soldiers ordinary, and no more; and of the towns- | with Edward, part of the garrison of Berwick inen not fully 200 fighting men (a small garrison for the defence of such a town), and there were in the whole number of men, women, and children (as they were accounted when they went out of the gate), 4200 persons.” Thus was lost, in six days, the town of Calais, which had cost Edward III. an obstinate siege of more than eleven months, and which the English had kept through all the varieties of their fortune for 211 years. made an inroad to prevent the erection of the works. This proceeding, as she had calculated, exasperated the Scottish people, who anon retaliated in their own fashion by making forays into England, without waiting or caring for any declaration or orders from the government. But when D'Oisel, in person, undertook the siege of the castle of Wark, the council prevented him, and not only recalled him, but gave him a sharp rebuke. The grief of the English court, and the vexa- After the French king had visited Calais he tion of the people, were as great as the joy and made great haste for the accomplishment of the triumph of the French. Yet, except as a humili- marriage between Francis his eldest son, called ation to military fame, and as a blow to national the dauphin, and Mary Stuart, daughter and sole pride, the loss was not so serious. Calais, indeed, heir of James V., late King of Scotland. The great had been reckoned "as one of the eyes of Eng- political importance of this match will be develland," but it was an eye constantly in pain and oped in the following reign. For the present it peril, costing immense sums for its care and cure; will suffice to state that Mary Queen of Scots, in and it was soon found that England could see the sixteenth year of her age, was united to a very well without it. The people, however, long sickly, silly boy, a few months younger than hermurmured and lamented, and the government self, and that the memorable marriage was solemwas disgraced and depressed in the extreme by nized in the city of Paris on the 24th of April this result of a war which they had engaged in (1558). Before this great event, but at a time without justice or reason. At the same time the when it was known it would take place, and Scots, acting on the usual impulse from France, when the nation was smarting with the pang of began to stir upon the Borders. After the peace, the recent loss and disgrace at Calais, Queen which we have mentioned in the preceding reign, Mary summoned a parliament that she might the Queen-dowager Mary of Guise made a journey implore for more money. This parliament met, to France, carrying with her many of the princi- and the members being evidently excited by a pal Scottish nobility. She visited her daughter passionate desire to recover Calais, or to vindicate Mary and her relations, and arranged a grand the honour of the national arms by giving some political plan, by which, on her return, though notable defeat to the French, without making not without difficulty, the Earl of Arran was in- any reflections on the arbitrary methods recently duced to resign the whole government of the resorted to by the queen for the raising of money, kingdom into her hands. On the 12th of April, they proceeded to vote her a fifteenth, a subsidy 1554, she assumed the name of regent. In this of 48. in the pound on land, and 28. 8d. on goods, capacity she acted chiefly under the guidance of to be paid in four years, by equal instalments. D'Oisel, a Frenchman of great ability. Her gov- From this liberal parliament the queen turned to ernment, upon the whole, was judicious and bene- the clergy, who readily granted her 88. in the ficial to Scotland; it would have been more so pound, to be paid in the like manner in four years. had the regent not been obliged to make sacrifices With the money thus raised, Mary hired a number to the politics, religion, and interests of her family of ships, and despatched a fleet of upwards of 100 and friends in France. When Mary declared sail of all sizes, but chiefly small, under the highwar in the preceding year, the French court re- admiral, Edward Lord Clinton, who was ordered quired the Queen-regent of Scotland to make a to join King Philip's squadron, and while the diversion in their favour. She summoned a con- French king should be engaged in the field with vention at Newbottle, and requested the states to the Spanish army and their auxiliaries, to lay concur in a declaration of hostilities against Eng-waste his coast and surprise some of his towns, land; but the Scottish nobles, in part from a Brest in particular. But the expedition was jealousy of the French, in part from their conviction that the war would be unprofitable, refused their assent. Upon this, she ordered D'Oisel to begin some fortifications at Eyemouth. As this was upon ground mentioned in the last treaty badly managed: instead of making at once for Brest, Clinton and the Flemish admiral lay to, near the little town of Conquet, where one morning at break of day they sounded their trumpets, "as the manner was," and, "with a thundering peal of great guns," awoke the poor inhabitants. They landed with little or no opposition, and, mastering the town, "put it to the sackage, with a great abbey and many pretty towns and villages thereabouts, where our men found great store of ground very skilfully on the sea-coast, near to Gravelines. He fortified his left wing, and brought his right flank to the bank of the river Aar, close to its mouth. When the Spaniards pillage and good booties."" After this inglorious exploit they marched some way up the country, burning more villages and houses; and then the SHIP OF THE TIME.-From a print attributed to Augustus Ryther. began cannonading, the ten English ships which happened to be on that part of the coast, attracted by the sound of battle, sailed up the river, opened a tremendous fire upon the right flank of the French, and contributed materially to one of the most decisive victories gained during these wars. The Marshal de Termes, Villebon, and many other distinguished Frenchmen were taken prisoners. Not a few of the men ran into the sea and perished there. Only a few half-naked fugitives escaped both death and captivity. But a greater piece of good fortune for England was approaching than would have been the recapture of Calais and fifty such victories as that of Gravelines. About the beginning of September the queen fell sick of a prevalent disorder, vaguely called a cold and hot burning fever, which appears to have been nothing English retreated to the sea-side, where their | more than a bad sort of ague. Our chroniclers tell ships lay ready to receive them; but their allies, the Flemings, being more covetous of spoil, or less cautious, passed farther into the interior, and being encountered by the power of the country, lost 400 or 500 men before they could regain their ships. Notwithstanding Clinton's having with him a considerable land force under the command of the Earls of Huntingdon and Rutland, he was alarmed at the reports of the forces collecting or collected in Brittany, under the Duke of Estampes, and thought it best not to attempt any assault against the town of Brest, or to make longer stay thereabouts. A small squadron of ten English ships performed more honourable service. The Marshal de Termes, governor of Calais, had made an irruption into Flanders with an army of 9000 foot and 1500 horse. He easily forced a passage across the river Aar, or Aire, to Dunkirk, burned that town to the ground, and scoured and desolated the whole country almost as far as Newport; but there he was suddenly checked by Count Egmont. Apparently through the superior marching of the Spanish infantry, Egmont got to Gravelines before de Termes, and threw a part of his army between the French and the town of Calais, their only sure place of retreat. A general battle was thus inevitable, and to fight it the French general chose his us that the disease-whatever it was-was fatal only to persons in advanced life: but Mary had long been prematurely old, and when she was attacked her heart was bruised and broken. She removed from her favourite residence of Hampton Court to Westminster, where she lay "languishing of a long sickness until the 17th of November, when between the hours of five and six in the morning, she ended her life in this world at her house at St. James'," having reigned five years, four months, and eleven days, and lived a wretched life of forty-three years and nine months." 5 Within twenty-two hours of the queen's death her friend and kinsman Reginald Pole, cardinallegate, and Archbishop of Canterbury, expired at Lambeth; his death being a much sorer injury -a more fatal blow to the Catholic church in England, than that of Mary, whose fierce bigotry advanced, perhaps, more than anything the cause of the Reformation." It has been the fashion with Protestant writers not to allow this unhappy woman a single virtue; and yet, in truth, Mary had many good and generous qualities. She was generally sincere and high-minded, and shrunk from that trickery | sister, she had received what may be called a and treachery in state matters which her more learned education; she had some acquaintance fortunate sister Elizabeth adopted without hesi- with Greek, and not only read but also wrote tation as a general rule of conduct. Notwith- Latin, and her letters in that language were standing her sad experience of the world, and praised by Erasmus. Among her accomplishthe depressing influences of ill-health, she was ments are enumerated embroidering, dancing, capable of warm and lasting friendships: as a and music. She played three instruments-the mistress she was not only liberal, but kind and virginals, regals, and lute.3 attentive, even towards the meanest servant of her household; she was charitable to the poor, and most considerate for the afflicted; she was the first to suggest the foundation of an establishment, like Chelsea Hospital, for the reception of invalid soldiers, and in her will she appropriated certain funds to this national object.' Like all the rest of her testamentary bequests, this was utterly neglected by her successor, notwithstanding the dying queen's earnest, entreaties that she would suffer the intention of her will to be carried into effect." Nor was Mary deficient in acquirements and accomplishments. As well as her junior half 1 See her will as published by Sir Frederick Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, &c. "No one of our historians has been so severe on Mary's reign, except on a religious account, as Carte, on the authority of the letters of Noailles. Dr. Lingard, though with these before him, haa softened and suppressed till this queen appears honest and even amiable. A man of sense should be ashamed of such partiality to his religion. Admitting that the French ambassador had a temptation to exaggerate the faults of a government wholly devoted to Spain, it is manifest that Mary's reign was inglorious, her capacity narrow, and her temper sanguinary; that, although conscientious in some respects, she was as capable of dissimulation as her sister, and of breach of faith as her husband; that she obstinately and wilfully sacrificed her subjects' affections and interests to a misplaced and discreditable attachment; and that the words with which Carte has concluded the character of this unlamented sovereign, though little pleasing to men of Dr. Lingard's profession, are perfectly just-Having reduced the nation to the brink of ruin, she left it, by her seasonable decease, to be restored by her admirable successor to its ancient prosperity and glory.'"-Hallam, Const. Hist. England. The Venetian ambassador praises her great skill in playing on the lute, "so that, when she attended to it, for now she pays little attention to those things, she astonished good professors both by her rapidity of hand and her style of playing." The Italian was likely to be a good judge of music, but it should appear that he had not been in the habit of hearing the queen play with his own ears. Dr. Lingard's defence of Queen Mary will not stand for a moment the examination of an impartial eye. He would make Mary appear not only as the best of women, but as a good sovereign. Sir Frederick Madden, to whose researches we have been In most matters her taste was more delicate and better than that of Elizabeth, and though she had less personal dignity, and cared not "to go slowly and to march with leisure and with a certain grandytie," as her half-sister always did when in public, she never gave way to violent gesticulation and the swearing of gross oaths, which her successor was almost as much addicted to as her father Henry. But as a queen all these qualities and accomplishments (abilities of a high order she had none) were of the slightest value, and their insignificance is shown in the records of her miserable reign, and the boundless triumph over all of her master-passion.* He indebted, has collected the best proofs of Mary's possessing some amiable qualities, which none but bigots on the other side will attempt to deny; but in removing some prejudices he seems to contract others, and almost to fall in love with his subject. carries most of his arguments too far, relying occasionally on the most doubtful kind of evidence, giving an interpretation at other times to words and things which they will scarcely bear, and now and then drawing conclusions directly contrary to what the premises would justify. Hume, knowing that Mary suffered a wretched state of health, and having other good evidence to go upon, described her as being of a sour and sullen disposition. This, says Sir Frederick Madden, is an inaccuracy notorious to those at all acquainted with the history of the period; and to support his opinion he mentions that Mary was once seen to laugh heartily at a tumbler at Greenwich-that she kept in her service a female jester (every king at the time kept a fool royal) that she once had a kennel of hounds-that she was fond of music, played at cards, allowed valentines to be drawn in her household, and once lost a breakfast wagered on a game at bowls. But the accuser of Hume admits (and gives, from the plainspoken Venetian, the broadest account of her malady) that Mary, from the age of puberty, had suffered the most distressing of all female disorders. Ill-usage and ill-health were not likely to produce the best of tempers. But though Sir Frederick Madden may have known cheerful and light-hearted valetudinarians, we much question whether he ever knew a cheerful bigot. The disorders of body and of mind must have made Mary what Hume described her to be on her accession. In the minutiae of the Privy Purse Expenses, and incidental occurrences of court holidays, Sir Frederick Madden forgets Smithfield, and the fires that blazed in all parts of the kingdom during this cheerful reign. VOL. II. 116 CHAPTER XIII.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1558-1560. ELIZABETH.-ACCESSION, A.D. 1558-DEATH, A.D. 1630. Elizabeth proclaimed queen-Popular joy at her accession-Her ambiguous conduct about the settlement of religion -Pageants at her entrance into London-Her coronation-She is urged to declare her intentions about religion -Enactments of parliament for its settlement-Dissatisfaction of the Papists-Elizabeth rejects the advice of parliament to marry-Protestantism re-established in England-Penalties inflicted on Papists-Deprivation and imprisonment of the Popish bishops-Elizabeth's legitimacy denied by the Guises-Reformation in ScotlandEffects of John Knox's preaching-Demolition of abbeys and monasteries-Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France Contention between Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, and the Protestants-Elizabeth aids the Scottish Protestants-Negotiations between them and her ministers-The contest maintained in Scotland by French and English money--Leith fortified by French troops against the Scottish Protestants-The Scots aided by troops from England-Siege of Leith-Death of Mary of Guise-Capitulation of Leith-Suitors to Elizabeth for marriage. T the time of Mary's demise the parliament was sitting. Her death was concealed from the public for some hours; but, before noon, Heath, Archbishop of York, who had been lord-chancellor since Gardiner's decease, went down to the House of Lords, and sent immediately to the speaker of the commons, desiring him, with the knights and burgesses, to repair without delay to the upper house, in order to give their assent in a case of great importance. Heath then announced in due form that God had called to his mercy the late sovereign lady Queen Mary-a heavy and grievous woe, but relieved by the blessing God had left them in a true, loyal, and right inheritress to the crown -the Lady Elizabeth, second daughter to the late sovereign lord of noble memory, King Henry VIII., and sister unto the said late queen. Not a challenge was raised to her title: the Lady Elizabeth was acknowledged in both houses, which resounded with the shouts of God save Queen Elizabeth, and long and happy may she reign!" and in the course of the day she was proclaimed amidst lively demonstrations of popular joy. The bells of all the churches were set ringing; tables were spread in the streets, "where was plentiful eating, drinking, and making merry;" and at night bonfires were lighted in all directions, and the skies were reddened by flames which had not consumed human victims.' Elizabeth was at Hatfield when she received the news of her easy accession. She fell upon her knees, exclaiming, in Latin, "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."2 On the following day several noblemen of the late queen's council repaired to her: she gave them a kind reception, but presently showed her decided preference for Sir William Cecil -the astute, the most politic Cecil-whom she instantly appointed principal secretary of state. On the 23d of November the queen removed from Hatfield, with a joyous escort of more than 1000 persons. At Highgate she was met by the bishops, who, kneeling, acknowledged their allegiance: she received them very graciously, giving to every one of them her hand to kiss with the exception of Bishop Bonner. At the foot of Highgate Hill she was very dutifully and honourably met by the lord-mayor and whole estate of London, and so conducted to the QUEEN ELIZABETH.-After Zucchero. Stow; Holinshed; Burnet. 2 A Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile oculis nostris. These words were afterwards stamped on her gold coin, a motto she chose for her silver coin being Posui Deum adjutorem menn (I have chosen God for my helper). Charter-house, then occupied as a town residence | would have left the Roman church undisturbed. by her friend Lord North. On the afternoon of She was too cool and calculating for a zealot; Monday, the 23th, she entered into the city at and even the fate of her mother, and the circumCripplegate, "and rode in state along by the Wall stances of her own birth, failed to excite her. In to the Tower:" here she remained till Monday, the fact, Elizabeth seems to have adopted, at the be5th of December, when she removed by water to ginning of her reign, the maxim recommended Somerset House. The ambiguity of her conduct by the most crafty of then living politicianswith regard to religion had been well studied: that the Protestants should be kept in hope, the and it appears quite certain that her compliances Papists not cast into despair. Her real intenin the former reign had deceived many into a tions were kept a profound secret from the manotion that she was really the good Catholic she jority of her council; and her measures of change professed herself to be; otherwise it is difficult and reform were concerted only with Cecil and to understand the unanimity of the lords, for one or two others, who appear to have been most the majority of the upper house were Catholics, thoroughly aware of the fact that the Protestant and both the bishops and the lay peers would party had become infinitely stronger than the have been disposed to resist her claim if they Catholic. On the 13th of December the body of had expected that she would venture to disturb Mary was very royally interred in Westminster the established order of things. The mistake Abbey, with all the solemn funeral rites used by was confirmed by her retaining in her privy the Roman church, and a mass of requiem; and council no fewer than thirteen known and sincere on the 24th day of the same month a grand funeCatholics who had been members of that of her ral service for the late Emperor Charles V. was sister, and the seven new counsellors she ap- celebrated in the same place and in the same pointed, though probably known to herself to be manner, with a great attendance of Catholic zealous Protestants, did not bear that character priests, English and foreign, and of noble lords with the rest of the world; for one and all of and ladies of the realm. And yet, if we are to believe a letter written at the time, Elizabeth, on the very day after these obsequies, refused to hear mass in her own house. SIR WILLIAM CECT, afterwards Lord Burghley. them, like her favourite minister Cecil, had On the 12th of January the queen took her barge, and went down the river, being attended by the lord-mayor and citizens, and greeted with peals of ordnance, with music, and many triumphant shows on the water. She landed at the Tower; but, this time, it was not as a criminal, at the Traitors' Gate, but as a triumphant queen preparing for her coronation. Upon the morrow there was a creation of peers: it was not numerous, but Henry Carey, brother to Lady Knowles, and son to Mary Boleyn, her majesty's aunt, was included in it under the title of Lord Hunsdon. On the morrow, being the 14th of January, 1559, the queen rode with great majesty out of the Tower. The lord-mayor and citizens had been lavish of their loyalty and their money; the artists had exhausted their ingenuity and invention; and all the streets through which the procession passed on its way to Westminster were furnished with stately pageants, sumptuous shows, and cunning devices. The figures of the queen's grandfather and grandmother, father and mother, were brought upon the stage, and Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, with a glorious forgetfulness of the past, were seen walking lovingly together. Prophecies and Latin verses were prodigally expended on the queen; nor was there a parsimony of English verse or rhyme. In another pageant Time led forth his daughter Truth, and Truth, greeting her majesty, presented to her an English 1 Sir Ralph Sadler. |