to so great a degree, of the honours conferred on so eminent a man as Lord Howard ; but what he most resented was, that as Lord High Admiral the new Earl had precedence of him. This difficulty, however, was soon settled, by the Queen's making Essex Earl Marshal of England, which preserved to him the precedence of the Lord 'High Admiral,* and gave him rank next to the Great Chamberlain. This year put an end to the celebrated association of foreign merchants, known by the name of the Still, or Steel-yard Merchants, of whom we, had much to say in our first volume, under the reign of Edward VI., and which need not therefore be repeated. They seemed very loath to part with their privileges granted to them of old time, though it could not be unreasonable to break through such monopolies in the hands of foreigners, when the native subjects of the realm had become entirely competent to carry on their own busi ness, and conduct their own trade. Their gain and profits had indeed, in times past, been very great, through the ignorance, supineness, and incapacity of the English people at large, and more encouragement from those who could borrow their money, than was consistent with the good of the nation. Lord Burghley was among the first to discover the error of this system, and to endea vour to rouse his countrymen to a sense of their own power and capabilities, and to shake off the yoke of foreign dependence, and he now lived to see the termination of the whole of their exclusive privileges. They made claims to what, in all reason, could be no longer endured, and when refused, procured the Emperor to forbid the English traffic throughout Germany ; but Elizabeth, who would never brook any affronts, immediately commanded the Lord Mayor to * Camden speaks of another offence given to Essex at this time, by the Queen's making Sir Robert Cecil Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which the Editor of his History corrects, by observing that it was a mistake for the Mastership ofthe Wards. But this is itself a mistake, for Sir Robert was not made Master ofthe Wards until the year 1599, after his father's death. Sir Robert, however, was too much a friend to Raleigh, not to stand upon worse terms than ever with Essex, after the late quarrel between the two Commanders. 464 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1597. put those of the Hanse Towns out of possession of all the houses they had in the • Steel-yard, and it was sometime before the differences could be entirely settled by negotiation, other grievances being mixed up with their complaints and claims. — For an account of the Steel-yard, and Guildhalda Teutonicorum, see Pennant's London. But to return. — That Lord Burghley continued a Minister of State to the latest period of his life, may in a great degree be attributed to the unwillingness of Elizabeth to release him from such cares ; but other cares appear also to have pressed upon him to the last ; for in this year, as may be seen in Strype, he had to mediate between the University and town of Cambridge, and was particularly appealed to, to decide between that extraordinary scholar,Hugh Broughton, and his several opponents, not excepting the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had fallen under his great displeasure, and towards whom Broughton seems to have kept no measures, in his correspondence with the Lord Treasurer. He seems to have regarded all other learned men as pigmies in literature, compared with himself, and to have highly resented the little notice taken of him; and indeed he was put to some trials this year by the appointment of Bancroft to the See of London, and the translation of Bilson from Worcester to Winchester ; but his complaints were written in such" a style, not only to the Lord Treasurer, but to the Queen herself, as to amount almost to a disqualification for the posts he solicited ; learning, without discretion, being oftentimes an hindrance rather than a help to persons in such conspicuous and commanding situations as Bishops. At all events, his two competitors in the instances above were, to say the least, far more unexceptionable, if not indeed specially qualified to fill the Sees assigned to them. The Lord Treasurer, however, had much to do in quieting these alter cations, and moderating the disputes on foot. The letters written by Broughton to his Lordship are very remarkable, and may be seen in the Appendix to Strype's Life of Whitgift. One controversy, to which Lord Burghley's attention was particularly called this year, was upon a topic so little likely in these days to be referred to a Lord Treasurer to decide, as to deserve to be mentioned as a further proof of the con tinual deference paid to his judgment and discretion. Not only was he appealed to by Broughton, but by his learned and Right Reverend opponent Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, to judge between them upon the question of our Lord's' descent into Hell ; and we find it recorded as matter of fact, that a large dis course, with many quotations from the Fathers, was particularly drawn up at 1597.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 405 this time for the Lord Treasurer's use, to shew the sense of the learned upon the article of the Descent, and which is still preserved among the Burghley Papers, marked with his own hand, " De descensu Christi ad Inferos, March 12, 1597." The writer, in the conclusion of his discourse, hath these words ; " Haec ego Dominationis tuae jussu, tantum de multiplici expositione hujus articuli, Descendit ad Inferos, propono. Tuae erit sapientiae, pro summo tuo judicio, de eisdem, prout videbitur sequissimum statuere." More of this may be seen in Strype's Life of Whitgift, b. iv. ch. xxi., and in the Biographia Britannica, art. Broughton. A case occurred also in Ireland this year, which equally may serve to shew the deference paid to his Lordship, to the latest moment of his life, as a friend to the established Church. The story will be best told by a regular transcript of the following letter from Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, to the Lord Treasurer, concerning Mr. Ryder's case, who had a mandamus for the Deanery of the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's, being no member thereof. " It may please your Lordship, " Immediately after the receipt of your letters, signifying her Majesty's plea sure and commandment in the behalf of Mr. Ryder to the Deanery of St. Patrick's, I assembled my Chapter, and made the same known unto them, whom I found humbly willing, according to her Majesty's pleasure, to make election of him. But forasmuch as they made a scruple to elect him, until he were a member of themselves, which they allege to be done by them in discharge of their consciences, being sworn to the form of their foundation, I have, to remove that scruple, reserved a Prebend, now void, in my gift, for Mr. Ryder, which presently upon his arrival, I will admit him unto ; and have taken the hands of my Chapter thereupon to elect him ; which I assure your Lordship, upon my credit (which I would not break with you for all the Deaneries, and Bishoprics of Ireland), shall be done within ten days next after his coming. Whereunto I find my said Chapter the more willing (although there be among themselves as many learned graduates as belong to any one church that I know in England), because they acknowledge your lordship to be a chief pillar for the upholding of their church. — November 29, 1597." This testimony to the steadiness of the venerable Treasurer in defending and upholding the Established Church, is the more remarkable, because it seems to have had the effect of qualifying the irregularity of the Queen's mandamus, and to have been willingly concurred in by very learned and meritorious divines vol. in. 3 o 466 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1597. (who might have some reason to complain of being superseded by a stranger), simply out of respect to his Lordship ; and having happened in the last year bf his life, deserves surely to be noted. The Queen appears to have visited the Lord Treasurer this year at Wimbledon,* at the Manor House bought of Sir Christopher Hatton, by Sir Thomas Cecil, the Treasurer's eldest son, who rebuilt it 1588, and received a grant ofthe manor from the Queen, 1590, in exchange for some lands in Lincolnshire. — See Lysons' Environs, and Nichols' Progresses. Fuller calls it a " daring structure," judged by some to equal, if not exceed, Nonsuch. A view of it may be seen in Lysons, and in the tenth volume of the Archaeologia. Sir Thomas, becoming afterwards Earl of Exeter, left it to his third son, Sir Edward Cecil, who was himself created a Peer, by the title of Viscount Wimbledon. The Lord Treasurer had a grant of lands there in the reign of Edward VI. and resided in the place, as has been shewn in our first volume. More of the family connexions with Wimbledon may be seen in Lysons. It is certainly remarkable, that the house at Wim bledon, which appears to have been a magnificent structure, should have been built after Burghley House, and, as it would seem, for a third son. * Nichols, iii. 413. We rather think it refers to the visit paid to his successor in 1599. — See p. 440. CHAP. XX. 1598. Fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, began Nov. 17, 1597. Parliament meets— Sir Rsbert Cecil, Sir Thomas Wilkes, and Mr. John Herbert, sent on an Embassy to France— State paper drawn up by Lord Burghley on the existing state of affairs in Europe — Henry IV. — Death of Lord Burghley— Account of him from his Life by a Domestic — Lord Buckhurst made Lord Treasurer — Extract from Sir John Har rington's Notes— Death of Philip II. — Extract from Lord Burghley's will— Of his Funeral — Inscription on his monument at Stamford — Description of the monument erected in Westminster Abbey to Lady Burghley and Lady Oxford. Towards the close of the preceding year, such strong suspicions were enter tained at Court, that the King of France, notwithstanding the league so lately concluded, was secretly entering into a treaty for peace with the Spaniard, whereby the Queen might be left to contend alone with the whole power and wealth of the latter, that it was judged right to summon a Parliament, in order to provide in time against the effects of such an abandonment, should it turn out as was then greatly expected. The two Houses accordingly met on Monday, the 24th of October, 1597, her Majesty being present, not only on that day, but on the 27th also, when the Commons had to present their new Speaker, Mr. Serjeant Yelverton ;* Sir Thomas Egerton having succeeded Sir John Puckering as Lord Keeper. It appears from the Journal of Sir Simon D'Ewes, that notwithstanding his * Every new chosen Speaker of the House of Commons is generally expected, with the utmost show of humility, to answer the call of the House with a speech of disqualification ; but it has not been usual with them to indulge the humour of the House so far as to caricature their own per sons, as this Speaker did. " Neither," he observed, " from my person or nature doth this choice arise ; for he that supplieth this place, ought to be a man big and comely, stately and well- spoken, — his voice great, his carriage majestical, his nature haughty, and his purse plentiful and heavy ; but contrarily, the stature of my body is small, myself not so well-spoken, my voice low, my carriage lawyer-like, and of the common fashion ; my nature soft and bashful, my purse thin, light, and never yet plentiful." 468 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. very advanced age, and other infirmities ; and though, as it turned out, he had not many months more to live, Lord Burghley was not only able to attend in his place, through the greatest part of this Sessions of Parliament, but to sit upon many Committees ; and yet so entirely had he now outlived his early friends and acquaintance, that upon a question of customs and privileges, the case, was referred, as the Journal states, " especially to the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, the most ancient Parliament-man of any that were at that time pre sent, either of the Upper House or House of Commons."* Though this Parliament began in the year preceding, and was dissolved on the 9th of February, 1597-8, before the actual beginning of the year 1598, according to the old reckoning, yet we judge it most reasonable, as well as most conformable to our own plan, to notice its proceedings in this place ; for though many good acts were passed, tending to the particular advantage of the nation, and highly acceptable and pleasing to the people, the heads of which may be seen in Camden, Rapin, and the regular Parliamentary histories, yet the chief object of its being called together undoubtedly was, to obtain for the Queen such support in the way of subsidy, as might enable her either to negotiate with Spain, for a solid and sure peace, upon strong grounds, or still to bid defiance to her most inveterate enemy, if she should be abandoned by the King of France ; and so sensible does the Parlia ment, when assembled, appear to have been ofthe urgency and reasonableness . of the calls made upon it, that a grant was soon agreed to of no less than three entire subsidies, and six fifteenths and tenths ; and, according to the journal so often referred to, with much less debate and disputation than on any former similar occasion. The Clergy in convocation also granted three subsidies. In the meanwhile, though the proceedings in France were much mistrusted, and it was almost become apparent to the English minister residing there, that Henry was practising secretly with Spain, insomuch that Sir Anthony Mildmay, the minister alluded to, "^an open-hearted and true Englishman," as Camden calls him, " not without offence giving," actually expostulated with the King upon it, and " often taxed his Counsellors of shifting and shuffling, of unconstancy and lightness in their answers, as if they mocked and abused the English ;" yet to keep up some semblance of good faith and sincerity, Henry appears to have * The answer of the Lords upon this question, the particulars of which may be seen in D'Ewes, and other Parliamentary Histories, was delivered to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Cecil, and the decision admitted to be entirely satisfactory. -^y^jza&i,- X &ri//'Za/z-,t3 Tu 2&^PL&yM> . <>///: . 7//,//// ///a//' ' THOMAS CECIL, EARE OF EZETE! //j '//•/// //// /vy////// . //////// /¦// //////¦ /^//////A .<. A / Jn tbr pofetfeum of > '//A ///A:// ' /'/7V y 7 ^77////////./ // c >. //7/-/C Lo/vfofy-Fiiblished bv Sauruters 7 fltfey CcndutL S(rLAprU;1828. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 469 invited the Queen to send Commissioners over to join in the negotiations going forward, not however without such limitations in point of time, Sec. as seemed rather to confirm than allay the suspicions that had been previously raised ; the estates of Holland were also included in this invitation. Nor was the invitation declined by either, though it was afterwards known, that Henry, "minding his own concernments," had made a private agreement with the Spaniard about a peace, which was secretly deposited in the hands of the Cardinal Archduke Albert, till a commission could be sent from Spain for its conclusion. Though Camden and other authors have written pretty much at large of the communications which took place between the belligerents at this time, yet there are some circumstances on which we may hope to be excused for dwelling, more particularly, as immediately connected with the subject of these Memoirs, and the last labours of the great man, whose life we have been professing to write. The Ministers deputed by her Majesty to France, on this memorable occasion, were Sir Thomas Wilkes, Sir Robert Cecil,*' her chief Secretary, and John Herbert, Esq., Master of Requests ; but Sir Thomas Wilkes dying almost imme diately upon his arrival in France, the principal weight and responsibility of the embassy devolved, of course, on Sir Robert. Of the spirited manner in which he conducted himself upon the occasion, we shall have to speak here after; at present, we must turn to consider the purport and contents of (pro bably) the last state paper ever drawn up by Lord Burghley, and which, long as it is, was written by his own hand, in the 78th year of his most laborious life, and arduous administration ; remaining as a monument of his clear com prehension, at that advanced age, 'of the general state of Europe ; of his care of his Sovereign, her country, and her allies ; and of his constant desire of peace, if it could be obtained on honourable and secure grounds ; containing, besides, such a statement of facts relating to the general quarrel between the two kingdoms of England and Spain, as to be highly illustrative of past as well as present events. The paper, as printed by Strype, [Annals, iv. No. ccxlvi.] is thus entitled : " Considerations of a motion for a Treaty of Peace with the King of Spain, * Sir Thomas Cecil, the elder brother of Sir Robert, was a member of the House of Commons during this, as well as the preceding Parliaments, and appears to have been almost invariably chosen a Member of all special committees. 470 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. upon a motion of the French King; drawn up by the Lord Treasurer Burghley, and writ by his own hand; and seems to be some of his last Writings." . \-.;i " If it shall be held for a certainty, that there can be no condition obtained by her Majesty, for assurance of the United Provinces to continue their -estate without evident danger, to be in short time subdued to the King of Spain's absolute power, as they were in former times, then it were in vain to send, any to treat for a particular peace for England ¦: for that theiQueen of England can have no assurance to continue a particular- peace, except i she; may be also assured that the United Provinces may be free from the danger of such con quest, as by good proofs are known to have been intended at the first coming of the Duke of Alva with his armies into those countries ; and so also 1 the like purposes continued by the King of Spain's Ministers, with intention thereby to invade and conquer England. " So if, upon these grounds, no treaty shall be- convenient for England, then may the French King be answered, that though" there be a commission sent for the Spaniard to treat of a peace for England, yet considering without a good accord to be made for the United Provinces, for their' assurance against the former purposes of Spain, her Majesty can make no account for continuance of any peace with Spain; and for that the Deputy [Deputies] of the States have peremptorily answered the French King, that they will not; nor may, with their safety, yield their consent to hearken to a treaty with" Spain; and so also, other their Deputies, being sent hither to her Majesty, do concur in the same opinion, to refuse such treaty; notwithstanding that they have been with sundry reasons moved to the contrary. Whereunto they will in no wise yield, but do rather choose to continue in their defence, earnestly urging the Queen's Majesty to cbntinue her confederacy with them ; though it hath not pleased' the French King, according to the former joint league* both offensive and defensive; to perform the same, but to hearken to make a peace apart for himself; and' here upon her Majesty, considering with herself that her danger from Spain shall continue, notwithstanding any form of peace to be made by her apart, if the United Provinces shall not have a good accord with Spain; whereof they do despair, and whereof also her Majesty hath no causes of doubt, being no wise informed of any good disposition in the King of Spain's Commissioners, or in the Cardinal, to make any good accord with the United Provinces, but to the eontrary, by good proof, which her Majesty hath seen in the very letters and 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 471 writings between the Cardinal and the Deputies, concerning hard conditions for the States that cannot be denied. " And so upon these former reasons, her Majesty may with honour, and without misliking of the French King, impart these reasons to him, why her Majesty cannot with her safety accept any treaty for peace with Spain, except she may also see the States better assured of a peace than she seeth a disposition thereto on their part. And so the King may be. thanked for his intercession made, for his obtaining of the commission from Spain; but to require him that his Commissioners may be directed to inform the Spanish deputies upon what grounds, and for what reasons, for this time her Majesty will forbear to send any Commissioners to treat of any peace with the King of Spain, except she may be more certainly informed how the United Provinces shall continue in surety from their manifest dangers of subversion." Next follows what is called, " A. consideration ofa second course to be held for a Treaty." (As the Paper is very long, we shall abridge where we, can do it, without injury to the writer or the cause.) " Considering an offer is made by a sufficient commission from the King of Spain, to treat with her Majesty of a peace, and that it is to be confessed of all Christians, that where peace may be had, there the refusal thereof, by, continu ing of war, will displease Almighty God, who is a God of peace, and an avenger by way of war, and for that no war can be ended by form of s.a peace, without treaty; and conference to be had by Ministers thereto authorized. Therefore there is great reason to authorize and send some convenient number of persons., of respective qualities, to join with the Spanish deputies to treat hereof, accord ing as they shall be instructed from her Majesty to enter into the same, with due respect to her honour.— Andfbrthe prosecution of this purpose for Sending, answer would be sent to the French King, that according to his request re ported by her Ambassador, her Majesty's Secretary, to be advertised within forty days, from the coming away of the Ambassador, whether her .Majesty would consent to send her Commissioners to treat with the Spaniards, ier Majesty hath yielded to with some difficulty, how to resolve, rand to return answer within that number of days, considering, : of those forty days, there were ***** days past before her Ambassador, or any from him, could come into England; partly by the long and tedious gourney he had from Nantes through Bretagne to the sea-side, to take his passage into England, which he adventured against all favourable winds, &cv— But at his coming, being in- 472 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. formed of the French King's earnestness to have answer within forty days, her Majesty weighing the cause to be of great weight, as it is, either to proceed, or of so short time to consider thereof, having a mind not to be noted in the world to refuse to live in peace, being offered, neither yet to fear her enemy, that shall refuse to accord to reasonable conditions, she hath yielded to send certain Commissioners into France, to some convenient place ; to meet with such as shall be authorized by the King of Spain, &c. — She therefore requireth of the French King — That she may know who shall be authorized on the Spanish part to treat ; for it is not convenient that any authorized by the Pope, as either the Legate, the Nuncio, or any other, be admitted to be participant in this treaty, which properly belongeth but to the King of Spain, and the Queen of England; except the French King shall offer to name some of his Council as indifferent persons, to further the treaty by reasonable motions to both parties, to have a copy of the King's Commission, &c. And that a place indifferent may be named for meeting, as near in some parts of Picardy as may be to the sea side, &c." — Then follow the instructions to be given to the Queen's Commissioners : As first, the interchangeable view of the commissions on both parts, with leave to deliver some speeches by way of preface, to declare the Queen's since rity, and report the course of her Majesty's dealing in the business ; [the parti culars of which must be copied at length, to explain past proceedings.] " Being, by a message sent by one ofthe French King's Council, named M. de Mezzy (or de Maisse),* informed, that the French King had an offer from the King of Spain to treat with him for a peace, and that the Cardinal had authority so to do, and also to treat with her Majesty ; and therefore, considering he was bound by a league both with her Majesty and the States of the United Provinces to continue the war against the King of Spain, the common enemy, he required the Queen's Majesty to certify him whether she would make choice to continue the war, or to hearken to peace ; for thereto would he conform himself in an swering the Cardinal. To this her Majesty made answer, that she had cause to doubt, that though this offer to the French King to make peace with him might have warrant, but yet for any treaty for peace to be offered to her Majesty, she understood of no good warrant from the King of Spain ; and. when de Mezzy said that he thought that the Cardinal might have authority : then her Majesty, • Birch.— In his Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, a full and very particular account is given, of the embassy of Sir Robert Cecil, and his conferences and negotiations with Henry. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 471 to increase her doubt of insufficient dealing, called to remembrance, and so told M. de Mezzy, how deceitfully she had been used by the King of Spain, in the year 1588, to take advantage of her, by offering her by the Duke of Parma, both by sundry messages and letters, that he was authorized by the King of Spain to treat for a peace ; whereon the said Duke, with as good earnestness of good meaning as by words and oaths he could, did affirm the same ; and thereupon the Queen's Majesty, trusting that the King of Spain was of the same mind, she did send a solemn ambassade of her Privy Counsellors, whereof one was an ancient Earl of the realm, the other also an ancient Baron of the same, and others of the Coun cil of her State: who, when they came to the place appointed for their meeting, and demanding to see the commission from the King, whereof the Duke of Parma had made mention, there was none extant ; but by speech, it was said that they looked for one shortly out of Spain; but while such one was thus pro mised, and treaty held on, her Majesty had certain knowledge of the King's preparation of a navy and army, so mighty, as the like never was made in any man's memory, and with all haste possible, to come to the narrow seas to invade this realm. — Whereupon her Majesty, for defence of her realm, armed some number of ships, far inferior in number to the King of Spain's ; yet Almighty God, for her defence, and to be justly revenged upon this, manner of deceitful dealing of the King of Spain, to further his dangerous attempts by colour to treat of a peace, did subvert the King of Spain's army with such a ruin, as to this, day he hath not been able to make the like. " This dishonourable accident hath been known to the world to be true, and you our Commissioners may boldly say, If Richardot, the King's President, shall be there, he cannot truly deny it; but rather may be charged as privy to the same, as he was openly at Burborough by our Commissioners charged." The paper then goes on to observe what reason the Queen had to doubt whether the present practices of Spain did not resemble the former ones, and how, upon inquiry, it was actually discovered, that there was no Commissioner indeed from the King of Spain to treat with England, but only with the French King ; that an offer was made to send for one, but when it came, the English Commissioners were denied a copy of it. Supposing it, however, to be suffi cient, the following directions for their proceedings are next entered upon : " First, you shall require to know of them, whether there be any intention in them to debate upon the occasions that have ministered these great hostilities between these two crowns, that aforetime had such perfect amity betwixt them." VOL. III. ^ ? 472 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. We need not go into the directions to be followed, in case such a discussion should be entered upon, but it may not be amiss to observe that, " the first notable unfriendly actions of the King of Spain," are stated to have been, "his refusing at the beginning of the Queen's reign to ratify his father's treaties, commonly named Fcedus Structum Amicitia," which appears to have been a collection of " mutual bonds, never repealed," between the House of Burgundy and England, sealed and confirmed on both parts, " in such strict manner as is not to be seen in any other foreign dominions." It is also alleged, that in con tempt of such bonds, the King had " incited certain of the greatest Nobility in England to rebel, seeking at the same time how to invade this realm,", against which the Queen had been obliged to enter into measures of defence," to the misliking of the King of Spain, and to withstand his great hostility." It is then proposed rather to overlook these things, and only consider the state of former treaties, " both for mutual amity between the Princes, and for the intercourse of the merchants and subjects on both sides;" and, "for a new treaty to be made with sufficient wordsand in good form, to confirm and ratify all former treaties that were in force at the entry of the King of Spain to his Duchy of Brabant, being termed the joyous entry ;" with "a perfect remission and oblivion of all past hostilities, and a mutual release of prisoners." These preliminaries being adjusted, " the first and principal matter," as the paper runs, "that we are to demand is, to have the United Provinces, with whom now for our safety we are bound to a mutual defence, to have such assur ance made to them, and promised to us also by special covenant, as they may continue in the state wherein they are, both for the government of the people and country, for their ancient liberties, and defence of their towns and forts, without changing of their profession or religion ; which being granted with good assurance, we shall have just cause to accept that peace before treated on, and to make account of the continuance thereof." — And to shew how necessary an article the abqve was, esteemed, as a security to England itself, reference is made to all the projects entertained against England by the Spanish Governors of the Low Countries, from the Duke of Alva's first coming, to that time ; during which period, " such hath been their earnestness, fraught with diabolical malice, as divers of them, among whom some have been of the general Governors, that have, to accomplish their purposes, hired certain persons to have killed us, and some to have poisoned us. Which purpose Almighty God in good time dis covered to us, and the parties apprehended, and voluntarily confessed the same, ,598-l MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 475 and received their death for the same without repentance. But the author that moved them thereto, being a Governor of the Low Countries, even with tokens from the King of Spain, did never, give any cause to excuse himself, though he could not but hear how the parties did openly avow him to have procured and hired them." We cannot cannot bring ourselves to omit the following passage, as it touches upon some very nice points in the policy of England, during the whole of Lord Burghley's administration :— " Now for that it is like that the Spanish deputies will answer, that the people of the United Provinces are the King of Spain's subjects in right of his Dukedom of Burgundy, and being Earl of Holland and Zealand, and that we have no more interest to join with them, than we will suffer the King to deal with our subjects in England ; you may see, that if the King had not by his tyran nous governors oppressed them, and attempted to subdue them, to have exiled them that were natural and obedient, to have inhabited the country with Spaniards, as he hath generally done in other countries, and especially in India, by the destruction of more creatures than all Spain hath living, then in truth their answer to be allowed. But they are also to consider that this is not the question, whether we shall or may intermeddle in the causes concerning the King's subjects in general, but whether upon good proof finding that he doth earnestly suppress his subjects, and seeketh by conquering of them both to plant his Spanish nation there, and with them, by possessing and conquering of those countries, to proceed thereby to the invasion and conquest of England. These circumstances being certainly proved true by many certainties that cannot be justly denied, the question then, accompanied with those circumstances, is to be answered, that both the States of the Provinces have just cause, even by the law of nations, to arm and defend their natural country and families against the tyrannous bloody attempts for their subversion, and planting of strangers, Spaniards, not unlike to tigers, in their habitations ; and so have we as just cause for our own surety and our country, to join with the said States and their countries, to preserve them so in their liberties, as the Spaniard, intending to conquer them, shall not also prosecute their intentions to conquer England. " And for that it is like the Spanish Commissioners will, for answer to these your arguments, peremptorily deny that any good proof can be made of the King's intention to subdue or to oppress the Low Countries, or to invade England, you shall have a collection made of the sundry actions committed by his Governors, and of sundry other his Ministers ; which are so many in 476 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. number, and so various in their qualities, as were a tedious work to be inserted in these instructions ; to which collection we do remit you," &c. The paper concludes with some specific proposals for the surety of the States to the following effects : "That they be permitted to continue in arms for their defence, without attempting any hostility upon any of the King's territories now in his possession. " That the people may be governed as heretofore by the natural officers of every province. " That all strange soldiers may be withdrawn from the Low Countries, and the necessary garrisons to consist of the native people.* " And for more certainty, and to avoid length in the treaty, that the assurance may be agreeable to the pacificat of Gaunt, which was confirmed by the King, and sworn to by Don John." It is certainly very extraordinary that an opportunity should have been afforded to Lord Burghley, of drawing up so public and important a document, amounting almost to a recapitulation of the causes of hostility between the two crowns from the Queen's accession, at such a moment; that is, in the very last year of his life, and still more extraordinary, that it should have happened to be the last year also of the life of Philip II. , who died in the very next month to Lord Burghley. f The instructions happened to be drawn up besides for his own son ; the chief commissioner sent to Henry IV., on an embassy the most delicate, perhaps, that could be conceived ; for he had to charge that high-spirited and martial prince, with a breach of his word, a violation of solemn covenants, and a base abandon ment of Allies, who had rendered him assistance, at the most trying and awful period of his whole life ! ! J and in none, of these respects did Sir Robert spare * Compare what was done upon the first interference of Elizabeth with the affairs of Scotland. The cases were in reality parallel, and singularly illustrative of each other ; as Scotland was in the way to he a " stepping-stone" to France, the Low Countries were constantly in the way to be come a " stepping-stone" to Spain for the invasion and ruin of England. t Philip was just seven year's younger than Lord Burghley, having been born in 1527; he was called into Flanders by his father in 1548, who wished to make him King of the Romans, instead of his uncle Ferdinand, but in vain. He, however, resigned Flanders to Philip in 1555, and Spain the year after. J Among Sir John Harrington's papers, 1598, we find the following passage : " News from the Ambassadors to France, Wilkes died at Paris, God speed Cecil and Herbert, or we shall ill speed at home. It is a base matter of Henry of France to make peace without his allies and friends ; I could wish her Highness could once sound him in the ear about this matter ; she seemeth in apt sort for such business, for she called him, in my hearing, the Antichrist of ingratitude." !598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 477 even Henry the Great; insomuch that that otherwise amiable and popular Monarch is reported to have been stung with his reproaches. Henry had had to undergo a trial little less severe from the remonstrances of the Dutch minister, Barnevelt;* for in truth, the envoys of both countries were not long before they discovered, as we before had occasion to remark, that Henry, " minding his own concernment," as Camden writes, " had made a private agreement with the Spaniard about a peace, which was secretly deposited in the Archduke Albert's hands, until a commission might be sent out of Spain perfectly to conclude it. This was certainly very ignominious on the part of Henry, who had nothing to plead but a pretended necessity, and the call made upon him to seize an opportunity that should not be lost ; upon which latter plea, Sir Robert Cecil is reported to have made the following observation : " As touching the opportunity not to be lost, he would not (he said) dispute with those who preferred opportunity before their word and faith given, and. measured the honour and reputation of princes by profit and fair occasions, and think it to consist solely in providing for their own affairs." More to the above effect may be seen in Camden and other authors, and nothing perhaps more cutting than the short but severe letter of the Queen herself to her ungrateful ally ; we do not, however, wish to bear hard upon the fame of a Monarch on various other accounts so much to be admired, and who, after all, professed to have a high veneration and respect for Elizabeth. f To return therefore to the paper, of which we have given so long an abstract, we repeat, that it was extraordinary that Lord Burghley should have had such an occasion given him of recapitulating, just before he died, all that had passed • See for an account of this able Dutch minister, Birch's Memoirs, i. p. 364. t Henry's ministers and principal counsellors were held to be, but a short time before, the regular pensioners of Spain, as M. Castol, wrote to Mr. Bacon, March 16, 1595-6, observing that doublons were more common in France, than escus de soleil, Birch, i. 452. Wishing, however, before we part from Henry IV. to do him all the justice in our power, we shall transcribe from Professor Tytler's Elements of General History, the following very concise remarks upon his conduct after the treaty concluded between him and Philip on the present occasion : " After forcing Philip II. to conclude the advantageous peace of Vervins, 1598, his whole attention was bestowed on the improvement of his kingdom, by reforming its laws, regulating its finances, encouraging agricul ture and manufactures, enlarging and embellishing the cities, and finally, by successfully recon ciling the partisans ofthe contending religions. In all his beneficial schemes he found an able assistant in his minister the Duke of Sully, who has beautifully; depicted the life, and character of his master. It is in his Memoirs that we see not only the great designs, but the private virtues, the engaging and amiable manners of this illustrious man, who, while he was the arbiter of the contending powers of Europe, was the indulgent father of a happy people." 478 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. between Spain and England during his long administration; including the ancient history of the United Provinces as an independent Republic; the reprobated tyranny of Philip there, and in the Western Indies ; his continual breach of faith, and the horrid purposes to which he was stimulated by his bigotry, in the projected assassination of Elizabeth, after the actual murder of the Prince of Orange. The Paper, however, is still of the more importance, because it exhibits, Lord Burghley at the close of his wearisome life, anxious to secure to his Sovereign, his country, and to Europe at large, the blessings of peace ; but in no abject manner, under no disgraceful compromise of principle or honourj no acknowledgment either of faults or fears, no anxiety to shun inquiry, but rather to challenge it, in defence of all that had passed on the side of England.* And this is the more worth attending to, because his young and martial com petitor, Essex, was jealous of all his movements, and exceedingly anxious tQ have more scope allowed him for chivalrous, if not rash adventures, by a continuance of the war : he ventured to remonstrate with the venerable Lord, Treasurer, who is reported, as is pretty generally known, to have directed his attention to the following passage in the Psalms, " The blood-thirsty shall not live out half their days." "Yet some there were," says Camden, " who highly applauded Essex, as one that sincerely aimed, at the honour and security of his country," and who need doubt this? It would have been so at all times : Camden, however, is careful to add, " Others there were who taxed him as one that served his own ambition, and the benefit and advantage of his followers." The probability is that both parties meant right :f Essex might, • Macdiarmid, in his Lives of British Statesmen, thus speaks of Lord Burghley's love of peace ; " Yet, though the strenuous advocate of a pacific policy, his forbearance did not arise from timidity, nor his parsimony from a contracted mind ; against the dangers which threatened the kingdom, he prepared with firmness and activity ; and when the public interests seemed to require it, he could advise a large expenditure and extensive armaments. While the prospect of the Spanish invasion filled the nation with just alarm, he deliberately drew up the plans of defence ; and by his serene and collected'demeanour seconded his courageous Mistress in diffusing general confidence and intrepidity." t " Cecil," says Macdiarmid, " was no less interested for the glory of his country than Essex ; yet while he felt how much security depends on political reputation, he also perceived the folly of attempting to render a nation glorious by wasting her resources, or great by reducing her to imbecility. Averse to- the idle waste of the people's property, and detesting the wanton effusion of human blood, he remonstrated against sacrificing the best interests of the nation to the avarice or ambition of a few individuals ; nor could he without indignation see both prince and people led away by the same passions as Essex, and giving up the reins of their understanding to the 1598-1 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 479 most sincerely aim at the honour and security of his country, while he served his own ambition, and was anxious to benefit his followers ; but no difference of opinion at this time could disturb the tranquil glories of Burghley's last labours. At all events, he must now be acknowledged to have been right, had his wish been accomplished ; and though not accomplished, by an absolute cessation of war, at that time, he was able, according to Camden, " while he lay desperately sick, and almost past hope of recovery," to enter into a nego tiation with the States, whereby the Queen was eased of expenses in the further prosecution ofthe war, to the amount of 120,000/. English, yearly; " all," says Camden, " by the wisdom and discretion of the Lord Burghley, and the negotiation of Sir Thomas Bodley, and George Gilpin, who succeeded the latter in the Council of the States." A passage we have the more need to quote, because Rapin, who generally follows Camden, but who, being a Hugonot, felt perhaps more for the Dutch Calvinists than Elizabeth, gives quite a different turn to this negotiation with the States, representing it to be a pure piece of artifice, to make them answerable for the war, which she herself after all wished to continue, a circumstance rendered doubtful by the difference between Burghley and Essex already referred to, and the account given by Camden of the two parties into which the Court was divided, and of whose opposite reason ings and arguments concerning war and peace, he has given a very good account. Another and much more modern writer, Macdiarmid, in speaking of the. frugality of Cecil's administration, observes, " The large debts contracted by Elizabeth's father and sister, with which she found the crown encumbered on her accession, amounted it is said to four millions, an enormous sum in that age ; yet these she quickly discharged, and at her death, could rank her most potent allies among her debtors. The States of Holland owed her eight hundred thousand pounds, and the King of France, four hundred and fifty thousand." This author, however, seems rather to contradict himself, in what he says just afterwards of Elizabeth's having had no recourse to illegal extor tions ; since he had certainly represented some of her forced loans, though well managed and applied, to have been of that description. " The frugality delusions of a heated brain :" p. 194. He admits that there was much to dazzle the eyes of the public, and of the Queen, in the advantages and riches to be acquired by maritime expeditions ; but he gives Lord Burghley, at the same time, credit for regarding these expeditions as little better than piracy, and a misdirection of the industrious talents and habits of the people, as well as of the capital of the nation. 480 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598.' of Elizabeth," he goes on to observe, " did not escape censure; and Cecil, by whose counsel it was known to be enforced, was often reproached with sacrificing the best allies of England, to his little-minded and parsimonious policy ; but events fully justified his sagacity, while our allies were raised to the most vigorous exertion, and finally triumphed over all their enemies ; England herself, the main spring of these efforts, advanced in a progressive course of prosperity." That Cecil knew how and when to be liberal as well as frugal, may be seen from other remarks of the same writer, and particularly in his section on the improvement of the soldiers' condition. But to return — There was no adequate and proper motive for continuing the war, if the United Provinces might be left to the enjoyment of their newly acquired rights and independence, and England relieved from the expenses and commercial restraints incident to war. For the arguments of those who were averse from peace, and the able replies to those arguments by the opposite party, we must refer to Camden, who has, as connected with these differences about a peace, related in this place that remarkable story of Essex, receiving, and venturing to shew his resentment of, a blow from the Queen's hand: but it does not belong to this memoir to do more, than allude to it; the next passage in Camden's History, however, must be transcribed at length. " In the midst of these discontents," says that historian, who had the best means of knowing the truth of his own relation, " died William Cecil Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England, being before spent with conti nued labour and employment of mind, the gout and old age, so that he gave himself over to sorrow and pensiveness, and writing a letter to the Queen, earnestly besought her that he might lay down his offices of Magistracy. Upon this she visited him now and then, comforting him with kind and loving words ; but within a few days, having now lived long enough to nature, long enough to his own glory, but not long enough to his country, he rendered his soul to God so quietly and peaceably, that the greatest adversary he had, said he envied him for nothing so much, as for s»ch a death in so great glory ; whereas, for the most part, the great ministers of public affairs have more sad and unhappy ends. Certainly he was a most excellent man, who (to say nothing of his reverend presence, his calm and undisturbed countenance) was so framed by nature, so polished and adorned with learning and education, that every way for honesty, gravity, temperance, industry, and justice, he was a most 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 481 accomplished person. Hereunto add his fluent and eloquent speech* (and that not affected, but plain, natural, and easy) ; his wisdom, confirmed by expe rience, and seasoned with great moderation ; his approved fidelity, and above all, his singular piety towards God. To speak all in a word, the Queen was happy in so great a Counsellor, and the state of England for ever indebted to him for his sage and prudent counsel." The above, it must be remembered, is the testimony of one who knew him personally and well ; nor should it be forgotten, considering the harsh and rude terms in which this great Minister is continually spoken of, in the books devoted to the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots, (of modern date,) that the praises bestowed upon him in the above extract, are from the pen of a historian, writing under the eye, and, as it has been very credibly reported, subject to the corrections, of James, the son of Mary ;\ and in a work noted, by some, for its partiality^; towards that unhappy Queen. * We have a particular testimony on record, that his public speeches were, to all appearance, the fruits of as little premeditation and preparation as possible. " It was observed," says his domestic biographer, " that for all his long and public speeches, he was never seen to study a quarter of an hour, or to take notes, or turn to books for any of his speeches — his long experience and practice made him need no helps." And again : " His general knowledge of all things of action and experience, in all learning or reading, was such, as he carried that in his head as others sought in books, precedents, and records. His best record was his experience, memory, and notable invention, even to all perfection that could be in a man." t It is certainly rather remarkable, that when James issued his order or warrant for the printing and publishing of Camden's history, from the beginning of the Queen's reign to the year 1589, he should allow it to be dated, "in the 12th year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the 48tb," thereby expressly confirming his mother's deposition in 1567, the warrant being issued in 1615. This might be unavoidable, but it has an odd appearance, considering all that has been since written upon the subject. X The celebrated Sir Robert Cotton, to whom we are indebted for the preservation of the MSS. composing the Cottonian Library, is said to have been employed by James, to write ani madversions upon Buchanans and Thuanus' accounts of the behaviour and actions of Mary, Queen of Scots, and to give a different turn to them, from what had been given by those two famous historians. What he drew up is supposed to be interwoven with Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, or else printed at the end of Camden's Epistles.— Biog. Brit. We must confess that having arrived, after very great labour and fatigue, at the end of the Life of Lord Burghley, we regard with astonishment the inconsiderate zeal, to say no worse, of those authors, who, in their regard for the reputation of Mary, Queen of Scots, have loaded him with reproaches the most unqualified, the most gross, and, in our opinion, the most unjustifiable; as we hope; in most instances, to have proved, by setting things, as far as we could, not in the light in which they VOL. III. ^ ^ 482 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. We shall pass on to some other accounts of his Lordship, written by contem poraries ; particularly the domestic historian of his life and character, already so often cited, chiefly following, however, an abstract prepared to our hands, free from the ancient spelling, and more suited to the present taste, having, besides, the support of other memorials. Where the author had better be left to speak for himself, we shall introduce his own words. "As to his end, it was conformable to his life, easy, natural, in the midst of his family, full of years, and of glory. In a word, he died possessed of the favour of his Prince, the love of the people, the respect even of his enemies ; he had also, what he often sought to resign, the greatest and most honourable offices in the kingdom, besides a large estate, and dutiful and excellent children. Thus blessed with all that a man could desire, on the 4th of August, 1 598,* about four in the morning, in the presence of twenty persons, children, friends, and servants, he yielded up the ghost with wonderful serenity, being upwards of seventy-seven years of age." Strype has printed what is entitled, Oratio Expirantis Domini, being the prayer made and read by Mr. Thompson, his Lordship's Chaplain, the night be fore he died. — See his Annals, vol. iv. p. 468. No. ccxlix. Of his last moments, his faithful domestic gives the following account : " His death was not sudden, [see before, p. 457.J nor his pain in sickness great, for he continued languishing two or three months, yet went abroad to take air in his coach all that time, retiring himself from the Court, sometimes to his house at Theobalds, and sometimes at London ; his greatest infirmity appearing to be the weakness of his stomach ; it was also thought his mind was troubled that he could not work a peace for his country, which he earnestly laboured and desired of any thing, seeking to leave have been placed by the chivalrous defenders of Mary, but in that light in which, in all human probability, they must have appeared to Lord Burghley, as the Defender of Elizabeth, of England, and of Protestantism. * It is somewhat strange that we have in Hentzner's travels, an account of Theobalds (or rather of the gardens), written while Lord Burghley lay dead. It may be seen in the third volume of Nichols' Progresses, 341. " We were not admitted to see the apartments of this palace," he writes, " there being nobody to shew it, as the family was in town attending the funeral of their Lord." It is, we apprehend, pretty generally known, that two funerals took place ; one at West minster, and the other at Stamford ; nor was it exactly known where the body was at the time : if in the coffin at Westminster, it was soon after conveyed to Stamford, but as the registers attest that the funeral at both places took place on the 29th of August, 1598, one of them must have been but a scene of delusive ceremony.— See Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i. p. 42. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 48.3 it as he had long kept it. For there was no other worldly thing to give him cause of grief; he had the favour of his Prince, the love of his people, great offices, honors, livings, good children, and all blessings the world could afford him ; yet he contemned the world, and desired nothing but death, either because he had lived long enough, and desired to be in heaven, or else because he could not live to do that good for his country he would, or rather, as is most likely, both ; for he had seen and tasted so much both of the sweet and sour of the world, as made him weary to live, and knew so much of the joys of his sal vation, wherein was his onely comfort, as gave him cause to desire death, when it was God's good pleasure, as he often said, but how or whatsoever it was, the signe was infallibly good. He contemned this life, and expected the next ; for there was no earthly thing wherein he took comfort, but in contemplation, reading, or hearing the Scriptures, Psalmes, and Praieres. About ten or twelve daies before he died he grew weak, and so dryvenne to kepe his bed, com- playning onely of a pain in his breast, which was thought to be the humor of the goute (wherewith he was so long possessed) falling to that place, without any ague, fever, or sign of distemper or danger, and that paine not great nor continuall, but by fits, and so continued, till within one night before his death. At six of the clock at night, the Phisitions finding no distemper in his pulse or bodie, but assuring his life, affirming it was impossible he should be hart- sicke, that had so good temper, and so perfect pulse and senses ; yet at seven of the clock following, he fell into a convultion like to the shaking of an ague. Now, quoth he, the Lord be praised, the tyme is come; and calling his children, blessed them and took his leave, commanding them to love and feare God, and love one another ; he also praid for the Queen, that she might live longe and die in peace. Then he called for Thomas Bellot, his Steward, one of his Executors, and delivered him his will, saieing, I have ever found thee true to me, and I nowe trust thee with all. Who like a godlie honest man, praid his Lordship as he had lived religiously so now to remember his Savioure Christ, by whose blood he was to have forgiveness of his sins ; with manie the like speeches used by his Chaplaines, to whom he answered, it was done already, for he was assured God had forgiven his sins, and would save his soul." To proceed with the abstracts, it would be easy to collect a multitude of passages, not only from English but foreign historians, in praise of this able and honest Statesman ; but it might look like ostentation, of which, assuredly, his character stands in no need ; even this imperfect picture, which has been 484 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598, drawn in these papers, as it is collected from impartial writers, and from. memoirs of undoubted authority, must satisfy the reader that he deserved, in a very remarkable manner, the confidence of his Sovereign, the love of the English nation, the gratitude of posterity, and that tribute of fame, which hath been so amply and so willingly paid him by all such writers, at home and abroad, as have had occasion to mention him, or his administration. His private character, his conduct in the ordinary affairs of life, his tenderness towards his family, with some account of the fortune which he raised from the emoluments arising to him out of the high offices he discharged, must be considered as a proper appendix to the memoirs of his public life. " Though not remarkably tall, nor eminently handsome, his person, we are told, was always agreeable, and became more and more so as he grew in years, age becoming him better than youth ; the hair of his head and beard grew perfectly white; and he preserved, almost to his dying day, a fine and florid complexion ; his temper contributed much towards making him generally beloved, for he was always serene and cheerful ; so perfect a master of his looks and words, that what passed in his mind, was never discoverable from either;* patient in hearing, ready in answering, yet without any quickness, and in a style suited to the understanding of him to whom he spoke. " Idleness was his aversion ; and though from twenty-five years of age, at which he was sworn a Privy-counsellor, being then the youngest, as at his death the oldest, in Europe, he laboured under a great weight of. public business ; yet, when he had any vacant moments, he spent them not in trifles, or in pursuit of sensual pleasures, but reading, meditating, or writing ; he had a perfect knowledge not only of foreign countries, but of foreign Courts ; knew the genius of every Prince in Europe, his Counsellors and favourites ; he was particularly conversant with the treaties between the several states of Europe, and could direct all Ambassadors ; he was acquainted with the course of every. Court of Judicature in England; knew its rise, jurisdiction, and proper sphere of action ; within which he took care that it should act with vigour, and was no less careful that it should not exceed its bounds ;| he wrote not only elegant * See Macdiarmid on his prudent reserve. t How far Lord Burghley was able, by any authority he possessed, to regulate the proceedings of any of the Courts of Justice at that period, we cannot pretend to say ; certain it is, that the Judges, under the Tudor race, were too yielding at times to the arbitrary spirit of those Princes, and are little to be compared with their truly independent successors, since the era of the Revo- L598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 485 Latin prose, but also very good verse, in that and the English language ;* he understood Greek as well as most men in that age; and was so learned in divinity, that divines of all persuasions were desirous of submitting to his judgment; his peculiar diversions were the study of the state of England, and pedigrees of its Nobility and Gentry ; of these last he drew whole books with his own hands, so that he was better versed in descents and families than most of the heralds; and would often surprise persons of distinction at his table, by appearing better acquainted with their manors, parks, woods, &c, than they were themselves. To this continual application, and to his genius, naturally comprehensive, was owing that fund of knowledge which made him never at a loss, in any company, or upon any subject." As he was long in great offices, and was a person of much economy, yet he thought it both decent and honourable, as certainly it was, to keep up the dignity of his station in his manner of living. He had, during Queen Elizabeth's reign, four places of residence ; his lodgings at Court, his house in the Strand,\ his lution, and the famous act of George III. One Judge, however, who seems to have braved the prerogative, and interfered to prevent unlawful arrests, with good effect, appears to have had the countenance of Lord Burghley, as well in regard to his appointment to the Bench, as in respect of his remonstrances on the subjects alluded to. We mean the famous Chief Justice Andersdn, an indiscreet man in manners, but a sound Lawyer, and " one , that would not," says his biographer, " be driven from what he thought right, by any authority whatever." * It can scarcely be expected that we should have a long list to produce of his literary compo sitions, in prose or poetry, considering the account we have had to give of his incessant occupa tions as a Statesman. The following, perhaps, as taken from Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors, and thence transcribed by the editors of the Biographia Britannica, and Mr. Chalmers in his Dictionary, may be sufficient : " Carmina duo Latina in obitum Margareta Nevillx, Regime Catherina; d Cubiculis ;" " Carmen Latinum in Memoriam Tho. Challoneri equitis aurati, prqfixum ejusdem libro de restaurata republica ;" " La complainte de 1'ame pecheresse,'' in French verse, extant in the King's Library ; a Preface to Queen Catherine's Parr's Lamentation of a Sinner ; " Lord Burghley's Precepts or Directions for the well-ordering of a man's life." These, with the public papers and memorials already noticed, the tract on the Execution of Justice in England, and his answers to various letters, are all that can be put to his account as an author; Holinshed, indeed, puts him into his list of English historians, but it is supposed to be only on account of the materials he furnished for the Diarium Expeditions Scoticce, published by William Patten,. 1541, and noticed in our first volume. f Of his house in the Strand, an account may be seen, after several authors, in Nichols's Pro gresses, vol. iii. 79 ; and a sketch of it in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lvi. p. 1007. See also Newcourt's Repertorium, and Peck's Desiderata Curiosa. Of his seat at Burghley, the residence of his lineal descendant, the present Marquess of Exeter, K. G., many accounts are extant. A 486 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. family-seat at Burghley, and his own favourite seat at Theobalds. At his house in London, he had fourscore persons in family, exclusive of those who attended him at Court. His expenses there, as we have it from a person who lived many years in his family, were thirty pounds a- week in his absence, and between forty and fifty when present. At Theobalds, he had about thirty persons in family, and besides a constant allowance in charity, he directed ten pounds a-week to be laid out in keeping the poor at work in his gardens, &c. &c* The expense of his tables were a thousand marks a-year ; so that, as he had a great income, and left a good estate to his children, he was not afraid of keeping up also a port suited to his offices, though it provoked the envy of his enemies, and did, as it will always do, engage many mouths to murmur at him because they were not fed by him. He carried things still farther : he kept a standing table for gentlemen, and two other tables for persons of meaner condition, which were always served alike, whether he were in town or out of town. About his person he had people of distinction, insomuch that our author tells us, that while in his service, he could reckon up twenty gentlemen, retainers, view of the House is to be seen among the engravings in Nichols's Progresses, vol.i. and in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i. A more ancient representation, with a description of the place, and " of all the principal paintings and other rarities now to be seen there," in a letter to Roger Gale, jun. Esq. from Mr. Peck. It is without date, but rather ancient and very curious ; it was probably written in the time of Brownlow, ninth Earl of Exeter, who came to the title in 1754. Burghley House appears to have been begun in 1 575. Of Theobalds, we have had occasion to say much already. Sir Robert Cecil improved it after his father's death, and rendered it so desirable for a kingly palace, that King James procured him to exchange it for Hatfield; and it was at Theobalds that that King died in 1627. * " I have heard his officers affirm, that at his Lordship's being at Theobalds, it has cost him fourscore pounds a-week." — MS. " He would buy great quantities of corn in time of dearth, to furnish markets about his house at under prices, to pull down the price to relieve the poor," — ib. Compare Macdiarmid, 244. And in his absence from Theobalds, he relieved there daily at his gate, twenty or thirty poor people ; and, by the hands of his Chaplain, gave weekly twenty shillings to the poor. For his number of attendants, he was as honourably and orderly served as sorted with a man of his Lordship's place and degree ; and, as near as he could, he would never entertain any con tentious, vicious, or evil-disposed persons. His steward kept a standing table for gentlemen, besides two other long tables, many times twice set — one for the clerk ofthe kitchen, the other for yeomen. " His harvest lasted every year for above thirty days together, wherein he allowed some of his servants the same courtesy Boaz granted Ruth (viz. to glean even among the sheaves, and suffered some handfuls also to fall on purpose for them), whereby they raised great estates." — Fuller's Holy State — alluding as much to his hospitality as his charity. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 487 who had each a thousand pounds a-year, and as many among his ordinary ser vants, who were worth from one thousand to three, five, ten, and twenty thousand. Twelve times he entertained the Queen at his house for several weeks to gether, at the expense of two or three thousand pounds each time. Yet with all this mighty expense, it was the opinion of competent judges, that an avaricious man would have made more of his offices in seven years than he did in forty. With respect to his children, he was accounted the best of fathers ; for he had them and their descendants continually at his table ; and this he made the greatest pleasure of his life ; his mother also being alive, and able to see the fifth descent from herself, there being no degree of relation or consanguinity which, at festival times, was not to be found at Lord Burghley's table. It was there that, laying aside all thoughts of business, he was so affable, easy, and merry, that he seemed never to have thought of any ; and yet, this was the only part of his life which was entirely free therefrom : and his frankness and fami liarity brought such and so many persons of high rank to his house, as did him great credit and service. In respect to his friends, he was always easy, cheerful, and kind ; and what ever their condition was, he talked to them as if they had been his equals in every respect ; yet it is said, that he was held a better enemy than friend, and that this was so well known, that some opposed him from a view ,of interest. It is certain, that those who were most intimate with him, had no sort of in fluence over him, and did not care to ask for anything, because he did not readily grant, and was little pleased with such sort of suits. One reason of this was, that most of them whom he preferred, became his enemies, because he would not gratify them in farther pretensions. His secrets he trusted to none ; indulged a general conversation, and would not suffer affairs of State to be can vassed in mixed company, or when friends were met to divert themselves. With respect to his enemies, he never said any thing- . harsh at them ; fur thered on every occasion their reasonable requests, and was so far from seeking, that he plainly neglected every opportunity of revenge, always professing, that he never went to bed out of charity with any man; and frequently saying, that patience, and calm bearing of aspersion and injuries,. had wrought him more good than his own abilities. He was far, however, from being an ungrateful man ; for without intreating 488 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. - [1598. he would serve his friends, as far as it was just; and his servants, and those about him, he was very careful of their welfare, mostly at his own expense. He never raised his own rents, or displaced his tenants ; and as the rent was when he bought land, so it stood ; insomuch that some enjoyed for 20/. a year, during his whole life, what might have been let for 200/. Yet in his -public character he was very severe, and as he never meddled with the Queen's trea sure himself, so he would see that it was not embezzled by others; for it was his saying, that whoever cheated the Crown, oppressed the people. In the midst of all his grandeur, he was very easy of access, free from pride, and alike com plaisant to all degrees of people ; for he was very grave in council, exact in courts of justice, familiar towards his friends, outwardly and inwardly fond of his children; so when he went into the country, he would converse with all his servants, as kindly, as if they had been his equal ; talk to country people in their own style and manner, and would even condescend to soothe little children in their sports and play ; so gentle his temper, and so abundant his good nature. At Theobalds he had five gardens, which cost him a great deal of money, and which were laid out according to his own directions. He had a little mule, upon which he rode up and down the walks ;* some^ times he would look on those who were shooting with arrows, or playing with bowls ; but as for himself, he never took any diversion, taking that word in its usual sense. He had two or three friends, who were constantly at his table, because he liked their company; but in all his life, he never had any favourite, or suffered any body to get an ascendant over him. His equipage, his great house-keeping, his numerous dependence, were the effects of his sense, and not at all of his passions; for he delighted little in any of them; and whenever he had any time to spare, he fled, as his expression was, to Theobalds, and buried himself in privacy. We ought to conclude this draught of his private character, with speaking of his religion, but we have had such occasion to dwell upon it heretofore, as he was the great pillar of the Church, and the great Patron of the Clergy, that there is no need of expatiating on it here, Let us only attend to two instances of his sincerity in this point : the first, his readiness to be reconciled to his enemies ; which was so great, that he never refused it, let the condition of those • There is in the picture gallery at Oxford, a picture of him on this identical mule. Many copies of it have been taken ; but it is an ill drawn picture. 1598-] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 489 who sought it be what it would ; and even while they remained at enmity with him, he would upon all occasions express an esteem for their abilities, and willingness to promote their advancement.* The second, his resignation in his last illness, in which, while he testified a most cheerful sense of the signal blessings he enjoyed in his life, he shewed not only a satisfaction, but an earnest desire of dying. He comforted and instructed his children with much tenderness, but without betraying any weakness. He prayed fervently, and as his custom was, in Latin, whence some raised a report that he was a Papist : yet he never shewed any discomposure at the approach of death ; but as he lived with the charity, so he died with the constancy of a Christian. He gave largely to the poor in his lifetime, erected an almshouse at Stamford, and by his will bequeathed munificently, but not lavishly, to charitable uses. A few particulars, from his life by a Domestic, ought here to be added, as they are very striking : — " He gave for releasing of prisoners, in many of his latter years, forty and fifty pounds in a term ; and for twenty years together, he gave yearly in beef, bread, and money, at Christmas, to the poor of Westminster, St. Martin's, St. Clement's, and Theobalds, thirty-five, and sometimes forty pounds per annum. [N.B. The great difference ofthe value of money should always be considered.] He gave also to twenty poor men lodging in the Savoy, twenty suits of apparel ; he gave also to poor prisoners and poor parishes in money, weekly, forty-and- five shillings." In the Vth Book of Peck's Desiderata, vol. i. No. xvii. may be seen at length " The ordinances made by Sir William Cecil, Knight of the Order * " Cautiously avoiding all interference- with the rivalships and quarrels of the other courtiers, and giving no reasonable ground for offence, he bore the injuries of his enemies without any ap pearance of resentment, and endeavoured to bring them into the number of his friends by taking the first opportunity to promote their interests. When the Earl of Leicester, who had always thwarted his measures, and often calumniated Ms character, at length fell under the Queen's dis pleasure, Burghley successfully exerted himself to procure the restoration of this virulent opponent to favour. Nor did he hesitate to form a hearty reconciliation with Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, who had long been one of his most~ dangerous enemies, and who had desisted from his practices only when he found Burghley's power too firmly established to be shaken. Although Essex was his avowed and turbulent opponent, yet when Elizabeth refused some just claim of that noble man, the Lord Treasurer supported 'his cause.with so much firmness, that the enraged Queen bestowed upon him some of those epithets, by, which she usually made her Courtiers feel her dis pleasure." — Macdiarmid. VOL. III. 3 R, 490 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. of the Garter, Baron of Burghley, for the order and government of xiij poor men, whereof one to be Warden, of the Hospital of Stamford Baron, in the county of Northampton."— The date, August 20, 1597. 39 Eliz. It is accompanied with a plate, or what the author calls " The Ichnography of Lord Burghley's Hospital, as it stood ann, .1597— from an old MS." The rules or ordinances are xxvi. in number.* Lord Buckhurst succeeded Lord Burghley in the office of Treasurer, and in Sir John Harrington's " Notes and Observations," we find the following entry, two months only after Lord Burghley's death : — October 1598. — "I this day went to the new Lord. High Treasurer, Lord Buckhurst. I was not ill received ; nor, in sooth, so well as I had been used to in the day of Lord Burghley. When shall our realm see such a man, or when such a mistress have such a servant ? Well might one weep when the other died. This choice doth well assure us, that in the wit, of the servant dwelleth the master's fortune, and that all states have thriven better or worse, as the govern ment was given to such as were honest and able. If a King hath not discern ment to chuse a few wise heads, how shall he subdue the many foolish hearts ? or how shall the leaves and blossoms flourish,, when the sap is corrupted at the root? I could herewith cite many good authorities, both Greek and Latin, to prove this mine opinion ; but I do remember what Burghley did once say in my hearing to Walsingham, who had been waiting to confer with him about many great matteTs, whereof I had borne some part, in bearing a message from the Queen to Hatton. When my Lord Treasurer did come in from prayers, Sir Francis Walsingham did in merry sort say, that he wished himself so good a servant of God as Lord Burleigh, but that he had not been at church for a week past. Now my Lord Burleigh did gravely reply thus : ' I. hold it meet for us to ask God's grace to keep us sound at heart, who have so much in our power, and to direct us to the well-doing of all the people, whom it is easy for us to injure and ruin ; and herein, my good friends, the special blessing seemeth meet to be discreetly asked . and wisely worne.' I did marvel at this good dis course, to see how a good man considereth his weighty charge, and striveth to keep out Satan from corrupting the heart in discharge of his duties. How few * Memoirs of William Cecil Lord Burghley, &c. — Life by a Domestic, &c. — and compare the account of him copied by Mr. Ellis from the Sloane MSS., Original Letters, vol. ii. 189.— Second series. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 491 have such hearts or such heads, and therefore shall I note this for those who read hereafter."* As Sir John alludes in the passage above to the known fact of the Queen s having wept when first told of the death of Lord Burghley, we cannot resist adding the following passage from a letter of Sir Robert Sidney (younger brother of Sir Philip) to Sir John himself, two years after Lord Burghley's death. " I do see the Queen often," he writes; "she doth wax weak since the last troubles, and Burghley's death doth often draw tears from her goodly cheeks ; she walketh out but little, meditates much alone, and sometimes writes in private to her best friends. " — This was in 1600. As we have observed, that the year 1598 terminated the life of Philip II. as well as that bf Lord Burghley, Sir John's observations upon the former (though not so charitable as one could wish, had Philip been less of a tyrant)! may be subjoined. After his remarks on the pious reflections of Lord Burghley, in his reply to Walsingham, he adds, " It is worthy noting, when we find how little sure happiness is allotted even to the mighty on earth, Philip of Spain reigned * " It must be observed," says the author of the Memoirs of William Cecil, &c. " that as the Earl of Leicester's religion was much suspected, though he was a great professor, on account of his total neglect of private devotion, so the reputation of Lord Burghley's piety was supported and confirmed by his uniform and exemplary conduct. While he was Secretary of State he went every morning to the Queen's Chapel ; when his infirmities obliged him to keep his chamber, he prayed by his bed-side ; when he was too weak to kneel, he took his book into bed ; and when he grew still more faint, he had a person to read by him. His Chaplain said prayers twice a day publicly in his family ; and if any were absent, his Lordship took notice of it, and chid them very severely, though in all other respects he was the most gentle master in the world." — p. 69. See also Peck's Desiderata Curiosa. We may add to the above, the following short passage, from a paper addressed to his young and amiable ward, the Earl of Rutland, January 1570, when he was about to set off on his travels, It stands at the head of a paper in Lord Burghley's own hand-writing, of " things to be considered in his Travels," still in existence at the State Paper Office, — " The first, the midst, and the last, is, to continue yourself in the fear of God, by daily service of him in prayer." \ " He was called," says Voltaire, " the devil of the south, because, from the centre of Spain, which is the southern part of Europe, he gave disturbance to the dominions of every other Prince. There is a very curious pasquinade in the third volume of Lodge's Illustrations of British History, to be seen, purporting to be a " Confession de la Foy Espaignolle — enseignant que toute Foy, toute Esperance, doibt cefondeesur le trespuissant Roy Philippe, et sur tous les Apostres de la Ste. Ligue ; et qu'il ne faut faire comme les Bourbonnois, Anglois, et Protestants, que croient en Dieu seul, obeissants plutost a Cryst q'au Pape." 492 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. forty-two years in troubles and disquietudes, lost his provinces, whilst he was striving to enlarge his possessions ; and then, in old age, was eaten by lice when living.* God grant me no further ambition than to be eaten by worms when I am dead ! and this I said to the Queen." Many things still remain to be noticed before we bring the Memoirs ofthe great Lord Burghley to an end. Having spoken of his Lordship's piety, the following preamble to his will ought not to be forgotten. The will bears date October 20, 1579, and revised many times after, viz. 25th July, 1583 ; 26th July, 1586 ; 28th October, 1588 ; February 20, 1589 ; November 1, 1591 ; November 20, 1593 ;. August, 1595 ; and, finally, prima Martii millesimo quingentessimo nonagesimo septimo. — 1597- [From the Sloane MSS. noticed by Mr. Ellis, in the third volume of his Second Series of Original Letters, p. 189, we learn that his Lordship always carried his will, and other papers of importance relative to his estates, about with him, wherever he went.] " Considering, by the goodness of Almighty God, I have, been created a reasonable creature, and thereby ordained to serve him; and born of Christian parents, and christened in the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and, consequently, brought up and instructed, in my young years, in the knowledge of the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; which was more clearly revealed in the times of my young years than it had been many years before; being thereby taught that there was no other means for the salvation of the soul but by the death and resurrection of Christ the Son of God, wherein I do put my whole confidence and trust, and do desire the assistance of his Holy Spirit to have grace to be thankful for the same, and to have a desire to obey his will and commandments, as far forth as the infirmity of my flesh will suffer, in living religiously and virtuously ; whereunto, adding the inevitable certainty of the death of my body, though I am uncertain of the time ; and yet by the increase of time, and infirmities of my body, necessarily induced to look shortly, by order of nature, for my worldly end ; and that whatsoever worldly goods God * He is represented by some to have died of the morbus pediculosus. Watson's Philip II. should be consulted for a fair and just account of this strange man — & Solomon to some, to others a Tiberius. The article appropriated to him in the Nouveau- Dictionnaire Historique, is discreet and good. Mr. Turner has introduced some curious extracts concerning him from the Memoirs of De Cheverney. " In his private capacity," says Voltaire, " we shall find him a rigid and suspicious master, a cruel lover, a barbarous husband, and an unnatural father." 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 493 hath given, or rather lent unto me, I do certainly know that, by death, I must leave them all to the world ; and that whatsoever godly and spiritual graces and gifts hath been, by God's special grace, bestowed on me, I hope, certainly, by God's goodness and mercy, though my body shall be committed to earth, yet to enjoy the fruits thereof in heaven, after this mortal life, if I shall use and dispose them in this life to God's glory, acknowledging them to have proceeded of his mere goodness, and that more plenteously than to many others. " Upon all these, and many like considerations, I being at this present time occupied with the cogitations of my mortality, and yet of whole mind and memory (for which I humbly thank Almighty God), do determine, as many times heretofore I have done, to declare my last will and testament, in writing, concerning the disposition of my lands and goods, which are worldly ; what my mind is therein, and to whom I will and desire that the same shall remain after my decease, in such sort as by the laws of the realm I may, and, as I hope, shall not offend God, the giver of them all to me : considering, as it is in the Psalm, Ccelum cceli Domino, terram dedit filiis hominum ; and, therefore, first, this 20th day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1579, and of Queen Eli zabeth the 22dj I do revoke all my former wills in writing, which are many, and do mean that none shall, from this time forward, be of any force, but this now written, and that which shall from time to time be added hereunto;" As to the particulars of his will, as we have noticed the, odd circumstance of two funerals, at great distance from each pther, having, to all appearance, taken place on the same day, the following passages may, perhaps, help to explain the difficulties of the case. " As for the burial of my body — because before the time of writing hereof, I have already caused a place in St. Martin's Church* in Stamford Baron, in the county of Northampton, wherein my house of Burleigh is situated, to be made fit for a burial-place for the bodies of my grandfather, father, and mother, and myself, and others that may succeed me ; I do desire my executors, or such as I shall in this my will name, to take the charge of my burial, to cause my body to be buried there; otherwise I will leave it to be buried by their discretion, with the license of the Dean and Chapter, in the Collegiate Church of West minster, near where the bodies of my wife and my daughter of Oxford are buried." * The Vicarage, of St. Martin's was endowed with the Rectorial tithes of the parish by his Lordship ; who, in the year 1570, was also at the expense of rebuilding the town bridge at Stamford. 494 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY- t1598- As he had caused a very stately monument to be erected to the memory of both these ladies, in the Abbey, and even written a very long Latin inscription for it, as we shall have to shew, it is very difficult to say what his own precise wishes might be when he gave so large a discretionary power to his trustees. It is probable besides, that his executors might think, that though the family- vault at Stamford were the most suitable place for the reception of his body, yet that his high station and very eminent character might seem to require a more marked and public funeral than he had himself prescribed, in case he should be buried at Stamford : for the will proceeds — " And if my body shall be carried to be buried at Stamford Baron, I will that it be carried without any pomp, to my house of Burleigh, in some coach covered with black, accompanied only with twelve persons, and no more, whereof four to be gentlemen, and the rest yeomen and grooms, for avoiding of an unnecessary charge in a long carriage of a dead carcase ; and that there be given forty shillings to every parish church for the poor where my corpse shall remain every night, until it shall be brought to my house of Burleigh, from whence it shall be decently carried to St. Martin's Church in Stamford'' The bequests in his will, particularly of plate, according to a certain specified number of ounces, to the several legatees, are very numerous. His estates he divided generally between his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Robert Cecil ; assigning to the former such portions of his landed property in Northampton shire, Rutlandshire, and Lincolnshire, as were most connected with Burghley ;* and to the latter, his estates in Hertfordshire, Essex, and Middlesex, including Theobalds and Cheshunt Park. He provided handsomely for his three grand children by the Countess of Oxford, the Lady Elizabeth (Countess of Derby), and the Ladies Bridgett and Susan Vere ; and concluded with certain gifts of charity to various parishes, and prisoners in the London jails, and donations to his servants ; his two executors being Dr. Gabriel Goodman, Dean of West minster, and his faithful servant, steward, and almoner (for so he may be justly • Essendon [or Essingdon], in the county of Rutland, having been settled on the children of his second marriage, came to Sir Robert, whence he took his first title as a Peer, being created, May 13, 1603, Baron Cecil of Essendon, county Rutland. In securing this estate for ever to Sir Robert and his heirs, or the heirs of his sister Anne, Countess of Oxford, both born of Mildred Lady Burghley, he refers to its situation in the neighbourhood of the Burghley estates, willing it to be reserved by the heirs of his second marriage, as " a place to resorte unto, where my eldest son's livelihood doth lye, to continue familiaritie and acquaintance in blood betwixt them." — Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i. b. v. 191. l598-3 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 495 called, from the many charities that passed through his hands), Mr. Thomas Bellott of Cheshunt.* And for overseers of the will (an appointment customary in those days), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Keeper, and Justice Owen ; giving to each of them a piece of gold plate to the weight of thirty ounces. As the whole will is extant in other books, particularly in Collins's edition of Lord Burghley's Life by a Domestic, we shall not think it necessary to transcribe it here ; nor the account of his several estates, of which he died pos sessed, which Mr. Peck has printed in the first volume of his Desiderata Curiosa, Book v. No. xxix. It is entitled, " A particular account of all such lands and other real estates as the Right Honourable William Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England, &c. was pos sessed of at the time of his death, as the same was taken and returned upon inquisition, in Latin. " Inquisitio indentata, capta apud Stamford in Comitatu Lincoln, 23° Aprilis, anno regni D. Elizabethe, D. G. Anglia, Francie, et Hibernie Regine, fidei de- fensoris, &c. 41°." Then follow the names of the Commissioners, and of the several persons examined upon oath, as to particulars, which are exceedingly numerous, but of little interest to general readers ; the inquisition concludes in these words, — " Et ulterius juratores predicti, super sacramentum suum predictum, dicunt, quod prenobilis Thomas Cecil, est filius et heres propinquior predicti Willielmi nuper D. Burghley, &c. et etatis quinquaginta sex annorum, et amplius, tempore mortis predicti W. nuper D. Burghley, &c. " Et insuper, — Quod neque predictus Willielmus D. Burghley, nee aliquis alius, nee alii aliqui, ad ejus usum, habuit seu tenuit, habuerunt seu tenuerunt, + This faithful servant, if I mistake not, lies buried within the rails of the Altar in Cheshunt Church. He was not only the distributor of Lord Burghley's charities and benefactions, but a benefactor himself, as may be seen by the following extract from a very curious account of the last sickness of the first Earl of Salisbury, written from Bath, 1612, by his Chaplain, Mr. John Bowles, afterwards Bishop of Rochester : " This day my Lord removed his lodging, and was desirous to see the great Church in Bath, where old Master [Thomas] Bellot [his father's steward and one of his executors] had bestowed some money of his father's, committed to his trust, and a great part likewise of his own substance. The Church he much liked, and the liberalities of such benefactors as had brought it to so good a perfection ; adding, that he would himself bestow some good remembrance to the finishing thereof. And because old Mr. Bellot had spent all upon charitable uses, and left nothing for his kinsman, my Lord in the Church said, I give to my ser vant Bellot twenty pounds a-year during his natural life." 496 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. aliqua alia sive plura castra, dominia, manieria, mesuagia, terras, tenementa aut hereditamenta, in dicto com. Lincoln, seu alibi, in diminio, reversione, aut in servitio, dicto die quo obiit, aliter quam ut supra dictum est, ad eorum notitiam." Of the several distinct estates or holdings, comprised under the descriptions above, of lands, messuages, manors, tenements, and hereditaments, the numbers returned upon the inquisition appear to have amounted to, as nearly as possible,' three hundred* We must not, however, suppose from this that his gains Were exorbitant, or his fortune greater than his services had merited; for in probf of his having been neither miserable nor covetous, after speaking of his large expenses in buildings and charities, his Domestic observes, "all which great charges or expenses do prove he was neither covetous nor miserable ; for to be covetous, is to desire more than he hath — but he might have had far more than he had, ergo he was not covetous ; for where he had a shilling, he might have had a pound, if that vile humour had possessed him. And to be in so great favour of his Prince, so great a Counsellor in so great offices, so long time together, carrying the whole sway of the state, what wealth might he not have gathered if he had coveted to gather more ? Are there not some with no office, small favour with the Prince, no countenance, and no credit in the Common wealth, that have gathered more land, more money, and more wealth, than his Lordship left ? Yes, many. Nay, I dare undertake, if some had his offices, * Among the papers in the Museum, are many accounts in Lord Burghley's hand-writing relating to his estates, or the estates of his mother, their value, rents, and various other particulars. From some of these, it appears, that a portion of the rents was very commonly paid, not in money, but in corn of all kinds ; straw, sheep, calves, rabbits, &c. There are also various letters from his agents in the country, giving account of planting or felling of woods, of the stock upon the estates, cows, sheep, horses; purchases and sales upon the farms, provision for the households and families, &c. ; improvements in his gardens and pleasure grounds, and a multitude of other 'things, exceedingly curious to those who are fond of such researches, but not of importance enough' to be introduced into a work of this nature. . They all conspire, however, to shew the' constant atten tion of this great Statesman, as well to all the details of his domestic concerns, as to the affairs of the nation ; the only difficulty being to ascertain how it was possible for him to' find time for such a multiplicity of business. For though it is well known that he employed many" secretaries, yet those who are conversant with the contents of our public repositories of MSS., will know how continually the evidence of his own hand-writing occurs, in proof of his individual attention to the various subjects that seemed to call for his notice. We have before had occasion to' observe, that many of his household accounts, and private memorandums, appear in Greek characters, as in his account of 7r\ar£, we find tcotteq 6 of aiKBep — tnroves — ie'arip BorreXK, inTfap Bofy — a KoBipS Kvirir gilt 00 ie quees gyft, &c. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 497 place, and credit, but seven years, they would gain more in that time, than he did in forty years' painful service : covetousness is to desire all, and he might have had more than he desired, which proveth he coveted not so much ; so likewise to be miserable, is he that can find in his heart to spend nothing ; but I can prove he spent liberally, and therefore he could not be miserable. Look upon his huge expenses, and the truth will then shine out ; he spent infinite sums in building, hospitality, and in maintenance of his honourable post ; he gave 500/, a year to the poor ; he spent more in entertainment of his Prince than any subject; he kept as fair a stable of horse as any nobleman ; he made as costly gardens, walks, and places of pleasure, as are to be seen : put these and the like sums together, and then must his enemies confess, and his friends approve, he could never be miserable that could spend so liberally ; for a miser will spend nothing." The author enters further into the particulars of his pro perty, to shew that it was far from being exorbitantly great, comparatively, and observes, that upon Lord Oxford's great losses by profusion, he bought part of his lands, to give to his [Lord Oxford's] own daughter. As to his honourable courses, as the Queen's Treasurer, it is remarked, that " he would never pay a penny of the Queen's money without her warrant, nor ever borrowed or took any money out of the Exchequer for his own use, as many Treasurers had done ; neither did he owe the Queen a penny when he died." As we have had to notice the odd circumstance of two funerals- having appa rently taken place on the same day, so as to puzzle some persons as to the actual interment of the remains of the great man whose life we have been writing, we have now to notice two inscriptions commemorative of his name and family, one at Stamford, and the other in Westminster Abbey. As the probability is, that during the celebration of his funeral in the latter Cathedral, his body was secretly conveyed to Stamford, and there buried amongst his ancestors, we shall first transcribe what is to be found on his monument in that place. " Deo. opt. maximo et memorise sacrum honoratissimus et longe clarissimus D. Gulielmus Cecilius, Baro de Btjrgleigh, summus Angliae Thesaurarius, curiae pupillorum prsefectus, Georgiani ordinis eques auratus; serenissimae Elizabeths Angliae, &c. Reginae, a sanctioribus Consiliis, et Academiae Cantabrigiensis Cancellarius, sub hoc tumulo, secundum Christi adventum manet. " Qui ob eximias animi dotes, primum a secretis fuit Edwardo sexto, Anglias Regi: deinde Reginae Elizabethae, sub qua in maximis et gravissimis hujus vol. 111. 3 s 498 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. regni causis spectatus, et imprimis probatus. Veram Religionem promovendo, concilio, sequitate, constantia, magnisque in Rempub : meritiSj honores conse- cutus summos, cum naturae et gloriae satis, patriae autem parum vixisse, placide in Christo obdormivit. "Uxores habuit duas ; Martam sororem Johannis Cheeke equitis aurati; e qua genuit filium unicum Thomam nunc Baronem de Burghley, et Mil- dredam filiam Antonii Cooke equitis aurati, quae illi peperit Robertum Cecilium equitem auratum Reginae Elizabethae a. secretis, et curiae praefectum. Annam enuptam Edwardo Comiti Oxoniae ; et Elizabetham Gulielmo Wentworth filio primogenito Baronis Wentworth." — The mention of his Lord ship's two marriages in this inscription, and of his two sons by those marriages, who became severally the heads of the present most noble houses of Salisbury and Exeter, induces us to pass the prescribed limits of this- memoir so far, as to notice the rather extraordinary circumstances ofthe elevation of both the brothers to the rank of Earls. Sir Thomas Cecil, the issue of the first marriage, suc ceeded of course to the Barony of Burghley on the death of; his father, 1598. In May 16Q3, Sir Robert Cecil, being then Secretary of State, Was created Baron Cecil of Essingdon, and in August 1604, Viscount Cranborne, thereby obtaining rank above his brother ; but, as it would seem, not by his own desire, as a letter, still in existence, from the second Lord Burghley to the King's Attorney- General, plainly shews than an offer was made to the latter of an advancement in the Peerage* before his brother was even made a Baron. The letter is on many accounts curious. " Sir John Hubbert, " Your letters found me in such estate, as rather I desired three days' ease of- pain, than to delight to think of any title of honour. " I am resolved to content myself with this estate I have of a baron ; and my present estate of living, howsoever those ofthe world have enlarged it, I find little enough to maintain Jhe degree I am in, and I am sure they that succeed me will be less able to maintain it than I am, considering there will go out of the baronage three younger brothers' livings. " This is all I can write to you at this time, being full of pain ; and therefore you must be content with this my brief writing. And I give you my hearty thanks for your good wishes, and think myself beholden to those my friends that had care of me therein. And so I rest your assured friend, " Thomas Burghley." " Burleigh, this 12th of January, 1603." 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 499 In this letter the different way of spelling Burghley is very noticeable, though consistent with the customs of those days. We have shewn, in our first volume, upon what authority we have constantly adopted the spelling in our title-page. It seems evident from the above account, that it was with Lord Burghley's own choice and consent that his brother was advanced before him in the Peerage, and even at last, an Earldom appears to have been almost forced upon the former, to keep him at least in the same degree of nobility as his brother ; for on the very day that Lord Cranborne was made Earl of Salisbury, Lord Burghley was made Earl of Exeter, the latter Peerage bearing date but a few hours after the former. Collins seems to think it was an Earldom that was offered to Lord Burghley in 1603; but his Lordship had a large family,* and it is impossible not to admire the firmness with which he seems to have resisted his own advancement, without wishing to impede that of his brother/ The other inscription, said to be written by Lord Burghley himself, soon after the deaths of the Countess of Qxford and his own Lady,"f may require some previous description of the monument to which it applies ; especially as it may serve as almost a regular English version of the inscription itself. The following therefore we copy from a printed history of " The Antiquities of St. Peter's, or the Abbey Church of Westminster, in two volumes, 1722." " Next to this, but a little more toward the south-east angle of this Chapel, you behold against the wall a most noble monument, 24 foot high, with divers arches and canopies, supported by pillars of the Corinthian order, and adorned with pyramids of porphyry, Touch, Lydian, and various coloured marble, most curiously carved, and gilt with gold. On the upper part of this monument, you see, under a neat arch, a small image of an ancient man on his knees, in his robes of state, with a collar and jewel of the Order, of St. George about his neck, being the statue of William Cecill Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England, Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth, and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, who erected this stately tomb to the memory of his wife and daughter. Their statues are to be seen at full length, in a cumbent posture, in their robes of the finest alabaster, on the pedestal ; the farthermost representing Mildred, the'Lady Burleigh, wife ofthe beforesaid William Cecill. She was daughter to Sir Anthony Coke, Knight, by Anne, the * Eleven children, according to the inscription in Westminster Abbey, of which we have to speak. f Strype's Annals, iv. No. cclii. 500 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. daughter of Sir. William Fitzwilliam, Knight, and no less eminent for her extraordinary charity and piety, than for her uncommon learning ; for she not only endowed several Colleges in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with certain annual revenues, but also bestowed every month considerable gifts upon the poor, in several parts of the country, and supplied necessitous trades men with money to carry on their business : besides this, she was well versed in the Latin, and still more in the Greek tongue, taking great delight in reading the works of Basil the Great, Chrysostome, Gregory of Nazianzen, and such like. " She Was married in the twentieth year of her age to the before-mentioned William Cecill, Anno 1545, and lived with him no less than forty-three years, during which time she bore him a numerous stock of children, who died very young, except two daughters, viz. Anne and Elizabeth, and one son named Robert Cecill, who not long before her death married Elizabeth ¦Brooke, the daughter of the Lord Cobham. She died in the sixty-third year of her age, the fourth day of April, 1589. " The other statue on the hithermost side represents the Lady Anne her daughter, who was married in the fifteenth year of her age to Edward Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford of that name, and Lord High Chamberlain of England; by whom she had many children, but left only three daughters behind her, viz. Elizabeth at fourteen, and Bridget at five years of age : ^Su sanna, the third, being only an infant at the time of her death, which happened about a year before that of her mother, viz. Anno 1588, at the Royal Palace at Greenwich. At the head of the pedestal of this tomb, is a canopy supported by small columns of the Corinthian order, and painted with azure, and another of the same make and material at the feet ; underneath each of which is a death's-head inclosed in chrystal, with these words, mors janua vit^e; and mors mihi lucrum. At the feet of the Lady Mildred and her daughter Anne, you behold three small female figures kneeling, representing the before- mentioned Lady Elizabeth, the Lady Bridget and the Lady Anne* Vere, daughters to Anne Countess of Oxford; and at the feet, a statue of a youth kneeling, representing Robert Cecill, son of the above-mentioned William Cecill, and the Lady Mildred his wife, as may be seen more at large by the inscription in Latin," which, as reported to be the composition of the Lord Treasurer himself, * Susanna. 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 501 ought not to be omitted ; but, as it contains many repetitions, we shall inclose it within brackets, that those who wish to pass it over, may consider it as rather supplementary than a proper portion of the text, though if actually written by Lord Burghley, well calculated to do honour to his private feelings, as a most affectionate husband, a fond father, and a pious Christian. ["Si quaeratur quis sit hie vir senex, genua flectens, canitie venerabilis, toga. parliamentarian amictus, ordinis garteriani eques : quae etiam sunt illae duae feminae nobiles, splendide stolatae : quique sunt ad earum capita et pedes genubus nixi ; ex sequenti sermone senis, et ex inscriptionibus cuique subjectis, haec omnia intelliget. "Ilia cujus imago est infima, fuit, heu! fuit mea Mildred a uxor longe charissima. Altera fuit Anna mea filia dilectissima. "Mildred a vero uxor mea ab anno Dom. 1546, vixit mecum perpetuo ad annos 43 conjunctissime, fuitque particeps omnium fortunarum mearum, tem poribus et secundis et adversis, regnantibus regibus, Henrico Octavo, Ed wardo Sexto, Regiuisque Maria et Elizabetha, jam felicia sceptra tenente. Peperitque mihi multos liberos, sed ad maturam aetatem tantum tres pervenerunt; nempe duae filiae, Anna et Elizabetha, ac Filius unus, Robertus: Anna autem filia mea semper fuit mihi in deliciis, atque in matrimonium data Ed wardo Veero, illustriss. comiti OxoNr^E, diio magno camerario Angliae. Ex eoque fit Comitissa Oxon. peperitque viro suo praeter aliquot liberos non diu superstites, filias tres adhuc vivas, quarum imagines visuntur genua flec- teiites at caput matris : prior est Domina Elizabetha, secunda est Domina Brigitta, tertia Domina Susanna. Vixit ista mea filia Anna a teneris annis mujta cum laude semper apud omnes, turn in aula, turn domi, tam virgo valde pia et pudica, quam uxor vere casta suo viro. Tandem magno mcerore meo ac matris nobis praerepta, spiritum reddidit Deo qui ilium dedit, cujus corpus et animum post Deo redditum, Ego et uxor mea multis cum lacrymis sub hac mole lapidea reponi curavimus, non multo autem post, sequitur Mater Filiam, de qua, quanquam nunquam sine lacrymis serio cogito, aliqua tamen occurrunt quas mcerorem meum paululum lenire videntur; nempe cum in memoriam repeto quomodo per totam vitam suam, versata sit in sacrarum literarum, et sanctorum virorum, scriptis, iisque maxime Greeds, ut Basilii magni, Chrysostomi, Gregor. Nazianzeni, ac aliorum similium. Maxime autem me -consolatur, (quod qui dem jam post mortem omnibus magis patet quam cum viveret) recordari, 502 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. quanta Beneficia secreto in Doctos, quantasque Eleemosynas in pauperes con- tulerit. " Quomodo etiam Collegia in utrisque Academiis Donariis ornaverit ad sustentationem Scholarium redditibus perpetuis, prsesertim in Collegio Divi Jo. Evang. Cantab, dotaverit, de Egenis etiam fovendis in villis Rumfordice, unde ortum Familia habuit, et Chestoniai, ubi aedes nostrae sitae sunt, Curam magnam habuit ; ita ut singulis primis Sabbatis omnium mensium, et commeatus et pecuniam, perpetuo pauperibus, maximeque Viduis et Orphanis Chestoniai degentibus, et ad frequentes conciones Verbi Dei ibi habendas distribui curaverit; ac in utrisque eisdem Villis pauperibus mechanicis perpetuis tern* poribus singulis bienniis Pecuniarum bonam summam utendam distribui ordinaverit. Post ista autem multaque alia ejus, generis praestita offieia et Deo et Patriae, mihique Conjugi ac liberis suis, Doctisque et Pauperibus, sponte in anno suo climacterico videlicet 63, Spiritum reddidit Deo, quarto. Aprilis anno 1589. Cujus Corpus, Ego Maritus et Pater adjungendum dunjiCorpori Filias nostrae Annce paulo ante isto Lapide repositae, ut conjunctae reservarentur ad spem Resurrectionis. , Ecce adhuc quatuor alios ,viventes, Roberto m meum unicum ex Mildreda Filium ad pedes Matris, ac tres alias virgines, Dominam Elizabetham, Dominam Brigittam, ac Dominam Susannam, Annje meae tres. Filias ad capita matris et aviae genibus incumbentes, , Sed quo pergo ? Finem et loquendi et plorandi faciam, solumque hoe affirmo, spectaculum hoc mihi tam plenum est doloris, ut quanquam aliquam mixtam consolationem offerant, hi relicti mihi optimae spei dulces liberi, tamen neque hi quatuor mihi vaide chari, neque dilectus Filius meus major natu, Tho. Cefiilius, Eques auratus, neque omnes qui ex eo prognati sunt ac jam vivunt, Nepotes ac Neptes numero undecim, cui etiam yxngo' Gulielmum Paulet, Lucia Ceei/jte neptis meae Filiumy ex Gul. Paulet Marchionis Winton Filio, ac Haerede, unquam Dolorem meum huic Spectaculo adherentem deleturi sunt " Hie infra, meis oculis Lacrymis suffusis, animoque maximo mcerore oppresso, apparent imagines duarum illustrium Foeminarum, quaedum vixerant, fuerant mihi supra omne genus humanum longae charissimse* " Anna Comitissa Oxon, Filia Gulielmi Cecilii Baronis de Burghley, nata est quinto Decembris Anno Dom. 1556. -r. Uxor fuit Edva,rdi Veri illustrissimi Comitis Oxon. anno iEtatis suae 15, ex cujus connubio mater fuit plurium liberorum ; sed reliquit tantum tres filias Virgines superstites, Dominam Elizabetham Vere, aetate jam 14, Dominam Brigittam Vere, aetate 1598.] MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. 503 5 annorum, tertiam infantulam Dominam Susannam. Vixit haec Anna virgo semper pudica et casta, Uxor erga Virum in amando mire constans, Filia in Parentes per omnia obsequens, in colendo Deo valde diligens, et devota ; Febri ardenti correpta, certa. spe regni ccelestis, Spiritum ultimum cum anima ardentibus precibus Deo et Creatori et Redemptori suo reddidit, quinto Junii, Anno Dom. 1588, in Palatio Reginae Elizabethce, Greenwici. "Robertus Cecilius, Filius Gulielmi Domini de Burghley, et Mil dreds Dominae de Burghley, natus est primo Junii Anno Dom. 1563. parum ante matris obitum ambiebat, conscia matre, nobilem virginem Dominam Eliza betham Brooke, in private cubiculo Reginae inservientem, Filiam praeclari Baronis Regni, W. Dom. de Cobham, eamque post mortem matris consensu Patris in uxorem duxit, ultimo Augusti Ann. Dom. 1589. Memoriam hie colit magno cum dolore piissimae matris, et charissimae sororis, agnoscitque Patrem jam grandaevum omni obsequio sibi charissimum, in quo si permanebit, Dies sui prolongentur super Terram, quam Dominus Deus dab it sibi. "Mildreda primogenitaFilianobilisDom..4rafow. Coci Equitis aurati, viripii et insigniterdocti,omniumque YitexatoxumMacenatisvystimi, matrem habuit Domi nam Annam Filiam Dom. Gulielm. Fitzwilliams Equitis aurati, utroque Parente propter eorum antiqua stemmata e multis Familiis magnatum hujus Regni deducta, clara et nobilis ; sed propter eruditionem, coujunctam cum constant! Christianse Religionis professione ; et Latina et Graicae linguarum singularem cognitionerh, quam solummodo a Patre docente accepit, non minus clara, et ab omnibus doctis eximie laudata. Uxor anno aetatis suae 20 fit Domini Gulielmi Cecilii Domini de Burghley, posteaque ratione viri titulo Baronis Regni nobilitata facta est Baronissa de Burghley, multos ei peperit liberos, sed tres tantum qui et aeta- tem adultam pervenerunt ; nimirum Annam, Robertum, et Elizabetham. "Anna conjuncta fuit connubio Edw. Comiti Oxonice, ut hie supra patet: Ro bertus jam vivit, hie ad pedes matris ac sororis genibus flexis : Elizabetha moritur statim a morte viri Gulielmi Wentworth, primogeniti Filii Tho. Domini Wentworth, sicut supra a Patre coinmemoratur. Ista pia D. Burgh- leia vixit ad aetatem sexaginta trium annorum, multaque testimonia reliquit Pietatis in Deum, Charitatis in Doctos et Pauperes, quae dum vixerat, celavit sub aliorum virorum bonoram nominibus, quae tamen co?am Deo fuerunt tam cognita, etiam post vitam sine ullo dubio, in ccelis sibi certo reposita. Obiit vero sopre- mum Diem, quarto Die mensis Aprilis, anno 1589, f in aedibus viri sui Dom. Burghleii Wesmonasterii. 504 MEMOIRS OF LORD BURGHLEY. [1598. " Domina Elizabetha Vere Filia illustrissima Comitis Edwdrdi Oxon. et Ann^e uxoris, Filia Domini de Burghley, nata 22 Junii, anno 1575, agitque annum 14, et dolet graviter et non sine causa, ob amissam aviam et matrem ; sed consolatur, quod serenissima Regina, earn habet in cubiculo private servien- tem. Dom Brigitta secunda Filia dicti Comitis Oxon. et Annjj, nata sexto Aprilis anno 1584, et quanquam vix excessit annum quartern, cum matris cor pus in sepulchrum reponeretur, tamen non absque lacrymis agnovit ereptam matrem, et paulo post Aviam. Verum non est relicta orphanae, cum habeat Pa- trem viventem, et avum charissimum, tutorem maxime solicitum. Domina Su sanna tertia Filia nata 26 Mali, anno 1587, quae per aetatem non potuit agno scere aut aviam aut matrem, verum solum jam agnoscit avum, charissimum, qui omnium harum curam habet, ita ut nee pia educatione, nee congrua vivendi ratione destituantur."] Having thus given an account of the last illness, the death, burial, and will ; character, public and private ; family and fortune, ofthe great Lord Burghley, as he was very justly called, with the sepulchral and monumental inscriptions designed to perpetuate his memory and fame to after generations, we cannot do better than conclude, with the following feeling remarks of the author from whom the world in general has derived most of the information contained in the present chapter, and who thus pathetically dwells upon the effects produced by the death of his honoured and much revered Lord : " This was a happy day to himself, though doleful to his country ; now might one see all the world mourning; the Queen, for an old, true, and loyal servant; the Council for a wise and grave counsellor ; the Court for their honourable benefactor ; his Country.and commonwealth trembling, as it were, at one blow to have their head stricken off; fhe people, widows, and wards lamenting t« lose their protector ; Religion, her patron; Justice, her true minister; and Peace her upholder; his children' bewailing the loss of such a father, his friends of such a friend, and his servants of such a master ; all men rather bewailing his loss, than hoping ever to find such another. Yea, his very enemies, who in his life time could not abide him, do now both sorrow for his death, and wish him alive again ; but, alas ! let no man grieve at his death; for it was greater happiness to himself, than loss to others; for his life was continually in care of mind, labour, pains of body, and vexation of spirit; but now is his mind at quiet, his body at rest, and his spirit in joy !" APPENDIX. VOL. Ill, 3 T APPENDIX. No. L In vol. i. p. 1 5, notice has been taken of a MS. in the possession of the Marquess of Salisbury, purporting to be an account of a family in Burgundy of the name of Cecile, claiming affinity with the Cecils of the houses of Burghley and Salisbury, in the year 1679. The account being of some curiosity in itself, though failing, as we think, to prove the presumed affinity, we have thought it not amiss to give it a place in our Appendix. It speaks of a family long settled in the village of Frdsne, in Franche Comte, in Burgundy,, of the name of Cecile, commonly called- les bons Ceciles ; not in contradiction to any others of the name, but absolutely, and as matter of particular praise and honour, one of the family, Eugene Cecile, Lord of Vaudhaon, being living in 1 679, the date of the memoir. It asserts that the family had been for four centuries settled in the place, in occupation of a stately family mansion, still to be traced in the ruins of what the inhabitants were accustomed to call the Castle. That the family of Cecile enjoyed very peculiar privileges there, their lands being exempt from all customary payments to the superior Lord of the place (the Prince of Orange) ; an exemption not confined merely to lands in immediate possession, but equally applicable to all they might obtain by purchase, inas much as to induce the Princes of the House of Orange, at all times, to interpose as far as might be in their power, to limit and restrain the amount of such acquisitions, so much to their own loss and damage. That, forbearing to go minutely into the history of the family from the earliest times, it was certain that in the year 1400 there lived in the said village of Frasne a William Cecile. That the wealth of this ancestor was such, as to admit of his advancing great loans of money to the Prince of Orange, in requital of which, notwithstanding the jealousies and restrictions spoken of above, he was able to add to his former possessions, a considerable portion of forest land, belonging originally to the same Prince, and adjoining to lands previously in his possession ; and that the 508 APPENDIX. whole together had ever since obtained and kept the name of La Joux (autrement la forest) Cecile. This William Cecile is stated to have married a lady of good family (tres cavaliere) of the name of Beaurepair, by whom he had issue ; one son being called David Cecile. Which David Cecile. at the time that the armies of England and Burgundy, under Henry V. and Duke Philip the Good, fought against France (about the year 1421), joined himself to the English armies, and passed into England in the service and household of Henry VI., after that Prince had been crowned King of France. From this David Cecile, the first of his family, settled and established in England, descended, being his grandson, William Cecile, a great statesman and minister under Queen Elizabeth. Whose great grandson, the Earl of Salisbury, is now living in England, in great splendour and prosperity. That the departure of the said David Cecile from his native country to settle in England, at the time and upon the occasion before mentioned, has always been traditionally recorded and acknowledged by the several branches of the Burgundian family, and entered in their genealogical tables and registers. That the identity of the English and Burgundian names, Cecile " ortografie sans plus, ny moins des ces six caracteres, (consonantes et voyelles)" proves it to have been originally, from the very spelling and pronunciation, not an English, but a French name ; and that in no province of France, excepting Burgundy, is there to be found another family of that name. The English family may there fore be concluded to have descended from that of Burgundy. That the former cannot, to any certainty, carry back the aera of their residence in England, beyond the year 1440;* whereas the latter have documents to prove their residence in Burgundy from the year 1300. That many travellers fromBurgundy have asserted, that in England the family of Cecile is judged to be of foreign extraction. And from the report of such travellers it is, that the Burgundian families have collected their knowledge of the success and prosperity of the descendants of the great minister, William Cecile. * Query, — Is not this evidently contradicted by what is previously said of David Cecile passing into England in 1421 ? APPENDIX. 509 The account then proceeds to the descendants of Hugh Cecile, the brother of David Cecile, the first who passed into England. Hugh having married a lady allied to the Lords of Chasteavert, had a son named John, the ancestor of a branch of the family, settled at Pontarlier, which family divided again into many branches, of which it is not necessary to take any account, except that they are described to have been, for many generations, well endowed, of good reputation, and great military talents. One of the descend ants, about the year 1550, appears to have been appointed the King's Treasurer for the province of Burgundy, a post always bestowed on persons of wealth and importance, and which he held all his life, and therefore, at the very time, says the memorialist (siparva licet componere magnis), that the great Willi am Cecil of England was Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth. One branch of the Burgundian family is reported to have settled at Salins, and to have become so attached to the military profession, as to have been all soldiers, serving under Charles V., Don John of Austria, and other Princes of that house, one ofthe race having particularly distinguished himself under the Duke of Savoy, at the time that Thomas and John [Robert] Cecile, of the English branch, equally distinguished themselves in the defence of England, from the Armada of Philip II. , of'which the Burgundian family had information. That the revenues of the different branches of the family had been much dissipated, by passing through females into other families, though there had not been wanting also means of augmenting the same, by fortunate and honourable marriages. Their gentility was regularly proved, signed and sealed, and entered into the registers of Malta, before certain noble commissioners of the province of Burgundy, in the year 1675, to enable one of the family to become a Knight of Santiago. Many honourable houses are stated to have descended from the married females of the family, the names of whom, with collateral alliances, are duly noticed. In 1679, the very year in which the memorial appears to have been drawn up, a branch of the family is said to have been settled in Spain, and in good reputation there. p The memorial concludes with commendations of the Heir Presumptive of the Burgundian family, a youth of fifteen, highly accomplished, and who looked forward with pleasure to the honour some time or other of paying his respects to Monsieur le Comte de Salisbury. This, indeed, seems to explain the 510 APPENDIX. the whole MS., on the outside of which is written as follows : " Papier et genealogie, a devoir estre present^, et mis en mains de Monsieur le Comte de Salisbury, chef de la maison des Seigneurs Cecile d'Angleterre, lequel Seigneur Comte est supplie de vouloir s'en faire faire la lecture." The arms of the family, in the blazonry of France, are thus described : De gueule, a trois bandes d'argent de droite a, gauche. These are said to be very ancient, and to be found in, the windows and on the tombs in the churches of Frasne and Bourg de la Riviere. The crest is stated to be the head and neck of an unicorn issuing out of a crown; the latter granted by the sovereigns of Austria, " in signum, et premium Valoris." The supporters, Mars and Minerva, with the device, " Et mente utaris et ense." N. B. — ¦Claims of relationship to great families in England, on the part of foreigners, bearing names of a like sound or spelling, appear to have been not uncommon in the sixteenth century. In the year 1586, appeared a work called Lacye's Nobility, by J. Feme, of th'e Inner Temple ; written, as it is said, to, disprove the claim of affinity to the noble race of the Lacy.es, Earls of Lincoln, which had been made by Albertus a Lasco, Count Palatine of Syradia in Poland, and which in the above work is stated to. have been very successfully refuted. — See Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, No. xxxiv. Though there might be weighty reasons for the refuting such claims when, not well founded, we cannot help remarking, that in both the above instances, the claimants appear to have been of great respectability ; though such claims, probably would never have been thought of, but for the honour and advantage likely to ensue, from the acknowledgment and admission of them by the English families. Having disposed of the above rather curious document, and more fully to shew the correctness of the account given ofthe family in volume i. pp. 10, 1 1, I shall subjoin the following extract from a letter to that eminent antiquary Edmund Tumor, Esq. by John Charles Brooke, Esq. Somerset Herald, written when on a visit to the Duke of Norfolk, at Holm Lacey, within twenty miles of Alterennis in the County of Hereford, 1781, very obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Turnor himself. APPENDIX. 51] " As the heir-general of one branch of the family, I must inform you that the Cecils still continue at Jlterennis in this County, where they have remained ever since the Conquest. They are the elder branch of the Exeter and Salisbury families ; David their ancestor being a younger son of the house of Alterennis. The Estate has descended without much addition or diminution to the present heir." No. II. Ten Precepts which William Lord Burghley,* Lord High Treasurer of England, gave to his second son, Robert Cecil, afterwards the Earl of Salisbury. " Son Robert, " The virtuous iriclinatibns of thy matchless mother, by whose tender and godly care thy infancy was governed, together with thy education under so zealous and excellent a tutor, puts me in rather assurance than hope, that thou art not ignorant of that summum bonum, which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death as life; I mean the true knowledge and worship of thy Creator and Redeemer ; without which all other things are vain and miserable : so that thy youth being guided by so sufficient a teacher, I make no doubt but he will furnish thy life with divine and moral documents ; yet that 1 may not cast off the care beseeming a parent towards his child ; or that you should have cause to derive thy whole felicity and welfare rather from others than from whence thou receivedst thy breath and being ; I think it fit and agreeable to the affection I bear thee, to help thee with such rules and advertisements for the squaring of thy life, as are rather gained by experience, than much reading ; to the end that entering into this exorbitant age, thou mayest be the better prepared to shunne those scandalous courses whereunto the world and the lack of experience may easily draw thee. And because I will not confound thy memory, I have * Though this advice of Lord Burghley to his son, is to be found in many other books, it must be admitted to belong, most properly, to a work purporting to be a history of the life of that great man ; we should expect to be more blamed for its omission, than for its introduction in this place, however generally known before. 512 APPENDIX. reduced them into ten precepts ; and next unto Moses' tables, if thou imprint them in thy mind, thou shalt reap the benefit, and I the content; and they are these following : — I. " When it shall please God. to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in chusing thy wife ; for from thence will spring all thy future good or evil ; and it is an action of life, like unto a stratagem of warre, wherein a man can err but once. If thy estate be good, match neere home and at leisure; if weak, far off and quickly. Enquire diligently of her disposition, and how her parents have been inclined in their youth ; let her not be poore, how generous soever ; for a man can buy nothing in the market with gentility ; nor chuse a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth ; for it will cause contempt in others and loathing in thee ; neither make choice of a dwarfe, or a fool; for by the one you shall beget a race of pigmies, the other will be thy continual disgrace, and it will yirke thee to hear her talk; for thou shalt find it, to thy great grief, that there is nothing more fulsome than a she-foole. " And touching the guiding of thy house, let thy hospitality be moderate, and according to the means of thy estate, rather plentiful than sparing, but riot costly ; for I never knew any man grow poor by keeping an orderly table ; but some consume themselves through secret vices, and their hospitalitie bears the blame; but banish swinish drunkards out of thine house, which is a vice impairing health, consuming much, and makes no show, I never heard praige ascribed to the drunkard, but for the well bearing of his drink, which is better commendation for a brewer's horse or a dray man, then for either a gentleman, or a serving man. Beware thou spend not above three or four parts of thy revenues; nor above a third part of that in thy house; for the other two parts will do no more than defray thy extraordinaries, which always surmount the ordinary by much : otherwise thou shalt live like a rich beggar, in continual want: and the needy man can never live happily or contentedly ; for every disaster makes him ready to mortgage or sell ; and that gentleman who sells an acre of land, sells an ounce of credit, for gentility is nothing else but ancient riches ; so that if the foundation shall at any time sinke, the building must need follow. — So much for the first precept. APPENDIX. 513 II. " Bring thy children up in learning and obedience, yet without outward austerity. Praise them openly, reprehend them secretly, Give them good countenance and convenient maintenance according to thy ability, otherwise thy life will seem their bondage, and what portion thou shalt leave them at thy death, they will thank death for it, and not thee. And I am persuaded that the foolish cockering of some parents, and the overstern carriage of others, causeth more men and women to take ill courses, than their own vicious inclinations. Marry thy daughters in time, lest they marry themselves.* And suffer not thy sonnes to pass the Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, blasphemy, and atheism. And if by travel they get a few broken languages, that shall profit them nothing more than to have one meat served in divers dishes. Neither, by my consent, shalt thou train them up in warres ; for he that sets up his rest to live by that profession, can hardly be an honest man or a good Christian ; besides it is a science no longer in request than use ; for souldiers in peace, are like chimneys in summer." III. " Live not in the country without corn and cattle about thee ; for he that putteth his hand to the purse for every expense of household, is like him that keepeth water in a sieve. And what provision thou shalt want, learn to buy it at the best hand ; for there is one penny saved in four, betwixt buying in thy need, and when the markets and seasons serve fittest for it. Be not served with kinsmen, or friends, or men intreated to stay ; for they expect much and doe little ; nor with such as are amorous, for their heads are intoxicated. And keep rather two too few, than one too many. Feed them well, and pay them with the most; and then thou mayst boldly require service at their hands." * It may be questioned whether Lord Burghley did not fall into some mistake on this point of marrying his daughters early. His favourite daughter, Lady Oxford, whose marriage was a very unfortunate one, appears to have been only fifteen years old, when wedded to Lord Oxford. The very next passage in the precept appears clearly to have alluded to that accomplished but wayward Lord. VOL. III. 3 u 514 APPENDIX. IV. " Let thy kindred and allies be welcome to thy house and table ; grace them with thy countenance, and farther them in all honest actions; for by this means, thou shalt so double the bond of nature, as thou shalt find them so many advocates to plead an apology for thee behind thy back ; but. shake off those glow-worms, I mean parasites and sycophants, who will feed and fawn upon thee in the summer of prosperitie, but in adverse storme, they will shelter thee no more than an harbour in winter." V. " Beware of suretyship for thy best friends ; he that payeth another man's debts, seeketh his own decay ; but if thou canst not otherwise chuse, rather lend thy money thyself upon good bonds, v although thou borrow it; so shalt thou secure thyself, and pleasure thy friend ; neither borrow money of a neigh bour or a friend, but of a stranger, where paying it, thou shalt hear no more of it, otherwise thou shalt eclipse thy credit, lose thy freedom, and yet pay as dear as to another. But in borrowing of money be precious of thy word, for he that hath care of keeping dayes of payment, is Lord of another man's purse." VI. " Undertake no suit against a poor man' without receiving much wrong ; for besides that thou makest him thy compeer, it is a base conquest to triumph where there is small resistance ; neither attempt law against any man before thou be fully resolved that thou hast right on thy side; and then spare not for either money or paines ; for a cause or two so followed and obtained, will free thee from suits a great part of thy life." VII. " Be sure to keep some great man thy friend, but trouble him not with trifles ; compliment him often with many, yet small gifts,* and of little charge ; * In Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, some judicious remarks occur upon this precept, as indicative of the venality of the times ; and it certainly cannot be denied, that, though the Lord Treasurer himself was not to be worked upon by gifts and gratuities, there were always those about the Court who could be no otherwise conciliated, or moved to do what was right. APPENDIX. 515 and if thou hast cause to bestow any great gratuity, let it be something which may be daily in sight ; otherwise in this ambitious age, thou shalt remaine like a hop without a pole ; live in obscurity, and be made a football for every insult ing companion to spurn at." VIII. " Towards thy superiors be humble, yet generous ; with thine equals familiar, yet respective ; towards thine inferiors shew much humanity, and some fami liarity; as to bow the body, stretch forth the hand, and to uncover the head, with such like popular compliments. The first prepares thy way to advance ment, the second makes thee known for a man well bred, the third gains a good report, which once got is easily kept ; for right humanity takes such deep root in the minds of the multitude, as they are easilier gained by unprofitable curtesies, than by churlish benefits ; yet I advise thee not to affect or neglect popularitie too much ; seeke not to be Essex ; shunne to be Rawleigh." IX. " Trust not any man with thy life, credit, or estate ; for it is mere folly for a man to enthrall himself to his friend, . as though, occasion being offered, he should not dare to become his enemy." X. " Be not scurrilous in conversation nor satyricall in thy jests : the one will make thee unwelcome to all company, the other pull on quarrells, and get thee hatred of thy best friends ; for suspitious jests, when any of them savour of truth, leave a bitterness in the mindes of those which are touched; and, albeit, I have already pointed at this inclusively, yet I think it necessary to leave it to thee as a special caution ; because I have seen many so prone to quip and gird, as they would rather leese their friend than their jest; and if, perchance, their boiling braine yield a quaint scoff, they will travel to be deli vered of it as a woman with child. These nimble fancies are but the froth of wit." 516 APPENDIX. To the above may be added, a certain set of Maxims or Sayings attributed to his Lordship by his domestic historian. 1 . "He would usually say, in all things, Primum quarite regnum Ccelorum, Seek ye first the kingdom of God." 2. " That honesty and religion were the grounds and ends of all good men's actions, which otherwise would not prosper." 3. " That he built more upon an honest man's word than a bad man's bond." 4. " That he would never trust any man who was not a man of sound con science : for he who was false to God, could never be true to man." 5. " That no man can be counted happy in this world that is not wise; and he that is wisest, seeth most of his own unhappiness." 6. " That all things, as it is said, are written for our instruction ; and yet many turn to our destruction." 7. " That that nation was happy, where the King would take counsel and follow it." 8. " That that King was happy that loved the people, and they loved the King." 9. " That the strength of a King is the love of his subjects." 10. " That Princes ought to be better than other men, because they command and rule all others." 11. " That a good Prince must hear all, but strive to follow the best counsel." 12. " That he is a happy King, who can govern and moderate his affections." 13. " That no wise Prince can be a tyrant." 14. " That a good Prince is slow to anger." 15. " That Princes have many eyes and ears, and very long arms : for they hear and see all, reach far, and gripe much." 16. " That good Princes ought first to prefer the service of God, and his Church ; and next of all the Commonwealth, before their own pleasure or profit." 17. " That he can never be a good statesman who respecteth not the public more than his own private advantage." 18. " That honour -is the reward of virtue, but is gotten with labour, and held with danger." 10. " That counsel without resolution and execution was but wind." 20. " That division in counsel was dangerous, if not a subversion of the State." APPENDIX. 517 21. " That attempts are most probable, being wisely plotted, secretly carried, and speedily executed." 22. " That unity is the strength, and division the ruin of any body politic." 23. " That the taking or neglecting of an opportunity was the gaining or losing of great fortunes." 24. " He ever said of danger, that our enemies shall do no more than God will suffer them." 25. " That war is soon kindled, but peace very hardly procured." 26. " That war is the curse, and peace the blessing of God, upon a nation." 27. " That a realm gaineth more by one year's peace, than ten years' war." 28. " That a realm cannot be rich, that hath not an intercourse and trade of merchandize with other nations." 29. " That no man can get riches of himself, but by means of others." 30. " That riches were God's blessing, to such as use them well ; and his curse to such as do not." 31. " That he seldom saw goods ill gotten, but they were quickly ill spent." 32. " That all things in this world are valuable but in estimation ; for a little, to him that thinketh it enough, is great riches." 33. " That private gain is the perverting of justice and the pestilence of a commonwealth." 34. " That the unthrifty looseness of youth, in this age, was the parent's fault, who made them men seven years too soon, having but children's judg ment." 35. " He would often say that he thought there was never so wise a woman bom, for all respects, as Queen Elizabeth." 36. " For she spake and understood all languages." 37, "Knew all estates, and dispositions of all Princes; and, particularly, was so expert in the knowledge of her realm and estate, as no counsellor she had could tell her what she knew not before." 38. " She had also so rare gifts, as when her counsellors had said all they could say, she would then frame out a wise counsel beyond theirs." 39. " That she often shewed her wisdom and care of her country : for there was never any great consultation, but she would be present herself, to her great profit and praise." 518 APPENDIX. His Motto was — " Cor unum, via una." His Saying — " Prudens qui patiens." His Maxim — " Nolo, minor me timeat, despiceatve major." Among the odd conceits, in Camden's Remains, we find, under the head of anagrams, the following : " For the late Lord Treasurer, a most prudent and honourable Counsellor to two mighty Princes." Gulielmus Cecilius Baro Burglio VlGILI CUM LABORE ILLUCES REGIBUS Regibus illuces vigili Gulielme labore, Nam clare fulget lux tua luce Dei. As it comes from a contemporary, we have not hesitated to copy it ; but we apprehend that modern anagrammatists may reasonably question its merits and exactness, in its present state ; but we shall venture to suggest Burghleii, instead of Burglio, as printed in Camden, Edit. 1657. THE END. Printed by J. F. Dove, St. John's Square. ERRATA TO VOL. II. Page 43, note, line 7, insert a comma after father. 57, note, line 5, for Were certainly enormous, read was, &e. 253, line 25, for pastis, read pestis. 265, line 15, for confirmed, read conferred. 275, line 8 from the bottom, for 45th of age, read 45th year of hisnge. 335, line 7 from the bottom, for cornubiam, read Cornubiam. 337, line 4 from the bottom, for mtate, read xstate. 347, note, line 5, for ipis, read ipsi. 453, note, line 3, for en part, read eu part, &c. 495, line 2, for particular, read particularly. 516, note, for Reguesens, read Requesens. 600, line 8 from the bottom, for secratis, read secrelis. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. VOL. I. Portrait of Lord Burghley - to face the Title, Fac-simile of Pedigree ------ 8 Lord Burghley's Private Journal - - 60 from King Edward's Journal - - - 400 VOL. II. Portrait of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury - to face the Title. VOL. Ill, Portrait of Queen Elizabeth - to face the Title. Portrait of Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, already pub lished and delivered with the First Volume, to be transferred to Vol. III. - - 469 7972