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CABINET

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

BOOK VI.-Continued.

A.D. 1485-1603.

CHAPTER I.-Continued.

ELIZABETH.-Continued.

Or the French Protestants who escaped, some threw themselves into Rochelle, whence they cast an imploring eye towards England: others fled across the Channel, until every English port on the south coast was crowded with them. The English people would have rushed at once into a war to punish the treachery and cruelty of the French Catholics; but their queen took the matter much more coolly, and peremptorily forbade any of her subjects to take up arms except on their own account, and as private volunteers. She did not recall her ambassador;-nay, she scarcely interrupted her matrimonial treaty, though she was glad to have an opportunity of telling the French court that a visit to England, which had been projected for her young suitor, the Duke of Alençon, would not be desirable in the present temper of her people.*

One of the first effects in England of the St. Bartholomew massacre was an outcry for the immediate execution of Queen Mary, a measure recommended by nearly the whole bench of bishops, from Parker the primate downwards. On the 5th of September Sandys,

* Digges.

VOL. IX.

B

bishop of London, proposed to Burghley forthwith to cut off the Scottish queen's head, who, he said, was the infirm part in the foundation of the existing state of things. The queen still shrunk from the odium of publicly imbruing her hands in her rival's blood; but she thought that it might be possible to get the thing safely done in Scotland. Killigrew was sent down to Edinburgh to arrange the matter, being charged not to commit his sovereign's honour by any too open proceeding. He was, in short, to keep himself in public to the settling of a treaty of pacification between the regency and Mary's adherents in Edinburgh Castle and elsewhere; but, in private, he was to propose the delivery of Mary into the hands of her enemies, that she might "receive that she had deserved there by order of justice."*

But this negotiation fell to the ground through the unusual honour of the regent Marr, who was actively employed in arranging a very different pacification. He was labouring to effect a general union of the several rival factions into which the Scottish aristocracy was divided, an object for the accomplishment of which he seems to have been prepared to share his power with Maitland, Kirkaldy, Morton, and the other parties who had hitherto opposed his administration. In the midst of these patriotic negotiations, the Earl of Morton invited the regent to his house at Dalkeith, and treated him very nobly; but the regent took a vehement sickness, which caused him to ride away to Stirling, where he died on the 28th of October of this present

*Elizabeth wished to guard against "that further peril which might ensue by Mary's escaping, or being set up again." Killigrew was commanded to make the most "of the late horrible universal murder in France," and to move the Scots to have good regard that the like be not attempted among them. He was also commanded to use all good speed with the most secrecy that he can, and yet so to deal as that the matter (Mary's death) might rather be opened to him by the Scots than seem to be proposed by him to them.Burghley Papers.

year, 1572. Some of his friends and the common people suspected he had "gotten wrong" at Morton's banquet.* On the 24th of November Morton, who was indisputably the greatest villain in Scotland, was chosen regent under the auspices of Elizabeth, whom he had already served in many particulars. His power had always been great, and now that it was supreme in Scotland, he devoted it to the two great objects of enriching himself by forfeitures and doing the will of the English queen. (A.D. 1573.) Killigrew remained with the new regent, and assisted him in arranging a separate treaty with the Earl of Huntley and the Hamiltons, by which Kirkaldy of Grange, Maitland of Lethington, and the others in Edinburgh Castle, were left to themselves to prolong a now hopeless struggle for Queen Mary. Maitland proposed an honourable capitulation: Morton insisted on an unconditional surrender. At this crisis Elizabeth sent an army from Berwick, under Drury the marshal, who was furnished with heavy artillery, and with instructions to lay the castle in ruins. Though starving and destitute, the garrison under the brave and skilful Kirkaldy held out for thirty-four days, when they surrendered, expressly to Drury and the Queen of England, upon a general promise of favourable terms. But Elizabeth ordered that Maitland and Kirkaldy should be delivered up to Morton. At last all Maitland's undermining and countermining were at an end, and his subtle genius stood rebuked and helpless: he ended his days on the 9th of June, a few weeks after the surrender of the castle. According to one account he took poison, and "died a Roman death;" according to another the poison was administered to him by Morton.† On the 3rd of August following the gallant Kirkaldy was hanged * Melville.

+ Killigrew himself says that Maitland died not without suspicion of poison. Melville and Spottiswood agree in saying that, being surrendered by Elizabeth, he died "after the Roman manner." Mary, in a letter addressed to her in her own hand, accused Elizabeth of the poisoning of Maitland and the most cruel hanging of Kirkaldy.

and quartered as a traitor, and thus perished the last remnant of Mary's party in Scotland.

A.D. 1574.-In the month of May the wretched Charles IX. died a death of horror at Vincennes in the 26th year of his age. He was succeeded by his brother the Duke of Anjou, a former suitor of Elizabeth. This new king, Henry III., was detested by the Protestants for the part he had taken in the massacre; and he had not been a year on the throne when he detected a conspiracy to murder him, in which his own brother, the Duke of Alençon, Elizabeth's present suitor, was deeply implicated. Alençon escaped from the court, and began to levy troops for another war in conjunction with young Henry, the then Protestant King of Navarre. They both applied to Elizabeth for assistance; but she preferred the office of mediator, and, on the 14th of May, 1576, a treaty was concluded by which the Huguenots were to have permission to worship God in their own way in public churches, and Alençon obtained the honours, titles, and appanage which had been enjoyed by his elder brother Henry previous to his accession. From this time Alençon was styled Duke of Anjou. But this pacification was scarcely achieved when Henry III. placed himself at the head of a Catholic league, formed by the majority of his subjects, and in the month of February, 1577, he annulled at a blow the privileges granted to the Huguenots, who thereupon flew to arms.

At this moment the minds of Elizabeth and her ministers were rather occupied by the affairs of the Netherlands than by those of France. The Prince of Orange, after a tremendous struggle, had succeeded in establishing the independence of Holland and Zealand, and the Duke of Alva had been recalled to wither and die under the frowns and ingratitude of his master, Philip, for whom he had waded in blood. Alva had been succeeded by Zuniga, commendator of Requesens, who, by policy and gentle measures, detached many of the partisans of the Prince of Orange. That prince, in his increasing difficulties, offered the sovereignty or the protectorship of Holland and Zealand to Elizabeth, who

was assumed to be a representative of their ancient princes by her descent from Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III. The queen hesitated, and changed her mind more than once, but at last declared that she could not in conscience accept their offer, but that she would act as mediatrix between them and their lawful sovereign Philip. This answer was given in the month of February, 1576, but events occurred with wonderful rapidity which wholly changed the queen's plans. Requesens died, and was succeeded by John of Austria (a bastard son of the late Emperor Charles V.), a brave and popular commander; and it was rumoured that, not satisfied with the subjugation of the whole of the Netherlands, he contemplated an invasion of England and a marriage with the Queen of Scots. At the same time the Prince of Orange, in his despair, talked of offering the sovereignty of his country to Elizabeth's suitor Alençon, now Duke of Anjou. Upon this Elizabeth concluded an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Orange party, protesting all the while to Philip that she merely intended to preserve to him the Netherlands from the grasp of the French, and to herself the kingdom of England free from invasion by his ambitious halfbrother Don John. The English negotiator on this occasion was William Davison. The queen had already furnished large sums of money, but now they were in want of more, and Davison engaged to procure it on their giving adequate security. The Dutch diplomatist produced the valuable jewels and plate which had been pledged by Mathias of Austria to the States of Holland; and, on these things being sent to England, fifty thousand pounds were advanced for present exigencies.* In spite of the new spirit which had been infused into them by the English treaty, the Dutch were defeated in the great battle of Gemblours. They then applied, in a breath, to the Protestant princes of Germany, to Eliza

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*Sir Harris Nicholas, Life of William Davison, Secre tary of State and Privy Councillor to Queen Elizabeth,'-a very valuable contribution to the history of this reign.

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